About us
Richard Lee Clark (1795-1883) was born in Hanover county, Virginia, according to his military enlistment records. He served for four years as a drummer boy in the War of 1812, and was awarded bounty land, and later on in life, a soldier's pension.
We don't really have much on which to base our particular Clark ancestry before Richard Lee Clark. We are assuming he came from Hanover county, Virginia, based on information from census and military records, and research done by other family historians, which give us strong reasons to believe that he did. It is an unfortunate thing that census records for 1790 and 1800 for Virginia were destroyed when the British burned the Capitol during the War of 1812, because it prevents us from finding important clues as to the parentage of Richard Lee Clark.
It is speculated that his parents died before 1820, leaving two minor children behind, a brother and sister. When Richard left military service, he returned home to Virginia to provide for his younger siblings. He can be found on the 1820 census for Hanover county, Virginia, as a young man between the ages of 16 through 25, which was the correct age bracket for him. He was a farmer, engaged in agriculture. There were two other members of his household, a boy between 10 and 15 years of age, and a girl, also between 10 and 15 years of age. Richard was too young to be their father, so that is why it is assumed that they were his younger siblings. Also listed was a male slave under the age of 14.
While we don't know who Richard's parents were at this time, it is possible that his father's name was Joseph Clark. There weren't that many Clark families enumerated in 1810 in Hanover county, Virginia. Joseph Clark was listed along with a wife, a son and two daughters. The age bracket for the son fits Richard Lee Clark. The age bracket of the younger daughter fits the age bracket of the girl listed with Richard on the 1820 census. Joseph Clark was not found on the 1820 census, which is why we believe he and his wife were both dead before 1820.
Richard was married first to Elizabeth "Betsy" Malinda Jones (1805-1866), possibly the daughter of William Thomas Jones (1785-1846), and Margaret Whittington (1786-?), and the mother of all eleven of his children. They were married on March 2, 1825 in Sumner county, Tennessee. This means that a few years after the 1820 census was taken that listed Richard and his two siblings in Hanover county, Virginia, Richard relocated to Sumner county, Tennessee. The first four children were born there: a daughter in 1825; another daughter between 1826 and 1830; William Columbus Clark in 1828; and "S. F. Clark," a son, born in 1831. By 1840, Richard and Betsy had relocated again, this time to Wayne county, Illinois, where their remaining seven children were born: Thomas Franklin Clark in 1834; Catharine Clark in 1837; Mary Clark in 1838; James W. Clark in 1842; Samantha Clark in 1844; Martha Clark in 1845; and Richard H. Clark [who was later known as Leander or Lee A Clark] in 1848.
Betsy is believed to have died in 1866 in Wayne county, Illinois, because after her death, Richard would marry at least five more times in rapid succession: In 1867, he married Catharine McLaine, who died in 1868; in 1869, he married Rebecca Moore, whom he divorced in 1871; in 1872, he married Malinda Cliff, who died in 1873 and next to whom Richard is buried; in 1874, he married Nancy Powles, who died in 1876; and in 1877, he married Mrs. Mariah (MNU) Kane Shehorn, a woman twice widowed. These marriages are documented in Mariah's application for her late husband's pension.
Richard Lee Clark died on March 9, 1883 in Arrington, Wayne, Illinois, and is buried in the Johnsonville Cemetery in Wayne county, Illinois.