1860s

Organizing…

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

It’s been several weeks of seemingly endless organizing at my house. A useful and productive time, perhaps, spent sorting, reading, and filing paperwork, updating the household accounts, and getting ready to host our family’s Thanksgiving celebration. But not much time or energy for writing Clark House Historian posts. So in lieu of a new post, I thought you might enjoy an expanded reprise of this piece, first published here in March, 2022.

The need to sort, repair and organize is not limited to our era. I suspect the Clarks, Turcks, Bonniwells—and their neighbors—spent a good bit of time trying to catch up with their 19th-century chores, like this fellow, at work in his barn…

Guy, Seymour Joseph (1824–1910), Utilizing a Spare Moment, oil on canvas, c. 1860-1870. Yale University Art Gallery, public domain (CC0 1.0). Click to open larger image in new window.

Today’s image is an original oil painting from about 1860-1870, by the American artist Seymour Joseph Guy (1824-1910). It comes to us courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery. The Yale curators had this to say about the work:

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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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Labor Day – a photo essay

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

Today is Labor Day, the holiday celebrating the working men and women of our nation, and I thought I’d commemorate the day with a lightly-revised re-post of this piece from 2023.

This Labor Day, I’ll be at home, working on my upcoming lectures for the state DAR and the Cedarburg History Museum. Last year, I had to work at our local mercantile establishment. You know, a store kind of like this one, only much bigger, stocked with just about anything you need for modern living:

I don’t really have the day “off” today—too much writing to do—and won’t be marching in a parade, but I’d still like to honor the holiday and salute the American worker, past and present. With that in mind, let’s revisit some of the nineteenth-century occupations we’ve talked about previously at Clark House Historian, highlighting a few of the many skills, trades, and occupations common during the Clark House era.

Since it is a holiday, I’m not going to add long commentaries to each photo. Enjoy the photo galleries, and click each gallery to open larger versions of each image. And click the highlighted links to visit the original CHH posts, filled with lots more information about the different skills, tools, and jobs, and the full image credits.

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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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“Point-and-shoot” camera – Civil War style

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 1 Comment

Technology keeps evolving. Today, if you want to record an image of something interesting, all you have to do is reach in your pocket, whip out your phone, and click. In a instant, you can have a high-resolution, full-color photograph and share it with the world via the internet. Making photographs has never been faster or easier. This was not always the case.

In the earliest days of photography, from about 1839-1860, the predominant technology was the Daguerreotype. It was a brilliant development, but required a good supply of natural light as well as special techniques, cameras, chemicals, and long, motionless poses by the photographer’s subjects. With all those requirements, most photographers made their Daguerreotypes indoors, in improvised or designed-for-purpose studios.

But by the time of the American Civil War, 1861-1865, there were other photographic techniques, including albumen silver prints and tintype photographs that were less expensive and permitted the use of shorter exposure times and lighter and “more portable” equipment, such as this:

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JMC: The missing years, 1836-1839

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 2 Comments

I’m still on the search for Jonathan M. Clark’s parents and other kin somewhere in the early-19th-century wilderness of northern Vermont and southern Québec. I hope to publish more about that here in the near future.

As part of that project, I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the past few months organizing and re-examining the many research materials that I’ve gathered about JMC and his world, and I’ve constructed a whole bunch of genealogies for early Vermont, New Hampshire, and Lower Canada families named Clark that turn out—alas!—not to be related to our Jonathan M. Clark.

More mysteries…

Along with the mystery of JMC’s still-unknown family and childhood, Clark House museum director Nina Look and I have been trying to chase down some rumors that suggest Jonathan Clark may have spent his three years between mustering out of the U.S. Army (in 1836), and purchasing land at the land office in Milwaukee (in late 1839), as a surveyor in or near the area around Fort Winnebago, Columbia County, Wisconsin Territory. At the moment, that story remains a mystery, too. I’ll let you know if we find out more.

Anyway, with all these facts, rumors and mysteries—and many, many others—rolling around in my head, I thought it might be useful to outline JMC’s life in a handy, chronological timeline. Here’s a draft of that timeline, including what we do—and don’t—know about Jonathan M. Clark’s whereabouts and activities during his lifetime, as of July 1, 2024. I’ve included links to some relevant Clark House Historian posts where possible; please click on them for more information.

Childhood & Youth

November 28, 1812, (possibly, 1811) born to unknown parents, in or near Derby, VT, or Stanstead, Lower Canada

• Late-1812 to early-1831: JMC’s childhood whereabouts and activities unknown for 18+ years, with one possible exception:

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How do you…? A Clark-era handbook

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins. / 1 Comment

Recently, reader and Jonathan Clark House friend Ed Foster mentioned that he wanted to know more about how various JCH tools were used and necessary supplies were made, for example, how were lye soap or candles made? These are excellent questions, as they help us understand the day-to-day world of the Clarks and their neighbors in a more vivid and detailed way.

So, how did Jonathan and Mary Clark make candles or soap or perform many of the other home- and farm-related tasks that occupied so much of their time? Living in their pre-internet, pre-YouTube era, if they did not learn these skills from a parent or other mentor, how did they master such skills on their own? Fortunately for them, the 19th-century was a golden era of what we would call “How To” books.

The “Endless Variety” of books, circa 1837

Jonathan M. Clark mustered out of the U.S. Army at the end of his three-year’s service with Co. K, 5th Regiment Infantry, in September, 1836. While in service, he may have learned or refined a number of useful skills, especially those related to surveying and road construction. The army thought highly enough of his character and aptitude that he rose from private soldier in September, 1833, to Sergeant in 1836. He was, by several accounts, an intelligent and well-read man.

But even an intelligent, experienced man can’t know everything. For that, there were books and stores that sold them. If Jonathan, after he left the army, needed more information on the “practical arts,” he could stop by a shop such as White & Gallup’s “Variety Store” in Green Bay, and probably find the information he needed:

“Books,” advertisement from the [Green Bay] Wisconsin Democrat, 13 Jan 1838, page 1. First published 12 Dec 1837.

One of these advertised volumes caught my eye, just like it may have attracted the eye of Jonathan Clark and many other settlers in the wilds of the Wisconsin Territory in the 1830s…

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Memorial Day, 2024

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

Lest We Forget

Our annual Memorial Day post, first published in 2020. Updated for 2024 with new information about the Civil War service of Isham and Emily (Bigelow) Day’s eldest child, Cpl. James Lemon Day (1834-1863).

Graves of Unknown Union Soldiers, Memphis National Cemetery, photo by Clayton B. Fraser, (Library of Congress), public domain. Memphis National Cemetery is the final resting place of Mequon’s Watson Peter Woodworth, and almost 14,000 of his Union Army comrades.

Today is the day our nation officially observes Memorial Day. For many Americans, Memorial Day represents “the first day of summer,” and is traditionally celebrated with trips to the lake, picnics, parades, and sales on cars, appliances, and other consumer goods.

But for many of us, Memorial Day remains rooted in its origins as Decoration Day. The first national observance was in 1868, when retired general John A. Logan, commander and chief of the Grand Army of the Republic—the Union veterans’ organization—issued his General Order Number 11, designating May 30 as a memorial day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.”

On this Memorial Day, let’s take a moment to remember what this day truly represents.

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Trouble with the wireless

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

Sorry for the “radio silence” lately. I’ve been occupied with a number of tasks on- and off-line and then, early last morning, we had a big thunderstorm, and it seems that one or more of the storm’s lightning strikes managed to fry our family’s wi-fi modem-router. Imagine that. No internet! How does a blogger cope?

The cold realization of an off-line Monday was followed by the prospect of what lay ahead: going to my day job (meh), and then, after work, needing to choose and purchase a new modem-router (not too bad, perhaps) and then having to spend hours trying to follow the inevitable—and laughably & misleadingly-labeled—”few easy steps” to set up the new Wi-Fi hub and connect it to our existing internet service and other devices (I’ve done this before and, frankly, I’d rather visit the dentist).

What to do?

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The farm garden

/ Clark House Historian Reed Perkins.

It’s already the second week of May, 2024, and summertime will soon be here. At our southeastern Wisconsin home the first spring flowers are done, and the next round of blossoms have been blooming for a week or two. The peas will soon be in the ground, and we already harvested enough rhubarb to make two and a half small jars of jam. The tomato and pepper seedlings and the squashes will go in soon, and I need to put up a trellis or two so we can start the big patch of green beans. So even though it’s “early” by the standards of previous years, we’ve got gardening on the mind here at the Historian’s house, and I thought you might enjoy a slightly-belated repost of this annual favorite, which first appeared here in April, 2021. Cheers!

Planning the garden

It’s early April, and the growing season is not far off. For a farmer like Jonathan M. Clark, it’s a little early yet for plowing and sowing, but not too early to make plans and sharpen the tools. For a farmer’s wife, like Mary (Turck) Clark, it’s not too soon to think about the farm garden, its crops and layout.

Garden at the Turck-Schottler House, 1870s Hessian Immigrant Farm, Old World Wisconsin. Photo credit Reed Perkins, 2022.1

I don’t know if Mary and Jonathan were regular readers of the popular and affordable farmers’ almanacs of their era; I wouldn’t be surprised if they were. There were many to chose from. Perhaps they had a copy of something like:

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