THE CLARKS
of
Centropolis and Eight Mile Creek
{The following is an abrigement taken from Fred Clark's book}
Jacob Clark was born 28 December 1810 in Green County, Kentucky. He is the first in our Clark lineage on whom we have a definite record. Family tradition has it, however, that our Clarks originally came from North Carolina, that Jacob's father's name was William Clark, and that Jacob had two brothers, Reuben and Tilford, as well as a sister, Temperance, who married a Maulding.
There is no claim that our Clark forbears came over in the Mayflower, or were among the original Jamestown settlers, or that they were numbered among the members of any other historically distinguished or illustrious group. Ours were just plain Clarks among lots and lots of other Clarks, in fact, we are told that there were some 12,000 Clark families in the Colonies at the beginning of the American Revolution. Some say that our family name came from the occupation - clerk. Other authorities say that 'Clark' is a derivative of cleric and from the number of ministers and other church workers in the family, we imagine that they, especially, would be inclined to prefer this version.
As to European origins, Jacob's son John used to tell his children that the Clarks are Scotch-Irish 'with just a touch of snapping turtle'. Readers are left to their own conjectures as to the intended significance of claiming part 'snapping turtle' in our family heritage. Perhaps it was implying that despite an occasional slow start, we are still likely to reach destination along with, or before the more speedy but less persevering hare.
Juliann Cassandra Hungate was born 18 April 1811 in Mercer County, Kentucky, the daughter of William and Sally Coffman Hungate. Her first name is correctly spelled as one word, not Julia Ann as it has sometimes been written. This is true despite her tombstone listing as Julia A.. The record of her marriage in Hamilton County, Illinois gives her name as Juliann and her husband's last will and testament does likewise. Her sons John and William were always told this and also agreed and told their children that her middle name was Cassandra. However, there is no known official record that Cassandra was a part of her name. Possibly she just liked the sound of it and adopted it on her own.
The Hungates were English and their history "The Hungate Family" by Carroll Paul Hungate, M.D. of Kansas City, Missouri, traces Juliann's family back through Colonial days in Virginia to 1747. For further details, see the Appendix hereof.
Why the Clarks left Kentucky and moved to Southern Illinois is obscure. Although Southern Illinois land was being given in bounty land grants to veterans of the War of 1812, we find no indication that Jacob's father served in that war or received a bounty land grant. However, that is not too significant as most of the veterans never did occupy the land they got as bounty but sold the grants to realize a little ready cash. So it is likely that the Clarks merely joined a general migration to Southern Illinois in the never ending search for cheaper land and a desire to get in on the ground floor where opportunities are more abundant.
Clark Family tradition has it that when Jacob Clark began paying serious court to Juliann Hungate, her father didn't like it even one little teeny bit. Apparantly he made no effort to conceal his displeasure, but with little or no dissuading effect on the two young people involved. Youth and young love were not to be denied, the courtship progressed, and they decided their only way out was to elope.
When, as the story goes, the appointed time for elopement had arrived, Juliann had her clothes all packed and she and her mother were spending the evening spinning. Her mother finally suggested it was time to go to bed but Juliann said she'd stay up a little longer. Then she heard Jacob's whistle, the signal she had been waiting for. She was ready, but before leaving, never to return again, she went in and kissed her baby brother, and then joined her prospective husband.
Juliann and Jacob were married the next day, 30 December, 1829 in Hamilton County, Illinois (Book A. No. 127). He was 19 and she was 18 years of age. According to one account, they left the same day with the Clark Family for McDonnough County, Illinois. We are told that Juliann never saw her parents again. That Juliann had to pay such a high price for eloping with Jacob makes a sad story, indeed. However, it may not have been quite that bad, after all. When Jacob enlisted for service in the Black Hawk War in June, 1832, he enlisted from Franklin County, Illinois which borders on Hamilton County where Juliann's parents lived. So the ques- tion is - did he leave Juliann and their two children Eliza and Charles in McDonnough County while he came back to Franklin County to join up, or had they been living in Franklin County all along and only moved to McDonnough County after the Black Hawk War was over?
Jacob and Juliann lived in McDonnough County until 1838 and then moved to Andrew County, Missouri where they remained for eleven years. Then in 1849 they went to Dallas County, Iowa, near Winterset, and after living there four years, went back to Missouri. After a stay of one year in Missouri, the Clarks decided to go on the move again. They were on their way to Texas when they decided they liked what they saw in the eastern part of the Kansas Territory that was then being opened up for settlement.
Andreas' History of the State of Kansas (1883) tells us that Jacob Clark with his sons-in-law Irvin C. Hughes and Johnson Farris were in the party of fifteen men who made the first settlement in Centropolis Township, camping June 26, 1854 on Eight Mile Creek near the present site of Centropolis . The first order of business the next morning was to vote on whether Kansas should be a free or a slave state. Jacob Clark and his two sons-in-law with ten others voted for a free state. This being settled by the group, they proceeded to go about selecting their claims.
The wooded lowlands on the Eight Mile, as distinguished from the upland prairies, were chosen by the Clarks because of their ready source of logs for houses, wood for fuel, rails for fences, and because of the easy accessibility of water for all purposes. Jacob Clark went up the creek about a mile from the present site of Centropolis and preempted the 160 acres described as the SW 1/4, Sec. 19, Twp. 15 S., Range 19 East. His son-in-law, Irvin C. Hughes preempted the quarter section bordering on the east. Jacob's son Charles later acquired a farm on up the creek about a half mile from Jacob's. and son John later bought a large farm further up on the west branch about a mile from Charles' farm. We have no indication that Johnson Farris was interested in getting land right at that time as he apparantly went back to Iowa and stayed for several years before bringing his family to Centropolis. Daughter Caroline Clark McFarland lived immediately north of Jacob's farm, and in fact, the whole tribe lived in the immediate locality up until 1875 when son Henderson Clark moved his family to Oregon. None of the rest of them ever moved very far away.
As previously stated, Jacob Clark enlisted in the Black Hawk War from Franklin County, Illinois, in Capt. Bowyer's Company, 2 Reg't, 1 Brig., Ill. Mtd. Vols. with the rank of Sergeant. He enrolled 16 June 1832 and was mustered out 7 August 1832. A photocopy of his Black Hawk War record notes that at the time of mustering out, he was absent on furlough and that he owed the sutler $19.00. For the benefit of those without a dictionary handy, a sutler is a person who follows an army and sells food, liqour, etc., to the soldiers.
For this Black Hawk War service, he was granted bounty land, Warrant No. 21,953 for 40 acres near Van Meter, Iowa. Congress later authorized additional bounty land grants to bring the total up to 160 acres and on this basis Jacob was given Warrant No. 95,061 for 120 acres more in Osage County, Kansas. This new area was just a few miles southwest of Williamsburg. Both warrants were sold. After seeing photocopies of Jacob's signature on letters from Adel, Dallas County, Iowa, trying to hasten the award of the additional 120 acres, the writer suspects he came honestly by the handwriting ineptitude that has plagued him all his life.
One must admire the pioneering fortitude of Jacob and Juliann Clark in starting from absolute scratch in building a new home north of the present village of Centropolis. It was primative at the very best. We have a photocopy of the application Jacob Clark filed to pre-empt the quarter section he settled on. The application was filed 7 December 1857 and has an affidavit by Irvin C. Hughes (his son-in-law) that -
Jacob was personally known to him, that Jacob was married and had a family of children
That Jacob was a citizen and had made settlement on said land on the 28th of March 1855 by moving onto said land
That Jacob had erected a dwelling, built of logs 16 by 18 feet, one and one half stories high,
That it had a shingle roof, 2 doors, one window, the cracks are closed and it is a comfortable house to live in.
That Jacob had moved into said house with his family, beds, bedding, cooking utensils, A/C on or about 5 November 1857.
Jacob executed a similar affidavit on behalf of Irvin Hughes, who had built on the quarter section immediately east.
Jacob and his wife Juliann lived long and useful lives. We know he was independent enough, or impetuous enough to tweak his prospective (but unwilling) father-in-law's nose by eloping with his 18 year old daughter. We know he was fearless enough to leave his wife and two children while he helped defend the frontier against Black Hawk and his Indians. We know he voted with the Free State forces in deciding whether Kansas should be a Free or a Slave State. We know he did not hesitate to pick up and move when he scented greater opportunities in lands being newly opened up. Judging from his stalwart and rugged sons, he must have set a stalwart and rugged example. He died 17 February 1875 at the age of 64 years.
The heritage Juliann left is best exemplified in her four fine daughters - Eliza, Caroline, Temperance, and Elizabeth. All are remembered as admirable women. The writer person- ally remembers two of them - Aunt Temp and Aunt Liz. Juliann endured the hardships of the pioneer mother and bore up well under them. There is a story that at one time, she presided over the birth of two babies in her cabin home the same night. They were made of sterner stuff in those days - - and needed to be. Juliann lived to be over 75 years of age and died 5 May 1887. Both Juliann and her husband are buried in the Centropolis Cemetery which lies in the extreme southwest corner of the quarter section which was their Kansas home.
Jacob and Juliann had 11 children as listed below in the order of their births:
Eliza, born about 1831 in Illinois Charles, born 29 April 1932 in Illinois Temperance, born in 1834 in Illinois Caroline, born 22 April 1836 in Illinois John, born 29 April 1838 in McDonnough County, Illinois Henderson, born 15 November 1840 in Andrew County, Missouri William, born 8 February 1843 in Andrew County, Missouri Jesse, born about 1845 in Andrew County, Missouri Elizabeth, born 1 October 1847 in Missouri Jacob, born in 1851 in Iowa Julia, dates of birth and death unknown
But in this Clark Family History, we list Jacob and Juliann's children and tell of their families in the order followed in Dr. Hungatels history of The Hungate Family. By so doing, we tie the two references together and facilitate future research should any of the Clark descendants desire to trace his lineage on back into Hungate History, or, conversely, should any of the Hungates wish to trace what happened to Juliann's descendants.
Juliann's identifying Code in the Hungate History is ABBIG and any of her descendants can tie in with the Hungate Family Tree by showing 'ABBIG' in front of the Clark Code letters indicated for his name. For example:
ABBIG Juliann Hungate, b. 18 April 1811 in Mercer County, Ken-
tucky. m. Jacob Clark 30 December 1829 in Hamilton
County, Illinois. Jacob was born 28 December 1810 in Green
County, Kentucky. Both died at Centropolis, Kansas, Jacob on
17 February 1875 and Juliann on 5 May 1887, and both are bur-
ied in the Centropolis Cemetery. Their issue:
ABBIGA Charles Clark, b. 29 April 1832
ABBIGB Caroline Clark, b. 22 April 1836
ABBIGC John Clark, b. 29 April 1838
ABBIGD William Clark, b. 8 February 1843
ABBIGE Jacob Clark, b. about 1851, d. 14 January 1892
ABBIGF Julia Clark, dates of birth and death unknown
ABBIGG Jesse Clark, b. about 1845, died young
ABBIGH Elizabeth Clark, b. 1 October 1847
ABBIGI Temperance Clark, b. in 1834
ABBIGJ Henderson Clark, b. 15 November 1840
ABBIGK Eliza Clark, b. about 1831