No more info is currently available for William Clark. Can you add to his biography?
Sources
Genealogy.com Post from Maxine Bacon She received her information from Eleanor and Ole Bacon, which includes the presumption that "Clark" was an alias Polly used as her maiden name, but Weaver was her real last name.
Recount of the murder of David Hiltibrau by William Weaver.
States that after receiving a sentence to hang, Mr. Weaver escaped and was not recaptured.
States that Mr. Weaver "changed his name, reformed, and lived a decent life."
States Mr. Weaver's defense attorneys were Abraham Lincoln and Asahel Gridley
Seems to go with the story passed down to Ole Bacon about 'clark being an alias.'
Edgar County, Illinois is next door to Champaign County. Edgar County is also on the state line with Indiana. Seems likely Mr. Weaver and family were from this area between Indiana and Illinois before taking off for Wisconsin.
Mr. Weaver leaves Illinois for Wisconsin in 1845. First record of Mr. Weaver in Wisconin in 1849 working for Esau Johnson
"Some of Lincoln's most intersting Champaign County cases were criminal, including the 1842 case People v. Weaver, the first murder case tried in the county. Lincoln and Asahel Gridley were court appointed to represent William Weaver, who, in a drunken state, shot the victim with a rifle. The evidence against him was so overwhelming that he was convicted and stentnced to death by hanging. Fortunately for the 'reckless wretch,' the log jail was so poorly constructed that he escaped to Wisconsin, where he made a decent life of his second chance."
Esau Johnson - Includes interview with Esau Johnson, initial settler of Monroe County, WI in 1842. Mentions hiring Sylvester Bacon and William Clark from Prairie du Chen to work for him until 1849.
"Among others who came in during 1849 was William Clark, brother-in-law of John Collins. He came from Indiana, leaving his family there till three or four years later. He entered no land, but passed the winter in the pine regions above, and summers was engaged in cutting cord wood and other kinds of manual labor. He was a man of coarse organization, and subject to intoxication. He died about 1867."
"J. S. Bigelow was born in Connecticut in 1826; lived on a farm till sixteen years of age, when he went to New Have, Conn., and engaged in the business of butchering, which business he has followed till now, a period of forty-two years. He remained in New Haven till 1851, then went to Berkshire Co., Mass., making that his home till the spring of 1854; from there he went to Troy, N. Y., remaining a few months, then going to Florida for the benefit of his health where he remained till April, 1856. In July of that year, coming to Crawford county and locating in Haney town. In 1862 he came to Seneca, and is owner of the Begelow House. He came to Crawford county with his uncle, George F. Bigelow, who had located in Haney town the previous year, and died on the farm where he first located. Mr. Bigelow's father was Levi L. Bigelow, now living in Connecticut. He is a brother of Hobert B. Bigelow, ex-governor of Connecticut. In 1860 he married Mary E. Clarke, born in Illinois, and daughter of William Clarke, an early settler of Utica town."
Is William your ancestor? Please don't go away! Login to collaborate or comment, or contact
the profile manager, or ask our community of genealogists a question.
Sponsored Search by Ancestry.com
DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with William by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA.
However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line.
It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with William: