Today’s “Clark” subjects are connected to the history of the U.S. Army’s Fort Winnebago, and the surrounding area of Columbia County, Wisconsin Territory, during the decade of the 1830s.

Fort Winnebago was one of several posts in the upper Midwest garrisoned by the army’s Fifth Regiment of Infantry during Jonathan M. Clark’s three-year term in the army at Fort Howard (1833-1836). From about 1835-1836, the soldiers of the 5th regiment were responsible for cutting Wisconsin’s original east-west Military Road from Ft. Howard at Green Bay, to Ft. Winnebago at the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, and thence to Ft. Crawford at Prairie du Chien. In the 1830s, in addition to recent recruit Jonathan M. Clark, at least two other men with the Clark surname held positions with the 5th regiment in Wisconsin. Neither of these notable Clark men—it turns out—is related to JMC.

I’m not going into great detail for each subject, but I’ll try and give enough info to make clear whom we are talking about, and why they are being added to the “Nope, not our Clark family…” list. Leading today’s installment is one of the 5th regiment’s senior officers and members of his pioneering family:

Major Nathan Clark (1788-1836)

Major Nathan Clark was born in Massachusetts in 1788 or 1789 (sources differ), the son of John Clark and his wife, Relief Barnum. He was one of the 5th regiment’s most senior officers during JMC’s time in the army, and was in command of the regiment’s post at Ft. Winnebago at the time of his death in 1836. I found this sketch of his life in the GoogleBooks copy of Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Volume III [1870-1880], St. Paul, 1880, page 77. I have added a few paragraph breaks for ease in reading:

Maj. Nathan Clark was born in May, 1789, near Worcester, Mass. He entered the service as a Second Lieutenant in the 37th Infantry in 1812. After serving with honor in the war, he was retained at its close, and appointed in the regular army, being assigned to the Fifth Infantry. He was stationed on recruiting service some time at Hartford, Conn., where he became acquainted with and married, in 1816, Miss Charlotte Ann Seymour, daughter of Thomas Seymour of that city.

After about two years of service at various posts, Maj. Clark returned to Hartford, whence he was, in 1819, ordered to join his regiment at Detroit, at which place it rendezvoused, previous to coming to St. Peter’s (Mendota.) The march from Detroit to Prairie du Chien, through a wilderness, was one of hardship, especially to the ladles who accompanied the regiment. On arriving at Prairie du Chien, Mrs. Van Cleve, the authoress of this sketch, was born, on July 1, 1819. After a little stay at Prairie du Chien, Maj. Clark and his family proceeded to St. Peter’s, which was their home for nearly eight years. Maj. Clark was, during this period, commissary of the post. In 1827 he was ordered to Fort Crawford, and after remaining there several months, was sent to Nashville on recruiting service. While at this post, the family became acquainted with Gen. Jackson, then running for President (1828) Some interesting reminiscences of “Old Hickory,” as he was called at that period, were contributed by Mrs. Van Cleve to Parton’s Life of Jackson, Vol. III, p. 159.

Maj. Clark was next stationed at Smithland, Ky., and then at Cincinnati, where his family resided some three or four years. Meantime, he commanded Fort Howard during the Black Hawk War, and was joined by his family in 1833, at Fort Winnebago, Wis. Maj. Clark died at that post, of disease induced by exposure and frontier service, on Feb. 18, 1836. His remains now repose in Spring Grove Cemetery, at Cincinnati.

His widow, Mrs. Charlotte A. [Seymour] Clark, still [as of 1880] survives, with faculties unimpaired by age. Her memory, and that of her daughter, Mrs. Van Cleve, Is a storehouse of the most entertaining and valuable historical reminiscences of early days in the Northwest, most of which have never been recorded. I am glad to add, that on a recent visit to Mrs. Van Cleve, I found her engaged in writing up copious memoirs of the days of half a century ago, and secured a promise to have them placed, when completed, at the disposal of this [Minnesota Historical] Society.

Major Clark’s daughter, Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark (1819-1907) grew to maturity on a several frontier military bases and on April 22, 1836, she married one of the 5th regiment’s junior officers, Lt. (later Maj. Gen.) Horatio P. Van Cleve (1809-1891). In her later years, Mrs. Van Cleve did, indeed, finish her memoirs; they were published in 1888 as Three Score Years and Ten, Life-Long Memories of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and Other Parts of the West. The book was well-received, and went through at least three editions and numerous printings and is available online via GoogleBooks. Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark Van Cleve led a fascinating and productive life; be sure to click the link on her name and enjoy the details.

Satterlee Clark, senior and junior

Back in 2023, we discussed two other Clark men, both descendants of Col. Issac “Old Rifle” Clark , Maj. Satterlee Clark (1785-1848) and his son, Satterlee “Sat” Clark, Jr. (1816-1881) both of whom may have had 1820s or 1830s connections to JMC. I’m still searching for facts, but I know that from the late-1820s, Satterlee Clark, father and then son, were each employed as sutlers in the early days of Forts Howard and Winnebago in what would become the Wisconsin Territory. Prior to that, they spent much of the 1820s in Utica, New York (the same city where JMC enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1833).

Whether JMC knew either Satterlee Clark in Utica is not known. JMC probably knew one or both of them during his years in the army at Ft. Howard (1833-1836). More research needs to be done to see what, if any, connections there may have been between JMC and Satterlee Clark, senior or junior.

Photo!

In the months since that 2023 post, I located a photo of Satterlee Clark (presumably Sat Clark, junior). For your enjoyment and historical edification, here it is:

Photographer unknown, Officers at Fort Winnebago (With their rank while at the fort), detail, showing Satterlee Clark [junior?], from Turner, Andrew Jackson, Alfred Augustus Jackson, Frederick Marryat, and State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 1898. Army Life in Wisconsin Territory. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, following page 76.

And don’t forget the two intrepid explorers named William Clark!

Speaking of military men named Clark that are not kin of our Jonathan M. Clark, let’s not forget two notable Clark men that have connections to each other and to early Northwest Territory and Wisconsin history, but not to JMC. These are William Clark (d. 1791) and William Clark (1770-1838). We first discussed these men back in October, 2023; click this link for that post, with much more biographical and historical information about both of these men.

Coming up!

I’m still on the search for JMC’s kin in Wisconsin, Vermont, and Lower Canada, and I’m researching and writing September, 2024, presentations on additional Civil War and Military Road topics, too. I’ll share more info on those talks in a future CHH post.

And, I’m working on additional updates to the Jonathan Clark House museum website. If you haven’t been there recently, click this link and tell me what you think of the changes.

Anyway, I’ll be back here shortly with more Clark House History. See you then.

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IMAGE CREDIT:

• “Wrong Way,” Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, accessed Oct. 29, 2023.