John Wesley Clark

November 22, 1848-July 23, 1931

Written by grandaughter Lazelle Clark Houck

 

J W Clark was born in Tennessee in the year 1848, November 22.  He grew up in Tennessee, but later moved to Fannin County, Texas.  Texas at that time was not so well-developed.  John Wesley filed on a claim in Fannin County that was covered in timber and he started to work clearing if off and making a home for himself.  He has often told how he had to look out for wild hogs and other wild animals as he worked or went about his chores in those early days.

 

In the year 1874 he met and married Mary Ann (Mollie) Heardon.  To this union was born two children.  Cora Lee on November 26, 1876, and Luther Green on September 15, 1878.  Mollie did not live very long, but went to her reward on August 14, 1881.

 

John Wesley did not give up his children, but stayed on his farm and found time to be both Mother and Father to his two small children.  In the year 1882 a cousin of his late wife came from Alabama to visit her Aunt and Uncle Green Herndon of Savoy, Texas, who was the Mother and Father of Mary Ann (Mollie), J W's late wife.  This cousin was Mesena Elmira Ann Herndon.  And with her Aunt and Uncle she visited JW and the two grandchildren.

 

I have heard Mesena say it was love at first sight.  They were married August 30, 1883 and lived on the farm where JW had worked so hard to make a home.  For two years Mesena was a Mother to the two small children who were 4 and 6 years of age.

 

Then in the year 1884 on November 29, a daughter was born to JW and Mesenah.  They named her Minnie Lee.  She was a dainty little lassie and a very welcome addition to the family and the center of attraction for two years until another daughter came to take her place in their midst on June 28, 1886.  This one was named Ollie Elizabeth and was loved dearly.

 

After three years there came another little girl and made herself a place in their lives.  She was small of stature but a bundle of energy.  They called her Mattie Delilah and her birth date was May 10, 1889.  Soon after on September 19, 1890 the first son of this union made his appearance and they named him John, for his Dad, and Floyd to be called.

 

JW is having a very busy time feeding and clothing his little family and trying to improve his farm.  But the country is new and black land very fertile.  JW has learned, along with the other settlers to plant and raise as much of their food as possible.

 

The towns of Trenton, Texas and Leonard, Texas are growing up on either side of them.  As orchard has been planted and is beginning to bear fruit.

 

Then on May 24, 1893 another son comes into the home.  This one they named Claude Holmes.  He is a welcome playmate for his brother who is now a big boy of three years.  These two boys are constant companions through their boyhoods climbing trees, hunting for nuts in the fall, riding the calves and helping their big brother, Luther and the Father with the chores.

 

The home has been enlarged.  There are now two big rooms with connecting fireplace that opens in each room, a porch that runs completely across the front and a bedroom boxed up on the end of the porch.  There is a long room running off to the north that served as kitchen and dining room.  A big home comfort range sets at one end and a huge wood box has to be filled each day, which is a good job for two small boys with a bigger brother to help with the cutting of the wood.

 

Then fate decrees.  There shall be two more girls added to this group, Annie Sewell made her appearance on February 8, 1896.  She is a little lady with long dark hair, a blue eye and a grey one.

 

The older girls are growing up now and they think this little sister a very nice addition to their number.  The oldest sister is a big girl now and has boy friends, but it seems one in particular is preferred above the others, so on January 5, 1897 Allen Foutch leads her to the parson and they say "I do".

 

But soon the place she has left vacant is occupied by another girl born on February 2, 1899.  This was the last child born to this union and they named her Laura Mae.  Where a little sister had long black hair, Laura Mae was noted for her bald head.  This lasted until she was about three years of age.

 

The family has grown up now until the older boys and girls are young men and women having friends in the home and going places together.  A school has been built near called Corenth and served as community center.  Church services are held in it and the 3R's are carried on.  Some of the teachers of that day are well remembered.  They are Lockett Simmons, Grace Mitchell and others.

 

The finances of the Clark family had increased through the effort of the Father, Mother and all the children, until they were in the comfortable farm enjoying their lives together.

 

A surrey with a fringe on the top was bought and a lovelier conveyance was never ridden in or one more appreciated.  Where the family had gone to Church and town in a wagon or on foot, now they rode in style in the sparkling black, rubber tired surrey with the fringe on the top waving in the breeze.  Pulled by two fat horses, it was a beautiful sight and made us all feel very grand.

 

Many happy winter evenings were spent around the fireplace, roasting potatoes and eggs wrapped in a wet cloth buried in the ashes, popping corn in a huge wire popper, and eating apples from the barrel stored in a closet by the huge fireplace. 

 

When the ice was on the ground the Father would make a sled by turning a cane bottom chair on its back and placing the smaller children on it would take them for a merry ride while the older children wore out their shoes skating to and fro.

 

In the summer there were ice-cream parties given in the shade of the trees in the back yard near a well of water that was treasured for the purity and coolness.

 

These happy times were shared by friends and relatives.  Among them were Aunt Mary Cox and her children who had moved from Alabama to Texas and soon her husband passed on and left her with a large family of children to care for.  She has an old darkey, who had lived with her since she married, called Tony.  Tony would turn the ice cream freezer and tease the small children.  When the ice-cream had frozen, he would call to JW and say "Uncle John it's ripe".  This would call for a scurrying for bowls and a laugh from everyone.

 

The canning and the drying of fruit in the summer and hog killing in the winter were all special events.

 

To dry fruit, long boards were fixed on saw horses and covered with cloth.  The fruit was split and placed face up on the cloth.  Each evening it was taken in.  In the morning it was spread out again until dry.  Friends and neighbors helped each other and made the work more pleasant.

 

In the winter when butchering was done the neighbors came again and a feasting and merry time was had by all.

 

Into this family Luther Green brought his new wife (Genie Weatherby) on October 25, 1903.  She was a jolly, good natured person and soon made a place for herself in the family.

 

The year 1904 rolls around.  Mattie who is now 15 meets and falls in love with Oscar Lovett of Leonard, Texas.  So on December 25 they were married by Parson Conley.

 

Next Ollie meets a neighbor boy by the name of Jim Steele and they are married February 22 of 1905.  She is 19 years of age and madly in love with her strong efficient husband.

 

It seems that JW and Mesena are loosing their children at a rapid pace, for the year 1906 finds Minnie married to Wix Price.  It was February and the rains had been coming down so the black mud was deep and it took a bit of cooperating on the part of the young couple to drive and punch mud in order to reach the parsons and back home again.  But the task was done and the last one to be married in Texas was in a home of her own.

 

Come the fall of the year 1906, September 6, saw the migration of the rest of the Clark family from Fannin County, Texas to Greer County, Oklahoma.  (The land of Promise).  One of the things JW held up as ideal to the family before moving was the fact one could go out immediately after a rain and not bog down.

 

Luther had moved the year before and had a wonderful crop growing the year of 1906.

 

The day the rest of the family arrived, was September 27, at what is now Brinkman, on the Bill Lampert farm just north of the city limits.  Luther was cutting feed which was taller than the now binder and heavy heads.  In his yard the family pitched their tents and waited until places could be vacated that had been purchased.

 

There was quite a group in that train.  Cora and Allen Foutch with their two children in a covered wagon, and two wagons of John and Mesena's was one unit.

 

The famous surrey with the fringe on the top and a buggy made up the caravan with JW and wife, Claude, Anna and Laura and two hired hands, John Counts and Bill Phillips.  The only incident that was outstanding was as we crossed Peas River and the wagon in which the Mother, Anna and Laura were riding and John Counts was driving, almost floated down the river.

 

This first year found Mesena in very poor health.  She was in bed almost a year.  The first summer found most of the family with typhoid fever: Mesena, Mattie (who was living at home with Olga, her daughter) Annie, Claude and Laura.  We had to haul water and use it out of the barrel and this where we got out typhoid germ.  We had some wonderful neighbors who were a great help to Floyd and JW coming every day to wash clothes, cook and care for Olga.  Among these neighbors were Ruth and Eula Ryan, but eventually we all recovered from the fever.

 

The children went to school at Prosperity, one mile east of where we lived.  There were many happy days at this schoolhouse.  Some of the teachers were Sam West, Effie Zornes and others.

 

Floyd has grown up now and has found himself an Irish lassie with a big smile.  Viola Summerall, who on September 15, 1909 he leads to the altar and says "I'll be thine".

 

Not long after this, the MKT railroad is built from Wichita Falls, Texas north and Brinkman comes into being and churches and schools are moved to town.

 

In the mean time Annie and Laura have grown up and go to school in Brinkman.  (They formerly went to Prosperity, one of the schools that consolidated in Brinkman).  The distance was too far to walk so school wagons were employed by the school district.  These were drawn by horses or mules.  The one coming by the Clark farm that was driven by JW picked up several Syrian children.  One little Syrian girl would be nauseated each morning.  We would heat bricks and place lighted lanterns under blankets stretched across from one side of the wagon to the other and the fumes got very strong and caused the nausea.  She would always loose her breakfast.

 

Annie was the next one to leave the home nest.  She was a very popular young lady with beautiful long hair and her blue and grey eye made her very attractive.  But she met and married a neighbor boy named George Rogers on January 9, 1912.  They ran away and were married by George's grandfather.

 

Claude, not to let his sister get ahead of him, found a lovely little blond girl, whose home was near the little village of Old Marie and they were married the same year on May 8, 1912.  Her name was Bertha Foster.  They moved in a small house that JW built for them on the home place just south of the Clark homestead.

 

This left only Laura home with the Mother and Father.  She spent her time helping keep house and going to school.  She also visited a niece, Jewell Foutch and a friend Mattie Shumate in Brinkman.  They went everywhere together.  She and her Mother went places together in a buggy, driving a large blue horse.  One afternoon, as they were returning from a county store, operated by a Syrian (George Massad), the horse got scared and ran away.  He didn't stop until he ran up to the barn door at home.

 

The year 1914 rolls around, Laura, now 15 is going steady with a neighbor farm boy, Will Cost.  He is 22 and has been licensed to preach by the Baptist Church at Brinkman.  Laura had said she would never marry a preacher or doctor, but she is so madly in love with this tall curly haired boy that they were married on July 4, 1914 at Brinkman then went to Granite to a picnic at Sulphur Springs.  She was the last one to leave the home.

 

This leaves the Mother and Father alone, but there were many happy Sundays and birthdays as the children would come home bring their families and food to eat and have a happy visit together.

 

The year 1923 rolls around.  The children are scattered now, but they keep in touch with home.  So in May, a message come that the Mother is very ill and has cancer.  On May 25 she passes to her reward at the age of 65 years and was buried in the Brinkman Cemetery.

 

George and Anna moved in to stay with the Father, but did not stay very long.  So, Claude and Bertha came into the home to keep the home going.  JW was very lonesome in spite of having the children with him.  He visited his other children some, for he had bought a little Ford coupe and a grandson, Bill Price drove for him a lot and took him places.  Also a granddaughter, Olga Lovett drove the little Ford.

 

JW had very good health until one day while he was plowing with a go-devil when he had a partial stroke and for quite awhile he walked with a cane, until finally one day he had another stroke and could not walk or talk.  But in his wheel chair he was very much the center of the home, with Claude and Bertha taking care of him.

 

So, on July 23, 1931 he passed away at the age of 83 and was buried beside his wife in the Brinkman Cemetery.

 

A wonderful Father and Mother have gone to their rewards, but will never be forgotten as long as their children and grandchildren live.