Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. IV, Part 44

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 878

USA > New Hampshire > Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. IV > Part 44

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August 6, 1862, he enlisted in Company A, Tenth New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, and went to the front to assist in putting down the Rebellion. He was under fire at Orleans and White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, and December 13, 1862, took part with the regiment in the assault on Fredericksburg, where he was struck by a fragment of shell and seriously wounded, this fragment striking and going through the visor of his cap, taking off the tip of his nose and glancing to the left, passed through the left shoulder. With reference to this wound, Mr. Clark jocosely remarked that he "came near not being hit at all." May 7, 1863, he was discharged on account of disabilities from wounds. For forty years he was an Odd Fellow, being now a member of Mechanics Lodge, and a charter member of Mt. Washington Encampment, No. 16, of which he is past high priest. He is also a member of Washing- ton Lodge, No. 61, Free and Accepted Masons; Mt. Horeb Royal Arch Chapter, No. 11; Adoniram Coun- cil, No. 3. Royal and Select Masters; and Trinity Commandery, Knights Templar.

He married (first), January 4. 1860, Sarah F. Farnham, born at Sanbornton Bridge, (now Tilton) New Hampshire, July 29, 1841, daughter of Asa and Martha (Upham) Farnham. She died May 7, 1901. He married (second), April 12, 1905. Annie T. Wyatt, born in Lowell. Massachusetts, April 18, 1849. To the first wife one child, Martha S., was

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born, December 14, 1867. She married Dana C. Collins, of Manchester, a commercial traveler, and had two children : Minot Farnham, died October 23, 1901, and Clark W., born May 12, 1898.

CLARK George E., son of Theodore and Frances A. (Fernell) Clark, was born in Orange, New Hampshire, July 25, 1866. After getting what education the public schools afforded, he began in early life to work at agricultural labor and to assist drovers in getting their cattle to the markets at Wilmot, New Hampshire. For three years he drove stage between Potter Place and New London and Bradford. At the age of twenty-one he bought out the livery business of Z. S. Woods, at the old Raymond House Stable, Bradford, which he conducted successfully for eleven years. This business was burned out, and the following year (1888) Mr. Clark removed to Franklin Falls and bought the old Kenrick stable, where he carried on a livery business about three years, and then sold out to H. T. Corser. The following spring he bought out the business of Scott Dudley, which he carried on for nearly a year. In 1904 he formed a partnership with J. F. Fellows and others under the firm name of Fellows, Clark & Company, dealers in lumber, and has since operated in Canada and the states. In May, 1900, in partnership with C. A. French, he purchased the livery business Mr. E. W. Durkey had formerly conducted. This stable, the largest in Franklin, they still conduct. In politics Mr. Clark is a staunch Republican. He was ap- pointed deputy sheriff of Merrimack county under J. F. Fellows, in 1892, and served in that position twelve years, continuously. He served as street com- missioner of Bradford one year, and was elected councilman in Franklin Falls, in November, 1905, and has served since. He is a member of Laconia Lodge, No. 876, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of Franklin. He married, in Bradford, June 22, 1893, Ella M. Patch, who was born in Keokuk, Iowa, 1874, daughter of Frank H. and Florence ( Baily) Patch, formerly of Bradford, New Hamp- shire.

The Rev. Matthew Clark, who was or- CLARK dained to the ministry in Ireland, and succeeded the Rev. J. MacGregor as pastor of the church in Londonderry soon after 1729, was a man of splendid character and much in- fluence among his people; but whether he or James or Robert Clark, of Londonderry, or any of these prominent citizens of the Scotch colony was the pro- genitor of the family which is the subject of this article, it is not now possible to determine, on ac- count of the absence of records; but the traditions of the family, which point to a Scotch-Irish ances- try, suggest the probability of such an origin.

. (I) William Danforth Clark was born in Derry in 1810, and died in 1883, aged seventy-three. He was a lifelong farmer, and a leading citizen in his town. In his youth he was a Whig, and cast his lot with the Republican party when the questions of slavery and secession agitated the country and re- bellion broke out. For forty years he was a dean in the Congregational Church of East Derry. He married Almira E. Dodge, who was born September 14, 1813, and died November, 1891, aged seventy- eight years. She was the daughter of Reuben and Sally ( Peters) Dodge. (See Dodge, V). They were the parents of children : Jennie, Frank P., Orpah, Addie, Lizzie, William P., Warren E., Lucy G .. Mary, Joshua A. and Charles H., whose sketch follows.

(II) Charles Henry, youngest child of William

D. and Almira E. (Dodge) Clark, was born January 30, 1856, in Derry, and educated in the public schools of that town. At eleven years of age he began to earn his own living by working for the neighboring farmers. At sixteen he went to Chester, New Hamp- shire, where he was employed by one farmer for four years and by another in Hudson, two years. In 1877 he went to Woburn, Massachusetts, where he was employed in a grocery store seven years. He moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1893, and opened a grocery store at the corner of Amherst and Dutton streets, where he has since carried on business successfully. Mr. Clark is a substantial business man and leading citizen in his ward, and has been honored with office by the Republican party, of which he is a staunch supporter. He served three years as councilman of ward three, and in 1902 was elected to the board of aldermen from ward four, and has served four years in that office. He has been a member of the committee on claims and streets, and was in 1906 on the committee of cemeteries, sewers, lands and buildings. He is a member of Wildey Lodge, No. 45, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of Security Lodge, No. 8, of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He married, February 22, 1882, in Manchester, Hannah F. Williams, born September 8, 1859, daughter of Augustus and Sarah ( Fuller ) Williams, of Boxford, Massachusetts. They have seven children: Edith W., Augustus, Harry E., William D., Helen G., Marion M., Richard H. Edith married Harry Alfred Fisher, of Manchester, and has two children, Natalie and William Danforth. Augustus married Abbie Griffin, of Auburn, and resides in Manchester ; he has one child, Charles Griffin.

CLARK The surname Clark represents one of the oldest and most respected families of New England, but the period of residence in New Hampshire of the family of that name under consideration here is less than twenty years.

Conrad Clark, of Lakeport, New Hampshire, is a native of Germany and was born February 12, 1862. On coming to America he lived first in the town of North Hero on Lake Champlain in Grand Isle county, Vermont. He located there about 1878, and from there came to New Hampshire and purchased a small farm in Belknap county, near Lakeport, and within the corporate limits of the city of Laconia, where he now lives, and where by industry and economy he has established a comfortable home for his family. On February 24, 1886, Mr. Clark mar- ried Emma J. Hazen, who was born in Vermont, February 21, 1862. Six children have been born of this marriage: Wilford E., February 14, 1888. Walter Peter, September 7, 1890. Alice E., July 3, 1897. Ernest B., August 3, 1899. Damson L., May 9, 1901. Nellie M., November 22, 1904.

Clarke is the name of one of the CLARKE earliest of the Massachusetts Bay Colony families, and has furnished to New England and the nation many individuals of prominence. Its members have intermarried with many of the leading families of the Granite State, and to-day the Clarkes of New Hampshire have in their veins the blood of many ancestors eminent in the history of New England.

(I) The town of Newbury, Massachusetts, was settled in 1638 by some principal inhabitants of Ipswich, accompanied by their minister, Mr. Parker, all having previously came from Wiltshire, Eng- land. The earliest records of the town are lost, and it has been impossible to find any record of the

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ancestor of this family, Nathaniel Clarke, till his marriage in 1663. In the controversy between re- ligious factions which raged between 1665 and 1669, Nathaniel Clarke and many other prominent men are recorded on the side of Mr. Parker. April 29, 1668. Nathaniel Clarke bought land and was admitted freeman. In 1670 he was chosen "to lay out ye high- way to ye Ferry place in Amesbury." In company with William Chandler, May 1, 1684, he was ap- pointed naval officer for the ports of Newbury and Salisbury by the general court, and June 4, 1685, ensign of Captain Daniel Pierce's company at Row- ley, vice Archelaus Woodman, discharged. He was the grantee of several pieces in which he is described as "cordwainer." He is called ensign in the New- bury records, and was usually entitled "Hon'ble" when mentioned by his contemporaries. His will is dated "21 day of August Anno Dom. one thousand six hundred and ninety" and disposes of property valued at £714, 19s., including two dwelling houses and barn and seven pieces or lots of land. He was born in 1644, as stated in an affidavit made August 25, 1690. He married, November 23, 1663, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry and Judith Somerby, born No- vember 1, 1646. Henry Somerby was the son of Richard Somerby, of Little Bytham, in Lincolnshire, where his family had been eminently respectable for many generations. The mother of Mrs. Clarke was the daughter of Edmund Greenleaf, who was of Huguenot origin, and one of the earliest and most prominent settlers of Newbury, having come there from Brixham, Devonshire, England, as early as 1635. It is stated that he came from near Torbay, and that may be correct. Greenleaf was a translation of Teuillevert, the original French name of the family. Mrs. Clarke married, August 8, 1698, Rev. John Hale, of Beverley, and died March 15, 1716, aged seventy-one years. The children of Nathan and Elizabeth Clarke were: Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Thomas, John, Henry, Daniel, Sarah, Josiah, Eliza- beth, Judith, Mary. (Henry and descendants receive mention in this article).

(II) National (2), son of Nathaniel (1) and Elizabeth (Somerby ) Clarke, was born March 13, 1666, and is spoken of as Nathaniel of Newbury. He married, December 15, 1685, Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Peter and Jane Toppan, and sister of Rev. Christopher Toppan, D. D. She was born October 16, 1665. Her father was sixth in descent from Robert of Linton, near Pately Bridge, in the West Riding of York, where they continue to the present day among the most respectable families of that county. Nathaniel Clarke went with the expedition to Canada, in 1690, and was mortally wounded there on board the ship "Six Friends" in October of the same year. Nathaniel Clarke had two children : Elizabeth, born July 27, 1686, died before October, 1690. Nathaniel, July 29, 1698, died 1754.

(III) Nathaniel (3), only son of Nathaniel (2), and Elizabeth . (Toppan) Clarke, was born July 29, 1689, and died in 1754. He lived in Newbury and made numerous conveyances of land. Seven town- ships were given by the general court to officers and soldiers who were in the Narragansett war, or their lawful representatives. Number one is now Buxton, Maine, and Nathaniel Clarke drew two lots on the division. He died intestate and insolvent, and his son Ebenezer was his administrator. He married, March 7, 1709. Sarah, born November 3, 1692, daughter of Samuel and Sarah Kent Greenleaf, and great-granddaughter of Captain Edmund Green- leaf. Sarah (Kent) Greenleaf was a daughter of John and Mary, and granddaughter of James Kent, who with his brother Richard owned Kents' Island,

and much land in Oldtown, and were men of great local importance. Their father was Richard. The children of Nathaniel and Sarah ( Greenleaf) Clarke were: Samuel, born April 13, 1710; Elizabeth, Oc- tober 15, 1711; Sarah, Ebenezer, Stephen, June 9, 1723, died December, 1804; Nathaniel, 1728, died November 7, 1805.

(IV) Nathaniel (4), farmer, of Haverhill, son of Nathaniel (3) and Sarah (Greenleaf) Clarke, was born in 1728, and died November 7, 1805. In 1757 he was a member of the Second Company of Foot, Major Richard Saltonstall, captain, and did all in his power to further the cause of the Revolution by loaning money to the town on several occasions, and by serving in 1780 on the committee to collect clothing for the army. lle married, February 8, 1753, Mary Hardy, of Bradford, Massachusetts, born October 8, 1733, died January 13, 1817. Her father, David Hardy, was son of Joseph and Mary Bur- bank Hardy, and grandson of John Hardy, who with his brother William came to New England, and was assigned land by him, but not taking the place re- moved to East Bradford and lives on the site where the Marsdon house now is. Mrs. Clarke's mother was Dorcas, daughter of Samuel and Mary Watson Gage, and granddaughter of Daniel Gage, whose father was John Rowley, who is supposed to have been son of John, created a baronet, March 26, 1622, and of Penelope, his wife. Sir John was grandson and heir of Edward Gage, Knighted by Queen Mary. The children of Nathaniel and Mary. (Hardy) Clarke were : David, Sarah, Susan, Nathaniel, Green- leaf, Rebecca, Mary, Nathaniel, Paul, Moses, Theo- dore, Greenleaf. (The last named receives extended mention below).

(V) Nathaniel (5), of Plaistow, New Hampshire, child of Nathaniel (4) and Mary ( Hardy) Clarke, was born 1766, died May 19, 1846. When fifteen years old March 12, 1781, he enlisted with the con- sent of his parents for three years as fifer in Cap- tain Nehemiah Emerson's company, Tenth Massa- chusetts Regiment. Thomas Page enlisted at the same time as a drummer, and it is said their youth and skillful execution drew the attention of General Washington, to whom Captain Emerson remarked "they were pretty boys," a compliment of which they were ever afterward proud. They were with the same captain till the close of the war, and Nathaniel was wounded at White Plains. He married Abigail Woodman, born August, 1765, died April 3, 1844, and had nine children by her : Susanna, Nathaniel, Nancy, David, Abigail, John Woodman, Mary, Lydia Woodman, Elizabeth.

(VI) Mary, daughter of Nathaniel (5) and Abigail (Woodman) Clarke, born January 21, 1800. died June 6, 1833. Married, July 18, 1822, Isaac Smith, (q. v.) and had three children : Mary Clarke, Isaac William, Nathaniel.

(V) Greenleaf, twelfth and youngest child of Nathaniel (4) and Mary ( Hardy) Clarke, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, May 5, 1779, and died in At- kinson, New Hampshire, January 12, 1821. He was a farmer, and before his death became an honored and influential citizen. On September 6, 1809, Green- leaf Clarke purchased of Samuel Eaton, of Haverhill, twenty acres and forty rods of land in Haverhill. Afterward he disposed of his property in Massachu- setts, and removed to Atkinson, New Hampshire, where he had a large and fertile farm with a sub- stantial house and outbuildings in keeping with it, a short distance northwest of the Atkinson depot. Ile was a man well liked by his fellow townsmen, and was justice of the peace and selectman. He was a Mason, and past master of his lodge. He married,

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March 1, 1810, Julia Cogswell, born February 20, 1789, daughter of Dr. William and Judith ( Badger) Cogswell, of Atkinson. She was an intelligent woman and before her marriage had been preceptress of Atkinson Academy. The children of this union were: William Cogswell, Sarah, Francis, Greenleaf, Moses and John Badger. She married (second), December 12, 1822, Amasa Coburn, and had four children, all of whom except Mary died young. Mrs. Clarke Coburn died January 9, 1860, aged seventy-one years.

(VI) John Badger, youngest of the six children of Greenleaf and Julia (Cogswell) Clarke, was born at Atkinson, January 30, 1820, and died October 29, 1891, at Manchester. He passed the years of his boyhood on his father's farm, and received his primary education in the common schools. He pre- pared for college at Atkinson Academy, and entered Dartmouth at the age of nineteen. He graduated with high honors in the class of 1843, the only classmate who outranked him in scholarship being the late Professor J. N. Putnam. In his senior year Mr. Clarke was president of the Social Friends Society, and in 1863 was elected president of the Tri Kappa Society. Leaving college he went to Gil- ford (now Laconia), where for three years he was principal of the academy. While there he began the study of law in the office of Stephen C. Lyford, and continued his studies in Manchester with his brother, William C. Clarke, until his admission to the bar in 1848. The reports that came back to New Hamp- shire from California inspired Mr. Clarke, as they did thousands of others, with a desire to see the "Land of Gold." February 2, 1849, he started for California, via the Isthmus of Panama, where he was detained eleven weeks, and bought for the Manchester party of forty-three with him, in com- pany with a gentleman of Maine with twenty men, the brig "Copiapo" in which they left the isthmus for California with one hundred and fifty-eight pas- sengers, Mr. Clarke being supercargo. He remained in California a little more than a year, practicing law and working in the mines. Returning, he spent four months in Central America and reached home in February, 1851. His first intention was to open a law office in Salem, Massachusetts, but he shortly returned from there and began practice in Man- chester. At the end of a year's time he left the law, in which he was doing well, and at the request of Joseph C. Emerson took charge of the editorial department of the Daily Mirror. On account of Mr. Emerson's financial embarrassment the property was sold at auction in October of the same year, Mr. Clarke being the purchaser. The purchase included the Daily and Weekly Mirror and the job printing establishment connected therewith, of which Mr. Clarke was ever afterwards sole owner and manager. He later purchased the Daily and Weekly American (in which the Weekly Democrat had been previously merged.), and the New Hampshire Journal of Agri- culture. These were all combined with the Mirror, and the name of the daily changed to Mirror and Ameri- can, and the weekly from Dollar Weekly Mirror to Mirror and Farmer. Twice after these additions to the Mirror and during Mr. Clarke's lifetime it was found necessary to enlarge both the daily and weekly

papers. When he bought the Mirror the weekly paper had but a few hundred suscribers, but under his management it grew to have a larger circulation than any other paper of its class published in New England outside of Boston. Before the outbreak of the Rebellion the Mirror had been non-partisan, but when the war came Mr. Clarke decided that there should be no neutrals at such a time, and the

paper came out boldly for the Union, and has ever since been a staunch Republican paper.

The influence of the daily and weekly newspapers brought to the book and job printing department a very extensive business to which a bookbinding es- tablishment was added. Here many works of value were published. Mr. Clarke's literary energies were not exhausted by the demands of his newspapers, and he published "The Londonderry. Celebration," "Sanborn's History of New Hampshire," "Clarke's Manchester Almanac and Directory." Clarke's History of Manchester," and several similar works.

Believing that candidacy for office would be detrimental to his influence as a public journalist, Mr. Clarke had always refused to be a candidate for office, but was a delegate to the Baltimore con- vention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the second time to the presidency, and was one of the national committee of seven (including Ex-Governor Claflin, of Massachusetts, Ex-Governor Marcus L. Ward, of New Jersey, and Hon. Henry T. Raymond, of the New York Times, who managed the cam- paign. He was connected with the New Hampshire College of Agriculture, was a trustee of the Merri- mack Savings Bank from its incorporation in 1858 till his death; master for three years of the Amos- keag Grange, No. 3; for two years lieutenant-col- onel of the Amoskeag Veterans, and was twice elected commander, but declined the honor. He was elected state printer six terms ; in 1867-68-69-77-78, and in 1879 for two years. Mr. Clarke was deeply interested in the subject of elocution, and for two years gave to the Manchester high school forty dollars a year for prizes in public speaking and reading. In 1874 he offered one hunded dollars a year for five years to Dartmouth College for the same object. In 1879 he proposed to give forty dollars a year for five years for superiority in elo- cution in the high and grammar schools of Man- chester to be divided into four prizes of sixteen dollars, twelve dollars, eight dollars and four dol- lars, the awards to be made at a public exhibition in the month of January each year, the proceeds from the sale of tickets to which should be invested, and the income from the investment applied for prizes for similar object perpetually. The proposi- tion was accepted by the school board, and the first contest for the prizes was made in Smyth's Hall, in January, 1880, the net proceeds from the sale of tickets being two hundred and forty-five dollars. The succeeding January two hundred and eighty- seven dollars and sixteen cents was realized, and in January, 1882, three hundred and sixty-two dollars and fifteen cents, or a total of eight hundred and ninety-four dollars and thirty-one cents in three years. In February, 1882, Mr. Clarke offered to add to his original forty dollars, twenty dollars a year for the next two years, with the suggestion that the forty dollars be divided into prizes of thirteen dollars, eleven dollars, nine dollars and seven dollars re- spectively, for the best four of all the sixteen con- testants, on the score of merit, and the remaining twenty dollars awarded in general prizes to the con- testants adjudged the best in each of the schools represented, excluding all who should have received either of the former prizes awarded. The result of this offer has been a great interest and improve- ment in reading and speaking in the public schools of Manchester.

Brought up on a farm John B. Clarke was always interested in farming and used his best efforts to improve the breeds of horses, cattle and other stock in the state. He was a great lover of horses and was always the possessor of good ones. He was

John B. Clarke.

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also fond of blooded dogs, regarding these two genera of animals as man's best and truest servants and friends. He was an enthusiastic sportsman and is said by John W. Moore to have been "a coon hunter without a rival in the state." Believing in the policy of protecting the fish and game of the state he was the prime mover in the organization of the State Fish and Game League, of which he was president.

In 1872 he began seriously to feel the effects that overwork will produce on even the most robust constitution and visited for recreation and recupera- tion Great Britain, France and Germany and re- turned much benefited, but thercafter he lived a less strenuous life devoting less time to the cares of business and more to the care of his health. Mr. Clarke, though not a church member, was a frequent churchgoer, and attended the Franklin Street Con- gregational Church, to the support of which he con- tributed with the same openhanded liberality with which he gave to every other worthy object that appealed to him for support. A recent biographer in describing him has said, "Physically Colonel Clarke was a fine specimen of robust manhood. He was tall, erect, portly, broad shouldercd, and enjoyed excellent health." Mentally he was a many-sided man. He always performed well his part whether as educator, lawyer, gold-seeker and adventurer, sports- man, historian, journalist, citizen or companion and friend, and in the more serious phases of character he shone with lustre of no common kind.

John B. Clarke married, July 29, 1852, Susan Greeley Moulton, of Gilmanton, who died in 1885. He married (second), Olive Rand, who survives him. There were children by the first marriage: Arthur E. and William C., both mentioned at length below.

(VII) Arthur Eastman, the older of the two sons of John B. and Susan Greeley (Moulton) Clarke, was born in Manchester, May 13, 1854. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, and at Dartmouth College, graduating from the latter in- stitution with the class of 1875. After leaving col- lege he entered the office of the Mirror, in the fall of 1875, and there familiarized himself with all branches of newspaper work. After mastering the details of the composing and press rooms, he acquired further experience in the job department, and in reading proof; he then became city editor of the Mirror, and for a number of years did all the local work alone, but subsequently with an assistant. Later he assumed the duties of general state news and review editor, remaining in this position several years, and then taking charge of the agricultural department and other features of the Mirror and Farmer, assisting at the same time in the editorial, reportorial, and business departments of the Daily Mirror. For four years he was legislative reporter of the paper at Concord, and for one year he served as telegraph editor. In these various capacities he acquired a wide and thorough experience such as few newspaper men possess, and upon the death of his father became manager of both papers and of the job printing and book binding business con- nccted with the establishment. and has since con- ducted most successfully the extensive concerns of the office, besides doing almost daily work with his pen for both papers.

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Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. IV, Part 44

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923 Publication date: 1908 Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 878

Author: Stearns, Ezra S; Whitcher, William F. (William Frederick), 1845-1918; Parker, Edward E. (Edward Everett), 1842-1923
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: New York : Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 878