Heritage Days — Save the date!
Heritage Days, a Clark House summer favorite, returns on Saturday, July 17, 2021, from 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm. No admission charge, but donations gladly accepted. Come enjoy some 1848-style family fun!
Click poster to open larger image in new window.
Continue readingToday, May 3, 2021, marks the 200th birthday anniversary of Mary Turck, the eldest child of Peter Turck and Rachael (Gay) Turck, and future spouse of Jonathan M. Clark. Mary and Jonathan were married in old Washington county on March 15, 1840, and began to farm their Mequon land the same year. They went on to build their handsome stone house—now the Jonathan Clark House Museum—in 1848.
It may still be officially winter, and we’re not done yet with Covid-19, but Spring is coming and Jonathan Clark House activities have been in the news. Both the Mequon Beacon and Ozaukee County News Graphic have published articles on our “Become a Young Historian” project. Here is the Beacon article:
Click to open larger image in new window; article concludes, below.
Continue readingThe Friends of the Jonathan Clark House February newsletter is here! Many thanks to all the volunteers, donors, and Clark House board members for their continuing work “to collect, preserve and share the history of the Jonathan Clark House and the early settlers of Mequon Thiensville.”
Once again, Clark House executive director Nina Look has done a wonderful job leading the work of the museum, coordinating the volunteers, and putting together an informative and generously-illustrated newsletter. Just click on this image of the first page to open your own downloadable pdf in a new window:
Today is the day set aside to commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), one of the first and foremost proponents of Gandhi-style non-violent protest in the West, and one of the most inspirational and influential civil-rights, labor-rights and anti-war advocates in American history.
Unknown photographer. “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Born January 15, 1929, died April 4, 1968.” From the Rosa Parks Collection, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2015651821/. Used here under Free Use provisions of U.S copyright law.
Among many honors, Dr. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has a good biography here and additional information including a series of school lessons with lesson plans, videos, photos and other materials here. These are excellent resources for all of us. While Dr. King is—justly—remembered for his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and his 1963 “I have a dream” speech, it’s important that we remember the full depth and breadth of his life and work, and not just a few often-repeated quotes and sound bites.
Continue readingIn spite of the stresses and disruptions the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has brought to all of our lives, 2020 was a busy and productive year for the Jonathan Clark House Museum, and the many Clark House friends and volunteers that support its mission to collect, preserve and share the history of the Jonathan Clark House and the early settlers of Mequon-Thiensville.
As is her custom, Clark House Museum executive director Nina Look has put together an excellent—and generously illustrated—document summarizing our 2020 activities. To catch up with all that’s gone on in the past year with the museum and the Friends, and to enjoy all 12 pages of the report, either click this link, or click the photo of the report’s first page (below). Either should open the complete 2020 Annual Report in a new window for reading or downloading:
It’s been “one of those weeks” here at the Clark House Historian’s actual house. Nothing unfortunate, but assorted “real life” tasks have kept me from finishing several more substantial posts. (Yes, there will be another photo analysis post or two featuring Cyrus Clark. And tintypes, too.)
News from Clark House Museum director Nina Look
Fortunately, Jonathan Clark House museum director Nina Look has just written and distributed the September, 2020, newsletter for the Friends of the Jonathan Clark House, and I can share it with you today. It’s filled with news and photos about the Clark House and some of our current and future projects.
If you’d like to open and/or download the complete, five-page PDF, click here. Or, if you want to catch up with your Jonathan Clark House news here on the blog, click “Continue reading” (below) and enjoy.
Continue readingHere are a few quick odds and ends while I finish working on the last of our Cyrus Clark and Sarah Strickland Clark posts.
Burying the lede: Cyrus Clark edition
For the last week or so we’ve been looking at the lives of early Mequon and Wisconsin Territory settlers Cyrus Clark and Sarah (Strickland) Clark. If you missed those, you can catch up here, here, here, and here. And in one of those longer posts, I pretty much managed to “bury the lede,” of the breaking news of the week, namely: We found the missing documents that answer the question “who were Cyrus Clark’s parents, and was he related to the builder of the Clark House, Jonathan M. Clark? “
Clark and Strickland descendant Lynette Thompson contacted researchers from the New England Historic Genealogical Society via their site, americanancestors.org, and managed to locate the 1866 will and probate file for one Kellogg Clark of Sandisfield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. He had been cited as a possible father for Cyrus Clark, but without supporting documents.
But his will and probate papers confirm that Kellogg Clark had a son named Cyrus Clark, and that in 1866 son Cyrus was in Wisconsin. Other information in the documents list siblings of Cyrus Clark, including a brother, Alexander Clark, who was previously known. We are now convinced that Kellogg Clark and wife Charity of Sandisfield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts were the parents of Mequon settler Cyrus Clark.
And, since every clue we have about Jonathan M. Clark indicates that his family lived in either Derby, Orleans County, Vermont or nearby Stanstead, Lower Canada (later Province of Quebec), I am quite convinced that Cyrus Clark is not (closely) related to Jonathan M. Clark. (For now, I will hedge my bets with that “closely” modifier—there are, after all, a whole lot of Clark families in New England and they moved around a lot in the 1800s and who can tell who is related to whom—but I don’t believe Cyrus and Jonathan are related, or knew each other before coming to Wisconsin.)
“Follow Blog Via Email” issues…
According to reliable reports, the “Follow Blog Via Email” widget in the right-hand column of this blog is not working properly. I think my old widget may not be 100% compatible with the current WordPress blogging software. I will look into that and see what I can do.
In the meanwhile, if you’d like to follow the blog, skip the widget and just send me a note via the CONTACT link in the top menu. I’ll be glad to issue an emailed “invitation” to follow the blog and then you will get an email each time new material appears here at Clark House Historian (typically each Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning).
A photo for Wednesday…
As a salute to Cyrus Clark’s roots in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, here’s a photo I took there a few years ago. It’s the Housatonic River near the old town of Stockbridge. Not too far from Cyrus Clark’s boyhood home in Sandisfield.
And by the way, “The Housatonic at Stockbridge“…
is also the title of the last movement of Three Places in New England, one of the masterworks of the great American composer Charles Ives (1874-1954). Standing on a small bridge over the river reminded me of the composer’s own description of the piece: … River mists, leaves in slight breeze river bed–all notes and phrases in upper accompaniment…should interweave in uneven way, riverside colors, leaves & sounds–not come down on main beat…”
Here’s a link to a video of a fine performance by the New England Conservatory’s Philharmonia orchestra, Hugh Wolff, conductor. Enjoy.
Clark House News and an Update
I hope you enjoyed your Independence Day weekend. Our “Monday: Map Day!” feature is taking the week off. In its place, here is a round-up of some recent Jonathan Clark House news and a blog update/correction or two.
Three Cheers for Liz!
I was glad to assist Clark House museum director Nina Look in putting together this “tip of the hat” to Clark family descendant and stalwart Jonathan Clark House Museum friend and supporter Liz Hickman. This went out to Clark House board members and volunteers in mid-June, and I’m happy to share it with you here:
Continue readingBelated Happy Birthday wishes and congratulations to Clark House 2020 Staff Member of the Year, and volunteer of many talents, Shaw Bridges!
Click the photo below for an illustrated sample of Shaw’s multi-faceted contributions to Jonathan Clark House museum activities, both in public and behind the scenes.
Clark House Historian 