CHH News!

/ Genealogist & Historian Reed Perkins. / Leave a comment

Greetings and welcome to the 500th (!) post on this blog, originally titled “Clark House Historian” and since June 1, 2026, known as “Clark Heritage & History.” I have lots of history to share with you on the blog in the coming months, but for the moment I only have time for a short post, because…

I’m speaking in Portage on Sunday, June 7th.

Once again, my friends from the Wisconsin Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, have asked me to speak, this time at their Fort Winnebago Surgeon’s Quarters (FWSQ) museum, as part of their big celebration of early Wisconsin history, called “Becoming Wisconsin — A Revolutionary Path.”

I will be one of several presenters, at one of five different stations at the event. My focus will be on the extended family of Francis LeRoi (or LeRoy), the man that built the log cabin home and fur-trading post that later became the historic Fort Winnebago Surgeon’s Quarters. The story of Francis LeRoy and his family is a fine example of the complicated and intertwined French-Canadian, Métis, and Native American roots of many families that lived in this part of the future state of Wisconsin in the 18th- and 19th-centuries, and should appeal to anyone with interests in early Wisconsin history or genealogy. See the poster, above, for details, or continue reading…

Continue reading →

Farewell Old Cottage…

/ Genealogist & Historian Reed Perkins. / Leave a comment

Farewell old cottage, cover image (detail) for the Stephen Foster song of the same title, published by Firth, Ford, & Co, New York, ca. 1851. Library of Congress

Changes

There’s been a change in my relationship with the Jonathan Clark House Museum, and that means that change is also coming to this blog, created and published by me since March, 2016, as “Clark House Historian.” In fact, this post is my 499th—and final—post under the blog title of “Clark House Historian.”

However, I will continue to write and publish this blog, under a new title, at the same web address, https://jchmhistorian.com/ and we will continue to explore many of the same Clark-era historical topics—and more! But the title of the blog will change. As of June 1, 2026, instead of “Clark House Historian,” this blog will be known as “Clark Heritage & History.”

If you are already a regular reader or free subscriber to the blog, thank you for reading! I value your support and interest. Subscribers, please let me know if you have any difficulty receiving the usual email announcements that appear in your inbox whenever a new post goes live. If you have active spam-blocking in your email inbox, you may want to change the “approved sender” for these CHH email announcements from the old “Clark House Historian” name to the new name: “Clark Heritage & History.” If you have any questions, comments, technical issues that need solving, please Contact me.

What’s going on?

Why the changes? Continue reading…

Continue reading →

Memorial Day, 2026

/ Genealogist & Historian Reed Perkins. / Leave a comment

Lest We Forget

Our annual Memorial Day post, first published in 2020, more relevant with each passing year.

Graves of Unknown Union Soldiers, Memphis National Cemetery, photo by Clayton B. Fraser, (Library of Congress), public domain. Memphis National Cemetery is the final resting place of Mequon’s Watson Peter Woodworth, and almost 14,000 of his Union Army comrades.

Today is the day our nation officially observes Memorial Day. For many Americans, Memorial Day represents “the first day of summer,” and is traditionally celebrated with trips to the lake, picnics, parades, and sales on cars, appliances, and other consumer goods.

But for many of us, Memorial Day remains rooted in its origins as Decoration Day. The first national observance was in 1868, when retired general John A. Logan, commander and chief of the Grand Army of the Republic—the Union veterans’ organization—issued his General Order Number 11, designating May 30 as a memorial day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.”

On this Memorial Day, let’s take a moment to remember what this day truly represents.

Continue reading →

I’m speaking…again!

/ Genealogist & Historian Reed Perkins. / Leave a comment

Sorry about the long silence. I’m still in the thick of making revisions to the text, and putting final touches on the graphics, for my new, upcoming presentation at the Cedarburg History Museum. It’s this Saturday, May 9th, at 6:00 p.m., at the museum, N58W6194 Columbia Road, Cedarburg, WI 53012.

Admission to the talk, and to the museum and its 2026 premier exhibit “First Nations,” is free to all.

Beyond the clichés…

I’m going to give an overview of the First Nations that lived in what we now call Wisconsin, with a special emphasis on the people that called old Washington and Ozaukee county “home” before—and after—the arrival of European-Americans, following the War of 1812. There will be a special emphasis on using old and new sources to clear up some errors of fact, while doing our best to avoid reinforcing or repeating historical clichés, stereotypes, and other nonsense.

Continue reading →

Bonniwell Gold Rush news – auf Deutsch!

/ Genealogist & Historian Reed Perkins. / Leave a comment

Recently, in preparation for my upcoming (April 24th) talk at the Milwaukee County Genealogical Society, I was doing some research in historic newspapers from old Washington/Ozaukee and Milwaukee counties, including some of Milwaukee’s German language papers. I found many on-topic items and, as luck would have it, the following interesting little announcement on page 2 of the Friday, April 12, 1850, edition of the (Milwaukee) Taglicher Volksfreund. It has nothing to do with my MCGS presentation, but it adds a surprising amount of new or additional information to our previous discussions of the combined 1849 and 1850 expeditions to the California Gold Rush that were organized and led by Clark House neighbor William T. Bonniwell, Sr., so I thought I’d share it with you today.

Off to the Land of Golden Hopes!

(Milwaukee) Taglicher Volksfreund ,Friday, 12 April 1850, page 2

What’s it say? Click to continue reading and get all the details!

Continue reading →

I’m talking about history – at the MCGS

/ Genealogist & Historian Reed Perkins. / 2 Comments

I like to talk about history, especially the history of the Jonathan Clark House, its occupants, and their lives in early Wisconsin territory and state. Sometimes I get invited to share my research with others, and I put together an illustrated presentation. This coming Friday, April 24, 2026, I’ll be talking to the members of the Milwaukee County Genealogical Society about the German immigrant experience in our area circa 1845–1910, as lived by the extended family of German immigrant, and Clark House occupant, Fred Beckmann.

You’re invited!

My April 24th MCGS presentation will be held in the 1st floor Rotary Club of Milwaukee community meeting room of the Milwaukee Central Public Library Downtown, 814 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee. The event will start with a short business meeting at 1:00 p.m. My presentation begins about 1:15 p.m. and will last about 45 minutes, followed by plenty of time for questions & answers. The meeting is free and open to the general public, and I hope to see you all there.

Is there more to say about Fred Beckmann?

Indeed there is!

As you may recall from earlier CHH blog posts like (this one) and (this one), Fred Beckmann and his new wife, Lena Hackfeld, lived in the Clark House, and farmed the Clark farm, from 1868 until 1873. Their story connects the history of the early Anglo-American settlement of Mequon with the subsequent influx of German-speaking immigrants to the area.

Continue reading →

It’s our 10th birthday!

/ Genealogist & Historian Reed Perkins. / 4 Comments

This blog, Clark House Historian, published its first post 10 years ago today! (And just to be clear, the Clark House Historian blog is ten years old today. Reed Perkins, the Jonathan M. Clark House historian and author of the blog is, alas, a good deal older…)

Time to celebrate!

Our first post was a modest, two-paragraph “welcome” post, reproduced—in its entirety—below:

Continue reading →

RBOH: William Opitz, Plank Road & Index updates

/ Genealogist & Historian Reed Perkins. / 4 Comments

I’m still working on several larger Clark House Historian projects, but I still have time to share a few Random Bits O’ History with you…

More Fun with Fraktur

You may remember our recent post, William Opitz – real estate agent (1855), in which we noted the start of a new business venture—a “Land Agency”—by one of Mequon’s earliest and most influential German settlers, Wilhelm Ferdinand “William F.” Opitz (1813 or 1816 – 1882). Well, I found a companion advertisement from W. F. Opitz, published on page 2 of the Milwaukee Banner und Volksfreund on May 18, 1855:

What’s it say? Read on, for all the details…

Continue reading →

Caroline M. (Clark) Woodward – profile, 1891

/ Genealogist & Historian Reed Perkins. / 2 Comments

In our previous post I made use of a paragraph from a recently rediscovered 1891 profile of Jonathan and Mary (Turck) Clark’s eldest child, Caroline M. Clark, later Mrs. C. M. Woodward. Caroline was the most publicly active, visible, and well-documented of all of the Clark siblings, and we have published a number of blog posts on her life and career, including this comprehensive piece: Caroline M. (Clark) Woodward: a closer look at that 1893 biography. I recommend reading that post and clicking all the links; they lead you to other, detailed CHH posts about specific moments and events in Caroline’s life.

Today I’d like to share with you the complete 1891 profile that I quoted in our March 26, 2026, post. It originally appeared as one long column of text on page 1 of the Lincoln, Nebraska, “New Republic” newspaper, on August 20, 1891. Caroline (1840-1924) was fifty years old when this article appeared, and had another thirty years of active work in the temperance and women’s rights fields ahead of her.

Given the amount of accurate detail in the article, I suspect that the information came directly from Caroline herself. In fact, given how well-written and how accurate the whole profile is, I would not be surprised if Caroline wrote most, or all of it herself. For ease of reading, I have divided the article into several sections, created paragraph headers, and added a few notes on some of the facts mentioned in each section.

Continue reading →

Jonathan and Mary Clark’s first home

/ Genealogist & Historian Reed Perkins. / 1 Comment

Home Sweet Home., ca. 1876. [New York: publisher not transcribed]. Library of Congress.

One of the first and most important tasks for any settlers arriving in the recently “opened-for-settlement” Wisconsin Territory was to create some sort of dwelling to shelter themselves as they carved out new farmsteads amid the dense hardwood forests. But what sort of quickly-built structures did our immigrants first construct and take shelter in?

Obviously, the big, stone, full-basement, two-story, Greek Revival style Jonathan Clark House, with its “1848” inscription carved over the front door, and its many double-hung sash windows, was not a hastily-made “first shelter” for newlyweds Jonathan and Mary (Turck) Clark. They must have had another, smaller, first home. What was that first home like? Until now we have assumed that the Clarks’ first home was probably a log cabin, and not some kind of “shanty,” but we didn’t really know. In today’s post, we share with you a recently discovered document that—I believe—solves this mystery once and for all…

Continue reading →