Dear Janine Spaulding (message sent 7-14-2001), I don't think I can be of much help with your search, but there are some interesting coincidences between our families that intrigue me. So, I will put your information in my "tickle" file and thought I'd share some information with you about the coincidences as well as some information about our family history. I have: Cyrus H. CLARK (b. 9-20-1845, Howard Co., IN; d. July 17, Center Township, Howard Co., IN) married Laura THOMPSON (b.?; d. 1872-1876, prob. KS, maybe IN) They had a son named Albert Jerry Clark (b. 4-16-1872, Oklahoma Territory OR Chataqua Co., KS; d. 1-25-1945, Kokomo, Howard Co., IN) An aside on the spelling of the family name: (1) Albert Jerry (called Jerry as a child and A.J. as an adult) sometimes is found listed in records as A.J. Clarke (with a final "e"). (2) His father Cyrus seems to have almost exclusively spelled his name without the final "e." (3) His grandfather Adam Clark sometimes spelled his name with the "e" -- especially before he moved to Kokomo -- but in the political election records and in his obituary the name is spelled without the "e." (4) His great-grandfather Archibald Clarke seemed to spell the family name more often with the "e" but also spelled it without the "e." (5) His great-great-grandfather, also Archibald, always spelled their family name with an "e." Archibald was probably the first Clarke/Clark of this line to enter the U.S., most likely from Ireland. Back to Clarke/Clark in Oklahoma and/or Kansas: My grandfather's family Bible stated that Laura Thompson was from OK; Cyrus' death notice stated that Cyrus' first wife was "a Mrs. Thompson" from Dayton, IN. The Dayton, IN, information about Laura is, however, suspect. I think it was probably provided by his daughter from a second marriage. She lived with him at the time of his death, but his other child, his son by Laura, lived relatively nearby so either of them may have been involved in the selection of information for the obituary article. I suspect that their son was not involved because he would have provided his mother's first name which he obviously knew because it was listed in all four of his adult children's family Bibles. What about the assertion that Laura Thompson was a "Mrs. Thompson"? I have searched the IN marriages database with a fine tooth comb. In it, I found only one marriage in the IN records that has a Laura anybody marrying any Thompson. This marriage, however, happened after Cyrus' second marriage so I am certain that this could not be the "Mrs. Thompson" referred to in the obituary. Because my grandfather and his sisters were so certain that their grandmother was not from Indiana, I do not believe that Laura Thompson was from Indiana but have yet been able to confirm or disprove that belief. I think that the information put into Cyrus' obituary may have been an intentional misrepresentation. My grandfather and two of his sisters always insisted that their grandmother Laura Thompson was Cherokee (one sister thought Cherokee or Choctaw). Certainly, all four of the children's physical appearance would seem to confirm the possibility that they were 1/4 Native American. Would this have been a problem for Cyrus' second wife and his child by her? Perhaps. Cyrus' second wife was a member of the KKK. (We have her diary!) Perhaps her daughter when giving obituary information to the press (or more likely the undertaker since both articles in the two Kokomo papers were almost identical) intentionally strived to erradicate the "tainted race" of Cyrus' first wife and her half-brother. What is suspicious about the newspaper article? Clearly, the article about Cyrus' death made no mention of his and his parents' move to Kansas and/or Oklahoma which took place between 1863 and 1870. (These dates are based on the fact that we know Cyrus' father Adam was Howard County Clerk through 1862 and we find the family in the 1870 census in Montana Township, Labette County, KS.) Cyrus returned to Indiana some time after the birth of his son Albert Jerry by Laura, presumably after Laura's death but we do not know this for a fact. Albert Jerry's son Courtland's family Bible stated that Laura died when A.J. was small; Courtland thought this information which he had gotten from A.J. meant that Laura had died shortly after A.J.'s birth in 1872. Cyrus' obituary, however, places the death of the first Mrs. Cyrus Clark, the former "Mrs. Thompson" according to the newspaper articles, about 1878. The omission of fact regarding Cyrus' years in OK and/or KS in the newspaper article would only seem to be important because Cyrus' father was one of the early settlers in Howard Co., IN, and was a prominant person in the community, holding many elected political offices from 1847 through 1862. Cyrus was likely one of the first caucasion children born to this community. Such information about the travels of the family and the ultimate return of Cyrus would have been interesting. The family history apparently warranted full articles about Cyrus' death in both Kokomo newspapers, yet the articles about Cyrus' personal history were lacking, creating an inaccurate impression that his life had been spent entirely in Howard Co., IN. The heading on his Kokomo Daily Tribune obituary read: CYRUS CLARK, BORN IN THIS COUNTY, DIES ____ He Was in His Seventy-Fifth Year and a True Pioneer. ____ FATHER FIRST DEM CLERK ____ Deceased Spent Lifetime Farm- ing -- Funeral Will Be Held Monday Afternoon The content of the following newspaper article made it appear that Cyrus had always lived in Kokomo. An interesting omission since Cyrus as per the 1870 census lived in KS with his father. (A. Adam Clark/Clarke who was an elected political office holder for 18 years, the first school teacher in Kokomo, and one of a very small group of Kokomo citizens who formed the Methodist church in Kokomo. And yet in 1872 -- the same year his grandson A.J. was born -- he had died in Labette Co., KS, and was buried in Sherman City, Cherokee Co., KS. My great aunt who had the information about Cyrus' first wife in her possession said that Wyandotte (or maybe Wyandot) was written next to Laura's name but she could not figure out why. My siblings and I wondered if maybe Laura had been a member of the Wyandot Indian Tribe instead of the Cherokee tribe. However, after reading that your Clarks were in Wyandotte, OK, I was intrigued. If Laura was from Wyandotte, OK, then my grandfather's recollection that Laura was from the Oklahoma Territory or Indian Territory (the family Bible said Oklahoma Territory) might be able to be confirmed. YOU have Clark/Thompson family appearing in Wyandotte, OK. Could they have been in the Vinetta and Wyandotte communities for several generations? If we are connected, this could explain the orphan word "Wyandotte" in my great-aunt's notes. Do you know if Wyandotte is either in the eastern portion of Oklahoma near the Kansas border or if it was a part of either the Oklahoma Territory or the Indian Territory in the 1870s? Is it near Vinetta, OK? Do you perhaps have any other information on your Thompson family? Could Laura Thompson have been related to your Mary Isabelle? My Clarks tended to travel in family packs -- Could your William Lisander Clark be a cousin of my Adam Clark? We have no explanation for why our Adam's family, including Cyrus, picked up and moved to Kansas and/or Oklahoma after years of being important members of the Kokomo community. Could your William have already been there? Did Adam leave IN with relatives to go to OK or KS, or did he leave IN to go to OK/KS where family already were living? I have documented evidence of portions of this large family clan traveling from VA (now WV) to OH to IN to IA to WA. Each time a new move was undertaken, some of the family members remained in their earlier locations and some moved on -- not always with parents or grandparents, sometimes with aunts, uncles, and cousins. (The one exception may be WV -- then VA -- we don't know if any family remained behind there when what appears to have been most, if not all, of the family moved to OH. Other families are found to have traveled with or to be living near the Clarke/Clark clan on more than on move, in more than one location. And there were multiple occasions of members of the Clark/Clarke clan marrying people who were related to each other. That is, it was not unknown in this family for brothers to marry sisters (of another family!); for cousins to marry sisters (of another family); and for cousins to marry cousins (of another family). There is even one case where two Clarks who were first cousins married the same woman (Lydia Pittsenbarger). Thomas A. Clark and Archibald A. Clark both married Lydia. Thomas A. was the son of Samuel and grandson of Archibald II; Archibald A. was the son of A. Adam and grandson of Archibald II. Given this kind of family pattern, could two Clarks from our clan have married Thompson sisters, cousins, aunt/niece in OK or KS? Where are the places that your William might have come from our Clarkes/Clarks? Archibald and his wife (possibly named Christena or Christina) were the first generation of this Clarke/Clark line in the U.S. They had four children for certain and one line of the Clarke/Clark family has family reports of a fifth child who remained in Ireland. The four who traveled were: Samuel, Gabriel, Archibald, and Nancy. Elizabeth may have been their child who remained in Ireland. Most of the 12 children of the Archibald-Archibald line have been well-documented. However, there is much left unexplored of the Archibald-Samuel, Archibald-Gabriel, and Archibald-Nancy lines. Could your Clark ancestors have been part of the Archibald-Samuel or the Archibald-Gabriel family lines? We do know that Samuel had 12 children (like his father) and that one of them was named William. We know that some of his children were likely to have been born in VA (now WV) and some in OH. Samuel and at least some of his children traveled with Samuel's father Archibald and grandfather Archibald to Coshocton Co., OH, but we don't know for certain if all of Samuel's children did. Samuel's son William died in OH, but what about William's children? Or, for that matter the children of the other sons of Samuel whose travels we do not know -- Archibald S., James, Thomas, Samuel, Gabriel, and John? Did any of them head for Oklahoma? (Some of the family that stayed in OH migrated to Darke Co., OH.) We know that Gabriel had one son, Archibald. Other children we do not know about. We know that Gabriel and son Archibald made the trip to OH. We know that Gabriel's son Archibald had 9 children, including four boys named William, John, James, and Adam. We don't know where these children ended up -- OH, IN, IA? Or maybe OK or KS? To both complicate and simply genealogical research, this family was prone to name the children not only after grandparents and parents, they named children after their uncles, aunts, and cousins as well. (This complicates research because you cannot always be certain that you are putting the right parent-child relations together but simplifies it because you can look for groups with shared given names.) And, the many offspring in this family traveled in "troops." Could your William be one of our clan? Did he like many other members of our family leave one family location (IN) and travel? Maybe to OK? (I have evidence of this Clarke/Clark clan in at least the following three IN counties: Carroll Co., Tippecanoe Co., and Howard Co.) So far, I have nine William Clarkes/William Clarks in my database and expect that when we make connections to the remaining mystery lines of the family will find more. Well, enough rambling for now. If you know for certain that your family does not intersect with mine via either the Thompson or the Clark line, that will make me sad -- but any definitive information is better than nothing, even when it is a negative! However, if the possibilities remain that there could be connections between either yours and my Clarks or between yours and my Thompsons, let's keep each other's information in play. (I would be especially pleased if our contacts could tease out any information on the Thompsons -- I might even dance a jig from UT where I live all the way to MO where you live if I could free up any information on Laura! At this point, she seems to have been an immaculate conception!) By the way, with reference to your William's offspring: Richard is not a common name among my Clarks, but Jane is. (Perhaps Richard was a name borrowed from his mother's family?) Hopefully, Karen Sandy, UT In a message dated 7/14/01 8:34:53 PM Mountain Daylight Time, pjspauld@intplsrv.net writes: > > William Lisander CLARK > b 1844 in Indiana > d? married ? to > Mary Isabell THOMPSON > b 1843 d?. > > 2 children > Richard Orlando CLARK > b June 5, 1890 in Noble Mo. > d Nov 15, 1960 in Vinita Ok > Married on April 20 1920 in Miami Ok to > Blanch Ethel GREEN > b March 27, 1905 Wyandotte, Ok > d. Dec 29, 1986 in Vinita, Ok > > Janie CLARK > b 1875 in Noble, M0 > d? >