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:

Welcome!

Welcome! My name is Reed Perkins and I am the historian for the Jonathan Clark House Museum in Mequon, Wisconsin. I have been researching Clark, Turck and other Mequon families and their stories since 2006. I look forward to sharing with you what I’ve learned so far. I also invite you to help us as we try and fill in some of the many blank spots in the story of the Clarks, their relatives, neighbors and friends.

The site is always a work in progress. I welcome your suggestions, corrections, comments and questions. Please click the Contact link and send me a message. Please click the About link for the usual disclaimers and copyright information.

Since then…

Since that first post, March 29, 2016, I’ve published 494 blog posts, most of which featured new content, along with the occasional repeat of favorite seasonal and holiday items, such as Christmas, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day essays.

Over those ten years the blog has received more than 63 thousand views from over 26 thousand “visitors.” (Many of those “visitors” are repeat visits from various individual readers, but my blog statistics are not able to track those details.) Each blog post (except the first!) has been accompanied by a wide variety of unique and informative maps, photos, lithographs and other illustrations, with historical information and source citations from hundreds of primary and secondary sources.

Along the way, our work on CHH has resulted in a richer and deeper understanding history and genealogy of the Clark, Turck and Bonniwell families, their neighbors, their era, and the history of the Jonathan Clark House, the Town of Mequon, and the early history of southeastern Wisconsin. In the process, we have also corrected all sorts of major, and minor, errors in the historical record.

We’ve also made major rediscoveries of important Clark House related artifacts, including portraits of daughters Caroline (Clark) Woodward and Jennie (Clark) Morrison, and the 1581 Genevaa-text family Bible that belonged to and contains much family history of the Clarks’ neighbors and in-laws, the Bonniwell family.

Thanks to you all.

Dear Readers! Thanks for reading Clark House Historian. The blog would not be the same without you and your comments and questions. I hope you’re enjoying what we do here. Let me know what you think by leaving a public reply, below, or sending a private message via the blog’s Contact link.

And many thanks to my wonderful behind-the-scenes collaborators, including Jonathan Clark House Museum co-curators Nina J. Look and Fred Derr, Bonniwell family chronicler George B. Bonniwell, and my late, great, cousin Liz Hickman, who got me involved with the JCH Museum—and the Friends of the Jonathan Clark House—in the first place. Their friendship, encouragement, and involvement in Jonathan M. Clark house—and family—history, has been inspiring and invaluable.

Forward!

That’s enough looking back for now. As our state motto urges: it’s time to move Forward.

But we can still pause for moment to celebrate a bit, and as we do, keep in mind the words of a great American—chef Julia Child—who wisely observed that “a party without a cake, is merely a meeting!”

So enjoy a real—or virtual—slice of CHH Birthday cake, and I’ll be back soon with more Clark House history. See you then!

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Illustration credit:

“Boy With Fireworks, Balloon, and Toy Cannon,” ca. 1901. [Norwalk, Ohio: publisher not transcribed] Copyright 1901. Library of Congress.