Veterans Day is today. For a perspective on the day—and our early Mequon veterans—here’s a post originally published at Clark House Historian on November 11, 2016, and revised, expanded and republished several times since.

Armistice Day — Veterans Day

One hundred and seven years ago today, at the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month—Paris time—the Armistice of Compiègne took effect, officially ending the fighting on the Western Front and marking the end of World War I, the optimistically named “War to End All Wars.”

In the United States, the commemoration of the war dead and the Allied victory began in 1919 as Armistice Day, by proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson. Congress created Armistice Day as a legal holiday in 1938. Starting in 1945, a World War II veteran named Raymond Weeks proposed that the commemorations of November 11 be expanded to celebrate all veterans, living and dead. In 1954 Congress and President Eisenhower made that idea official, and this is what we commemorate today. There are many veterans with a connection to the Jonathan Clark house. We honor a few of them in this post.

114th Regimental Reunion, May 30, 1897, Norwich, N. Y., Library of Congress [cropped and adjusted]. Many Clark neighbors served during the Civil War, and many remained active in the Grand Army of the Republic, the national organization for Union Army veterans, including these men from rural New York, gathered together in 1897.

Jonathan Clark, Henry Clark, and the U.S. Army

Jonathan M. Clark (1812-1857) enlisted as a Private in Company K, Fifth Regiment of the U. S. Army, and served at Ft. Howard, Michigan (later Wisconsin) Territory, from 1833 until mustering out, as Sergeant Jonathan M. Clark, in 1836. In the 1830s, Fort Howard was on the nation’s northwestern frontier. Jonathan’s Co. K spent much of the summers of 1835 and 1836 cutting the military road across Wisconsin, from Ft. Howard toward Ft. Winnebago, near modern Portage, Wisconsin.

Fort Howard dans la grande Baie vert [Fort Howard on the great Green Bay], from de Castelnau, Frances, Vues et souvenirs de l’Amérique du Nord, Paris. 1842 (GoogleBooks, cropped and color added.)

Jonathan and Mary Clark’s only son Henry M. Clark (1843-1866) registered for the Civil War draft in Milwaukee in June, 1863. His named was called as part of the “first class” of draftees, from the city’s seventh ward, in November of the same year. It is said that he served in the war, but we have yet to confirm that he served as a uniformed soldier.

One tantalizing clue to Henry’s service is an unsigned, undated handwritten note on stationary of the “Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, St. Alphonsus Hospital, Port Washington, Wisconsin” dating from possibly the 1960s or 1970s:

Henry M. Clark born Feb. 21, 1843 in Ozaukee Co. served thruout war as carpenter with master of bridge construction. Went ahead of soldiers with sharp shooters and built bridges. Was with Sherman on march to sea. Let out in 1865. Contracted dysentery in south and died April 21, 1866 @ Milwaukee.

Is this true? I don’t know, but it is possible. Henry Clark’s circle included many men with relevant experience. His father, Jonathan M. Clark, had cleared trees and built bridges for the Military Road from Ft. Howard (Green Bay) toward Ft. Winnebago (Portage, Wisconsin) in 1835 and 1836—as part of his army service—and later served as one of old Washington county’s first road supervisors. Henry Clark’s grandfather, Peter Turck, built the first sawmill in old Washington county, and Peter’s son Benjamin Turck remained active in the sawmill and lumber business for much of his adult life. It’s certainly possible that young Henry Clark knew his way around roads, bridges, axes and saws, and may have helped “pioneer” during Sherman’s March to the Sea, but we just don’t know. Yet.

The interment records of Milwaukee’s Forest Home Cemetery—and the diary of his uncle, D. W. Maxon—show that Henry was initially buried in the “Cedarburg Cemetery.” His remains—along with those of his father Jonathan M. Clark, and sister Josie Clark—were transferred from Cedarburg to Forest Home in 1878, when Mary Turck Clark purchased a new lot for the Jonathan M. Clark family. For more on Henry, and his possible Civil War service, see Henry Clark – Civil War draftee.¹

Revolutionary Clarks in New England

We know very little about Jonathan M. Clark’s ancestors or their military service. According to a biographical sketch of daughter Caroline (Clark) Woodward, JMC was “a Vermonter of English descent, who, born in 1812, of Revolutionary parentage, inherited an intense American patriotism.” Unfortunately for us, Vermont and the other New England states sent a lot of men named Clark to fight in the American Revolution. I’ve gone through hundreds of digitized pages of Revolutionary war muster rolls and pension applications, and there are some potential Jonathan M. Clark fathers or grandfathers in those records, but so far we can’t make a solid connection between any of them and JMC.

Clark Cemetery, Town of Morgan, Orleans County, Vermont. Site of the grave of Nathaniel Saunders Clark (1757 – 1844), veteran of the Revolutionary War—a possible ancestor of Jonathan M. Clark—and several other members of N. S. Clark’s family. Photo by Nina Look, 2019, courtesy Nina Look.

Mary’s ancestors served…

Many of Mary Turck Clark’s ancestors served in the military. Her Turck, Gay, and Groom family ancestors emigrated to the American colonies in the 1600s and 1700s. Her fourth-great grandfather, Paulus Jacobzen Turck (or Turk, c. 1635 – 1703), was the original Turck immigrant in Mary’s family, arriving in New Amsterdam (later New York City) in the mid-1600s. In 1660 he married there, and 1689 he received a commission as “Lieutenant of foot, West ward, New York [City].”

From Paulus Turck’s commission in 1689 through the Revolutionary War, many Turck men served in a variety of colonial militias and Patriot regiments. Mary’s father, Peter Turck (1798-1872), was born after the Revolution, but could have possibly served in the war of 1812; I’ve yet to find evidence that he did. He was, however, an ardent abolitionist and Union man. Mary’s granduncle, Johannis A. also known as John A. Turck, or Turk (1763-1839) was a patriot, and signed the Articles of Association in June or July 1775. He also fought in the Revolution in Col. Snyder’s Regiment (New York) and in 1832 he received a federal pension for his Revolutionary service.

A number of New York men named Groom and Gay served in the Revolution and the War of 1812. Some of these may be among Mary’s direct ancestors, but I have not yet done the work to connect Mary Clark’s Groom and Gay kin to their service records.

“Brother fought brother”…Benjamin and Joseph Turck

Two of Mary Turck Clark’s brothers served in the Civil War. Her youngest brother, Benjamin Turck (1839-1926), enlisted as a Private in the 10th Independent Battery, Wisconsin Light Artillery on August 20, 1862. He mustered out after almost three years of service on June 7, 1865. The 10th Battery participated in many battles and operations in the western theater, including Sherman’s March to the Sea. Benjamin Turck’s unit was present at the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 and at the surrender of Johnston’s army at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina on April 26, 1865. Before mustering out, the veterans of the battery—presumably including Benjamin—marched to Washington, DC, to celebrate the end of the war as part of the Grand Review of May 24, 1865. As an invalid veteran, Benjamin was awarded federal pension on August 9, 1905.

It has often been observed that in the Civil War, “brother fought brother.” This was true as a metaphor for the conflict as a whole, and it was also true that on many occasions brothers and other close relatives with differing and divided loyalties, ended up on opposite sides of many Civil War battles. As far as I know, “brother fought brother” was never literally true for the Clark or Turck families, but it appears there was one, tepid, Confederate among them, for at least a few weeks in 1862.

Joseph R. Turck, CSA?

Mary (Turck) Clark was the eldest of Peter and Rachel Gay Turck’s eight children; her brother Joseph R. Turck (1823-1902) was their next oldest. Joseph was fourteen years old when the family moved from Wayne County, New York, to Mequon, Wisconsin. Around the year 1848, Joseph moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he established himself as a carpenter and, in time, a prominent contractor and builder. Why he moved so far from his family in Wisconsin is unknown. During the Civil War, Joseph’s name appears on the one extant muster roll of Co. I, Confederate Guards, Louisiana Militia, dated March 8 to April 30, 1862; in the Remarks section he is listed “Absent without leave.” Even though the Louisiana Militia’s Confederate Guards were considered a “home guard” unit, suitable for older men like Joseph—he was almost forty years old at the time—one wonders if his heart was truly in sympathy with the Southern cause. It looks like he left his unit after less than two months service, just as Union forces were approaching the city. New Orleans was fully occupied by Union troops on May 1, 1862.

Peter Turck lost track of his eldest son, Joseph, during the war. On July 25, 1862, Peter penned a distressed, heartfelt letter to Union general Benjamin Butler, then commanding the city of New Orleans, asking him to find his son. The letter was received by Butler’s staff and instructions were given to find Joseph; I don’t know if Butler’s soldiers did so. Ultimately, both Joseph and Benjamin Turck survived the war and lived for many decades afterwards.

Mequon men—and boys—in the Civil War

As we remember those who have served, let’s not forget those Clark House family, friends, and neighbors that served in the Civil War. The History of Washington and Ozaukee Counties of 1881 lists these 65 volunteers from Mequon:

History of Washington and Ozaukee Counties, Wisconsin […] Illustrated, Western Historical Co., Chicago, 1881. page 497 (detail). Click to open larger image in new window.

After listing all the men that served from all the towns in the county, the book notes “This does not include the [Ozaukee] men who were drafted, or those who enlisted under recruiting officers in the cities of Milwaukee and Chicago. As has been before stated, many of the young men, on being opposed by their parents, would leave the county and go to other towns, where they could enlist without opposition; if these were credited to Ozaukee County, the list would be increased at least fifty.”

Standard, 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry, Wisconsin Veteran’s Museum. For full description, see Note 2, below.

Young friends of the Clarks that enlisted in Milwaukee or elsewhere—or were drafted—include:

• Evander Bonniwell (1847-1930), son of neighbors James and Phebe (Capes) Bonniwell. Private, Co. I, 2nd Regt., Wisconsin Cavalry (Bugler). He enlisted at age 14, served four years as bugler.
  
• Watson Peter Woodworth (1839-1863), son of Clark neighbor and early Mequon settler Rev. James W. Woodworth, Private, Co. I, 2nd Regt., Wisconsin Cavalry.

Both Evander Bonniwell and Watson Peter Woodworth appear in the published roster of Mequon veterans (above) as members of Co. I, Wisconsin Second Cavalry. We believe there was another young Mequon volunteer—unit unknown—Frazer Bonniwell (b. 1848), son of early Mequon settler Henry V. Bonniwell. Our only information about Frazer Bonniwell’s potential service dates from more than two decades after the end of the war, when an 1888 biographical sketch of Henry V. Bonniwell noted:

“All [eight of Henry’s children] are living but Frazer, who enlisted in the army in 1864, and has not been heard of since, and doubtless fills a soldier’s grave in the Sunny South.

The Illustrated Album of Biography of Meeker and McLeod Counties, Minnesota […], Chicago, 1888, pages 506-508.

We actually know little about Frazer Bonniwell’s life or service; his name is not found in the principal databases of Civil War soldiers and sailors. For more on what we do know, see our post (and notes) for Memorial Day, 2023.

Remember the day

Today is set aside so that we pause and remember those that served, Whether they battled for independence for the original 13 colonies, built roads and bridges in the wilderness of Wisconsin Territory, or fought to preserve the Union, their dedication to duty should mean something to us all, especially on Veterans Day.

These stories, by the way, are not the only stories of local veterans that I have collected. My recent research has discovered some amazing stories of German immigrant and Black American soldiers that fought for the Union—and Ozaukee county—as part of Wisconsin’s Civil War experience. And many of our Wisconsin soldiers fought in units, and in combat, alongside a number of remarkable women, serving as spies, vivandières, medical personnel and—in one remarkable instance—leading a Union army combat operation.

And we still have much to learn about the Civil War service of Mary Clark’s brother, Benjamin Turck and the post-war travails of Persie Clark’s husband, the war-wounded U.S. Navy veteran and pensioner Henry D. Gardner. I hope to tell those stories here, at Clark House Historian, in some future posts.

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NOTES:

1. I think it’s also worth noting that the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry —in which several Clark House neighbors are known to have served—eventually participated in Sherman’s March to the Sea, as did Benjamin Turck’s 10th Light Artillery and many other Wisconsin units.
   
   If Henry Clark served in the Civil War (as a civilian “pioneer” or as a soldier, perhaps using a pseudonym), it’s not impossible that he served along side his Mequon friends and relatives in that unit. In which case, it’s also not impossible that the information about Henry’s service on the “unsigned, undated handwritten note on stationary of the “Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, St. Alphonsus Hospital, Port Washington, Wisconsin” dating from possibly the 1960s or 1970s” is accurate. But finding records of civilian members of pioneer units is difficult, and for the moment Henry’s alleged service in the Civil War remains unproven.
   
   
2. This historic standard of the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry is part of the collection of the Wisconsin Veteran’s Museum. The museum’s full caption for the image reads “Standard, 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry V1964 219 7 – Dark blue silk with design of full color war eagle facing left with shield of red, white, and blue stars and stripes on breast, holding arrows and olive branch. 13 1 1/4″ stars in a 2 row arch above eagle’s head. ” 2d REGt. WIS CAV. VET. VOLS. ” in red scroll with gold border, and gold lettering shadowed black, low and right. Bordered by 2″ yellow silk fringe on 3 sides and 1 3/4″ sleeve for staff. Identical design both sides of flag.”
   
   That image, the description of the object, and a short history of the regiment’s Civil War service can be found here.
   
   I think it’s also worth noting that in late-1864 this regiment—in which several Clark House neighbors served—participated in Sherman’s March to the Sea, as did Benjamin Turck’s 10th Light Artillery and many other Wisconsin units. See Note 1, above, for a possible connection to Henry Clark’s purported service in the war.