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Subject: Clarke/Clark family: Ire>VA>OH>IN>KS. NEED HELP WITH KANSAS INFORMATION!
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 11:12:33 EDT
My great-great-great-grandfather, his third wife, and two of their children
are buried in Kansas, according to a headstone we found there two weeks ago.
We'd like to get some information from the people who take care of the
cemetery, but we do not know who they are. Does anyone have any suggestions for
discovering this information? The cemetery is a couple of miles east of the
Labette County line in Sherman, Cherokee Co., KS. The entrance structure identifies
it as the Sherman Cemetery.
The oldest generation of the family lived in Labette County; in the 1870
census, they are shown living in Montana Township.
In addition to finding information about who maintains the cemetery, if
anyone recognizes any of my family members noted below -- family that was born,
lived and/or died in Labette, Cherokee, and/or Chataqua Counties in Kansas, I'd
REALLY like to hear from you, too!
Here's a summary of the Kansas portion of the CLARKE/CLARK family that I
know.
A. ADAM CLARKE and JANE JORDAN (SPENCER) CLARKE moved to Labette County, KS,
from Howard Co., IN, with Adam's two children (ARCHIBALD A. CLARKE and CYRUS
HIGGINS CLARKE) by his second wife (MARY ANN HIGGINS), and his three youngest
children from his marriage to Jane (CORNELIA F. CLARKE, JOHN SPENCER CLARKE,
and GEORGE P. CLARKE).
Through 1864, ADAM was an elected official in Howard Co., IN. Records of the
family in Indiana seem to spell the last name as either CLARKE or CLARK. The
record of Adam's offices (elected to several positions over a twenty year
period) spelled his last name CLARK. His signature on his father's estate
settlement seems to have the final 'e.' His father's tombstone and his
grandfather's tombstones show the name spelled with the final 'e.' The 1860 census shows
ADAM, JANE, PHILANDER, ARCHIBALD, CYRUS, CORNELIA, JOHN, AND GEORGE CLARK all
living together in Howard County, IN. The 1870 census shows the same group
minus PHILANDER living together in Montana Township, Labette Co., KS.
The 1880 census shows PHILANDER CLARK, his wife MIRIAM (SPENCER), and their
three children born before 1880 (MINNIE C., FRANK G., and JESSIE M.) living in
Colorado. JESSIE is shown as age 1, born in Kansas. An undocumented family
history indicates she was born in Cherokee Co., KS. I have not yet located
PHILANDER in the 1870 census, but he was certainly in Kansas during part of the
time his father, step-mother, and siblings lived in Kansas.
Adam's second son (his first son by his second wife -- see above), ARCHIBALD
A. CLARKE, met a Prussian woman in Kansas named IDA W. A. WEIR whom he married
in Cherokee Co., KS, on May 12, 1869. Their first child, CLARA ANNA CLARKE,
was born in Cherokee Co. on Sept. 20, 1870; their second child, CHARLES A.
CLARKE, was also probably born in KS. Their third child, GEORGE B., however,
was born in 1879-80 in Washington Territory (as was their fourth child, ELMER S.
in 1884). So by 1879-80 this branch of the family was gone from KS.
Adam's third son (second son by his second wife -- see above), CYRUS HIGGINS
CLARKE met and married a woman named LAURA THOMPSON/TOMPSON when the family
was living in KS as well. An excellent Clarke researcher has asserted that
Cyrus' and Laura's son, ALBERT JERRY CLARKE was born on April 16, 1872, on Bee
Creek, Chataqua Co., KS, 2 miles north of Montgomery County. COURTLAND EARL
CLARKE (Albert's son) had a family Bible that stated ALBERT was born in Indian
Territory.
Family oral history reports LAURA (THOMPSON/TOMPSON) CLARKE was Native
American who hailed from Indian Territory. Her birthplace was noted in her
grandson's family Bible as Indian Territory as well, but no birthdates and no
information about her
parents, siblings, etc. were noted.
We have no proof that she was Native American. Two of her grandchildren
(COURTLAND and WANDA VIRGINIA) stated their father told them that his mother was
Cherokee, granddaughter DOROTHY MAY stated that she could not remember exactly
what her father said about LAURA's tribal heritage; she thought her father
said either Cherokee or
Choctaw. The oldest grandchild, RHETTA LAURA -- named after her grandmother
-- was suffering by rather advanced senility by the time I got interested in
tracking the family history so I did not get to interview her personally about
her grandmother, or about what her father told her about her grandmother.
(Conflicting census reports over the years and an interesting obituary for CYRUS
HIGGINS CLARKE/CLARK probably generated by his daughter (LOUISA ALDINE
CLARKE/CLARK) by his second wife, RACHEL HEATON, appears to have purposely attempted
to create the image that CYRUS had never left Indiana and appears to have
purposely given vague, and probably even false, information about LAURA in an
attempt to make her appear to be from Indiana. RACHEL, whose diary indicates she
was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, may not have been delighted to have a
step-son who was half Native American! But that's a tale for another time!
The veracity of the assertion made by ALBERT JERRY CLARKE to his four
children that his mother (their grandmother) was Native American will probably never
be confirmed; we
have only two and three generations of offspring whose physical appearance
suggests Native American heritage, we have family Bible entries, and we have
interviews with three of the four grandchildren of LAURA that support the
assertion she was NATIVE AMERICAN from Kansas or Indian Territory, but we have no
primary documentation. And without birth or death or marriage documents, and
without information about her parents or siblings we will most likely always have
this as 'brick wall.'
It is clear, however, that before 1880, LAURA THOMPSON/TOMPSON CLARKE had
died. In the 1880 census, CYRUS HIGGINS CLARKE and his son ALBERT JERRY
CLARKE, are living in Tippecanoe Co., IN, with two of CYRUS' younger
half-siblings,
CORNELIA and JOHN. In Dec. 1880, CYRUS married RACHEL HEATON in Kokomo,
Howard Co., IN, a woman who had lived near him when they were both four and living
with their 'early settler' families -- as per the 1850 census report.
In 1880 PHILANDER and his family are located in Saquache Co., Colorado;
ARCHIBALD A. CLARKE and his family are located in Washington Territory. Youngest
brother, GEORGE P. CLARKE had died on January 27, 1874, probably in Kansas.
The family tombstone in the Sherman Cemetery shows him and his sister CORNELIA
F. buried with their parents. (Whether CORNELIA moved back to Kansas when her
brother CYRUS remarried, if she became ill and went to live with her mother,
or whether her body was carried back to Kansas after her death so she could be
buried with her parents and brother is unknown. However, given the distance
and refrigeration options in 1881, I would guess that she had traveled back
there while still living!)
On a trip from Minnesota to Texas two weeks ago, my husband and I discovered
we were not far from Labette County, so we decided to look for the Sherman
Cemetery that my great-great-great-grandfather and g-g-g-step-grandmother were
reportedly buried in. Since they lived in Labette County, KS, we thought the
cemetery would be in that county. We found no such cemetery in Labette County,
but did discover a small town on the map named Sherman which was only about
two or three miles over the Labette County line. It took some doing, but with
the assistance of several very nice farmers working near the gravel roads we
traveled during our search, we actually found Sherman -- and its cemetery which
had a sign over it: "Sherman Cemetery!" The cemetery is across the street
from a Baptist
church in Sherman, but the cemetery did not appear to be associated with the
church (at least not exclusively).
A short walk into the cemetery resulted in the discovery of an easily read
tombstone that had birth and death years only of: A. ADAM, JANE J., GEORGE P.
and CORNELIA F. CLARKE.
The tombstone seemed to be newer than 1872-1881 (the death date range of the
four family members listed as being buried in the plot). There were no
markings that indicated where in the plot the individual graves were located.
Therefore, we wondered WHEN the tombstone was placed there and by whom. Has it
been there a long time or has it been added more recently by another descendant?
Is it possible that someone could help us locate a source that could tell us
who or what institution manages the records of the Sherman Cemetery?
And, of course, the eternal question, "Does anyone else recognize my family
as yours?"
Karen Carter
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