Clark Family Photos

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Clark Family Photos

Welcome to the FAMILY porter history web site

Left to right:
John Clark, Lillie Mae Clark, Cyrus Clark
circa. 1877

Click on small pictures below to see larger version.

Lillie Mae Clark Porter
1891

Dave Clark and ox team—Dave aged 96
Taken 1972 at a Buffalo Bill Rodeo event near North Platte.

Following from a letter from Melvin Clark to Marty Weeks:

Dave gave me a copy of the picture of the ox team & cart he was “driving” when I visited him in 1972. I can pin the year down because I had just returned from Germany, where I was stationed from 1968-1972 (I am a retired Air Force weather officer). Dave merely sat on the cart and held the reins while the picture was taken (for a fee). He said he was never scared so much in his life while holding the reins of a team as he was then. He said that if the oxen had decided to get scared of something he would have probably been killed, because he was such an old man and had so many walking problems (leg / hip problems) he would not have been able to jump off the wagon. This was very fresh in his mind, so it must have happened that very summer (I visited with him in Dec. ‘72). He had the picture taken at a Buffalo Bill Rodeo event near North Platte, NE, and Dave actually worked for a while on that ranch when he was in his mid– or late-teen years. After Dave’s father had died, and the family moved to Lincoln County (near North Platte), Susanna had taken a claim on some 40 or 60 acres or so for the family to live on. This would have been in 1895 or 1896. This land was said to have been next to or quite close to Buffalo Bill’s ranch.

Dave Clark and his first wife Dora Pitts on their wedding day.
circa 1900

Dora died in 1908, a few days after son Samuel Harrison Clark was born.

Dave Clark & Minnie Clark Robertson
Following from a letter from Melvin Clark to Marty Weeks:

“The picture… Grandpa Clark once told me the story of that picture. It was on their 25th birthday (May 7, 1908), and Minnie “made” Dave drive her and him (by horse & buggy) to North Platte to have their picture taken. Dave said “All the way to North Platte.” Straight across country this would have been on the order of 20 miles or so one way. She said they would do this every 25 years, the next was to be on their 50th birthday. Dave said “She died 8 years later in Oklahoma from cancer,” and some tears welled up in his eyes. Minnie, Dave, his wife Dora (at the time nearly 8 months pregnant), and their mother Susanna McCleary Clark were all living in a two-room sod house waaay out in the country. Susanna had suffered from a stroke a few years earlier, and was bedridden and / or wheel chair bound. Grandpa Clark told me that “the girls were taking turns caring for Mom <Susanna>, and it was Minnie’s turn” (Minnie was taking care of Susanna at the time Susanna died). Since Minnie was unmarried, she was living with Dave and Dora while caring for Susanna. Dave told me this while explaining how it happened that all of them were living with him when my father was born.

The other “girls” caring for Susanna were most likely Mame (living at that time in the country around 10 miles or so due west of where Dave and Dora lived), Martha (who was married and living in or near Maxwell), and “Ma Fisher” <Harriet Matilda was universally known when I can remember as “Ma Fisher” or just plain “Ma” by everyone, family, friends, neighbors, the grocer down the street, and the cop on the beat>. Draw a line about 5 or 6 miles due west of the Lincoln County / Custer County, Nebraska border, and another line about 5 or 6 miles due south of the Logan County / Lincoln County, Nebraska border. Where those lines intersect would be about exactly where Dave and Dora lived. Dora is buried there also (and so is my father and my baby sister).

(Martha) Ellen Clark, born 1880
circa 1900

(Elizabeth Catherine Clark, born 1868
circa 1900

Minnie Clark Robertson, born 1883
circa 1900

Minnie Clark Robertson (seated at right), Lillie Mae Porter (standing at right)
circa 1910

Minnie Clark Robertson, born 1883
circa 1910

Clark Family
Lillie Mae Clark (second from left)
Dave and Minnie on right
Garfield County, Nebraska
July 1908

Following from a letter from Melvin Clark to Marty Weeks:

“Are you sure Lillie was in the picture?

In 1908 (no telephones, even telegraph and train trips would have taken some time to complete) I find it difficult to believe that Lillie could have traveled from Oklahoma to Lincoln County, Nebraska in time for the funeral, unless she were already there.

Taking all 13 children by order of birth:

1 - Mame (Mary Ann) - I believe she was in the picture, front row, left. The Triggs family would have been within an easy day’s trip (even by horse and buggy).

2 - Kate (Elizabeth Catherine) had married and remained in Shermon County, Nebraska, apparently for the remainder of her life. I think she was not present.

3 - ”Ma” Fisher (Harriet Matilda) was probably present, front row, second from the left.

4 - John - I believe he was not present. I don’t know where he was, but Bessie, their second (and last) child was born in Covington, Oklahoma. It is possible that the John Clark family was still in Oklahoma.

5 - Cy (Cyrus Allen) - I don’t know where he lived at the time, but he was single (unless he had a ‘first’ wife I don’t know about). I believe he is in the picture, second row, center.

6 - Lillie (Lillian May) - Married and living in Oklahoma, I am of the opinion she is not in the picture.

7 - William Henry - died in 1891 at age 14 from pneumonia.

8 - Charlie (Charles Gilbert) was living in Brown County, Nebraska, near Ainsworth. This would not have been an easy day’s trip by buggy, not even by saddle horse. I don’t believe he was in the picture.

9 - Martha Ellen Clark Longpre was living in Maxwell (the Longpre family moved to Michigan a few years later, where Martha’s husband was from). I am of the opinion she was in the picture, front row, third from left (or second from right, depending on how you count). Maxwell would have been an easy day’s buggy ride away. Several hours in a buggy is not “easy” but a trip from Maxwell could have easily been done.

10 - Minnie Jane was living in Dave’s and Dora’s home. I believe she is the woman in the front row, right.

11 - Dave (David Riley) - Susanna was living in Dave’s home, and Dave is in the back row, left.

12 - Sophie (Abigail Sophia) Joy would probably have been close enough to have made the trip. If the woman second from the right, front row, is not Martha Ellen then it is probably Sophie. The Joy family lived somewhere in Lincoln County, Nebraska, but I don’t know where. Note: Sophie’s husband was the brother of Dave’s second wife, who was the woman I knew as “Grandma Clark.”

13 - Frank (Ira Franklin) - He was still single, probably living and working in Lincoln, Nebraska, possibly near Maxwell. There was at that time a rather large cattle ranch located near there, and many of the Clark brothers at one time or another worked on that ranch. I believe Frank is in the picture, second row, right.

It is difficult to guess just where the group for this photo was standing when it was taken, but I am guessing that it was at the Fisher homestead. I don’t now just where the Trigg’s place was, but the picture could have been taken there. I am pretty sure it was not taken where Dave lived (Dora had died about 6 days earlier.)

Note:

Marty Weeks reports that Lucille told him that this photo is of Lillie Mae and her siblings, taken when Lillie Mae went to the funeral for her mother. He believes that Lillie Mae is the second from left, but other pictures also show that Hattie (Harriet) had the same general appearance. Lucille had said that Lillie Mae had traveled back to Nebraska when her Mama died. Lucille would have been too young in 1908 to remember it, but it would have been something that Lillie Mae would have told her about.

Family of Ira Franklin (Frank) Clark, brother of Lillie Mae Porter
Hamity, Nebraska
circa 1920’s

Ira Franklin (Frank) Clark, brother of Lillie Mae Porter
Hamity, Nebraska
circa 1920’s

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John Clark (brother of Lillie Mae), Leora, Clarence Jr.,

Photo taken in Nebraska

Hattie Clark Harriet Matilda Clark Fisher and Family (b. 1869)

circa 1930s

John Cass Clark (born 1871) and his sister Mary Ann Clark Triggs, also known as Mame.

Following from a letter from Melvin Clark to Marty Weeks:

John’s wife was named Nancy Jessie Drake, and she was known by her middle name. This picture was probably taken sometime after Jessie died, when John moved from Maxwell, to live with his daughter and family in North Platte.

I don’t know for sure when Jessie died, but think it was after World War II ended and before 1949. Aunt Mame moved with her husband to North Platte sometime in the 1920’s.