Jonathan Clark House Museum

Batter Up! – For the Clark House

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 1 Comment

It’s almost March and that means Spring is coming, and so is America’s classic game—baseball. So leave winter behind and join the Friends of the Jonathan Clark House on Wednesday, March 4, from 6:30-8:00 p.m. at the Concordia University Wisconsin Pharmacy Building, room 008, for a lively talk by Dr. Patrick W. Steele on the “History of Baseball in Wisconsin.”

Refreshments will be served and door prizes given. The event is free and open to the public, with a suggested $10 donation to the Friends of the Jonathan Clark House. An RSVP to jchmuseum@gmail.com will help us plan the event. Need more information? Contact Clark House director Nina Look at jchmuseum@gmail.com

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Happy (Blog) New Year!

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.
Clark House Museum sign, night, Version 2-cropped

Jonathan Clark House sign, Mequon. Photo by Reed Perkins.

Even if the New Year is already 1/12th done – and we’re still two months away from the blog’s fourth (!) anniversary – Greetings and Best Wishes for a fine 2020 to all of you.

As always, I continue to be busy researching a large number of Clark House related subjects, and I look forward to sharing my findings with you in the coming year and beyond.

The new year is also a fine time for making changes, and I decided it was time to make a big one here at the Clark House Historian blog — no more ads! I don’t know about you, but I was getting pretty tired of reading posts and looking at historic documents while surrounded by images of nasty foot conditions and ambulance-chasing lawyers. So I finally took the plunge and shifted from a free but ad-filled blog to a paid plan with, finally, no ads! I hope you enjoy the more reader-friendly experience.

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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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O!…Canada? History Mystery! No. 3

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 14 Comments

Jonathan M. Clark was born…where?

Perhaps this should really be the Number One Clark House History Mystery! — was Jonathan M. Clark born in the United States or not? All of our previous evidence indicates that Jonathan M. Clark was born in Vermont in 1811 or 1812, namely: 

• Jonathan’s army enlistment papers from September 19, 1833, state that he was “…born in Derby, in the State of Vermont.”

• His 1850 Federal Census population schedule declares he was born in “Vir,” which we are quite certain indicates the State of Vermont.

• In later years, JMC’s children would almost always declare on subsequent Federal Censuses that their father was born in Vermont. (There were a few exceptions; “Ohio” was given by one daughter almost a half-century after her father’s death. We’ll have more on those census responses in later posts.) For example, the second sentence of daughter Caroline Clark Woodward’s biography in American Women: Fifteen Hundred Biographies With Over 1,400 Portraits… (New York: Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick, 1897, page 799) reads: Her father, Jonathan M. Clark, was a Vermonter of English descent, who, born in 1812 , of Revolutionary parentage, inherited an intense American patriotism.

So it seems clear that Jonathan M. Clark was born in Vermont. If that’s the case why, on March 19, 1848, did JMC travel to the District Court of the United States in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin Territory and file this document?:

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The Clark Family in 1850, part 1

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 9 Comments

Looking at the 1850 Census: A Growing Family

Continuing our look at important sources for Clark family history, let’s return to the decennial U.S. federal census. If you missed it, be sure to read our earlier post on Jonathan, Mary, and ? on the 1840 Census. The 1850 census was the seventh United States federal —and first “all name”— decennial census; every free person—man, woman or child—living on June 1, 1850, was to be counted and named on a separate line on the census form. It was also the first federal census to ask for certain additional information, such as each individual’s place of birth and occupation. (Enslaved African-Americans were enumerated on a separate form and not by name, but by sex, age, and owner. Click here for more information on the 1850 and 1860 so-called Slave Schedules.)

Based on what we know from the Clark Family Record and other sources, as of the official enumeration day, June 1, 1850, if the census enumerator and his Clark family “informant” were both accurate in providing and recording the data, we should expect to find the following living family members listed on the 1850 census: parents Jonathan and Mary Clark and their children Caroline, Henry, Elizabeth, Persis, and new baby Teresa. Let’s look at the census page and see what the enumerator recorded: Continue reading →

Still Here! Watch This Space!

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

Well the third anniversary of the Clark House Historian blog has come and gone without new posts in, er, quite a while. Sorry about that!

Although I haven’t posted new blog content lately, I have been busy behind the scenes, collaborating offline with Jonathan Clark House Museum staff and friends as we try and solve a number of vexing Clark house, Clark family history, and Mequon area history questions and mysteries. I hope to be posting regularly again with lots of new documents and information for Jonathan Clark House Museum friends in the coming months.

Meanwhile, if you are new to the blog, please see our second anniversary post for background on the blog, the Jonathan Clark House Museum, and links to all kinds of interesting Mequon area historical information.

And be sure to visit and support the Jonathan Clark House Museum! Come to the house and do your 19th-century farm chores at the final Heritage Days event on August 17th: Continue reading →

Map of Ouisconsin Territory, 1836

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

UPDATED, February 11, 2024, to include a revised annotated map. But for the full update—with additional notes and corrections—please see the most recent version of this, posted on February 12, 2024.

In September, 1836, Sgt. Jonathan M. Clark was discharged from the U.S. Army at “Ft. Hamilton,” Wisconsin Territory, after serving his three-year term of service with Co. K, Fifth Regiment of Infantry.  One year later, in the autumn of 1837, Jonathan’s future wife Mary Turck would make the long trip from Palmyra, New York, to Milwaukee and finally Mequon, Washington County, Wisconsin, with her parents Peter and Rachael Turck and six younger siblings. By the end of 1840 Jonathan and Mary would be married and starting their family in Mequon.

That seems simple enough, until you take a moment to wonder how much Jonathan—or especially Mary and her family—knew about this new Wisconsin Territory.  Jonathan had been in the territory since October, 1833, building portions of the military road along the Fox River waterway from Ft. Howard (Green Bay) towards Ft. Winnebago (near modern Portage). As a road building soldier, Jonathan probably had seen—or helped draw—a variety of maps of the military road and its vicinity. But for a better overview of the larger territory, Jonathan or Mary might have sought out a map such as this:

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Well, that took longer than expected…

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

It’s been half a year since the last Clark House Historian post! My apologies for the long pause. Various professional and personal commitments (all good) may have kept me from writing, but not from researching. So now I have an even larger backlog of Clark House related discoveries and topics to write about…

So look for new Clark House Historian posts coming soon. Meanwhile, follow these links to the Jonathan Clark House homepage and Events page for upcoming Heritage Days events.

And if you support the mission of the Jonathan Clark House, consider becoming a donor and/or a supporting member of the Friends of Jonathan Clark House, Ltd.

Check back here soon and I will have more to say about Finding Your Mequon Roots and about Jonathan and Mary Turck Clark’s young family and early neighbors. Thanks for reading, and for your support of local history.

Blog Stuff

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

Random blog stuff, FWIW:

• I’m still getting the hang of WordPress’s blog platform and features. I create the posts on a Mac desktop, and I’d love to know how the blog looks and performs on various platforms: smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, Mac and PC, and such.

• So far, I’ve transcribed a few original documents and posted them as WordPress block quotes. The block quote tool is limited in its formatting choices, and often does weird and unpredictable things to indents, spacings and font sizes. And the dark-ish gray font on the light gray block quote box could pose readability problems for some readers. Question for you readers: would it be better if I posted black and white pdfs of word-processed transcriptions (which would also allow more precise transcription of the original document format), or are the block quotes OK?

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