1860s

Monday: Map Day! – Another Clark Family

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 5 Comments

This week we take a break from our usual focus on the extended Jonathan M. and Mary (Turck) Clark family and begin a week of posts about two remarkable, original Mequon settlers and Clark House neighbors: Sarah Allise Strickland (1823-1891) and her husband, Cyrus Clark (1815-1905).

Sarah A. Strickland was born and raised in Nova Scotia, the eldest child of Daniel and Matilda Strickland. Her family was one of the original white settler families in the area; they were enumerated in Milwaukee County on Wisconsin’s first territorial census in 1836.1

Cyrus Clark was born in western Massachusetts and was in Mequon by about 1839. He married Sarah Strickland in Grafton, Washington (later Ozaukee) County, on March 1, 1841. They lived almost forty years in Wisconsin. First in Mequon and Cedarburg, Washington/Ozaukee) County, and then divided their time between their farm in Moscow, Iowa County, and homes of one or more adult children in Oshkosh, Winnebago County. So how—and why—did they end up in South Dakota at the end of their days?

It’s an interesting story, and one that illustrates a characteristic type of pioneer experience: the continued drive to push westward, on to new frontiers and new challenges. It may seem cliché to us, but it was a real, lived experience for many of Cyrus and Sarah’s generation. This week’s posts will look at a number of key moments in their long lives, especially the decades they spent in Wisconsin. And we have some unique and new sources to share, too.

Beginning at the end…

Click to open larger image in new window.

Gravestones of Cyrus Clark and Sarah A. (Strickland) Clark, Graceland Cemetery, Madison, South Dakota.
Photo by Steve Van Slyke, used by permission.

We begin the story of Cyrus and Sarah Clark at the end, in Lake County, South Dakota, their final resting place. And not one, but two maps today, all of which take us far from Mequon and the Jonathan M. Clark house.

Continue reading →

Clarks and Turcks: 1864-1865

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 2 Comments

No Milwaukee city directory in 1864

As we discussed previously, it appears that there was no Milwaukee directory published in 1864. Did the publisher go out of business? Did the war years cause manpower shortages that made canvassing for information impossible? Do any of our readers know more about this missing 1864 directory? If so, please reply. I’d like to know more.

Clark Mary Mrs. r. 474 Jefferson

As you can see in the new and improved Edwards’ Annual Director […] in the City of Milwaukee for 1865, Mary still resided at 474 Jefferson street in Milwaukee’s seventh ward.

Continue reading →

1864/65: A Directory Divertimento

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 3 Comments

Today’s post started out as a simple continuation of earlier posts (here, here, here) looking at Mary Clark, her children, her father Peter Turck and her brother James B. Turck, living and working in Milwaukee in the early 1860s. We discussed the years 1861-1863, using as an important source the Milwaukee city directories compiled in those years by A. Bailey and published by Starr & Son. Today we take a detour from our search for Clarks and Turcks in 1860s Milwaukee, to learn a few things about how city directories were made, and about the revised Milwaukee street numbering system of 1865.

1864: Missing directory

It appears that there was no Milwaukee directory published in 1864. Did the previous publisher go out of business? Did the war years cause manpower shortages that made canvassing for information impossible? Do any of our readers know more about this missing 1864 directory? If so, please reply. I’d like to know more.

1865: New publisher, and more…

The 1865 edition of the city directory introduced big changes, both for the book and for Milwaukee’s street addresses. The new publisher was Richard Edwards, who was also responsible for similar volumes in other major cities such as St. Louis, Louisville and New Orleans. He announced his new Milwaukee venture—after a dozen pages of advertisements—with this handsome title page:

Continue reading →

Clarks and Turcks, 1863

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 5 Comments

Still together, in Milwaukee

In our earlier posts 1861/1862: Moving Time and Monday: Map Day! we followed Mary Clark and her children as they left the Clark house and farm in Mequon and moved to Milwaukee, sharing a home with Mary’s twice-widowed father, Peter Turck.

The next edition of the Milwaukee City Directory was for the year 1863. By the time Mary’s only son, Henry Clark, celebrated his 20th birthday on February 21, 1863, the nation had been immersed in the violence of the Civil War for almost two years, with no end in sight. That summer, Henry—a resident of Milwaukee’s seventh ward—would register for the Union’s first nationwide military draft.

Page 47 of the Milwaukee City Directory for 1863 gives Mary’s address as:

Clark Mrs. Mary, 474 Jefferson.

This is the same address as found in the 1862 directory. (In 1863, there is no other “Clark, Mary” listed in the directory as there was in 1862.) It is almost certain that all the unmarried Clark children are at 474 Jefferson with their mother. Besides Henry, there are six girls still at home. Libbie, the oldest, is 18. Jennie, the youngest, is only 5 years old.

Peter Turck

On page 246 of the directory we find Peter Turck—misspelled, not for the first time, as Turk—still living with Mary and the family at 474 Jefferson.

Click to open larger image in new window.
Continue reading →

Monday: Map Day! – Milwaukee Street Map, 1859

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 6 Comments

In our most recent Clark House Historian posts, 1861/1862: Moving Time and Fred Beckmann, Sr., we began to look investigate how in 1861/62, Mary Clark and her children left the Clark farm in Mequon and moved in with her widowed father Peter Turck in Milwaukee. Before getting down to the nitty gritty of the various homes occupied by the Clarks and by Peter Turck during the decade of the 1860s, I thought I should make a quick answer to the question: who lived and farmed the Clark farm from about 1861 to 1868?

Well, it turns out that the answers to that question are more complicated, and the evidence more sparse and in need of interpretation than I anticipated. So we are going to pause our investigation of the “who was Mary Clark’s tenant farmer?” issue for a moment, as I sort through maps and census schedules and consult with Clark House museum director Nina Look and others.

On the street where you live…

Meanwhile, I thought today’s Monday: Map Day! item should be a street map of Milwaukee from about the same time that Mary Clark and the children moved to the city in 1861/62. You may remember our post featuring the 1854 Panoramic Map of Milwaukee. I find that map really interesting and informative in a general way, but it has one shortcoming: none of the streets are labeled. That’s not very useful if we are trying to follow the Clark family’s progress from place to place in the 1860s and beyond. So how about this map?—

Continue reading →

Fred Beckmann, Sr.

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 2 Comments

UPDATED February 9 & 11, 2025, to correct the year and date of Fred. Beckmann’s death and investigate the apparent errors on his gravestone (see updated images, text, and especially Note 4, below).

Farming the Clark place, 1868-1873

In our previous post we saw that sometime around 1861/62, Mary Clark and her children decided to move to Milwaukee. By the time the Milwaukee City Directory for 1862 was published, Mary—and, we presume, her children—were living together with Mary’s father Peter Turck, at 474 Jefferson in the city.

We also know that Mary and her daughters did not sell the Mequon farm—to Catherine Doyle—until April, 1872. So, for over a decade, someone besides the Clark family was living and working on the Clark property. Most likely, Mary made some kind of tenant-farmer arrangement where someone grew crops on the Clark land and paid rent to Mary from the proceeds. This could have been a very useful source of income for Widow Clark and her seven children during the 1860s. Unfortunately, we don’t have much documentation of who the tenants may have been and what sort of arrangement Mary may have made with them.

The Doyle Family

In the same post, I also erred in assuming that the John and Catherine Doyle family probably farmed the Clark land throughout the 1860s. Clark House museum director Nina Look recently called my attention to information about the Doyles and their neighbors in various maps and census schedules created around 1870 that shows that the Doyles were living and farming elsewhere in Mequon through most of the 1860-1870 decade. In future posts I will look at those maps and census schedules and try and make more sense of where the Doyles lived and what land they may have farmed prior to purchasing the Clark farm in April, 1872.

Nina also reminded me that I forgot one important person that we know did farm the Clark farm: Fred Beckmann

Continue reading →

1861/1862: Moving Time

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 14 Comments

Mary Clark and the children move to Milwaukee

On July 20, 1860, the eighth federal decennial census recorded Mary Clark and her family living together on their Mequon farm. Less than a year later, on May 15, 1861, eldest daughter Caroline Clark married William W. Woodward and, presumably, left the Clark house to start their new life together. By the next federal census—June 1, 1870—Mary Clark, her six youngest daughters, one son-in-law, one grandchild, and one future-son-in-law, would be enumerated together in Mary’s home in Milwaukee.

What happened to the Clarks between July, 1860, and June, 1870? Ozaukee County land records show that Mary and her children did not finally sell the Mequon land, stone house, barn, and other structures until April, 1872. Catherine Doyle, matriarch of Mequon’s Doyle family was the buyer. Two years earlier, the 1870 federal census shows that Catherine Doyle, her husband John, and their family were already farming on the old Jonathan M. Clark farm. It appears that Mary Clark had rented or leased the Clark farm to the Doyles and, presumably, used the income to support her family.

So when did the Clarks move to Milwaukee? Did they buy a house, rent, or move in with Mary’s father, Peter Turck? To find out, we need to consult a mundane but very useful resource, the City Directory.

Continue reading →

The Clark Family in 1860, part 2

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 3 Comments

A Closer Look at the 1860 Census: Checking Ages and Dates

As we did for their 1850 census, I thought we should do the math and check whether the enumerator got everyone’s correct age on the Clark family’s 1860 census schedule. And do the ages agree with the Clark “Family Record” and other Clark family documents and known facts, including their 1850 census schedule?

First, examine the Clark’s 1860 census page header. It was enumerated by Assistant Marshall (for the census) Hugo Boclo and covered the “Free Inhabitants in the town of Mequon in the County of Ozaukee State of Wisconsin enumerated by me, on the 20th day of July. 1860.”

Continue reading →

The Clark Family in 1860

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 5 Comments

UPDATED, December 27, 2020, to correct a typo in the list of family ages. Mary Clark was enumerated as age 39 (not 44 as previously mis-typed). —R.P.

The death of Jonathan M. Clark in September, 1857, must have been a tremendous blow to his family. Suddenly, Mary Turck Clark was a 37-year-old widow, with a nursing infant and seven other children, all under the age of 17. She had a family to raise, a 160-acre farm to manage, and important decisions to make.

What to do? Remarry for economic security? Sell the farm and move to Milwaukee for a better education for the children? Her father, Peter Turck, was already living in the city with his second wife, Christina, and their 8 year old daughter; could she and the children move in with them? Or would Mary find a new home of her own in the city?

Still here

Mary decided to stay, and make a go of it on her own. When the federal decennial census was enumerated in the summer of 1860, Mary and the children were still on the farm in Mequon:

Continue reading →