The Clark Family of Smethport, Pennsylvania

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It is a confirmed tradition that this family came from Devon, England, from near Plymouth. Burke says: “The Clarks of Buckland were from the north, I believe from Elgin. They settled down in Devon some time in 1500, are worthy upright people”. From another source: “The Clarks have never been an uppish pretentious people; most of them farmers; plain, simple honest people, always well enough off in a worldly sense to show them able to take care of themselves without following mean occupations and poor enough to show they are not grabbers of everything in sight”.

(I) Samuel Clark

Samuel Clark was born in 1619 in Devonshire, England, came to Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1636, and was one of twenty men who settled at Ripponwams, now Stamford, Connecticut, May 16, 1640, having become dissatisfied with the Wethersfield Colony. They purchased lands of the Indian chiefs, Ponus and Toguamske, for thirty pounds in July, 1640. He appears in the list of pioneers to the end of 1642. He is believed to have lived in Milford, Connecticut, in 1669, then moved to Hempstead, Long Island, and to have lived in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1685, died 1690. He married Hannah, daughter of Rev. Robert Fordham.

(II) William Clark

William, son of Samuel Clark, was born in 1645 in Stamford, Connecticut, died in Bedford, New York, 1712. He removed to Bedford, Westchester county, New York, where he was one of the sixteen men who on December 23, 1680, purchased from the Indians the present township of Bedford, then called the hop lands. A part of this purchase is yet held and resided upon by a descendant, John Green Clark. They organized a Congregational church in 1680. On April 8, 1704, Queen Anne confirmed the town of Bedford twenty-three thousand acres to its twenty-nine land holders, three of whom were two Williams and Nathan Clark. He married and had sons:

Sons of William Clark

  1. William Clark. Married Hannah and had:
    1. John Clark.
    2. William Clark.
    3. Ebenezer Clark.
    4. David Clark.
    5. Joseph Clark.
  2. Nathan Clark. Of whom further.
  3. Joseph Clark. Born about 1680; his name is found on several conveyances including a deed to twelve acres of upland, November 26, 1703, “upon ye Ridge called Clark’s Ridge, part of ye land laid out to ye said Clark’s honoured father William Clark, senior”.

(III) Nathan Clark

Nathan, son of William Clark, was born at Stamford, Connecticut, 1676. His will is dated April 29, 1726. He came to Bedford with his parents when he was five years of age. He is said to have lived several years after making his will in 1726 and during his last illness made a new will which was worthless, he being too feeble to affix his signature. He was one of the twenty-nine land holders of Bedford to whom Queen Anne confirmed twenty-three thousand acres of land, April 8, 1704. He held several town offices and was a large land owner. His first wife Clemence died about 1709. He married a second wife whom he probably survived as she is not mentioned in his will.

Children of Nathan Clark named in his will

  1. Stephen Clark. Born 1701.
  2. Nathan Clark.
  3. Sylvanus Clark. Died a young man.
  4. Jehiel Clark. Born 1711.
  5. Joseph Clark. Of whom further.
  6. Nathaniel Clark. Born 1714.
  7. Elizabeth Clark.
  8. Deborah Clark. Born 1718.
  9. Abigail Clark.
  10. Esther Clark.
  11. Comfort Clark.

(IV) Joseph Clark

Joseph, son of Nathan Clark, was born in Bedford, Westchester county, New York, in 1713, died there April 18, 1791. He and his wife were brought up near neighbors in Bedford, and after their marriage settled on the farm at Copps Bottom about one mile west of the village where they spent the remainder of their lives. He married Sarah, daughter of Jacob Smith. She died of palsy, April, 1796.

Children of Joseph and Sarah Clark

  1. Ezra Clark. Died a young man.
  2. James Clark. A land surveyor, married Betsey Boulton; he settled in Western New York. Children:
    1. Twelve children. Names not given.
  3. Abigail Clark. Married John Mills. Children:
    1. Ten children. Names not given; one child settled in Sullivan county, New York.
  4. Anna Clark. Born July 1, 1742, died August 26, 1802; married Moses St. John, an elder of the Presbyterian church. Children:
    1. Eleven children. Names not given.
  5. Joseph Clark. Of whom further.
  6. Nathan Clark. Born December 19, 1754, was a revolutionary pensioner; married Lydia, daughter of Joseph and Deborah (Clark) Holmes.

(V) Joseph (2) Clark

Joseph (2), son of Joseph (1) Clark, was born in Bedford, Westchester county, New York, 1753, died 1821. He lived on the Clark homestead all his life. He married Hannah Clock, of Connecticut, born 1760, died 1825.

Children of Joseph (2) and Hannah (Clock) Clark

  1. Ezra Clark. Of whom further.
  2. Lewis Clark. Married Catherine Whitney.
  3. Bertha Clark. Married Jehiel Canfield.
  4. Clara Clark. Married Caleb K. Hobbs.
  5. Phoebe Clark. Married John Bussing.
  6. Hannah Clark. Married Abial Raymond.
  7. John Clark. Married Lucy Mead. His son:
    1. John Green Clark. Now lives on the old homestead farm at Bedford which has been in the family over two hundred years; the home in which he lives is over one hundred years old and there have been eight generations of Clarks baptized in the Presbyterian church at Bedford.
  8. Anna Clark. Married James Home.
  9. Joseph Clark. Had three wives.
  10. Ira Clark. Married Eliza Backby.

(VI) Ezra Clark

Ezra, son of Joseph (2) Clark, was born in Bedford, Westchester county, New York, September 11, 1779, died 1858 in Sidney, New York, or Pennsylvania. He was a farmer and a lumberman. After leaving Bedford he settled in Bainbridge, New York, afterward moving to Sidney where he spent the greater part of his life. He married (first) Banks; married (second) April 26, 1807, Mary Foote, born September 24, 1776, died May 8, 1858, in Bainbridge, New York, a member of the Presbyterian church. She was a daughter of a West Point officer serving on the staff of General Washington.

Children of Ezra Clark and his first wife

  1. Mary Clark. Married Roland Brown.
  2. Sallie Clark. Married a Mr. Northup.
  3. Samuel Clark.
  4. Edward Clark. Twin of Samuel.

Children of Ezra and Mary (Foote) Clark

  1. Eliza Clark. Married (first) Samuel Porter, no issue; married (second) Dr. William Purington and had a daughter:
    1. Georgianna Purington.
  2. Joseph Foote Clark. Of whom further.
  3. Susan Clark. Married William Wier, of Elmira, New York, and had a daughter:
    1. Kate Ellen Wier.
  4. Henry Clark. Died in 1907, aged over ninety; married Ellen Curtis, of Bainbridge, New York, who still survives him. Children:
    1. George Clark.
    2. Charles Clark.
    3. Josephine Clark.
  5. Catherine Clark. Married William Wier. Children:
    1. Alice Wier.
    2. William Wier.
    3. Fred Wier.

These children of his second wife were all born either in Bainbridge or Sidney, New York.

(VII) Joseph Foote Clark

Joseph Foote, son of Ezra Clark, was born in Bainbridge, Chenango county, New York, July 1, 1810. He was educated in the public schools finishing with a course at Sidney Academy. He early entered mercantile life, and at the time of his marriage owned and was conducting a dry goods store at Sidney, Delaware county, New York, about 1831 or 1832. He was also proprietor of a store at Smethport, Pennsylvania. At the time of the oil discoveries in Pennsylvania he owned land at Bradford which became oil property. He was very successful and continued his operations in oil until his death. He owned at one time over eight hundred acres of land in Bradford and vicinity, and at his death this was amicably divided among his heirs. The old homestead in Bedford is now occupied by his daughter, Mary Elizabeth Clark. In his final sickness he returned to Binghamton, New York, where he died June 25, 1877. He was a Democrat in politics and for many years a justice of the peace.

He married Laura Louisa Phelps, born in Hebron, Tolland county, Connecticut, August 29, 1809, died 1883, daughter of Roger Phelps, son of a revolutionary soldier, born October 7, 1762, on a farm at Hebron, Connecticut, which is now and has been for seven generations owned in the Phelps family. He died September, 1846. Roger Phelps married Anna Jones, born March 20, 1765, died February 2, 1821.

Children of Roger and Anna (Jones) Phelps

All were born in Hebron, Connecticut.

  1. Anna Phelps. Born November 29, 1787, died September 9, 1850; married Andrew Mann.
  2. Betsey Phelps. Born September 25, 1790, married Allan Knapp, of Colchester, Delaware county, New York.
  3. Maria Phelps. Born March 8, 1793, died April 25, 1848; married Reuben Mann, of Hebron.
  4. Henry Phelps. Born December 1, 1795, died April 6, 1852; married (first) —– Way; married (second) Ellen Hodges.
  5. Rachel Phelps. Born January 16, 1799, died unmarried, 1868.
  6. Clarisa Phelps. Born October 31, 1801, died June 29, 1861; married Edward Way.
  7. Roger L. Phelps. Born April 12, 1805, died March 2, 1863; married Elizabeth Strong.
  8. Laura L. Phelps. Born August 29, 1809, a member of the Episcopal church, died at Binghamton; married Joseph Foote Clark.

Children of Joseph Foote and Laura Louisa (Phelps) Clark

  1. Theodore Mortier Clark. Born at Smethport, Pennsylvania, October 10, 1834, died at Kendall Creek, now a part of Bradford, Pennsylvania, June 9, 1882; he was a lumberman and a school teacher; served three years during the civil war in Company E, Fifty-eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.
  2. Junius Randolph Clark. Born at Smethport, July 24, 1836, died February 12, 1912; he was a lawyer; married (first) Ann Eliza Viely, of Jordan, New York. Children:
    1. Frederick Clark. Died young.
    2. Mortimer Clark. Married Claude Dorn and had:
      1. Lawrence Clark. Deceased.
      2. Sarah Clark. Born 1900.
      3. Fred Clark. Born 1902.
      4. Junius Clark. Born 1907.

    He married (second) Mary Morse, of Elmira, New York. Child:

    1. Paul Clark. Born 1877.
  3. Charles Randolph Clark. Born in Smethport, August 1, 1838, died at Jefferson City, Missouri, May, 1904; he was a speculator and jobber; during the civil war he served in the Pennsylvania “Bucktail” Regiment.
  4. Edward Kissam Clark. Born at Smethport, January 1, 1841, died at Binghamton, New York, May 30, 1912; married Martha Jane Seymour, of Binghamton, New York. Children:
    1. Roger Phelps Clark. Resides in Binghamton, unmarried; an attorney; was assistant counsel to Governor Hughes until the latter was appointed to the supreme court.
    2. Laura Louise Clark. Married Franklin Morgan and resides in New London, Connecticut.
    3. Charles Seymour Clark. Deceased.
    4. Anna Whitman Clark. A teacher at Lakewood, New Jersey.
    5. Joseph Foote Clark. Superintendent for Fruitt Brothers, leather jobbers of Binghamton, New York, married Grace Van Wormer.
    6. Edward Kissam Clark. Auditor of a street railway company at Worcester, Massachusetts, married Carrie Emerson.
    7. Vernon Seymour Clark. An attorney of New York City, married Laura Mahan.
    8. Florence Clark. Deceased.
    9. Mary Elizabeth Clark. Now taking a library course in Brooklyn, New York.
    10. Louis Clark. Now a student at Albany Law School.
  5. Ellen Clarissa Clark. Born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, July 31, 1843, died April 4, 1912; married William M. Hanna. Children:
    1. Genevieve Hanna. Born December 9, 1881.
    2. Junius Robert Hanna. Born November, 1883; at the time of the great earthquake in San Francisco he was a student at Stanford and the only person from that institution who lost his life in that disaster.
  6. Mary Elizabeth Clark. Of whom further.

(VIII) Mary Elizabeth Clark

Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Foote Clark, was born in Cameron county, Pennsylvania, then McKean county, September 11, 1845. She was educated in the public schools at Smethport, Pennsylvania, Bradford Academy and Elmira Female College (New York). After completing her studies she resided with her brother until 1878, then until 1880 sojourning with her mother, an invalid, at Saratoga Springs, New York. Miss Clark has traveled extensively, both at home and abroad, spending the year 1883 in Germany, and since making a more extended tour of Europe. Her American travel included a trip to California and other points of interest in the far west. She resides in Bradford at the old homestead surrounded by her share of the paternal acres.

See: Genealogy of the Allegheny Valley Pennsylvania

Source

Jordan, J. W. 1840-1921. (1913). Genealogical and personal history of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania. New York: Lewis Historical Pub. Co.

This genealogy is based upon the source cited above. Only the structure and formatting have been changed for clearer presentation; the genealogical and biographical content

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