CLARK Family

First Generation

1. William1 Clark was born 10 Jun 1781. William died 18 June 1849 in Carlisle, Schoharie Co., NY.

He married Sarah Stanton 14 Mar 1809. Sarah was born Westerlo, Albany Co., Ny 31 Jan 1788. Sarah was the daughter of Rev. Reuben Stanton and Orpha Lapham. Sarah died 20 Jul 1872 in Sloansville, Schoharie Co., NY.

William Clark and Sarah Stanton had the following children:

child 2 i. Lucretia2 Clark was born 19 Feb 1810. Lucretia died 21 Dec 1873.

child 3 ii. Judith Clark was born 23 Mar 1815. Judith died 15 May 1850. She married Levia C. Brinck 5 October 1842. No issue.

child 4 iii. Prudence E. Clark was born 1 Feb 1817. She married Homer Scranton 8 May 1837.

child 5 iv. Jane Clark was born 4 Jan 1819. Jane died 25 Feb 1819.

child 6 v. Orpha L. Clark was born 22 Feb 1821. She married Peter Rinklepaugh 21 April 1869. No issue in 1891.

child 7 vi. William S. Clark was born in Carlisle, Schoharie Co., NY 18 Aug 1826. William died 9 Sep 1888 in Sloansville, Schoharie Co., NY. William's occupation: Superintendent of Schools in Carlisle, Schoharie Co., NY, 1850-1860. William graduated in Albany Co., NY, 1858. Institution: Albany Law School. William's occupation: Excise Commissioner in Carlisle, Schoharie Co., NY, 1862-1864. William was elected in Carlisle, Schoharie Co., NY, 18 December 1866. Democrat.

William was elected in Carlisle, Schoharie Co., NY, 1867. From Albany Argus, Monday, Sept 10, 1888. A special despatch to The Argus from Sloansville states that Hon. William S. Clark died there at his home yesterday morning. William S. Clark was born in Carlisle in 1826. In 1858 he was graduated from the Albany Law School, and then entered upon the practice of law. In 1850 he was elected superintendent of schools for the town of Carlisle, a position which he held with great credit for ten years. When the rebellion broke out he at once took the Union side, which he supported with great ardor, and during the war he addressed many recruiting meetings in Schoharie, Montgomery and Otsego counties. Not only in this way, but by the expenditure of no little time and money he upheld the cause of the government, never losing his enthusiasm even at the most discouraging times. From 1862 to 1864 he was excise commissioner. On December 18, 1866, his distinguished abilities and his patriotism received the further recognition that they deserved by his election as a Democrat, to the Assembly of the State of New York. He was chosen without opposition at a special election to fill the place made vacant by the death of Daniel Shaver. In that term he served with honor on the committees on privileges and elections, erection anddivision of towns and counties and canal management. So satisfactory to his constituents was his service that, in 1867, he was re-elected to be his own successor. During his whole career Mr. Clark has held the respect of men of both political parties, and his death removes one of Schoharie's best known and most high-minded citizens.

From Schoharie Republican, Thursday, Sept. 13, 1888. On a bright Sunday morning, September 9, 1888, the Hon. William S. Clark of Sloansville, in this county, passed peacefully from the present to future life. His often-expressed wish was that when the time of his departure should come he might pass away without lingering disease or trouble and care of friends, and, as was hiswish, so he died. As appeared, he was attackedwithy apoplexy and died without a struggle; no displacement of the bed covering in which he lay, no distortion of features indicated other than an instantaneous and painless death. The career of our deceased friend has been extremely varied, industrious and useful; the sick and afflicted of his neighborhood have lost an ever capable and willing friend, and the community one of its most active and valued citizens. He was born August 19, 1826, in the town of Carlisle in this county, being the fifth of nine children. His parents moved into this county from Coeymans, N.Y., in 1813, to subdue and cultivate a farm but lately a wilderness. At an early age the deceased developed a robust and healthy constitution, coupled with a mind of remarkable intellectual activity. At the age of thirteen years he was a student in the Schoharie Academy, and at fourteen he was a teacher. Later he attended this and other academic institutions of learning, but finally resumed a teacher's position for about ten years. In 1850 he was elected town superintendent of schools, but studiously devoting every spare hour to the study of the law, and finally graduated from the Albany Law School in the spring of 1858. He then came to Sloansville where he opened a law office and gradually filled it with one of the finest law libraries in the county, to which he added a miscellaneous library numbering many hundred volumes of choice works by the best authors, with the contents of which he exhibited great familiarity. In 1862 he was appointed commissioner of excise, and filled that office three years. In 1867 he was elected Member of Assembly, and was re-eelcted the following year. During this incumbency Mr. Clark fought bravely in behalf of the Albany and Susquehanna railroad bill, that gave his consituents a boon for which they were very grateful. As a Member of Assembly he filled positions on many veryimportant committees, and was a member of the select committee to investigate the actions of canal officers, and made a manager in the long investigation which followed. In his own county he has long filled the office of the clerk of the courts, and in the political field he has for many years been called to fill postions as chairman, secretary and delegate. For ten years he has been a member of the Democratic county committee, and was its secretary at the time of his death. Mr. Clark was a scholarly, accurate, eloquent and agreeable orator; but to enumerate the occasions of his addressing his fellow-citizens in this and other counties would enlarge this tribute too much. Almost his last public duty was to attend the great gathering of the American Educationsl Association in July last at San Francisco, Cal. His letters written en route and from that city, published in The Republican, were widely read and appreciated. To sum up all the good qualities of our departed friend, none will shie brighter than his tender and sympathetic care of the sick and afflicted within the circuit of his acquaintance. No persons or families were too poor or too bscure for him to permit the to suffer without his best efforts being exercised for their relief, and nearly every family of that vicinity have been under obligations to him for his timely, efficient and untiring assistance to them in days of suffering and grief. Now he sleeps. May he rest in peace.

In the same issue a correspondent at Central Bridge writes: The Hon. Wm. S. Clark is dead! Sunday morning the Old Time Scythe came in his strength and took from among us Wm. S. Clark, a citizen of long standing in Sloansville. There is much good to be said of the eloquent and distinguished man that now lies silent in death. As a neighbor we cannot mention his equal. The little quiet town of Sloansville will miss him most, for in the past thirty years it has been his home. Born in the town of Carlisle, near Grosvenor's Corners, in the year 1826, and when quite young moved to Sloansville where he resided up to the time of his death. But not only will they miss him there, but the whole of Schoharie and Montgomery counties, where he was well known in a legal way. He was a lawyer by profession, always interested in the courts of the county, and an able speaker on the political issues of the day. We have many times heard it remarked that Wm. S. Clark could settle the little difficulties that naturally arose in his place of residence. We can but say he was kind-hearted, benvolent, generous to a fault. He leaves a brother, Benjamin F., in the mercantile business at Sloansville, and a sister living at Rensselaerville; but they will not weep alone - there will be weeping by many. Upon the street, in all our quiet rooms how oft it will b repeated, William S. Clark is dead! God in His goodness has taken a dear friend and brother from us; we shall miss him. Tears bedew our eyes. He has gone to that "undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns." We draw the curtain.

From The Wide-Awake Courier, Canajoharie, N.Y., Sept. 18, 1888. Saturday night Wm. S. Clark said "Good night" to the members of his family, and "drew the drapery of his couch about h im, and lay down to pleasant dreams." Sunday morning, September 9, his sleep deepened into eternal rest, and his freed spirit will bid "Good morning" to kindred and friends in a brighter clime. Among the tributes in the county papers, one friend has said: "As a neighbor we cannot name his equal," and another: "He was a regular attendant upon Sabbath services and was his aged mother's staff each morning," and another: "His reverence for his mother, love for his sisters, and affection for his brother were living examples which it would be well for all to emulate," and still another closes with these words - words that all in Sloansville know to be true: "No person or families were too poor or too obscure for him to permit them to suffer without his best efforts being exerted for their relieft, and nearly every family of that vicinity has had his timely, efficient and untiring assistance in their days of suffering and grief." Turly, "He was a man, take him for all in all, we shall not look upon his like again." His heart was tender as that of woman, and when he had cared for the sick and dead, his pen was every ready with tributes of sympathy and words of consolation. These are the closing words of one of his later tributes: "Ah, the tears are love's offering and tribute. Check them not, they are sorrow's antidote. There is a better land, knowing which, shall we not say: Wife, daughter, sister, rest; thine the waiting, ours the toiling: thine the peace, ours the struggle, till we too shall behold the Everlasting day." On Tuesday, September 11, under a birght sky and a genial atmosphere, friends came from far and near for their last farewell to William S. "Farewell, a word that must be, and had been - a sound which makes us linger; yet, farewell."

From The Examiner, New York, Thursday, Sept. 20, 1888. CLARK - Died at Sloansville, N.Y., Sept. 9th, Hon. William S. Clark, aged 62 years. Converted while a student a Hamilton; graduated form the Albany Law School in 1858; left with the care of his mother and three sisters, he devoutedly fulfilled the trust. Strong in friendship, public in spirit, self-sacrificing and helpful to all, he studied the things which make for peace and the good of a people; loyal to his country in her darkest days of strife, sympathyzing with te afflicted, inistering often to the sick, caring for the dead, a regular attendant, and more than liberal contributor to the Baptist chuch, his decease drew to the funeral solemnities a great concourse, including some of the most distinguished men of the county; a judge, an ex-senator, an ex-member of Congress, members ot the bar, and seven clergymen. A sister and a brother along survive him who has entered into rest. - Rev. A. Waterberry.

child 8 vii. Julia A. Clark was born 22 Sep 1828. Julia died 12 Jan 1879. She married Smith R. Sweatman 9 January 1850. No issue.

child 9 viii. Benjamin F. Clark was born in Carlisle, Schoharie Co., NY 4 Jul 1831. He married Mary C. Lawyer 12 November 1873. No issue. Mary was the daughter of John S. Lawyer.

Mary graduated in Albany Co., NY. Institution: Albany Normal School.

He resided in Sloansville, NY 1891. Benjamin owed his education mainly to his brother who inspired him with a love for study and reading. After leaving the district school, he attended Schoharie and Hamilton academies, and also Carlisle Seminary, one of whose promoters and stockholders he was - having invested his entire patrimony to establish the school, and it was finally lost as the school went down after a few years. After the death of their father in 1849 the two sons continuedfarming for some years, each attending school away from home alternate winters. Benjamin, like his brother, engaged in teaching, in which profession he continued for fifteen years in union schools and academies, in his native State and in New Jersey - spending his vacations in travel. In the early years of the war he and his brother addressed meetings, aided in raising local town bounties to promote the enlistment of men for the Union armies, and in 1864 he received a commission from Gov. Seymour to go south to enlist men for the Union service. November 12, 1873 he married Mary C. Lawyer, a daughter of John S. Lawyer of Fultonham, NY. Miss Lawyer was a graduate of the Albany Normal School, and had been for ten years one of the best teachers in the State. She had three times declined offered situtations in the normal schools of the State, beause she could command larger salaries in union schools. In the autumn of 1874, Mr. Clark engaged in the mercantile business, at which he and his wife continued until the fall of 1889, when he sold out and retired from business with a moderate competence. No children were born to them, otherwise the union was a most happy one, both having a cultiavted literary taste, being genuine book-lovers. They are now residing in the house in Sloansville which was for many years the ideal home of the aged mother, two sisters and the two brothers. Still interested in education, and in the education of their newphews and neices, highly respected by all who know them, in their pleasant home with a well-selected libary (the life-time collection of the two brothers), Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Clark are peacefully approaching the evening of their days.

child 10 ix. Daniel Clark was born 21 April 1812. Daniel died 29 May 1812.

child 11 x. Daniel Clark was born 29 May 1813. Daniel died 15 Apr 1827.

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