Manuscripts

Francis Clark papers

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Description: The collection consists of letters and a few documents related to the business activities of Francis Clark (fl. 1850s). They deal chiefly with his interests in gold mining, property, and finance in Placer and El Dorado Counties, CA. A number of letters are from his partner in the firm of Brooks, Clark, and Company.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1856-1859.
Call number: mssHM 17382-17425
Creator: Clark, Francis(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased from Edwin Grabhorn, January 1945.
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Francis Clark Papers

Manuscripts

The collection consists of letters and a few documents related to the business activities of Francis Clark (active 1850s). They deal chiefly with his interests in gold mining, property, and finance in Placer and El Dorado Counties, California. A number of letters are from his partner in the firm of Brooks, Clark, and Company.

mssHM17382-17425

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Francis Clark letter to Abigail Wells

Manuscripts

In this letter to his aunt, Abigail Wells, Francis Clark is about to embark on a ship as part of a group bound from Boston to San Francisco, in hopes of finding gold in California. He plans to be gone three years. Of his motivations, he writes, "I am in the prime of life, have no family, & here is a chance for enterprise and it seems to me right to embrace it." He apologizes at leaving at such short notice, to leave his parents and friends "to go so far & at some hazard too."

mssHM 16542

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Lincoln Clark papers

Manuscripts

This collection contains the letters of Lincoln Clark, his wife, Julia Annah Clark, and their family, with the bulk of the collection consisting of Clark's letters to his wife. The correspondence was accumulated by Mrs. Clark and her side of the family the Smith and Williams families. Also included is a genealogical chart and a family history written in 1942 by Julia Lincoln Ray Andrews. Other correspondents besides family members include Rev. Joseph Howe (1747-1775); John H. Tice, a meteorologist from St. Louis (Mo.) Jane Currie Blaikie Hoge, Howard Crosby, William Anderson Scott, Alexander T. McGill, Le Roy Clark Cooley, Maria Mitchell, Harry Norman Gardiner, James Dwight Dana. Daniel Warren Poor, George Washington Cable, Mary Watson Whitney, Jonathan Baldwin Turner, Meta Lander (Margaret Oliver Woods Lawrence), Washington Gladden, Rutherford B. Hayes, Cordelia Agnes Greene, Charles Henry Oliphant, William E. Gladstone, Catherine Mary Phillimore, and others.Persons represented by five or more pieces: Mary Ann (Ball) Bickerdyke, 5 pieces Catharine Lincoln Clark, 31 pieces Julia Annah (Smith) Clark, 47 pieces Lincoln Clark, 368 pieces Isabel A. Pratt, 10 pieces Sarah C. (Smith) Robinson, 5 pieces Pandius Theodore Ralli, 9 pieces Erastus Smith, 10 pieces Sarah C. (Williams) Smith, 19 pieces William Williams, 9 pieces Lincoln Clarks' letters are written during his many absences riding the circuit in Alabama between 1837 and 1847; trips back east; their two-year separation between 1846 and 1848; his stay in Washington, D.C., in 1852-1853; and his business travels in the 1850s and 1860s. The letters discuss Lincoln Clark's professional and political career; Mrs. Clark's work at home and involvement in charities, their religious feelings, their children's upbringing and education, the fate of their slaves; financial troubles, especially in the wake of the 1857 panic, the Civil War, the U. S. Sanitary Commission, etc. Also included are five letters written between 1854 and 1861 by Frederick Clark and his wife Charlotte, Lincoln Clark's former slaves who immigrated to Liberia in 1856. Also included is correspondence of Julia Clark's parents and grandparents, her sisters Dorothy Williams Smith Holbrook, Rachel Bardwell Smith Holbrook, and Catharine Amelia Smith Jones, a cousin Caroline W. Porter, and her daughters. William Williams's letter written in 1758 to his then sweetheart Dorothy Ashley discusses the proper relationship of faith and reason; a long letter of February 1, 1800, describes, in great detail, the passage by the Massachusetts legislature of the Act Providing for Public Worship of God, which Williams had sponsored. The 1816 letter from a cousin, Sarah T. Williams Newton, wife of Edward Augustus Newton (1785-1862), from Calcutta discusses Christian missionaries in India and Indian society. The letters from Julia Annah Clark Ray describe her studies at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. The letter from Alfred Wright (July 4, 1825) discusses his work as a missionary to the Choctaw Nation. The correspondence of Caroline W. Porter includes letters from her friends and admirers, including Thomas R. Ingalls (1798-1864), the future president of Jefferson College and then (in 1816-1818), a West Point cadet, and Pandias Theodore Ralli (1819-1882) who later became a director of the firm Ralli Bros. Some notable items include: Clark, Lincoln. To Mrs. Clark: a gossipy letter from Washington, D. C. "I dined at Col. King's [William Rufus King] on Friday... it was a real state dinner - no ladies - I was never behind the curtain where great men relaxed before..." Jan. 26, 1852 Clark, Lincoln. To Mrs. Clark: "Iowa is not worth bargaining with, if she could be bargained with, because her political strength is so small..." Washington, June 6, 1852 Clark, Lincoln. To Mrs. Clark, regarding a visit to James Buchanan at Wheatland. Philadelphia, Feb. 10, 1857. Correspondence of Mrs. Lincoln Clark and her daughter Catharine, having to do with their war service on the U. S. Sanitary Commission, 1864-1865

mssCL

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Clark family correspondence

Manuscripts

This collection contains 21 letters from Sarah Clark to her husband and children. The remaining correspondence is between Clark family members. There are a few additional pieces written by friends, relatives, and one business associate. The correspondence covers a wide range of subjects including: the citrus industry in California and Nevada; economic conditions in California, Indiana, and Nevada; agriculture in Northern California; hunting; sickness; courtship; children; and business. There are also two letters containing love poetry, and the collection contains an express receipt from Wells Fargo and Company. Sarah Clark (fl. 1852-1895) is the most prolific figure in this collection, as she wrote twenty-one letters and was the addressee of eight. There are, however, eighteen other authors of these letters, including her sons, Charles 3 Scope and content note (continued) Francis Clark (7 letters), Joshua Clark (6 letters), William G. Clark (3 letters), and Robert V. Clark, Jr. (3 letters). There are 5 letters from her husband, Robert V. Clark, a combined six from Sarah's three sisters, and an assortment of letters from friends, acquaintances, and one business associate. The letters describe day-to-day activities of the family members as well as their hopes, dreams, and longings. Sarah Clark, left to care for six children while her husband tried to establish a new life in California, attempted to survive with little money and with the hope that she would once again be reunited with her husband. Her early letters relate a longing for his companionship and her need to support and take care of him. Her later letters focus primarily on her ill health and occasional discomfort.The letters in the collection also make reference to diseases such as smallpox, home remedies such as a bread and milk poultice for aches and pains, and the death of a child in town where no one attended her funeral. There are upbeat moments as family members participate in various functions such as picnics, parties, and one outdoor event where Joshua Clark recalls that women participated in a football game. Joshua Clark also received two letters containing love poetry from a woman named Reta. There is ample discussion of the citrus industry with at least two family members, C. F. (Charles Francis) Clark and William G. Clark, involved in the distribution and sale of an assortment of fruit. There are passing references to the opera coming to town, singer Jenny Lind (spelled "Lynn" in the letter), and winter sports such as sledding. There is occasional talk of road surveying and road taxes and one family member runs into several "Chinamen" while surveying his property. Some of the correspondence discusses courtship and marriage. In one letter, a woman named Emma requests a photograph of a prospective suitor with very little requirements as to appearance, height, or weight. Her only stipulation is that he be able to support her and be an Israelite.

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Lincoln Clark papers addenda

Manuscripts

Letters, manuscripts, and documents of Lincoln Clark and his family. Included are letters by father Elisha Clark and sister Hannah Clark Arms written between 1837 and 1840. In his two letters (1837, July 10 and 1839, May 29) Elisha Clark provides detailed updates on the friends and family in New England, the Midwest, and the South and expresses concerns over their "spiritual wellfare." In the letter of July 10, 1837, Elisha Clark gives an account of friends and family members whose finances were devastated by the crisis of 1837, and Hannah informs of her marriage to Arms and her plans to go Illinois, despite her reservations about leaving New England which is "a greater treasure that all the riches of the West and South." Her letter of Dec. 7, 1840 describes her new life in Knoxville, Ill. In his letter of June 3, 1844, Hannah's husband Cephas Arms gives an account of her death that followed shortly after giving birth to their daughter.

mssCL 696-702

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Joshua R. Clark and Mary Louisa Woolley Clark extracts of diaries and records

Manuscripts

This typescript includes meeting minutes from the Grantsville School of the Prophet and Theological Class, in Grantsville, Utah. Minutes were recorded on a bi-weekly basis from September 11, 1871 to May 6, 1872, with additional entries from December 1872 and February 1873. Primarily focuses on matters of school policy and finance, but also includes references to marriage, testimony from the Sandwich Islands, and discussion of possible westward travel. Includes a list of names of school brethren from 1871-1873. Minutes were kept by J.R. Clark, secretary. Although entitled "Diaries and Records of Joshua R. Clark and Mary Louis Woolley Clark, 1840-1938," there seems to be nothing here written by Mary Clark, and it appears that portions of the original document are not included.

mssHM 70259

Francis Clark papers

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Francis Clark Papers

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Joshua R. Clark and Mary Louisa Woolley Clark extracts of diaries and records