Joseph Martin of East Haddam

My 3rd great grandfather was one Joseph Martin (1791-1872), who lived his entire life in East Haddam, Connecticut.

Joseph was born to Jonathan and Hannah Martin, who had emigrated from England (possibly Suffolk) at some point prior to 1777 (which was the date of his brother Jonathan's birth in East Haddam).  There is some confusion online about Hannah's maiden name being either Huxford or Fuller.

When Joseph was 4 years old, his father died, leaving him (and five siblings) to be raised alone by Hannah.  Joseph was of appropriate age to have fought in the War of 1812, much like other East Haddam residents.  There wasn't a draft at that time, so it's clear that Joseph didn't feel incentivized to join.

Joseph married Livia Phelps, daughter of Revolutionary War veteran Samuel Phelps, on October 1, 1817 in East Haddam.  They had a great deal of farmland up until around 1850 (lived in the Poor Farm), but recovered and secured land next door to Livia's cousin Hiram Phelps.

Joseph and Livia had seven children in East Haddam:

-Mariette Clark (1819-??)  One girl appears on the 1820 Census, so it's clear she lived that long, but since no girls appear on the 1930 Census, I'm inclined to believe that she had died by then.

-Niles Martin (1820–1893)  Niles moved 200 miles away from home, to start a farm in Bucks County, PA.  He enlisted in the Civil War in 1863 (same time as two of his brothers).  On this record, his occupation was listed as a "Drover" (one who moves animals long distances, like a cattle driver).  He and his wife Elizabeth had a son named Joseph, after his father, and a daughter Sarah.  For the 1860 Census, he was listed as (either a "Tinkerman" or a "Gentleman"), and for the 1870 Census, a "Lumber Merchant".

-Ephraim Martin (1824-1915) Ephraim married Elizabeth Harris and moved to nearby Hartford, where he also ran his own farm.  They had at least one child, Anna.  Ephraim enlisted in the Civil War in the summer of 1863, with two of his brothers.

-Esther Phelps Martin (1826–1901)  Esther married carpenter Leonard Sherman Clark, and they were my 2nd great grandparents.  No girls appeared living with Joseph for the 1830 Census, when she would have been four years old, so I wonder where she may have been at that time.  Legend has it that Esther was the "ugliest woman in East Haddam", and that Joseph was so grateful to get her married in 1843, he gave Leonard a lot of farmland as dowry.  Interestingly, however, Joseph and the rest of his family were the keepers of the East Haddam Poor House as of the 1850 Census. Esther bore Leonard 12 children.  Several hundred of her descendants still live in East Haddam and surroundings to this day.

-Edgar Mandlebert Martin (1830–1894)  Edgar married Azubah Wright.  Not long after Livia died in 1860, Edgar took over the family farm, keeping his father Joseph living with him.  Unlike his three brothers, he did not enlist in the Civil War.

-Catherine Isabella Martin (1834–??)  Isabella appears to have married a Charles Clark in 1857 (in Belfast, Northern Ireland - wonder what the story was there).  Can't find any additional records on her, though.  However, this record may instead match to a different couple (one lawyer named Charles A. Clark and his wife Isabella, both born in Ireland, and living in NYC in 1880).

-Datus W. Martin (1836–1874) Datus enlisted in the Civil War in 1863, fighting in the CT __.   When he returned from the War, he married his wife Adelaide, and started a farm in East Haddam.  They had three children together.  He died at the very young age of 37.  I believe Adelaide may have remarried afterwards, since I cannot find her in any subsequent records.  The 1880 Census has Datus' son Frederick managing his father's farm as a single farmer, at age 16.

Grave of Joseph Martin
Parker Cemetery
East Haddam, CT

SOURCES:

Connecticut Town Records (Barbour Collection)

William Lee Clarke (Town Clerk of Westbrook Maine)

WILLIAM LEE CLARKE
COURTESY OF WESTBROOK HISTORICAL SOCIETY

William Lee "Bill" Clarke (1919-1996) was Town Clerk of Westbrook for a record 38 years.  I recall when growing up there that he often ran unopposed, and I myself voted for him when I came of age to do so. I had often wondered if he might bear any relation to my extensive Clarke family of Maine, and Connecticut before that, which had originated in America at the Jamestowne Settlement in the early 1600s with the arrival of John Clarke.  I was surprised and delighted to discover in 2015, upon researching the matter, that an ancestor of Bill's had come from Connecticut, so there may be a distant connection (more on this below), but nothing definitive can be found as yet.

Bill Clarke was born in 1919 in Westbrook, and for the first few months of his life the family lived on 111 Mechanic Street, corner of West Valentine, just eight years after the migration of his father, Lee Elbert Clarke, from New Canaan, Canada in 1911.  Lee lived on Manners Avenue in Portland upon his naturalization in 1914.  He married Casco-born Millie Dawn Scribner in July of 1916, and bought the house on Mechanic Street shortly thereafter.  Lee worked as a bookkeeper at Parker & Thomas Company in Portland, and had lost his arm, and was thus exempt from the draft during WWI in 1917. I learned from a grandson of Lee's that this was due to a hunting accident in Canada in 1909 when Lee was 20 years old.  It isn't known if the gun fell over or what happened, but his injury was sustained to the left arm, back of the wrist, and therefore his arm was amputated just below the elbow.

BIRTH HOME OF WILLIAM LEE CLARKE
111 MECHANIC STREET
WESTBROOK, MAINE

WILLIAM LEE CLARKE FARM HOUSE
333 SPRING STREET
WESTBROOK, ME

The Clarke farm house on Spring Street was originally built in 1910 for William B. Bragdon, who later became mayor of Westbrook. Bragdon lived there for about a decade, and was known for having given a public speech from the front porch around 1919, the year he was elected Mayor (one year term).  Not long after the election, in April 1920, Bragdon sold the house to Lee Clarke and William Scribner (Lee's father-in-law), when Bill Clarke was about 7 months old.  Lee maintained his bookkeeping practice, while his son Bill eventually ran a dairy farm there called Blue Spruce, and he used to deliver the milk door to door.  Blue Spruce continued in the family until the late 1980s, and Bill would also eventually sell his milk to Oakhurst Dairy in Portland.

From 1943 to 1949, Bill worked on Westbrook City Council, and at the end of this run he married Jackie Rochelau, whose father was a WWI veteran, and business owner, born to French Canadian immigrants.

In 1956, Bill Clarke ran for Town Clerk, a post he succeeded to and kept for 38 years, elected for 19 consecutive two year terms, until 1994.  In addition to working tirelessly to help many people obtain their fishing and hunting licenses, he was the officiator of many thousands of marriages of Westbrook's citizens, including my own mother's second marriage in 1980.  Clarke made a comment to mom about their shared name, and they joked together about the possibility of a relation.

Bill officially gained ownership of the house and farm in August 1977, when his elderly mother and two siblings deeded the land to him and Jackie.

Bill Clarke passed in 1996, and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the family plot with his parents and siblings.  He is fondly remembered by many in Westbrook for his kind nature and encyclopedic mind. A couple years before his passing, Wayside Drive in Westbrook was renamed "William L Clarke Drive".

WILLIAM L. CLARKE DRIVE
(FORMERLY WAYSIDE DRIVE)

Paternal Ancestry of Bill Clarke

Bill was born to bookkeeper Lee Clarke, an immigrant to Maine originally from New Canaan, New Brunswick, Canada.  Lee's father, Gesner Abner Clark, grandfather Charles Clark, and great grandfather Nehemiah Clark, were all born in New Brunswick as well.

Bill's father Lee is shown in this family photo, he's second from the right, amongst his brothers.  In the second row is seated Gesner and his wife Melissa.  (Courtesy of Haddon Clarke family)

Nehemiah's father, Elias Clark, was from Hartford Connecticut, and appears to have migrated to New Brunswick, Canada in 1779, just after the Revolution.  This could one day bring me to a Connecticut connection between my family and his.  One thing I've learned, is that Elias' father was named Joseph Clark, but he is not to be confused with a Joseph Clark III of Middletown.  This Joseph was indeed an indirect ancestor of mine, and records and DNA testing have proven to me that Elias is not the son of this Joseph.  However, it's possible that this Joseph of Hartford (born abt 1730) may also be a relation, yet likely more distant.

The Future of the Clarke Farmhouse

Mr. Clarke's farm and house lot was sold to Risbara Construction in January of 2014.  There are currently discussions of converting the property into a mixed use development (and there are mixed reactions to this among the City's residents).

DRAWING OF PROPOSED FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

SOURCES:

Westbrook Historical Society

U.S. Federal Census Records

Census of Canada

Maine Birth Records

Maine Death Records

Ancestry Family Trees

U.S. Social Security Death Index

U.S. Naturalization Records

Cumberland County Registry of Deeds

Portland Press Herald

American Journal

Google Earth

Rumored Indian Blood in the Clarke, Morgan and Morrill families

WONALANCET
SANDWICH, NEW HAMPSHIRE

18TH CENTURY ILLUSTRATION OF ALGONQUIAN PEOPLE

Does Emily Temm-Clarke have Indian Blood, stemming from family stories about this, and witnessing her high cheekbones and large body?

Short Answer:  No, not at all.  This family link does not have Indian roots, after running DNA tests.  My family story of being linked to Indians is nothing more than fiction, and a very common story among most White American families.

Long Answer below, with all research...

This blogpost is a place for my research on the rumored Indian ancestry in my family, coming through my maternal grandmother, Emily Temm-Clarke, and my theory at one time that it might lie with my grandma Emily's maternal great grandmother, Sally Elliot-Morrill, born to Benjamin Elliot and Susannah Drew of Sandwich, New Hampshire in 1805, wife of Jonathan Smythe Morrill of Tuftonboro, and later of Portland Maine.  Jonathan and Sally are the forefathers of a large number of Greater Portland Morrills.

As mentioned in an earlier post, if you ask any White American about his ancestry, they will most definitely tell you that they are "part Native American".  I've had fun with these people, trying to get proof for their claims, but the best that most can offer is that Grandma told them there was a "Cherokee Indian Princess" in there somewhere.  Occasionally someone offers up some DNA proof, and I've even helped some people find verifiable links to Indian census rolls .  It can happen, of course, but not nearly as much as we might wish.

The story I always heard in my family while growing up was that somewhere on Grandma Emily's side of the family, we are from the "Blackfoot Tribe".   As a child, it sounded interesting enough to me.  As a moody teenager searching for validation, I began to adopt the idea as fact, and believed myself to be special in some way, given that I already had been told that my dad's side of the family had Mayflower roots (a rumor I was able to prove true - many times over - with a lot of help from cousins, and digging through many old records).  As a teenager, though, I found it fascinating to imagine myself as descending both from native people and from those who colonized.

At some point after I began college in NYC, I was at the public library, where I was approached by a very obvious looking American Indian, who told me that I appeared to have some measure of Indian features, and that I should join the YMCA Thunderbirds, who could supposedly help me determine the truth of it all...with the ultimate goal of my being able to apply for government scholarships for college, since American Indians can apply for grants for that purpose, of course depending on how much native blood you can prove to posess.

I never took the kind man up on his offer, and my own independent research later led me to learn that Blackfoot Nation is located in Montana.  Was some ancestor of mine from Montana?  Did they later 'drift' to New England??  Was there even a connection?  Or, more likely, was this all an exotic story that had been passed down many generations?  I didn't know or care enough at the time to pursue it further.  However, while still in college, in one last ditch effort to try and secure government cash for my schooling, I went to my 86 year old Grandma Emily, and asked her, "Hey Gram, what tribe of Indian are we anyway?"

EMILY TEMM-CLARKE
HOLDING BABY ME (1970)

"INDIAN??  I ain't no GAWWWD damned Indian!!" was her reply...and that was that!

Now, this is quite contrary to what she had supposedly told my mother growing up.  So, blame it on a bit of senility, or exaggerated family folklore, but I was still left to sit on that for several years, until it became a pet project of mine as a family researcher.

Many have looked at the picture above and have said "How can she deny being part Indian?"  Those tough features, high cheekbones and all...but the woman above was born to parents who were deemed "WHITE" on all available records.  Her father, John Henry Temm, was half German, half Scottish, and I have records backing that up.

Her mother, Hattie Morgan Temm, was, as far as I could tell from my research, purely of English/Welsh stock.  However, she does appear quite dark in the below sepia-tone photo, but that could be easily blamed on photography:

HATTIE MORGAN-TEMM

Hattie's father, William Sanford Morgan, looks white (and is clearly the source of my gramma's high cheekbones).  He is proven to be of English and Welsh blood by many dozens of available records:

WILLIAM SANFORD MORGAN

Hattie's mother (and William's spouse), Emily Morrill, daughter to Sally Elliot, looks white too...but perhaps there's a small amount of something else there?

Hattie's sister, Adelaide Morgan-Simpson, also looks white, but carries that same 'big rough face and high cheekbones' as the other ladies:

Adelaide's only child, Emily Simpson-Pease, actually looks kind of dark (but perhaps it's also the tone of the photo?), when HER father was white and of direct British descent:

I had my mother do a maternal DNA (mtDNA) test.  This would serve to show a link to ancient racial migration patterns, but only to her direct maternal line...which would include all the ladies pictured above.

Her group came up as "Haplogroup X2b4".  Now, A, B, C, D, and some of X are all associated with migratory Siberian Asian people that settled in the Americas as the first, "Native Americans"...for lack of a better term.  But some women in Haplogroup X are also linked to European people, so much research had to be done to create the above group X2b4, to narrow this down (this occurred in 2015).

Now, the Ossipee Nation (one of the 12 tribes of Algonquian/Eastern Abenaki Indians) was located on Lake Winnepesaukee tributary known as the Melvin River.  My thought was that Sally may have been associated with this tribe, given the proximity.  A poem by John Greenleaf Whittier describes the famous Indian Grave by the Lake where they found the bones of a seven foot Indian and placed a memorial stone.

I've been satisfied, though, with the DNA research above, completed in 2015, that there is most definitely no Native American blood in my family.  Looks like my Grandma Emily was correct after all.  She wasn't no "GAWWWD Damned Indian".

John Ozias Clark

JOHN OZIAS CLARK (ABT 1920)

WITH YOUNGEST DAUGHTER SUSAN ELECTA CLARK-DUBE-RUSHLOW

John Ozias Clark (1847-1926) was a man of controversy in the Clark family.  He is the patriarch  to one of the largest Clark legacies in Connecticut, having fathered at least 15 children, many of whom told stories of sadness over how they were treated, many others of whom defended him and his actions.

John was born the summer of 1847, the third of twelve children born to Leonard & Esther Clark of East Haddam. He fought in the 20th Connecticut Regiment in the Civil War alongside his father, and married Alice Emerline Rose shortly afterwards.  John and Alice had 6 children:

1. SARAH ADELE CLARK (1869-1941).  Sarah was a spinster who lived in New Haven, and is buried at Race Hill Cemetery in North Madison, CT, alongside her mother.

FRANKLIN AND EVERETT CLARK
BROTHERS (ABOUT 1940)

2. EVERETT ROSE CLARK (1871-1949) married his second cousin, Besse Agnes Clark (who was a descendant of James A. Clark).  They had seven children, two of whom perished as babies in 1900 (having contracted disease brought on by exposure to John Ozias' sick daughter Esther, who also died in 1900, at a time when John was trying to make amends to Everett).  Everett did not get along with Besse after she had left him around 1918 and had run off with a young carpenter named George Gleason.  Everett had to raise the five surviving children by himself.  According to Everett's son Maurice, the State child welfare people came to the house to take the children away and Everett threw one of the men off the second floor of the house.  Maurice said they never came back again.  Everett considered her dead when she left. That's why he put "widower" on the 1920 Census. By the 1930 Census, he was living alone, and put himself down as Divorced.  Some of Everett's grandchildren and their descendants live in Connecticut today.

3. GEORGE L. CLARK (1873-1882).  George died very young of drowning, according to the below article excerpt from "The Connecticut Valley Advertiser" July 1, 1882:

George W. Clark, A lad nearly nine years of age, was drowned in the pond of Boise Mill last Sunday afternoon while bathing with other boys. The body was soon recovered and every means used by our village physician, Dr. Knowlton, to resuscitate, but without avail. The mother of the boy, with quite a family of small children, recently came to this village from the town farm and is in destitute circumstances. The whereabouts of the father of the children is unknown.

4. ELLEN A. CLARK (1875-1887) died at age 12.

5. HARRIET ESTHER CLARK (1878-1968).  Harriet married George McCann and remained in East Haddam.  She had five children.  One of her sons, Horace, moved to Naugatuck, CT, and had ten children of his own.

6. FRANKLIN EUGENE CLARK (1880-1958).  Frank (pictured above with his brother Everett) had a horrific accident while playing with large firecrackers as a 14 year old boy, leaving him without a right arm.  When the injury occurred, he walked by himself about 15 miles to the hospital for treatment.  Frank worked for the town of Essex, CT, for a while.  He would handle a shovel and street broom as good as anyone else.  He also handled a team of oxen...all with a hook for a right hand!  He and his wife Kathy had two daughters.

***

Judging from the article regarding George's drowning in the summer of 1882, John Ozias had likely neglected his children quite soon after fathering the last of them with Alice.  It has been said by a descendant of Everett's that John had left his children behind to work in the Neptune Twine and Cord Mill Factory, and living at the nasty tenements known as Johnsonville.  John's father, Leonard Sherman came and got them from the work farm, and raised the boys himself for a time, and also had the girls raised by cousins in Madison and Guilford.

Alice applied to the East Haddam Alms House, and was accepted into it in Aug. of 1881...when Franklin Eugene Clark was just a year old. John O. left her prior to that, obviously. Alice was in and out of the poor house three times between 1881 and 1888. When she checked in during 1888, she stayed there until Oct. 4, 1917, when she was then transferred to the CT Hospital for the Insane (now CT Valley Hospital) in Middletown. 

Now, the degradation of her mental faculties must have happened while at the Alms House, because the town historian says that being 'insane' would have actually kept you from being ADMITTED to the Alms House in the first place. Alice and John officially divorced in 1900.

Some sources state that John had claimed Alice to have been unfaithful, and that this was grounds for his desertion and divorce.  Still other sources state that Alice kept her children away from John (hard to believe, given her status as a ward of the State).  Either way, Alice remained in State custody for the rest of her life, dying in 1929 at CT Valley Hospital.  Many of her descendants were surprised to read the obituary, given that they had believed she disappeared and had abandoned them, and had no idea that she was in State custody.

Five days after divorcing his first wife, John married Antonette Rose (potentially a cousin to Alice, according to one source, and was daughter to Laura Ann Bogue, mentioned in other blog posts), and had an additional 9 children.

7.  ESTHER E. CLARK (1900-1900).  Esther was carrying a disease when John brought her to Everett's house, and infected two of Everett's babies (see above).

8.  MARION CLARK (1901-1901).  Died as an infant.

9.  HOWARD LESLIE CLARK, (1902-1936).  Howard never married, and died at age 33 in an auto accident on CT Highway 66.  From the "Middletown Press", dated 3 February 1936...

Driver Killed As Car Is Overturned...

Hadlyme Resident Crushed Beneath Roadster Sunday On Meriden Road...

Middlefield, Feb 3. - Death rode the highways of Middlesex County over the week-end and claimed as its victim Howard E. Clark, aged 31 years, of Hadlyme, who was crushed beneath a roadster he was operating which had crashed into the rear of a parked pleasure car near the Mira Meechi section on the Middletown-Meriden highway. Two passengers in the machine with Clark crawled from beneath the wreckage, both slightly injured. Clark died instantly. His head was crushed and he suffered other hurts. Coroner Lownds A. Smith conducted a preliminary investigation and today set down his inquest tentatively for Friday morning in Middletown.

Clark according to state policeman Richard C. Hall of Westbrook barracks, had spent Saturday night in Waterbury and was returning home. While driving through Meriden he stopped to pick up Salvatore LaBella, of 650 High Street and Leo Solito, of 31 North Main Street, both of Middletown, who had been in the silver city attending a social function. They did not know him.

Clark's passengers told the state policeman afterwards that they were sorry that they accepted the lift and were frightened throughout the journey to the accident scene, because of Clark's erratic driving. They said he steered a zig-zag route and that steam from the radiator froze, obscuring the passengers vision.

Almost without warning the car crashed into a rear fender on a parked Chevrolet sedan, then continued 15 feet overturned with its occupants and swinging completely around to face west. Solito and LaBella got out unaided but Clark's body was not extricated for some time. When police and others attempted to lift the roadster, it fell apart. It was a complete wreck. Clark was identified by two motor vehicle licenses found on his person.

John J. Kenesky, who gave an address of box 254, Middletown, informed police at the crash he was seated behind the wheel of the sedan, which was owned by George Koba of Middlefield. Kenesky, Koba, Loretta Jarzabek and Antoinette Bankoski comprised the group in this car which was stopped on its own side of the highway at the time and the lights left on to let one of the young ladies out as her home was nearby. They had been in Meriden.

Kenesky said they all heard the Clark car coming and after the crash saw the wrecked roadster continue along for several feet and topple over. They summoned Anthony Bankoski and his young lady friend, who were in another parked car in a nearby yard.

The accident occurred at 12:30 A.M., on Saturday and brought a response from Middletown police headquarters. Officers Lundberg and Novak being detailed and later state policeman Hall arrived as the territory was out of the jurisdiction of Middletown police. Patrolman Lundberg and Novak assisted state trooper Hall in his investigation. No action was taken against Kenesky.

Clark leaves his mother, Mrs. Nettie Clark; four sisters, Mrs. Dennison Hall, Mrs. Araunah Tooker, Mrs. Raymond Leavenworth and Miss Rachel Clark, all of Hadlyme.

Funeral services will be held at the Jewett Funeral Home in Old Lyme Wednesday at 2 P.M., Rev. Rawson Holgate will officiate. Burial will be in the Chester Cemetery, East Haddam.

10. LAURA MAE CLARK (1904-1986).  Laura married Araunah Charles Tooker (nephew to Lizzie Tooker, who married John Ozias' younger brother Niles) and was a lifelong resident of Hadlyme.  They had only one child, Freda Electa Tooker, who died as an infant.

11. RACHEL ESME CLARK (1906-1986).  Rachel married Ralph Ramon Tooker (brother to Araunah) and lived in Norwich.  She worked as a housekeeper for private homes in Lyme.  They had two children (Nathaniel, who died as a teenager, and Laura, who had three children).

12. LEILA BELLE CLARK (1908-1985).  Leila Belle married to a Dennison Edmund Hall, and later to a Searles Dean.

13. HAZEL ALBERTA CLARK (1910-1970).  Hazel married a Raymond Leavenworth, and had no children.

14. JOHN OZIAS CLARK (1913-1913).  Died as an infant.

15. SUSAN ELECTA CLARK (1915-1965).  Susan is pictured above with her father.  She married twice, to a Robert Dube and to a Raymond Rushlow.  She had one daughter, Virginia.  Susan died on her 50th birthday.

***

There was mention made of John having had yet another two families in Vermont.

John Ozias worked as a farm laborer, carpenter, and mason-tender.  He lived for a time in Westboro, MA, Alburgh and St. Albans, VT, and Norwich, Bozrah, and Guilford CT, but he lived his final years in East Haddam. When he died of paralytic shock, two of his children from his first marriage refused to attend the funeral, stating that their father was an evil man for abandoning them in favor of his second family, and for committing Alice.

The family of one of his daughters held on to the land that John owned on Clark Road in Hadlyme, CT, although the house is no longer there. John was 5'9", blue eyes, auburn hair.

GRAVE OF JOHN OZIAS CLARK,
2ND WIFE NETTIE ROSE CLARK
and three infants (Esther, Marion & John)
PARKER HILL CEMETERY
EAST HADDAM, CT

Red Clark

LEONARD SHERMAN CLARK
ABT 1946

-Leonard Sherman Clark (1899 – 1974) was named after his grandfather Leonard Sherman Clark, yet was nicknamed "Red", due to his red hair.  In his later years, he simply went by "LS Clark".

Red was born in 1899 to parents Niles Martin Clark and Lizzie Tooker of East Haddam, CT.  His father Niles died when Red was just 11 years old.  It was around that time that Lizzie put Red (and his four brothers) into work home orphanages.  Much of the very colorful story below was provided to me from his sons.

By the age of 11 (and less than a year before his father had died) Red was living at the County Temporary Home for Boys in Haddam, CT.  This was the type of work farm where boys would often be given short or long term assignments to live/work in various homes in the community, where they would earn their room and board by doing odd jobs, and often times would be exploited or abused by their keepers.  As Red had told the story to his boys, this youth of his was all about "slave labor", and that he always resented his mother for putting he and his brothers in orphanages, while she, after Niles had passed, squandered the family money on her second husband, Mr. Folger, who was 20 years her junior.  (Still don't know Folger's first name).

Red's first job the Home had sent him to was with a man named Captain Adams who had a residence on Clark's Hill in East Haddam.  When Captain Adams died, Red was returned to the Home.  He then was employed out to a farmer, where Red had problems getting along with the other help there, including a boy by the name of Mike Cavanaugh. Their constant fighting was the cause of Red being returned to the Home again.

At this point he was assigned to work at the home of what he called the 'three old maids', who were old spinster women.  One of the old maids, named Adele, had a lover and it appears that one day Red walked in on them in a "compromising circumstance".  The man was a big German fellow and Red suspected him to be a German Spy.  Anti-German sentiment was building in the USA all throughout the 1910s, of course.  The German fellow took off his belt and was getting ready to beat Red, but Red got the jump on him and smashed a big ceramic vase on his head.  Thinking he had killed the German, Red did not go back to the Home, but instead ran away entirely, deciding just to find a job (unsure how old he was at this point). Before running away, however, he saw a small stash of money that the three old maids kept in a jar, and promptly bought himself a cowboy hat to wear on his new journeys.

After running away he went to Hartford to find work.  He claimed to his sons that a doctor hired him after hearing his long story, to do some odd jobs, on the condition that he would attend High School at night.  This doctor put him on a road to appreciating education, and Red had always credited the doctor for inspiring him to continue his education, which led him to his ultimate career as an industrial engineer.  

In January of 1916, he enlisted in the Navy at age 16 1/2, but had lied about his age in order to enlist.  American participation in WWI happened just fifteen months later.  After the War, in 1920, he was back living with his mother, Lizzie Tooker, who was by then on her third husband, and living in Redbank, South Portland, Maine.  I believe he stayed in the South Portland area for several years.

RED AND ANNE CLARK
TEMPE, ARIZONA
1964

In early 1929, during the height of the Depression, he moved to Newburgh, New York (to be closer to his elder sister Claudia while she was between husbands).  Through Claudia he met and married a co-worker of hers from the sewing shop, Anna Marie Repko (who was from New Windsor just to the south, and was born to Austro-Czech parents Michael Repko and Susan Mueller), and had five children.  When Leonard married Anna in October of 1929, he was working as an accountant, and after the wedding, Leonard started work as a office manager at Moore Printing Company, then later a car salesman at Newburgh Auto Sales, and a few years later was working with the WPA.

FIRST HOME OF RED AND ANNE CLARK
90 MONTGOMERY STREET
(HERE COVERED IN SCAFFOLDING)
NEWBURGH, NY

38 QUASSAICK AVENUE
NEW WINDSOR, NY

173 LANDER STREET
(2ND HOUSE IN)
NEWBURGH, NY

In 1930, Red and Anne moved to 90 Montgomery Street in Newburgh (just a few doors down from Claudia), then a year later, they moved south to 38 Quassaick Avenue in New Windsor.  In 1934, they moved back up to Newburgh, at 164 Lander Street.  Then in 1938, across the road to 173 Lander Street (at this point he was living on the other side of town from his sister Claudia).  The Clarks stayed on Lander Street until about 1942, when the family moved to Utica, NY.

Later that same year they moved to Arlington, Texas, where Leonard worked as an Industrial Engineer for the War Manpower Commission, setting up assembly lines on war planes fighters. Leonard was investigated by the FBI for being a communist sympathizer in the 40s, which was an unfortunate case of mistaken identity (there were many Leonard Clarks out there).  The FBI cleared him of all charges, but during this time, it was discovered that he had lied about his age on the WWI enlistment papers nearly three decades ago, and was dishonorably discharged.

When WWII was over the family moved south to Hondo, Texas, where Leonard worked for Texas Employers Insurance Association as a Safety Engineer.  About 1947 the family moved east to Beaumont, Texas where Leonard then worked as a Encyclopedia Salesman.  As his son states, he made a fortune in the encyclopedia business and that he could "sell snowballs to Eskimos".  Leonard was fond of gambling, unfortunately, so the family saw very little of what he made.  However, his kids do have fond memories that their father loved them all dearly and that they never wanted for affection or food.

FINAL HOME OF RED CLARK
1645 E. MONTECITO
PHOENIX, AZ

Eventually, after working many sales and life insurance jobs, he wound up in Corpus Christi, TX in the mid 1950's.  In 1960, at 61 years of age, he and Anne moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where Leonard work for less than a year as an industrial engineer at Goodyear Aerospace at NAS Litchfield Park, Arizona, until his retirement around 1962.  He was a longtime member of National Safety Engineers Society.  His wife Anne became the breadwinner in their later years, working as a sewing machine operator for Penn-Mor Inc. (J.C. Penney's).  It was said that she could sew 1680 pairs of ladies' panties in a single eight hour shift!

After Red passed in 1974, Anna worked hard to get his dishonorable discharge reverted and she was successful.  He received an honorable discharge posthumously from President Jimmy Carter.  At the time of his death, he had five children, nine grandchildren and a great grandchild.  His and Anna's ashes are interred at Green Acres in Scottsdale, AZ

The story of Red Clark is interesting to me, given that he was so influenced by continuing education, and a career in science.  This is quite a different life than what his blue collar siblings and forefathers lived.

Clarke Bars

FRANK CLARKE
HARD AT WORK
about 1960

My grandfather, Frank Clarke, was, among other things, a moonshine dealer in the Greater Portland area during Prohibition and afterwards.  The basement of the old house on Payne Road in Scarborough was a haven for illegal 'white lightning' production.  Many in the family were unaware of this side hustle.  My mother spoke of her father Frank loading up the back of his truck with produce and meat from the family farm, and jars of root beer, all for sale, and underneath the blanket there was always a row of bottles of the Clarke "home brew" for sale to places like the St. Regis Hotel in Portland and some of the merchant seamen houses along the waterfront, which were referred to by my mother as "houses of ill repute".

The tradition of Clarke liquor dealings carried through to three of Frank's children, all siblings to my mother, and all of whom have passed away.  It is no coincidence at all that they were also three of the heaviest drinkers in the family.  They each managed and owned a number of bars throughout their lives.  Each of these bars was successful in its own laid back, neighborly way.  They were not fancy places, but typically very friendly dive bars, sometimes in seedier parts of town.

WILLIAM ARTHUR CLARKE
1936-2011

My Uncle Billy, once he finished up with the Navy, settled in Sanford Florida with his family, yet ultimately moved to Meridian Mississippi in the late 60's.  While there, he opened up small and informal local bars around town.  One of his bars caught on fire (need to get this story).  Another of his bars, the "Bar-B-Q Pit" was in Lauderdale, and is now known as "Jimmy's Pub & Grub", but appears to have now closed down.  One thing Uncle Billy always said was "Let's go on down to the bar and tell some lies!"

FORMER BAR-B-Q- PIT
(ABANDONED AS OF 2019 DUE TO FIRE)
LAUDERDALE, MS

BARS ON 8TH AVENUE
MERIDIAN, MS

These two buildings pictured on 8th Avenue in Meridian were both bar businesses owned by my Uncle Billy.  The one on the right was always known as Bill's Lounge.  The one on the left wasn't owned long by Billy, since he sold it to his sister Florence Clarke-Brewer, for $1.00.  This bar (Flo's Lounge) is still in business, with a new name and ownership ("Suga Shak").  It has been cleaned up nicely inside, but still has a decidedly humble feel to it.

FLO'S LOUNGE (NOW 'SUGA SHAK')
MERIDIAN, MS

FLORENCE MAY CLARKE-BREWER
1929-1987

AUNT FLO AT FLO'S LOUNGE
(ABOUT 1980)

POLAROID ON WALL
AUNT FLORENCE AT THE BAR
FLO'S LOUNGE
ON WALL OF FLO'S LOUNGE
ABOUT 1975

My aunt Florence, whom I only met a few times, I really connected with.  She was a fun loving lady, but a big fan of the beer.  As mentioned above, she bought Flo's Lounge (still in business today) from her brother for $1.00, and ran the bar for over fifteen years.  She died in January 1987 in a tragic car accident on Route 39, having been hit by a drunk driver.

The sign above declaring that it's Miller Time at Flo's Lounge, was still up on the wall until at least 2012.  She was a very popular lady, and the patrons of the current bar still remember her when I spoke to them during my visit in September of that year.  As of 2017, the bar is under different ownership and name, but it was fun to meet these new owners during my visit there, and tell them about the history.

BUTCH BENNETT
(ABOUT 1960)

My aunt Marilyn was always known by her very appropriate nickname, "Butch", or if you were my Grammy Clarke, you would call her "Putchy".  She lived in Boston most of her life.  She was a tough character, and was reputed to have beaten up a few cops in her day.  Aside from her rough exterior, she was a sweet lady to her family, and did anything necessary to take care of her own.  Basically, if I were ever in a fight, and Butch were there, I'm certain I wouldn't have to lift a finger, and the other guy would end up in the hospital.

I got to stay with Aunt Butch a couple times when I was in a summer program at Boston University.  I have fond memories of her loving, giving nature, and also of her pirate-like language.  I remember her driving me home to Maine from Boston after one visit, and she sang along with the radio while I slept in the front seat.  Her terrible, off key, singing kept me entertained as I drifted off to sleep.  Looking back on that time, I wonder if she had been driving under the influence of beer...

CLOCK TAVERN
SOUTH BOSTON

CLOCK TAVERN
(INTERIOR)

For many years, she was a regular at Clock Tavern at 345 West Broadway in South Boston, a bar which at the time was owned by Irish nuns, believe it or not.  The Sisters lived upstairs from the bar.  Around 1990, when the sisters were getting on in age, they sold the bar to Butch.  Butch oversaw a massive renovation of the bar, knowing all the while it was a competitor with the very popular, and swankier, Shenanigan's Pub next door.  She opened the pub early, at 8:00 a.m., and stayed open until about 11:30pm, every night, when other bars would close much earlier during those days.

The Clock was her passion, and she was a very popular bar owner and bartender (and frequent bouncer!).  The draw of the Clock was in its simplicity.  It was the quiet, seedier dive bar you went to with your friends to play darts and pool, listen to the jukebox and drink cheap beer.

My Uncle Billy, my Aunt Flo, and my Aunt Butch are very much missed by our family.  If they were still here today, I would definitely be interviewing them for this blog page.

The Clukey Fire of 1949

The tragic story of George F. Clukey of Vinegar Road, Scarborough, is part of the eerier fabric of the Town of Scarborough.  Mr. Clukey was a neighbor to my grandparents, Frank and Emily Clarke, who lived around the corner from him on Payne Road.

On March 21, 1949, a terrible fire quickly consumed the single-story Clukey shanty house on Vinegar Road near the Payne Road intersection.  Mrs. Marjorie Clukey and her two daughters had reportedly escaped the blaze in time, but unfortunately, her husband, dump picker and WWII veteran George F. Clukey, perished in the blaze. 

On the evening of the 21st, Mrs. Clukey went to the police immediately after the house fire to file an arson warrant against her husband.  She testified to the police that there had been an altercation, and that George had been flinging kerosene all over the walls in a drunken rage, and that she had run from the house to get away from him, also stating that she didn't see him go back into the house.

Young children later exploring the burned building discovered his charred remains, along with the family dog lying dead next to his head.  George's wife Marjorie (along with her two brothers) identified the body only by witnessing the belt buckle and ring still stuck to the body

The fire left nothing but ash.  Mrs. Clukey and her two children had only the clothes on their backs, and stayed at a neighbor's house.  Mr. Clukey's death was ruled accidental.

MARJORIE CLUKEY
PHOTOGRAPHED AFTER THE BLAZE

My mother (then aged nine), and her parents remembered having been interviewed by police and the local papers not long after the fire.

Two days after the fire, the police arrested neighboring pig farmer Robert B. Curlew for setting the blaze, with the motive of being an "admirer" of Mrs. Clukey.  Mr. Clukey's body was then reexamined for potential evidence of manslaughter.

The suspicion of Mr. Curlew was triggered by none other than Mrs. Clukey, who had claimed she saw Mr. Curlew strike her husband and set fire to the home.  This was contrary to her testimony of the day of the fire whereby she claimed she saw her husband set fire to the home.

In her secondary testimony, she claimed that her husband was angry that Curlew had taken Mrs. Clukey for a ride in his truck to get slab wood, and that the altercation proceeded from there, with Curlew taking a one gallon glass jug of kerosene and hitting Mr. Clukey on the head with it, and then setting the house on fire.  Questioning revealed that Mr. Curlew had a romantic interest in Mrs. Clukey.

After many witnesses and neighbors were questioned, the county attorney obtained testimony that eyewitnesses had seen Curlew arguing with Mr. Clukey outside the Clukey house about an hour before the fire broke out, and that they heard a loud thud, screaming, dog barking, the fire breaking out, and the sound of Mr. Clukey breaking a window and yelling for help.  They also mentioned that Mrs. Clukey had brought her two children over to be watched by a neighbor prior to the argument.  The neighbors didn't help Mr. Clukey escape, since the authorities were not contacted at the time of the fire, but their eyewitness account helped the police determine that the death wasn't a suicide after all, and that Mr. Clukey wasn't likely the one to have committed the violence.

One week after the blaze, on the 28th, Mrs. Clukey was then deemed to be within suspicion of felony charges.  She was questioned repeatedly about the events, and about her recanting of testimony, while the pig farmer remained in jail.  It was at that point that they arrested Mrs. Clukey for being an accomplice to murder.

MRS. CLUKEY BEING BROUGHT TO JAIL
28 MARCH 1949

Mrs. Clukey's testimony included allegations that her husband had beat and neglected her and her children.  Two years prior, on February 14, 1947, she had filed a warrant charging her husband of non-support of his wife and child, and he was arrested by William Chase of the Scarborough Police.  Quite a Valentine's Day present...

Her testimony further alleged that she had planned the murder with Curlew for several weeks prior to the killing, and that her request for an arson warrant against her husband immediately after the fire was part of the strategy to make the murder look like a suicide.  She also admitted that, as her husband lay there with his head injury and Curlew spread the kerosene around the shack, she regretted her actions and swore to her dying husband that she wouldn't "marry Bobby."

She also admitted that Curlew had begun providing for her and her children months prior to the fire.  She viewed him as a nicer man to whom she was indebted.  The prosecutor in the case insisted, however, that Mrs. Clukey was merely leading Curlew on, giving him false hope of a marriage with her, in the hope that he would assist her with the killing.

Mrs. Clukey was held for a month in jail while awaiting the grand jury decision.  In the meantime, Curlew's case was continued five times, and took several weeks to resolve.  His case didn't come up for two months, not until May 23.  According to the prosecutor, a mere $60 would have paid for the divorce that would have extricated Mrs. Clukey from her marriage.  It's unlikely that she would have been able to afford it, though.  To that end, Curlew reportedly had offered to pay $2 per week for the divorce fund.

The jury in Curlew's case, which was difficult to secure given the popularity of the case and the number of 'talesmen' out there looking to tell lies, was sequestered for two days and nights in the Falmouth Hotel on Middle Street in Portland, as the case continued.  It was believed that the case would go on for at least a week.  Fifteen witnesses were called to testify against Curlew, including Robin and James Clukey (brothers of the deceased), Roy Chandler, Harry and Florence Richardson, and Harold and Louise Moulton, all neighbors of the deceased.

Among the witnesses was Mrs. Clukey herself, who quoted Curlew as saying to her, on the night of the murder "Don't worry about him, if he comes home drunk, you can hit him with a club or a jug or a gun butt and set fire to the place and make it look like a suicide."

The verdict came back quicker than expected.  Bill Curlew was given two to four years in the State prison, while Mrs. Clukey was given two years at the Skowhegan Reformatory.  Marjorie's two daughters were to be raised in foster care.  The 1950 Census has 4-year old Phyllis Clukey living with my cousin Leon Ahlquist and his wife Mary.  In 1958, nine years after the murder, Marjorie married Forrest "Boy" Tedford of Portland (originally from VT), and they lived at 92 Danforth Street in the West End.  For some reason they remarried in 1980.  Her husband Boy died in 1990, and Marjorie died in 2003 while living at 128 Grant Street.  It's unclear if she ever reunited with her daughters, or if they perhaps had been given different names due to the scandal.  Mr. Curlew died in 1990.

On Christmas of the year following the murder, George Clukey's parents and siblings posted the following "IN MEMORIAM" in the Portland Press Herald:

In February of 1950, about one year after the murder, the Town of Scarborough seized the Clukey property on the basis of back taxes having been owed since 1947 in the amount of $11.25.

Vinegar Road

As mentioned above, the site of the murder was in Mr. Clukey's shanty home on Vinegar Road in Scarborough.  Around 1800, the road was sardonically given its name due to the vinegar operations of Nehemiah Libby.  Libby had lived on the road (on the property later owned by George Pilsbury) and produced the town's vinegar.   He would use the road to transport his kegs to market, and took ownership of the road in this manner, which was met with much objection from the townspeople.  Those objecting to Libby's ownership of the road began calling it Vinegar Road as a joke (according to Libby Family in America (1881)).

In March of 1951, however, exactly two years after the Clukey murder, the Town of Scarborough elected to extend the road - making it expand from the Saco line to the Payne Road, and also to change the name of the road to "Holmes Road", which was already the name of the other part of the road.  I wonder if this name change was due to the scandal.  Hearsay from a Scarborough resident in 2011 tells the story that a property owner on Vinegar Road at the time had believed their home would be viewed as more valuable if the road's name was changed, but many local residents still referred to it as Vinegar Road for many years afterward.

Copycat Killing?

Shortly after the news of the cause of the fire was published, a Portland woman named Mrs. Madeline Ladrigan of Portland was found burned to death by kerosene in the cabin of woodsman Louis H. O'Brion off the Hardy Road in Falmouth.  The two were having an affair while the woman's husband was in Boston, and were drunk on whiskey and beer.

The Cumberland County Sheriff's office treated the Ladrigan case and the Clukey case as a double investigation.  The Ladrigan case was settled within a week, however, when the autopsy revealed the large amount of liquor consumed, and the kerosene stove having been on since she had been cooking dinner.

Whatever George Clukey did to his wife, he did not deserve to be burned to death.  It's a sad and eerie story, and will always be a part of Scarborough's history.

SITE OF FORMER CLUKEY HOUSE
BRIDGES ROAD
(formerly part of Vinegar/Holmes Road)
SCARBOROUGH, MAINE

SOME CHARRED REMAINS
FROM THE CLUKEY HOUSE
REMAINING AT THE SITE

CLUKEY GRAVE
FOREST CITY CEMETERY
SOUTH PORTLAND, MAINE

Sources:

The Libby Family in America

Maine Marriage Records

Maine Birth Records

U.S. WWII Army Enlistment Records

U.S. Census Records

Portland City Directories

Portland Press Herald Newspaper