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Clark Family

Isaac D. Clark and Clark's Ferry

I. D. Clark was probably a son of Isaac D. and Ann D. Clark who lived in Milam County, Texas in 1850. Isaac was born in Tennessee in 1814 and Ann in Florida in 1822. These are undoubtedly I. D.'s parents since the 1920 reports his father as a native of Tennessee and is mother of Florida.

I. D. Clark established an early ferry on the Neches River adjacent the present U. S. Highway 59. A Texas Historical marker at the site reads as follows:

Established by I. D. Clark in 1856, this ferry provided an important crossing on the Neches River between Angelina and Polk counties. When Clark died in 1859, his widow, Ann, operated the ferry with the help of two slaves until her own death in 1863. Ownership of the land remained in the Clark family. In 1881 W. B. Clark was issued a license to operate the ferry. A town was platted at the ferry crossing and named Clark's Station, also known as Miami. In 1860 a community cemetery was established north of the town. The ferry was phased out after modern highways were built. (1996)

Based on the 1860 census for the Widowed Ann, she and Isaac has three children:

In 1870 the orphaned Clark children, Alfred, Walter B. and Ivy resided in Nacogdoches County with John Clark (1824), probably a brother of Isaac.

I. D. Clark

Ivy. D. Clark (1856-1928) and wife Mary P. Treadwell (1863-1944) resided in the town of Burke in the early part of the 20th Century.

Mary was a daughter of Richard Leroy Treadwell, a son of Stephen and Faith Jordan Treadwell. In 1880 the Clark family resided adjacent Stephen and Sarah Treadwell, presumably at Renfro Prairie. Clark who was only 23 at the time described himself as a "retired grocer."

When the railroad arrived, Clark joined the rush to Lufkin, and according to R. W. Haltom's History of Angelia County, Clark ran a store in Lufkin in 1888:

I. D. CLARK. This house started in 1886 and deals in groceries, hardware, cutlery, stoves, bacon, flour, salt, tobacco and bagging and ties, making a special feature of flour and stoves. Mr. Clark is an experienced grocer and makes this purchases with that care and judgment that enables him to please his customers.

In 1900 the Clarks were still in Lufkin, but he described himself as a farmer in the census. By 1910 the Clarks were in Burke, and I. D. was shown in the census as a Justice of the Peace.In 1920 the Clarks were living in Burke, and I. D.was shown as a peddler.

The Clarks had five known children:

The Angelina County draft registration records show an I. D. Clark born 15 Mar 1895. Perhaps he was another son of the Clarks.

All the Clarks but Bobbie are buried at Knight Cemetery in Lufkin.

Claude Clark

Claude Clark was murdered in a revenge killing at Diboll in 1920. Some years earlier Claude had killed a man who trespassed on his land, and he served time in the pentitentiary for the crime. After his prison term ended, he moved back home with his parents. Lufkin attorney, Ward Burke, whose family lived next door to the Clarks at the time, recalled that his mother was cautious of Claude after he returned. She was reluctant to let Ward and his siblings play outside and would never invite Claude into her house.

Claude was killed by the father of the man that he had killed when he accompanied his father to Diboll on a peddling trip. When they stopped at the ice house at the commissary and I. D. went inside, Claude was shot as he sat on the wagon.

An alternative version is told by Mary McCann Tucker:

Claude Clark shot and killed my great-grandfather John W. McCann in Mar 1919 at the river near Clark's Ferry. Claude was tried and convicted of the killing. Claude did serve time in the prison system, but only before the trial. He was actually furloughed during his term of sentence after the trial. Claude had let it be known that he planned on killing every McCann in Angelina County when had the chance. Two sons of John W. McCann, Henry age 26 and Jesse age 14, were confronted by Claude Clark in Diboll. Both Claude Clark and Henry McCann had guns, Claude Clark was shot and killed by Henry McCann. This story was told to me by my great-Uncle Jesse (1905-1996) and also my father, Warren McCann (1920-2010).

Nobia Clark Campbell

Nobia Campbell (1886-1970) was a long time notary public at Burke. She lived in one of the large houses west of the railroad track adjacent the old Lee Burke home.

Nobia married a man named Campbell from out of town, and they moved to another state. Tuey McCarty Davis remembers her father going bird hunting with Campbell when he and Nobia visited the Clarks. Eventually Nobia and Campbell separated, and she moved back to Burke and lived with her mother until her death in 1944. She lived alone in the house the rest of her life. Nobia had no children, and her heirs were her nieces, one of whom was an Auls.

Nobia "had money", which some think she inherited from her father, and it appears that she lent to Burke residents. Marlon Ivy said that his mother borrowed money from Nobia during World War II to buy a house. She sent him to Nobia's home to collect the money, and she stored it in a freezer or refrigerator. He recalled how cold the money felt as he carried it home.

The old Campbell house was later purchased by Zusle Rush, Jr., from Nobia's nieces, and the Rush family still owns it.

Sources:

  1. 1850 Census, Milam Co., Texas, Milam and Williamson Dist., Page 13 (Isaac D. Clark)
  2. 1860 Census, Angelina Co., Texas, Second District, Page 15, Dwelling 293 (Anna A. Clarke)
  3. 1870 Census, Nacogdoches Co., Texas, 1st District, Page 38, Dwelling 289 (John Clark)
  4. 1880 Census, Angelina Co., Texas, Precinct 3, Page 1, Dwelling 21 (I. D. Clark)
  5. 1900 Census, Angelina Co., Texas, Precinct 1, Page 25, Dwelling 233 (I. D. Clark)
  6. 1910 Census, Angelina Co., Texas, Precinct 4, Page 7, Dwelling 60 (I. D. Clark)
  7. World War I Draft Registrations, Angelina County (I. D. Clark)
  8. 1920 Census, Angelina Co., Texas, Precinct 4, Page 5, Dwelling 42 (I. D. Clark)
  9. 1930 Census, Angelina Co., Texas, Precinct 4, Page 6, Dwelling 75 (Mary Clark)
  10. Haltom, R. W., History and Description of Angelina County, Texas
  11. Angelina County Cemetery Book, Volumes I & II
  12. Margie Rush, Personal Recollections.
  13. Tuey McCarty Davis, Personal Recollections
  14. Ward Burke, Personal Recollections
  15. Patsy Colbert, Personal Recollections
  16. Mary McCann Tucker, email June 5, 2011