My Genealogy Hound

WHITMAN CLARK comes from English ancestry on the paternal side of the house, and running with it in his veins, is the cool and conservative Scotch blood of his maternal ancestors. He was born in Erie county, New York, July 16, 1826, and is a son of Simeon Jr. and Hannah (Stone) Clark. Simeon Clark (grandfather) was a native of Vermont, served as a soldier throughout the war of the Revolution, and then moved to Erie county, this State, and engaged in farming. He died in 1837, aged seventy-four years. Simeon, Jr. (father) was also a native of Vermont, and, emulating the patriotic example of his father, served his country as a soldier, enlisting among the first troops summoned to fight the British in 1812, and after that war ended, he too, settled in Erie county, this State, and engaged in the manufacture of chairs and wheels, and also in the occupation of a millwright. The latter part of his life was spent in Clarksburg, Erie county, a town named in his honor, where he operated a saw and grist-mill. In politics he was a whig and in religion was a devout member of the Baptist church. He was a very energetic man and respected by all who knew him. Simeon Clark, Jr., married Hannah Stone, by whom he had five children. Mrs. Clark was born in Rhode Island, in 1794, was a member of the Baptist church, and died in Erie county, this State, May 28, 1828, aged thirty-four years. Mr. Clark died in Clarksburg, March 22, 1859, aged seventy-three years and twenty-two days.

Whitman Clark was reared in Erie county and received a common school education. After his school days had ended, he learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner, and in 1852 went to work as a millwright, which vocation he has since pursued, and, in connection therewith, handles a large amount of mill machinery of all kinds on commission. May 2, 1870, he came to Dunkirk and has resided here ever since. In politics he is a straight Democrat, and takes a very active interest in local, State and general political matters. In the election of the spring of 1887, he was chosen justice of the peace, and was re-elected in March, 1891, for four years. He is a very public-spirited man and always ready to aid any movement beneficial to the city, and is a member of Phoenix Lodge, No. 262, F. & A. M.

Whitman Clark married in 1846, Emily Beardsley, a daughter of Solomon Beardsley, of Eden, Erie county, by whom he had four children, two sons and two daughters: Simeon, who was born in 1846 and died in December, 1854; Jennie, born in 1850 and died August 18, 1871; Hattie M., born in 1863 and died May 19, 1879; and Newton L., born December 25, 1867, who is a clerk in Dunkirk.