While trying to think of an idea for beating our "heat wave" of 80s & 90s deg. F Summer heat, as well as the pounding noise & debris of having a new roof installed at my home, I thought of our brand new $8meg. Snohomish Library- looked at my watch and it was about 10:30 a.m., so I travelled the 10 short blocks and parked in front of the place. There is lots of parking at this new spot, but when I entered this beautiful new library was the cool part. Not only is this new library COOL, it is also C O O L in many ways. The air conditioning immediately made it so, so I knew that I'd come to the right place. What's more it has a brand new Genealogical Section in the 929 + section. I spent an interim from 10:30 til 2:45 p.m. just in that section alone, marveling at all the information available in just this one section. Among the various offerings, I found a soft cover booklet by Prof. Edmund Meany who'd written about Pioneers of Seattle and King Co. areas. Upon hitting the Index, I began to see some familiar names that took my eye. One entry was among the surname Clark listings, and among them was Jason S. - that must be my Grt Grt GF on page 9, so I went for it. It was an article about Mrs. Lydia Stark dated Nov. 15, 1915- familiar to me as one of my Jason's daughters. I found that Mrs. Lydia Stark had a home called "The Maples" at Lyndwn, in Whatcom Co.& that she was described as a frail little white haired lady who, according to Prof. Meany, had every right to be included among the earliest pioneers of the Pacific Northwest. Then it goes on to describe her at age 4 as having left Indiana 1847 with her parents, Jason S. and Anna Clark bound for the Far West by ox team transportation. Lydia was obviously an outdoors type, and was of much help to her mother - which was expected and a part of that kind of life experience. The article explains that she became an expert horsewoman, and as she grew older she attended the Umpqua Academy (loc. in OR. nr. Roseburg, cap of Douglas Co.-I visited the area in about 1984 where I found the State Museum at Roseburg very helpful to my quest!) located at Wilbur, OR. The article tells that Lydia earned a prize of a black silk dress for her proficiency in spelling from her father, who'd become a teacher there an Supt. of Sunday School at Umpqua Academy - I know this from the full sized pulpit Bible that had an entry in it proclaiming Jason S. Clark as Supt. of Sunday School and this bible was presented to him in 1865 when he & his family would leave for Washington Territory (now Kent, WA.- I photographed that Bible which I found in Portland, OR when I was scouting my Clark ancestry among newly found relatives in 1984 questings). Lydia fell in love with one of her teachers, James Rice STARK while at Umpqua Academy -Methodist Father James Wilbur was founder of the Academy which was also known as Wilbur Academy as well as Umpqua Academy. ( I was able to get an early photograph of the Wilbur Academy at the museum in Roseburg when I slept overnight in the back of my Volvo 1800 ES sportwagon in order to access the State Museum there - across from the Police Station in a parking lot.-CC). Not only did Lydia fall in love with her teacher, she also became a teacher at the Academy and shortly became married. The article states that in 1864 (but actually it was 1865, I have documented among my findings-CC) that Jason Clark and his new son-in-law decided to "hit out" for Puget Sound country. Why they chose White River Valley, I'm not sure, but little did they know that in the future it would become known as Titusville, and then Kent, WA just S of Seattle, and near Slaughter (imagine the horse drawn "stage" pulling up to a place and the stagedriver yelling - "Slaughter House !! Everyone out! - that became the neighbor, Auburn, WA townsite-CC). The new Starks worked hard over the many years. What is prominant in Prof. Meany's account is that young mother Lydia would live there many lonely months w/o seeing another white woman! (They even learned to speak and understand the Indian - now called Nat. Amer. - language of the local tribes. It was necessary.-CC). James Stark was busy building bridges, teaching school, preaching the gospel, clearing land and farming much of it. (The "Kent-to-be, or White River Valley as it was called was very inundated with watery areas so that the expertise of Indian's canoes had to be quickly learned in order to get around the area with any expertise - CC.) The schoolhouse that was established in the area was across the river, as were the sparse friends of the area. Dugout canoes had to be made from knowledge that the Indians were experts at and the canoe was the main means of transportation of people and goods. (One of their sons was "Wilbur" no doubt from their friendly mentor, Rev. James Wilbur of Wilbur Academy/Umpqua Academy days. "Father" Wilbur was a huge, very tall man and among the Indians he was very well liked and could speak the various languages among them in those early times. He was a respectful, kindly man from the descriptions I found of him - CC.). In this article it is told that this son Wilbur when he became age 20 carried his Mother Lydia out to a carriage, when 20 yrs earlier, she had carried him as a baby from the ox-drawn wagon that had carried them to their new found home in Oregon - actually, Brownsville, OR. (My Grt GF James Clark was only 2 yrs old when Jason and Anna made the journey from IN to Brownsville, OR - they soon moved a short distance away to Harrisburg - now just across from I-5- which I found myself having to visit back in about 1984 when I seeking those areas-CC). The Starks eventually decided to move to Lynden to give their family advantages in education at a normal school located at Lynden in those times. James and Lydia Stark were asked to take charge of Stickney Home, an Indian industrial school loc. in the Lynden area. They got the assistance of their daughters, Mollie and Alice Stark. When James Stark passed away due to illness, his youngest Mollie Stark Williams and her youngest son, James Frederick Stark, took over the tasks. Via the Everett Public Library back in the 80s I discovered a typewritten account of the Starks as a result of a D.A.R. account of the family. It was there that I discovered that this James Stark was a desc. of the famed Gen. STARK of Revolutionary War - so I collected a bit of that kind of information about this family. Snohomish Library is a real Cool Place in many ways! There will be a Part 2 to this article as a separate surname: Carroll in Snohomish, WA * * * 30 * * *