Alcohol

The consumption of alcohol—beer in particular—featured in many aspects of early Mequon life.

But first, a word from our sponsor…

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

Caroline (Clark) Woodward, in our first Clark family endorsement!

Here’s something new for Clark House Historian: a commercial endorsement from one of Jonathan and Mary Clark’s children! In June, 1900, our own Caroline M. (Clark) Woodward recommended travel on the Burlington Route in this newspaper ad…

Woodward, Caroline in railroad advertisement, Red Lodge Picket, Red Lodge, Montana, June 1, 1900, page 3. Click to open larger image in new window.

Mrs. C. M. Woodward, well known in W.C.T.U. circles sends us this cheering communication.

“We are enthusiastic in praise of the Burlington tourist sleepers. Berths furnished with hair mattresses, good pillows, clean linen, nice blankets, same as in Pullman sleeper. The car was kept clean and comfortable the entire trip. Passengers of an excellent class.”

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Caroline M. (Clark) Woodward: a closer look at that 1893 biography

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 8 Comments

Today, as we continue to explore the life of Jonathan M. and Mary (Turck) Clark’s eldest child, Caroline Mary Clark—later usually known as Mrs. C. M. Woodward—we’ll take a fact-by-fact look at the biographical sketch of Caroline that was published in 1893, re-printed unchanged in 1897, then abridged and reprinted in 1912. For a full discussion of these three publications, see last Monday’s Caroline M. (Clark) Woodward: first steps toward a biography.

Willard, Frances E., and Mary A. Livermore. 1893. A woman of the century ; fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life ; ed. by Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, assisted by a corps of able contributors, title page and page 779.

Today’s post will be less of a fully-formed essay, and more of a running analysis, commentary, and proof-reading of this 1893 biographical sketch. We’ll take one portion at at time, starting at the beginning. The source text will be presented as a shaded quotation, followed by my commentary and corrections in simple black text on white background, with highlighted links to additional sources and explanations and, of course, a few footnotes, too. Here we go…

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Caroline M. (Clark) Woodward: first steps toward a biography

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 3 Comments

In our most recent blog post, Another family portrait! Caroline (Clark) Woodward, c. 1890s, we located and discussed the history of a previously unknown photo of Jonathan M. and Mary (Turck) Clark’s eldest child, Caroline Mary Clark, later usually known as Mrs. C. M. Woodward:

Townsend Elite Studio, [Portrait, Caroline M. (Clark) Woodward], inscribed “Mrs. C. M. Woodward, Supt. Work among Railroad Employes, N.W.C.T.U.”, photograph, circa 1889-1900. Photo courtesy Frances Willard House Museum & WCTU Archives, Evanston, Illinois. Click to open larger image in new window.

Caroline’s life was the most public—and perhaps best documented—of all the members of Jonathan M. Clark family, and is overdue for a closer examination. So today we begin a multi-part look at Caroline’s story, starting with three biographical sketches that were published during her lifetime.

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Another family portrait! Caroline (Clark) Woodward, c. 1890s

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 7 Comments

UPDATED – October 9, 2021, with clarification that “NWCTU” means, indeed, the National (and not Nebraska) WCTU.
UPDATED – October 8, 2021, to correct typos in the date range of the photo. Correct (maximum) date range is 1889 to 1900. Also removed a few randomly duplicated words in the first paragraph.

More Big News! It was only a few weeks ago that we presented a previously unknown photo of the youngest child of Jonathan M. and Mary (Turck) Clark, Dr. Jennie Clark Morrison. Today we have another great find, a professional photo portrait of the Clark’s eldest child, Caroline Mary (Clark) Woodward (1840-1924):

Townsend Elite Studio, [Portrait, Caroline M. (Clark) Woodward], inscribed “Mrs. C. M. Woodward, Supt. Work among Railroad Employes, N.W.C.T.U.”, photograph, circa 1889-1900. Photo courtesy Frances Willard House Museum & WCTU Archives, Evanston, Illinois. Click to open larger image in new window.

Clark family descendant Liz Hickman and I have been gathering information about Caroline for many years. Spurred on by this new photo of Caroline in her prime, I think it’s finally time to assemble the sources, line up the facts, and begin to share more of what we know about Caroline’s remarkable life as a teacher, wife, mother, and social activist. There is a lot of material to work with, so today let’s stay focused and just take a closer look at this new-to-us photograph.

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Hops

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 3 Comments

I’m taking the day off from research today. If you haven’t read them yet, you might want to catch up on our previous posts about harvest time on the Jonathan M. Clark farm and in old Washington/Ozaukee county here, here and here.

In researching those posts, one thing I found odd about Washington county’s 1850 agricultural census was the complete lack of hop production in the county that year. Did that change by 1860? I’ll have to find out. I have a feeling that it wasn’t long before some of Mequon’s gardens looked something like this:

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February History Fun!

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 2 Comments

While the blog has been quiet for a while, behind the scenes I’ve been pursuing some hot leads as we try and solve the mysteries of Jonathan M. Clark’s parents, siblings and birthplace. More on that in the near future. Meanwhile, here are a few upcoming events that may be of interest:

On Saturday, February 1, 2020, from 10:00-4:00, Jonathan Clark House museum volunteers will have an indoor exhibit with family-friendly activities at the Mequon Nature Reserve Winter Frolic. For more information and parking directions, see their Facebook page.

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