Curtis Clark (1792 - 1885)

Born 30 Nov 1792 in Pawlet, Rutland County, Vermont

Ancestors

Husband of Electa (Meacham) Clark — married 20 Sep 1814 in Pawlet, Rutland County, Vermont

Descendants

Died 16 May 1885 at age 92 in Nicollet County, Minnesota, United States

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Biography

Curtis Clark was a son of Asa Clark and a mother not named, born in Pawlet, Vermont, in November 1792. The birth record gives his date of birth as 31 November, but November has only 30 days,^[1] and his newspaper obituary indicates the date as 30 November.^[2]

Curtis Clark was married in Pawlet, Vermont, on 20 September 1814 to Lectia Meacham.^[3] They were to have a total of eleven children.^[2]

Not long after the marriage they removed to New York state, where their children John C. Clark, Marietta (Clark) Hinds, Asa Clark, and Sarah E. Clark were born between about 1815 and 1832. His obituary indicates that they lived for four or five years at Crown Point, New York, where Curtis worked as a clothier, then moved to Lewis, Essex County, New York, where he had a farm and continued to work as a clothier. ^[2] The 1820 U.S. Census enumerated Curtis Clark in Lewis, Essex County, New York, with a household of eight free white persons: one male and one female age 26 to 44 (Curtis and Electa), one male and one female 16 to 25, and two males and two females under age 10. One person in the household was engaged in agriculture and one was engaged in manufactures.^[4]

Sometime after 1832 (the newspaper obituary says 1836) they moved west to Illinois, where Curtis became a full-time farmer, where their inferred daughter Caroline Clark was born about 1838, and where Curtis and family were recorded by the census in 1850. The 1850 U.S. Census recorded farmer Curtis Clark and Lecta Clark, both age 58 and natives of Vermont, in Maine, Cook County, Illinois, with Sarah E. Clark, 18, born in New York, and Caroline Clark, 12, born in Illinois. Entries for the households of John C. Clark (his son) and Silas Meacham appear on the same page.^[5]

In 1860 the U.S. Census recorded farmer Curtis Clark, a farmer, age 68, in the town of Maine, Cook County, Illinois, with Electa Clark, also age 68, and Charles Clark, age 13. Curtis was born in Vermont, and Electa and Charles were born in Illinois. Curtis reported $3000 in real estate and $250 personal estate. The adjacent household was that of John C. Clark (his son), age 45, with Mary Clark, also 45, and William Clark, age 15 or 16.^[6]

In 1862 Curtis, then about age 70, and family headed north to Minnesota, settling at a locale called Hebron, in Nicollet township, Nicollet County, near Mankato.^[2]

Electa (Meacham) Clark died in 1868. After her death Curtis made two extended trips (the second of them lasting about nine years) to California, where some of the Clark children were living.^[2] The 1870 and 1880 U.S. censuses found widower Curtis Clark in Santa Cruz, California, living in the household of his daughter Marietta, who was recorded as Marietta or Mariet Hinds. The 1870 census recorded Marietta Hinds, age 51, a widow, in Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, with Edward Hinds, age 15, Curtis Clark, age 77, and Charles and Willie Orr, ages 10 and 8, respectively. Marietta Hinds was born in New York, Curtis Clark was born in Vermont, and the others were born in California. Marietta worked at "Keeping office" and Curtis had no occupation.^[7] The 1880 census recorded widow Mariet Hinds, age 61, sharing her Santa Cruz household with Curtis Clark, age 87, identified as her father. Mariet was born in New York to parents born in Vermont and Curtis was born in Vermont to parents born in Connecticut.^[8]

About three years before his death Curtis Clark returned to Minnesota. When family members tried to discourage him, saying that he couldn't live in the Minnesota climate, he responded "I am not going there to live, I am going there to die."^[2]

The 1885 Minnesota state census (enumerating residents as of 1 May 1885) recorded 92-year-old Vermont native Curtis Clark in Nicollet, Nicollet County, Minnesota, in the household of his son John C. Clark, 70, a New York native, and Mary Clark, also 70 and a native of Vermont. Others in the household were Charles B. Clark, 38, born in Illinois, Hanna Clark, 33, born in Indiana, and six children born in Minnesota.^[9]

He died on 16 May 1885 in Nicollet County, Minnesota.^[10][2] The Plattsburgh Sentinel newspaper (Plattsburgh, New York) of 29 May 1885 reported the death "In Brickston, Wis., May 16, 1885, Mr. CURTIS CLARK, aged 91 years. Mr. Clark was a brother of Mr. Cephas Clark, of Keeseviile. Mr. Clark moved from Lewis west nearly 60 years ago."^[11] A death notice in the Elizabethtown Post (Elizabethtown, New York) of 4 June 1885 said:^[12]

CLARK. In Birckston, Wis.. On the 16th of May, CURTIS CLARK, aged 91 years. brother of Harley Clark of Westport and Cephas Clark of Keeseville. He resided a few years of the time between 1820 and 1830 in Lewis, where he was much respected and was, we believe, a deacon of the Congregational church there, being usually spoken of Deacon Clark. He made the first clearing in the east side of the Boquett between the the farm now owned by Prentiss Hayward and the "Zack Straight clearing," and on the premises now owned by B. M. Hodskins. He was a native of Hartford, Washington County, this State, and must have went from Lewis some years before 1830.

There is no Brickston or Birckston, Wisconsin; this location is clearly wrong, but the death date in these New York death notices is consistent with the Minnesota records for this man. The place of birth given in the Elizabethtown notice also is wrong.

His obituary in the Mankato (Minnesota) Free Press described him as "a very aged man" who was respected for a "bright, quick mind," good-natured and cheerful disposition, and "broad intelligence and sound judgment." It described him as a "most profound, practical believer in christianity [sic]" who had joined the Congregational church of his home community and later served as deacon in churches where he lived in New York, Illinois, and Minnesota. He was survived by six of his eleven children, including three children in California and son John Clark of Hebron. Other family members mentioned in the obituary were grandson William Clark of Mankato and granddaughter "Mrs. Dunham" of Hebron.^[2]

Curtis Clark is interred at Hebron Cemetery in Nicollet, Minnesota, where he shares a grave marker with his wife Electa.^[13]

Sources

1. ↑ "Vermont Vital Records, 1760-1954," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9398-QCS5-98?cc=1784223&wc=MFVW-LTL%3A1029377801 : 22 May 2014), 004543210 > image 2179 of 3747; Citing Secretary of State. State Capitol Building, Montpelier.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7} "Obituary," The Mankato Free Press. (Mankato, MN) 5 June 1885, page 5 GenealogyBank https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A187ABB7813F045D2%40GB3NEWS-187B7F764BE24DFB%402409698-187B7F8F55D937F7%404-187B7F8F55D937F7%40 : accessed 9 December 2023.
3. ↑ State of Vermont. Vermont Vital Records through 1870. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts. Marriage - Groom, Curtis Clark and Lectia Meacham (Ancestry.com transcription gives her first name as Lertia), Pawlet, Vermont, September 20th 1814. Name of party officiating: Peters A. Cook, Justice of the Peace. Accessed at Ancestry.com.
4. ↑ United States Census, 1820. Fourth Census of the United States, 1820; Census Place: Lewis, Essex, New York; Page: 431; NARA Roll: M33_69; Image: 31. Accessed on Ancestry.com at https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/496895:7734
5. ↑ United States Census, 1850. Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C. Enumeration sheet for Maine, Cook County, Illinois, accessed on Ancestry.com at https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8054/images/4193352-00298. Note: The entry for Curtis Clark appears to be in the household of a John Rand, but that is likely to be an error by the census taker.
6. ↑ United States Census, 1860. The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M653; Residence Date: 1860; Home in 1860: Maine, Cook, Illinois; Roll: M653_169; Page: 82; Family History Library Film: 803169. Accessed on Ancestry.com at https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7667/images/4213435_00083; indexed at https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/36958782:7667
7. ↑ United States Census, 1870. Enumeration sheet for Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California; Roll: M593_89; Page: 433B. Accessed on Ancestry.com at https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7163/images/4259435_00194; indexed at https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/592784:7163.
8. ↑ United States Census, 1880. Enumeration sheet for Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California; Roll: 82; Page: 463A; Enumeration District: 088. Accessed on Ancestry.com at https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/20667910:6742
9. ↑ "Minnesota State Census, 1885," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQXN-694 : 4 August 2017), Curtis Clark in household of John C Clark, Nicollet, Nicollet, Minnesota; citing p. 24, volume Nicollet, State Library and Records Service, St. Paul; FHL microfilm 565,747. Also on Ancestry.com: Minnesota State Census, 1885. Enumeration sheet for Nicollet, Nicollet County]. Accessed on Ancestry.com at https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/1058/mnsc_34-0512 , citing Minnesota Historical Society. Minnesota State Population Census Schedules, 1865-1905. St. Paul, MN, USA: Minnesota Historical Society, 1977. Microfilm. Reels 1-47 and 107-164.
10. ↑ "Minnesota, County Deaths, 1850-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99DL-46VB?cc=2185953&wc=36TJ-C6N%3A1583721602%2C1583721601 : 10 September 2018), Nicollet > Death index, 1870-1981, vol 1-2 > image 41 of 490; multiple county courthouses, Minnesota.
11. ↑ Plattsburgh Sentinel (Plattsburgh, New York), 29 May 1885, page 8, at https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=plts18850529-01.1.8&srpos=9
12. ↑ Elizabethtown Post (Elizabethtown, New York), 4 June 1885, page 2, column 3, on NYS Historic Newspapers website at https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn92061913/1885-06-04/ed-1/seq-2/
13. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/88839536/curtis-clark: accessed 9 December 2023), memorial page for Curtis Clark (30 Nov 1792–16 May 1885), Find a Grave Memorial ID 88839536, citing Hebron Cemetery, Nicollet, Nicollet County, Minnesota, USA; Maintained by Steve Carlson (contributor 47330162).

• Application of Fred Pope Clark, filed September 1922. Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970. Louisville, Kentucky: National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Microfilm, 508 rolls. Accessed on Ancestry.com at https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2204/images/32596_242203-00164.
• United States Census, 1850. Enumeration sheet for Maine, Cook, Illinois; Roll: M432_103; Page: 145A; Image: 298
• "United States Census, 1860," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YBL-8M8?cc=1473181&wc=7QVJ-5FL%3A1589423252%2C1589424086%2C1589424197 : 24 March 2017), Illinois > Cook > Maine > image 10 of 28; from "1860 U.S. Federal Census - Population," database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/88839536/curtis-clark: accessed 28 October 2023), memorial page for Curtis Clark (30 Nov 1792–16 May 1885), Find a Grave Memorial ID 88839536, citing Hebron Cemetery, Nicollet, Nicollet County, Minnesota, USA; Maintained by Steve Carlson (contributor 47330162).