News

Liz Hickman (1944 – 2025)

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 1 Comment

I am saddened to report that my dear friend and fellow Clark & Turck family researcher and descendant Elizabeth “Liz” Alice (Wenger) Hickman has died, at home with her family, at the age of 81.

A life well lived.

Her family has posted a lovely obituary online and it’s worth reading. It not only reviews Liz’s personal and professional achievements—and they were many—it also manages to give the reader a good sense of her lively, intelligent, and fun personality. These two excerpts were particularly good at capturing Liz as I knew her:

Liz was a woman of determination and unmatched work ethic, whose approach to life was reflected in her annual back-to-school advice to her daughters to “sit in the front row and ask lots of questions.”

[…] With an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, Liz read widely, was a passionate follower of current events, a collector of recipes, and a world traveler. She was keenly interested in technology, and often one of the earliest adopters in her family of any new technology or gadget.

Cousin Liz

Her obituary also recalls that “in retirement, Liz enjoyed genealogy, especially as it allowed her to find ‘new’ cousins and expand the family.” In 2012 it was my good fortune to become one of Liz’s newly-discovered cousins. Liz had noticed some of my early online corrections and additions to Turck and Clark documents and sources, and then contacted me through a genealogy message board. We exchanged emails and began to collaborate, and in no time we formed a happy and productive relationship as researchers and as kin.

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Hot off the press…

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / Leave a comment

The new JCH Newsletter is here!

Hot off the (virtual) presses, the latest issue of the Jonathan Clark House Newsletter is here! Seven pages of JCH news, announcements, and photographs, recalling some of our summer 2025 activities and looking ahead to Fall at the Clark House. And fortunately for us—living in the 21st-century—no hand-typesetting, manual printing, or acid baths for copperplate engravings were required.

For all the details, and your own pdf copy of the new newsletter, click “Continue reading”…

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JCH News & Events – Spring, 2025

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 1 Comment

Howdy! Sorry for the long blog silence. It’s not that I’m lacking for topics or material to share with you all, but I’ve been busy “behind the scenes” at the Clark House for the last month or so.

In particular, I’ve been working on two big projects. JCH executive director Nina Look and I have just published the Spring | May 2025 issue of the JCH Newsletter, and Nina and I have been collaborating with JCH intern Nicole Buerosse on a major, archival-quality upgrade for the preservation and display of the museum’s irreplaceable Bonniwell Family Bible.

Scaffolding at the Clark House? What’s up with that? Read on for more info…

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Random Bits o’ Holiday News…

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 2 Comments

Well, whaddya know? Christmas is just around the corner…

JCH Parlour with Christmas tree and decor. Photo credit Reed Perkins

Holiday Lights 2024

December 2 & 3, 2024, brought us the latest edition of our Holiday Lights gathering of Clark house friends old and new. There was good food, tasty beverages, lively conversation, and fine seasonal music, all dished up in the unique ambience of our historic Jonathan Clark House Museum.

As we do every year, the house was decorated with appropriate 1840s-style decorations, including the table-top Christmas tree and ornaments, and the evergreen bough decorations on the window sills, shown above.

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November! already?

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

The Clark House Historian at his desk, wondering where October went…1

It’s been over a month since our last Clark House Historian post! Sorry about that. It’s not that I haven’t been busy with JCH writing and organizing. I have been. But most of my work for the last month has been done behind the scenes as the Jonathan Clark House graphic designer and webmaster.

For a good roundup of what’s been going on, please head over to our JCH official website and click on the News & Events page for details.

And that’s not all…

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Talking about the Old Military Road, the DAR…and JMC

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 3 Comments

UPDATED October 5, 2024, at 9;30 pm to correct a number of typos and other infelicities.

Phew! What a busy September! I got to talk about some very interesting topics last month, to some very enthusiastic and attentive audiences. Lots of work, but very enjoyable. The first of these events was my September 13, 2024, after-dinner presentation at the Fall Workshop of the Wisconsin Society, Daughters of the American Revolution (WSDAR). My topic was “Building the Military Road, Wisconsin Territory’s First Federal Road.”

Photo credit: Laura Rexroth

I incorporated into the talk some important parts of the 1830s and ’40s army and road-building information that I’ve blogged about here at CHH, as well as new primary source materials and a whole bunch of relevant photographs and illustrations.

The WSDAR and the Military Road

An important, ongoing part of the WSDAR’s mission over the decades is historic preservation and education. The Wisconsin Society DAR’s main historic preservation effort involves the care and presentation of the last bit of Fort Winnebago still standing, the historic Fort Winnebago Surgeon’s Quarters.

“Fortifying the Border,” slide from my “Old Military Road” presentation.

This image of Fort Winnebago, at the Portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, was created in the mid-nineteenth century and reproduced on a 1909 postcard. In the detail shown here, the building that is now the WSDAR’s historic Fort Winnebago Surgeon’s Quarters museum is indicated by green arrow. The uncropped full image—including a view of the Historic Indian Agency House—is available from the Library of Congress.

The WSDAR also has an interest in Wisconsin’s Old Military Road that dates back at least to 1930, when Columbia County’s Wau-Bun Chapter, WSDAR placed a series of handsome cast-steel markers along their portion of the route of the Old Military Road. As you might imagine, these have suffered from almost a century of Wisconsin weather and random damage or theft. State regent Sandra Snow has made the restoration and replacement of the 1930 markers one of her signature projects. Here’s a before and after of one of those markers:

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CHH news & updates: Sept. 25, 2024

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

Join us at the Cedarburg History Museum this Saturday!

Just a reminder: I’ve been asked back to the Cedarburg History Museum to give another talk in their 2024 Civil War lecture series. My topic will be “They Fought Like Devils” – the Black soldier and Wisconsin’s Civil War experience
, a multi-faceted subject that is often overlooked when discussing Wisconsin’s part in the Civil War. All are invited to the presentation at 6:00 p.m., Saturday, September 28. Seating is limited, so to attend my talk—or any of the CHM free lectures—don’t forget to RSVP to museum director Joel Willems at 
262-377-5856 or joel@cedarburghm.org to reserve a place.

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CHH news and updates: August 28, 2024

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 3 Comments

I know it’s been a while since my last post, but I’ve been busy! Jonathan Clark House executive director Nina Look and I just finished the latest JCH newsletter, and there’s a lot of Clark House history coming your way this fall, both here on the blog, and “live and in person.” In particular, I’m currently racing to finish not one, but two, illustrated presentations that I’ll be giving in September.

JMC, the Old Military Road, and the DAR

I’ve been asked to speak at the Fall Workshop of the Wisconsin Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. My topic will be “Building the Military Road, Wisconsin Territory’s First Federal Road.” I’ll be incorporating much of the 1830s and ’40s army and road-building information that I’ve blogged about here at CHH, as well as new primary source materials and contemporary illustrations.

The presentation will take place after dinner, Friday, September 13, at the WSDAR Fall Workshop in Oshkosh. The event is limited to registered DAR members and their guests. My thanks to Wisconsin State Regent Sandra Snow and the members of the WSDAR for their kind invitation to speak.

But wait…there’s more!

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News…

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 2 Comments

Hello again! Sorry for the long blog silence. I hope all is well with you. I’ve been busy offline, in part answering some interesting questions from CHH readers.

I’ve also been doing a lot of reading, as I try to get a clearer understanding of several ongoing Clark House Historian research topics. It’s going well, but I haven’t got much written up yet. More coming soon. Watch this space.

Under repair

By the way, if you’ve been to the official Jonathan Clark House website in the past few days, you may have seen this 404 error message, in place of our usual colorful and informative pages:

I contacted Clark House director Nina Look, and she assures me that they are aware of the problem, working on a solution, and expect the Jonathan Clark House museum website to be back up shortly. (It’s even possible that the problems may be fixed by the time this blog post goes live on Friday morning.)

Meanwhile…

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