Genealogical and family history of central New York : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the building of a nation, Volume III, Part 71

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: New York : Lewis Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 592


USA > New York > Genealogical and family history of central New York : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the building of a nation, Volume III > Part 71


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( IV ) Isaac, son of Abraham (2) and De- borah ( Hadlocke ) Temple, was born Decem- ber 25, 1678, in Concord. He resided in Marlboro, Massachusetts, where he died Jan- uary II. 1765, leaving an estate valued at one thousand. four hundred and ninety-two pounds, seventeen shillings and one penny. He married, March 1, 1699, Martha, daugh- ter of Nathaniel Joslyn.


(V) Isaac (2), son of Isaac and Martha ( Joslyn) Temple, was born February 8, 1704, in Marlboro. He resided in Shrewsbury, where he died. He was representative of the town in 1747-49-56-58, and was a soldier of the revolution. Ile married, June 25. 1725, Elizabeth Holland, of Marlboro.


(VI) Jonas, son of Isaac ( 2) and Elizabeth ( Holland) Temple, was born July 1, 1733, in Shrewsbury. He married there, in 1756, Olive, daughter of Henry Keyes, and they were the parents of Olive Temple, who be- came the wife of John (4) Parker (see Par- ker VI). Children: Hannah, John, Sylva- nus. Olive, Ruth, Jonas. Louis, Sally and Lu- cinda.


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CLARK Clark, Clarke. Clerk, Clerke and Clearke is a name of great an- tiquity in England. Originally any person who could read and write was given the name and it came to be the surname of learne 1 persons generally, but particularly officers of ecclesiastical courts and parish churches who were entrusted with recording and preserving the records. In medieval days the name was one to be respected, hence it is of frequent use in Domesday Book, either written in one of the various spellings given above or Clericus-"clerk or clergyman." "one of the clerical order."


In the early settlement of New England by the English Puritans, 1625 to 1640, we find men of the name who became founders of large and distinguished families, not only in the New England colonies, but in Virginia, Maryland and New York, the name in the southern section of the United States gener- ally adopting the spelling with a final "e." The most numerous of the christian names appears to have been William, with John, Thomas and Samuel, in abundant evidence. Irish immigrants to America have added to the name either from Scotch-Irish or from the family of O'Clery or O'Clersach, not only common but distinguished names in the Emer- ald Isle and literally indicating "the son of the cler."


Four brothers from Bedfordshire, England. came to New England in the first quarter of the seventeenth century, named John, Joseph. Thomas and Carew Clark. John was a foun- der of Rhode Island, with Roger Williams, and the founder of the Baptist church in New- port. 1633, and has numerous descen lants. Thomas Clark ( 1593-1687), a carpenter in Plymouth colony, 1623. and Susannah Ring. his wife, have among their illus- trious descendants Alvan Clark ( 1804-87), of telescope fame, and his son, Alvan Gra- ham Clark (1832-97), the lens maker of Cambridge, Massachusetts: Alonzo Howard Clark, born 1850, the scientist : George Bas- sett Clark ( 1827-91). the mechanician : James Freeman Clarke ( 1810-88), the clergyman, author and anti-slavery advocate ; Samnel F. Clarke, 1851, the naturalist. Nathaniel Clarke, of Newbury, 1642, and Elizabeth ( Somerby ) Clarke, his wife, have among their descen- dants Thomas March Clarke ( 1812-1903 ). second bishop of Rhode Island ; Rufus Wheel- wright Clark ( 1813-86), Yale, 1838, clergy-


man and author : Samuel Adams Clark ( 1822- 79), a clergyman, and others equally notable. William Clark ( 1609-90), Nantucket, Massa- chusetts Bay Colony, 1630, Dorchester, 1636, Northampton, 1659. is the progenitor of the Clarks of Western Massachusetts and Con- necticut, and has numerous descendants in the far west. Among his more distinguished de- scendants we may name General Emmons Clark ( 1827-1905), commander of the Sev- enth Regiment, National Guards, N. Y. S. M., 1864-89; Edson Luman Clark, born 1827, clergyman and author, Yale, 1853; Ezra Clark ( 1883-96), representative in the thirty- fourth and thirty-fifth congresses, president of the Hartford water board: Governor My- ron H. Clark ( 1806-92), governor of New York, 1854-55. and others.


(I) William Clarke, immigrant, was born in Dorsetshire, England, in 1609. Family tradition has it that he sailed from Plymouth, England, March 30. 1630, in the ship "Mary and John," in company with Mr. Maverick, Mr. Warham and their company, arriving at Nantucket, May 30, 1630, and after looking a while decided to settle in Dorchester. In the list of passengers who took "oathes of supremacy and allegiance to pass for New England in the 'Mary and John' of London, Robert Sayres, master, March 24, 1633," the name of William Clarke appears. There were three other Clarkes, Bray, Joseph and Thomas, among the first settlers of Dorchester, whose memory is preserved by the following couplet upon their gravestone : "Here lie three Clerks, their accounts are even. Entered on Earth, Carried to Heaven." William Clarke settled in Dorchester previous to 1635. one year be- fore Mr. Warham with a great part of his church removed to Windsor in Connecticut. William Clarke was a prominent citizen of Dorchester, being made a selectman in 1646 and serving continuously up to 1650. In 1653 he was one of the petitioners to the gen- eral court of the Massachusetts Bay for per- mission to settle in the "New Country" in the Connecticut Valley and he removed his family to Northampton in 1659, somewhat in this way : His wife rode on horseback with two panniers across the horse behind the sad- dle on which she rode.


In each pannier she carried a boy, and the third boy she carried on her lap, while her husband, then fifty-three years of age, preceded her on foot and designated the trail


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through the forests. He had been named by Eleazer Mather, son of Mr. Richard Mather. the settled minister at Dorchester ( who was preaching in Northampton on probation ) to the town authorities as a proper person to receive a grant of land on condition he would come with his family and dwell in the town. Henry Woodward and Henry Gortiff were the other two who accepted the invitation, and January 1, 1659, a committee was appointed to locate the grant. William Clarke was allotted twelve acres on the west side of the road, now Elm street, and bordering on Mill river. H erected a log house on the land in 1659 and occupied it with his family up to 1081, when the house burned down. With the incident of this fire a sad picture is presented by a local historian : "Jack, a negro servant of Samuel Wolcott of Wethersfield, set fire to the house of Lieutenant William Clarke by taking a brand of fire from his hearth and swinging it up and down to find victuals, and was sentenced to be taken from the bar of justice to the place whence he came and then to be hanged by the neck till he be dead and then to be taken down and burnt to ashes on the fire. He confessed that he did it in care- lessness and the law had its course." The new house erected by Lieutenant Clarke in 1681 remained a landmark of historic interest in Northampton until 1826. He took a dis- mission from the church in Dorchester in April, 1661, and on June 18 was one of the seven incorporators of the first church in Northampton, and Mr. Mather was ordained minister. He served as selectman of the town for twenty years, and also served as judge of the county courts. He gained his military title from having been elected lieutenant of the train band in August. 1661, and he com- manded the company in the King Philip and other Indian wars. His first wife, Sarah, died September 6, 1675. after having given birth to ten children, nine in Dorchester and Sarah. the youngest. in Northampton, the same year of the arrival of the family after the tiresome journey through the wilderness. Lieutenant William Clarke married ( second ) Sarah Cooper. November 15, 1676, and she died childless, May 6, 1688. Lieutenant William Clarke died in Northampton, July 19. 1690, and an ancient gravestone marks his grave in the cemetery at Northampton, inscribed : "Lieutenant William Clarke, Aged 81 years. He died July 19. ano 1600." His descendants


in 1884 erected a monument inscribed "Lieu- tenant William Clarke died July 19, 109), aged eighty-one years. Erected by his de- "cendants 1884." The children of Lieutenant William and Sarah Clarke were: 1. Sarah, June 21. 1638, died young. 2. Jonathan, (c- tober 1, 1639. died young. 3. Nathaniel, Jan- uary 27. 1642, married Mary Meekins, of Hatfield, May 8, 1663. 4. Experience, March 30, 1043, died young. 5. Increase, baptized March, 1640, died probably 1662. 6. Rebec- ca, 1048, married Israel Rust. 7. John, 1651. resided in Northampton. 8. Samuel, baptized October 23. 1653. 9. William, mentione 1 be- low. Jo. Sarah, March 14. 1659, married John Parsons, December 3. 1675.


( 11 ) William ( 2), sixth son of William ( 1 ) and Sarah Clarke, was born July 3. 1656, in Dorchester, died in Lebanon, Connecticut, May 9. 1725. When three years of age he was carried in a pannier, as above described, to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he grew up and lived for many years. He was an early settler in Lebanon, Connecticut, he- ing one of the fifty-one original landed pro- prietors of that town, where he at once took a prominent position. In company with Jo- siah Dewey he purchased a large tract of land, known as the Clarke and Dewey purchase, in the northern part of Lebanon, in 1700. This land had been previously deede 1 by Owane- cho, sachem of the Mohegan Indians, to John Clarke, of Saybrook. William (2) Clarke was a captain of the militia, participating in the Indian wars, and was the first representa- tive in the colonial assembly from Lebanon in 1705, continuing to fill that position thirteen years. He was selectman sixteen years, and town clerk from 1700 to 1725. He married ( first ). July 15. 1680, Hannah, daughter of Elder John and Abigail (Ford) Strong, of Northampton, born May 30, 1659. died Janu- ary 31. 1004. He married ( second ), January 31. 1695. Mary Smith, born 1665-61. died April 23. 1748, having been a widow twenty- three years. Children : Hannah. Abigail, William, Jonathan, Thomas, Joseph, Benoni, Timothy, Gershom, Mary, David, died young; David. The last five are recorded in Lebanon.


(III) Jonathan, second son of William (2) and Hannah (Strong ) Clarke, was born May 13. 1688, in Northampton, and died January 12, 1744. in Lebanon, where he was a farmer through life. He married, in January, 1714, Hannah Smalley, probably a daughter of Ben-


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jamin and Lydia ( Allen) Smalley, who came from Cape Cod. Massachusetts, and settled in Lebanon soon after 1700.


(IV) Jonathan (2), son of Jonathan (I) and Hannah (Smalley ) Clarke, was born No- vember 1. 1715, in Lebanon, Connecticut, where he died about 1800. He inherited from his father a large amount of land which he sold, and lost most of his possessions through the depreciation of continental money in which he was paid. He was selectman of Lebanon in 1737. About 1750 this family dropped the use of the last letter in the name and it has since employed the new form. He married. January 16, 1754. Mercy, daughter of Josiah and Mercy (Bailey) Dewey, of that town. Children : Hannah, Jonathan. Lemuel. died young : Daniel, Mercy, died young ; Mer- cy. David, Zervich, Lemuel and Gershom.


(\) Gershom, youngest child of Jonathan (2) and Mercy (Dewey) Clark, was born September 16. 1755, in Tolland, Connecticut. died in Guilford, Chenango county. New York. March, 1840. He was a soldier of the revolution, serving under General Israel Put- nam, and participated in the battle of Bunker Hill. In October, 1814, he located at Guil- ford Center, removing from Tolland, Connec- ticut, with ox teams, and eventually came into possession of six hundred and forty acres of land there, upon which he and his five sons resided. He married Lucretia, born June 12. 1759. in Lebanon, daughter of Benjamin and Desire ( Yerrington ) Thatcher. Children : Triphena. Gershom A., Mercy, Hubbard, Dudley, Lydia, Dolly, Sherman, Austin. The five sons each died at the age of eighty-two.


(VI) Austin, youngest child of Gershom and Lucretia (Thatcher ) Clark, was born Oc- tober 15, 1799. in Tolland, died in Berkshire, Tioga county, New York, April 2, 1882. He was about fifteen years of age when he re- moved with his parents to Guilford, New York, and there remained until 1835. when he removed to South New Berlin, New York. and remained there twenty-one years. In 1856 he made his last removal to the town of Berkshire. He was an industrious and thrifty farmer, and filled a large place in the life of the rural community where he dwelt, serving as justice of the peace and county


excise commissioner for many years. He married (first) Julia Ann Phelps, born Sep- tember 10. 1806, died October 3. 1845, in South New Berlin. He married (second),


January 28, 1847, Jane Steere, born Novem- ber 6, 1812. in Norwich, New York, died February 21, 1890, in Berkshire, daughter of Timothy and Serena (Smith) Steere. Chil- dren of first marriage: 1. Augustus, born October 3. 1824, in Guilford, died eight days later. 2. Mariette, January 1, 1826, married George Sage, and lived near South New Ber- lin, New York, where she died in 1865. 3. Juliette, January 23. 1828, wife of Charles Smith, lived for many years at Nanticoke, Broome county, New York, and died there April 6, 1910. 4. Charles Austin, mentioned below. 4. Henry, who died in infancy. 6. Lucretia A., June 4, 1834, died February 27, 1858; married Harvey Angell, and lived in New Berlin. New York, and later in Burling- ton Flats, Otsego county, New York. 7. Henry Brown, November 6, 1836. in South New Berlin. died at Freehold, New Jersey, August 29, 1871. 8. Harriet E., November 21. 1838, married Marcus E. Rigby, and lived at Nanticoke, Broome county, New York, died May 3. 1891. 9. De Witt Clinton, February 16, 1841, died at Tacoma, Washington, about 1904. 10. Theresa Jane, March 24, 1843, mar- ried Edward A. Sherman, and lives at New- ark Valley, Tioga county, New York. II. Julia Ann, June 16, 1845, wife of Silas T. Swan, lives at Union, Broome county, New York. Children of second marriage: 12. Gershom Willard, November 31. 1847. lives at Owego, New York : married Etta M. Ar- nold, of Owego. 13. Horatio, September 5. 1851, lives at Berkshire, New York, married Anna E. Manning, of Berkshire, New York.


(VII) Charles Austin, second son of Aus- tin and Julia A. (Phelps) Clark, was born May 28. 1830, at Guilford Center. Chenango county. New York, died in Owego, New York, May 9, 1891. When he was a small boy his father moved from Guilford Center to a farm near South New Berlin, Chenango county, where he resided until Charles Aus- tin attained his majority. His general educa- tion was largely obtained at the common schools of the locality. He began teaching at the age of seventeen. his first school being at Gilbertsville, Otsego county, New York. He read medicine with Dr. S. C. Gibson, at South New Berlin, and completed his medical education at the University of Michigan. 1852-53. For a time he practiced medicine at Berkshire, Tioga county, but soon removed to Bainbridge, Chenango county, where, after


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practicing medicine for about two years he discontinued the practice of medicine and taught a large and well-equipped select school in that village. He was soon elected superin- tendent of schools, which position he held un- til 1856, in which year he removed with his family to Marlboro, New Jersey. In the spring of 1857 he removed to Berkshire, where he was engaged in the mercantile busi- ness for three years. Later he pursued the same line of business in Marathon, Cortland county. 1862-63, and in Oneonta, Otsego county, 1866. From childhood he had cher- ished an ambition to study law, and during the years 1864-65 he retired to his farm in the town of Newark Valley, New York, and a large portion of his time during those years he spent in the study of law. In the year 1866, at Oneonta, he continued the study of the law and was admitted to the bar at Bingham- ton, New York, May 15, 1867. His first law office was opened at Newark Valley, New York. and in connection with his practice he became interested in local politics. In poli- tics he was a Republican. In 1869 he was elected supervisor of the town of Newark Valley and was reelected for the two follow- ing years. On November 7, 1871, he was elected county judge of the county of Tioga and entered upon the duties of the office on the first day of January, 1872. The duties of the office brought him to reside in Owego and there he continued his residence until his death. He was reelected in the fall of 1877, and continued to hold the office until the first day of January, 1884. He declined a renomi- nation, and on the first day of the year 1884 the law firm of C. A. & H. A. Clark was formed, the junior member being the son of Judge Clark. This firm was professionally active throughout the southern tier until the death of the senior member in 1891. Judge Clark took a keen interest in the progress of his county and was always ready to forward any movement for the benefit of the com- munity in which he lived. He was an elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Owego. and vice-president of the Tioga National Bank for many years.


He married (first), May 30, 1853, Evelyn Amelia, born April 16, 1833, in Oneonta. New York, daughter of John and Evaline ( Good- rich) Hodge. She died March 17, 1878, at Owego, New York. He married ( second ). December 28, 1880, Alrs. Celestia D. Arnold,


daughter of H. Nelson Dean and widow of Captain Thomas II. Arnold. There were two children born of the first marriage: Henry Austin, mentioned below, Emily Lucretia, the latter born April 16. 1859, died August 21. IQII, at Yonkers, New York. She attended Vassar College, and February 20, 1889, she married Charles L. Noble, formerly of New- ark Valley, but afterwards of Yonkers, New York, where they resided at the time of her decease. Their children were Evelyn A. No- ble, born October 15, 1891, now attending Vassar College: and Austin Clark Noble, born February 12, 1897, died March 19, 1911.


Charles A. Clark was a man of loving and sympathetic nature, coupled with brave and manly qualities. He was very fond of young people, and delighted in being associated with them. He and his son were close companions from the time the son was very young. A number of persons are still living who were his pupils when he was a young man ; several lawyers are now in active practice who stud- ied law in his office, and these have often expressed their feelings of gratitude for the personal interest he took in them and the in- spiration, encouragement and help he gave them in advancing their education. His home possessed the pure, generous, happy and hos- pitable atmosphere of his personality and char- acter, which was felt by all who entered there.


He possessed a most remarkable memory, especially for names, dates and numbers, sel- dom failing to recall the name of any person whom he had known, including the middle let- ter. Almost every day was an anniversary with him of 'some battle or other historic in- cident or of the birthday of some friend. He even carried in his memory the numbers of the volumes and pages of law reports and records in his office so correctly and to such an extent that it almost seemed that indexes were useless and unnecessary to him. He had also a remarkably broad grasp of the points at issue in a case at law which enabled him quickly to anticipate the point on which the legal question would be determined, so that when sitting in court as a judge or when trying a cause as counsel, he was seldom sur- prised or discomfited by an unexpected issue.


He possessed and practiced in his daily life in a degree observable to all his intimate friends, love, joy, patience, gentleness, good- ness, temperance. He rejoiced with those who rejoiced and mourned with those who


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mourned, and manifested a keen sense of jus- tice. He was always ready to spend his time and means in enforcing the rights of those who he believed were oppressed, and in re- dressing a wrong done to any one. He would carry on a litigation for a poor person who lie believed had been cheated and defrauded and who was without means, through several trials and appeal after appeal through the courts, in opposition to wealth and influence. at a time' when he was advised by others that it was not wise or good policy for a lawyer to conduct a case against the wealthy and in- fluential with so little hope of success for one who was unable to compensate him, and would continue such legal battles until through victory in the courts the right was enforced and the wrong redressed. It was one of his principles that no person through poverty, lack of influence and friends should be cheated and wronged by the wealthy and popular without a fair opportunity of having the fraud exposed before a competent court and the wrong set right, and that such a one should not be deprived of his legal rights on account of lack of means. He left to his de- scendants an inheritance limited in worldly goods, but he left to them and all who knew him intimately a cherished memory and exam- ple. He was a man of liberal mind, exem- plary character, and the friend of humanity in that broad sense which was recognized by all who knew him.


The poet, Munger, in his poem describing the Tioga County Bar, read at the laying of the cornerstone of the court house in Owego in 1871, referred to him as "The pure, generous, Clark." A former pastor of the Presbyterian church in Owego, at liis funeral held in that church, said: "A great man has fallen in Israel: one with a broad mind and great heart, and one that loved his fellowmen." A leading journalist, in writ- ing of him soon after his decease, paid him the following tribute: "The late Hon. Charles A. Clark. of Tioga county, was cast in a giant mold-large in stature, in mind and in heart. We refer to this now, not to empha- size a fact apparent to every one who knew him, but to call attention to the almost uni- versal expression of sorrow from his associ- ates and friends. It is no mean compliment to those who loved him longest and knew him best, that they appreciated his manly and noble qualities."


(VIII) Henry Austin, only son of Charles Austin, and Evelyn A. ( Hodge) Clark, was born March 31, 1855, in Bainbridge, New York. He has spent most of his life in Owego. He completed his classical education in the academy of this town from which he graduated in 1875. Taking up the study of law in his father's office, he was admitted to the bar in Binghamton in May, 1876, and thereafter pursued the practice of law alone in Owego until 1884, when he became asso- ciated with his father, as above related. ln 1892 Mr. Clark formed a partnership with Theodore R. Tuthill which was dissolved in 1899, and since 1901 has been associated with James S. Truman, conducting an active prac- tice under the style of Clark & Truman. They occupy offices in what was the Owego Free Academy Building, owned by Mr. Clark, in which he received his early education. He has ever taken an active part in the business life of the community and is now president of the Tioga National Bank and the Owego National Bank. Since its organization he has been a director of the Broome County Trust Company and is a trustee of Elmira College. He served his home town twelve years as president of the school board, and was the first president of the Coburn Free Library of Owego, subsequently acting as chairman of the building committee which recently erected a new library building. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Presbyterian church and succeeded his father as an elder in the society, filling that position to the present time. In politics he is an earnest Re- publican ; in 1893 he was elected a member of the constitutional convention which met the following year.


He married, October 25, 1887, Harriet H. Sackett, born September 5, 1861, in Condor, Tioga county, daughter of Charles R. and Mary R. (Gilbert) Sackett. the latter a native of Hartford. Connecticut. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have three children: 1. Charles Austin, born December 10, 1889. a Cornell University man, now studying law in the office of his father. 2. Emily Grace, March 20, 1892, a student of Cornell University. 3. Charlotte Mary, Jan- uary 20, 1898.


The name Washburne is


WASHBURNE derived from two simple words-wash, which ap- plies to the swift-moving current of a stream,


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and burn or bourne, a brook or small stream. It has been said of the family, whose origin is in England, that the posterity of John Washburn, the first immigrant of the name to locate in New England, "will seldom find oc- casion to blush upon looking back upon the past lives of those from whom they have de- scended. Fortunate indeed may the genera- tions now in being. esteem themselves, if they can be sure to bequeath to their posterity an equal source of felicitations." In this illus- trious family have been found some of our nation's greatest characters, in public and in private life, statesmen and military men in all the American wars. Maine, Vermont, Massa- chusetts and Wisconsin have all had gover- nors from the Washburn family, and three brothers served as congressmen from three states at the same time, all with much ability. Author, and college graduates may be found to a score or more, who have left their im- press upon the world.




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