Robert D. Clark was born in Laenna Township on September 30, 1844, and died in Mt. Pulaski on October 12, 1933. He attended college at Normal (now Illinois State) and taught in local schools for 16 years before turning to farming. He retired in 1895 and in April 1909, he was elected Mayor of Mt. Pulaski. He died on October 12, 1933.
Please note that this was difficult to read. Clark was 83 years old when he wrote this. The writing grew progressively worse and it was written with pen and ink which tends to be messy. Many spellings are known to be wrong. Others could be spelled incorrectly and I would not be aware of it. Keep in mind this was written in 1927. Modern research has made a significant number of corrections to this information.
Information for a sketch of family records must necessarily be obtained by conversing with or corresponding with other persons, or from wills or other writings when they are made matters of record, and sometimes from county histories or from one’s own personal knowledge of dates and events and from many other sources.
The information received from one source will often conflict with that received from some other source, so that there may be some errors especially among the earlier generations. Even obituary notices are not always absolutely correct.
County histories are not always a very reliable source of information. A great deal of that which they contain is taken from statements of persons who gave the information from their best recollections and which is not always correct. I personally know of some errors in the Sangamon and Logan Co. Ill. histories, and also in the Miami 0. history and I have no reason to believe that these are exceptions.
Wills, when they are recorded, are more reliable as they usually give the names and dates of most, if not all, of the members of the family and often the names of some of the descendants and ancestors as well.
Family records which give only the names of the immediate family are also reliable.
Jonathan Winans, the father of Sarah (Winans) Scudder, in his family record, which is still extant, gives the birth dates of all the members of his family. These dates are no doubt correct. I have copies of a number of wills which were made by persons who lived in N.J. by the name of David Clark but I am not sure that any one of them is the will of the David Clark who married Mrs. Sarah (Winans) Scudder. Their son, David Clark2 made his will in Sangamon County, Illinois.
The father of David Clark1 may have been a soldier in the American Revolution but that is very doubtful for if he was living at that time, he was quite aged.
Jonathan Winans, the father of Sarah (Winans) Scudder, died in 1774 just before the American Revolution and none of his descendants in the Clark line, except those of David Clark2 have Winans ancestors who were Revolutionary soldiers although some of them have in other lines.
The second wife of David Clark2 was a daughter of Samuel Winans, who was a son of Jonathan Winans, and a brother of Sarah (Winans) Scudder, the wife of David Clark.1
Samuel Winans was a Revolutionary soldier. There were others by the name of Winans who were soldiers in the Revolution.
In an early day there were at least two separate families in N.J. by the name of Clark that were not related.
We are probably the descendants of Richard Clark who came from England to the New Haven colony and went from there to Long Island and then to Elizabeth, N.J. with his wife, Elizabeth, and a daughter, Elizabeth, and three sons about 1678. Two sons were born in N.J.
Mr. J. C. Cox, of Miami Co. Ohio, who was a very enthusiastic searcher of family records once gave this as a guess which may or may not be correct.
Richard1, Samuel2, Jonathan3, David4 who married Mrs. Sarah (Winans) Scudder, whose first husband was Jacob Scudder by whom she had one son, Matthias.
After the death of Jacob Scudder, she married David Clark and they had a family of five sons and four daughters in N.J.
If Mr. Cox’s guess is correct, it would place this David Clark as of the 4th generation of his Clark line in America.
His wife, Sarah, was the 4th in the Winans line.
My father, David Ward Clark, in his family record has the following as showing who were the ancestors of his mother, Ann Isgrid, in America.
William Isgrig was born in England April 13, 1721. His third wife was Hannah Wolsey who was born April 13, 1716.
Daniel Isgrig, born December 26, 1756, was their only child. Daniel married Margaret Cole, born June 14, 1751. Daniel and Margaret had a family of three boys and three girls.
Daniel and Margaret came to America and settled in Maryland, where their children were born. Their children were:
1 – William, who married Elizabeth Rutter
2 – Daniel ” ” Mary Currant
3 – Michael ” ” Margaret Currant
4 – Hannah ” ” William Pattison
5 – Margaret ” ” Peter Stephens
6 – Ann ” ” John W. Clark
STOUT
The parents of Hannah (Stout) Clark, the wife of David Ward Clark, were: Anthony Stout and Sarah (Royal) Stout. They settled in Green Co. Penn. where their daughter
1 – Hannah was born Thursday, December 27, 1810.
They moved to Ohio and the other three children were born there.
2 – Thomas married Elizabeth Williams
3 – Mary ” John McKinsy[?]
4 – Matilda ” James Parish
Anthony Stout died in Middletown, Ohio when the children were small. Sarah Stout married Isaac Clark5 July 7, 1821 in Miami Co. Ohio. Isaac Clark was a son of David and Sarah Clark4, and he was an uncle of David Ward Clark6, the husband of Hannah Stout.
I do not know the names of Anthony Stout’s father nor mother, nor of any of his brothers nor sisters, if there were any.
My mother told me he was a small man and that he was a Penn. dutchman. The family may have come from N.J. to Penn. as there were many there by the same name.
The following notes were prepared by me and given, in part, to the Historical Society at Springfield, Illinois.
[a rule appears here}
My father left many notes in regard to the Royal family, which together with what was related to me by my mother, have been very helpful.
I have also corresponded with many of the descendants of Thomas Royal in several different states, which has enabled me to give fuller details than those which I learned from my parents.
A short sketch of him and some of his descendants may be found in a work entitled “A History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, 1836.”
Among the many correspondents was the Rev. Stanly [sic] O. Royal to whom I wrote many years ago, and sent him what I then had of the Royal family which he copied, and to which he added a great deal that I did not have at that time and returned it to me.
He was a District Superintendent of the M.E. Church in Ohio and a grandson of Rev. William Royal who crossed the plains from Illinois to Oregon in 1853.
He had intended to publish a book for the benefit of the descendants of Thomas Royal but he died April 13, 1914 before he had completed it, and his widow wrote me some years ago that he had not gone far enough with the book so that they could go on with it and she doubted if any of the family would ever do so.
The following may be of some interest to the descendants of Thomas Royal who was a soldier in the American Revolution.
There are doubtless many hundreds of them now living in the west and northwestern states and probably many of them live in the southern and eastern states as well.
The church records in England show that the parents of Thomas Royal were Thomas and Sarah Royal (then spelled Royle). They also show that Thomas was baptized March 27, 1752, and that at a very early date the name was spelled Ryle but gradually the spelling was changed to Royle.
Sometime after Thomas came to America, he spelled his name as Royal. Thomas and Sarah Royle, the parents of Thomas Royal, lived in England about half a mile from Cheadle and two miles from Stockport, Cheshire, and five miles from Manchester.
Thomas Royal had a sister, Elizabeth, born 1750. His other brothers and sisters were probably John, Ann, James, Charles, Mary, Sarah and Joseph but I have no record that any of them ever came to America but they may have done so later.
The Sangamon County Illinois History states that Thomas Royal came to America with a comrade about his own age near the beginning of the war for independence.
They both volunteered in the army of the Colonists and his comrade at his side had his head blown completely off.
About the same time Mr. Royal was severely wounded by a charge of buckshot entering his ankle, some of which he carried to his grave. So far as I know, that statement is correct, but I do not know who his superior officers were nor from what colony he enlisted.
After the war Mr. Royal married Miss Hannah Cooper in Philadelphia.
The following is a copy of his marriage certificate, the original some years ago being in the possession of Rev. T. R. Royal of Portland, Oregon and some of his descendants no doubt still have it.
“Philadelphia June 29, 1782
“These are to certify that on the 29th day of June in the year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-two, Thomas Royle and Hannah Cooper are joined together in Holy Matrimony.
So witnesseth my hand,
John Kunse
Protestant Minister.”
[a rule appears here]
The above shows that Thomas Royal was first married in Philadelphia, but he settled in Virginia where the children by his first wife were born.
Thomas Royal’s son, Rev. William Royal, died in Salem, Oregon, September 29, 1870. I have his obituary which states that he was born in Monongahela County, West Virginia.
There is a Monongahela River and also a Monongahela city in that part of the country, but I find no record of any county by that name.
There is, however, a Monongalia County in West Virginia, which no doubt is the county in which William was born and where his father lived until he moved to Ohio.
My mother was born in Green County, Pennsylvania which adjoins Monongalia County in West Virginia, which was formerly a part of Virginia.
Her mother was Sarah (Royal) Stout, a daughter of Thomas Royal, and she might have settled near her parents, and may have gone to Ohio about the same time he did.
[a rule appears here]
The following are the names of the children and grandchildren of Thomas Royal and his first wife, Hannah Cooper, and also their consorts so far as they are known to me:
ROYAL
1 Elizabeth, born June 16, 1783, m. …Canfield
- Hannah, married …Worrell.
- b. Daniel
- c. Mary, married …Robins and settled in California
- d. Vincent, born 1814
Children of Elizabeth and her second husband …McDonald
- John
- Phillip, settled in Princeston, Missouri
- Martha, m…Roe, settled in Urbanna, Ill.
- Thomas
2 James, born October 14, 1785
- Leonard
- Hiram
- Hannah
- Emily
- Joseph
- Martha
- Nancy
3 Mary, born June 8, 1787, m Absalom Meredith
- Thomas – m.1 Priscilla Fields; m.2 Jane Basil
- Amy – m. William B. Lawley
- Davis – m. Mary Newcomer
- William – Minister, U.B. Church to Fort …, Kan.
- Sarah – m. James Dillon, to McLean Co. Ill.
- Joseph – m.1 Susan Dillon; m2 Mary Adams
Absalom and Mary were married in Virginia, to Butler Co. O. then to Miami Co. O. then to Sangamon Co. Ill. where Absalom died in 1842. Mary died there in 1844. a, b, c, and d born in Butler Co. O. e, f born in Miami Co. O.
4 Samuel Cooper, born April 11, 1789. He was in the War of 1812. While in the army he became ill and his father brought him home where he died July 30, 1812, the same day that his half-sister, Rebecca, was born.
5 Thomas, born April 7, 1791 and settled near Middletown, Ohio.
- John, born December 25, 1821, in Butler Co. Ohio. He married Jane Withrow who died July 23, 1904.
- Thomas R., m. Rebecca Chinoweth, went to Gueda Springs, Kan. and died there January 1, 1899.
- William of Dayton, Indiana.
There may be others.
6 Sarah, born March 3, 1793, died Fulton Co., August 4, 1846. Married
Anthony Stout, died Middletown, Ohio.
- Hannah, born December 27, 1810 in Green Co. Penn. Married David Ward Clark in Sangamon Co. Ill. July 7, 1831. D. W. Clark was born in Bourbon County, Ky. September 30, 1809 and died in Mt. Pulaski February -, 1892 and Hannah died there December 15, 1897.
- Thomas, born November 19, 1812, in Ohio. Married Elizabeth Williams
- Mary, born January 1, 1815. Married John McKinney and went to Wisconsin. She died January 14, 1894 at the home of her son, Thomas, Hoxie, Kansas.
- Matilda, married James Parish. They had a family and lived in Athens, Ill.
Anthony Stout died at Middletown and Sarah went to Miami Co. Ohio and was there married to Isaac Clark5, May 7, 1821. Isaac Clark5 was an uncle to D. W. Clark6, the husband of Hannah Stout.
Children second husband of Sarah (Royal) Stout. Isaac Clark5 and Sarah:
- Lydia Z, born February 16, 1822, m. George Snell
- William R., born July 15, 1823, m1 Elsey Fitsgerald; m2 Sarah Grigsby; m3 Huldah McCumber. William had children by each wife. He died August 9, 1906.
- Ezekiel, born May 4, 1825, m. Diantha Beckelhimer.
- Margaret, born November 1, 1826, m. John Grigsby
- Amy, born about 1828, m. Pleasant Bryant. Went to Kansas.
- James, born February 14, 1830, m. Catherine Gay
All of the children of Isaac and Sarah Clark, except James, had a family and many of their descendants now live in Fulton Co. Ill.
B for born
D ” died
M ” married
M1 ” ” 1st time [?]
7 William Royal, born February 24., 1796
m. Barbara Ebey September 8, 1818 in Doublin, Ohio
- Thomas Fletcher, m. Mary Ann Stanley
- Charles W., m.1 Rachel Misner; m.2 Sarah Cummings
- George A., born 1825, died October 16, 1842
- William Bramwell, m. Lizzie Hall
- James H., born m. Carrie Hall
- Mary Elizabeth, m. Rev. John Flynn in Oregon
- Jason Lee, m. Anna Browning in Oregon
William Royal (above) and his family crossed the plains from Illinois to Oregon in 1853. He was a minister in the M.E. Church and would not travel on Sunday. Those with whom he traveled would leave him Sunday morning, but he would overtake the others during the week and arrived in Oregon with the rest of the company.
He and his family visited my father’s home for two days just before he started west. He and my father corresponded for some years. I still have some of their letters, one of which, written by my father, was taken to Ohio and sent to me from there. William Royal died in Salem, Oregon September 29, 1870. Many of his descendants live in Oregon and other states. There were many preachers and teachers among them.
8 Charles, born March 19, 1798
m. Polly Gearhart in Piqua, Ohio.
- Thomas Wesley, born January 24, 1823 in Piqua, Ohio.
- Sara
- Eliza
- John
- James
- Charles Fletcher
- William
- Mary
- Lewis B.
9 Hannah, born February 26, 1801. M…Jarrett
A daughter, Mary married Aaron Hiner. Mary and Aaron went to McLean Co. Aaron died and Mary m …(?)
[a big blot of ink but square in shape appears here on the original]
Thomas Royal was the grandfather of Hannah Stout Clark. See his 6th child. The above names appear on a bronze tablet at the south door of the court house at Springfield, Illinois.
Mrs. Hannah Cooper Royal died in Virginia and Thomas Royal married Miss Rebecca Matthews and moved to Franklin Co. Ohio.
10 Simon, born June 27, 1810, died in infancy.
11 Rebecca, born July 30, 1812, married Jacob Boyd
- John T., born 1835, married Sarah E. Clayton
- William, born May 1, 1837, married Mary A. Vigal
- George B., born December 25, 1839, married Hariet Williams
- Mary M., married Alonzo Sparks
- Susan, married Harvey Alexander
- James 0, married Marietta Reed
- Sarah J, married Elijah D. Lawley
- Davis 0, married Sarah A. Campbell
- Vincent C, died in his 18th year.
Mrs. Rebecca (Matthews) Royal died in Doublin, Franklin Co., Ohio and Thomas Royal married Mrs. Ellen Brunk; one child.
12 Joseph B., born November 1, 1816 in Franklin Co. Ohio. Joseph B. m1 Louisa Downing; m2 Mrs. Elsey McHendry. Joseph was a minister of the Christian Church and went to Vermont, Fulton Co. Ill.2 and had a family there. I have pictures of his two boys, Oscar and Eddie.
Dates for a sketch are sometimes given from memory, after many years, and there are likely to be some errors.
The “Early Settlers of Sangamon County” states that Thomas Royal came from Franklin County, Ohio to Illinois in a company of sixty-three persons, arriving in the fall of 1824 and also that Christopher Newcomer came from that county to Illinois, arriving December 9, 1824. They probably came together.
It also states that Absalom Meredith came from Miami Co. 0. to Illinois arriving October 27, 1829 and that the company in which they came numbered sixty-three persons.
While it might be possible, yet it is not very probable, that just sixty-three persons came together from different counties in Ohio to Illinois in different years.
Thomas Royal was the father-in-law of Absalom Meredith, and this information may have been given by different descendants, and one of them may have erred in regard to the number of persons they were telling about.
My father’s uncle, Rev. David Clark,5 came from Miami Co. Ohio to Ill. in 1829 and my mother came from there at the same time and lived with her relatives until she and my father were married.
Absalom Meredith and Rev. David Clark may have come to Ill. together.
Rev. David Clark5 was a brother of Isaac Clark5 who was the second husband of Sarah Royal Stout.
Thomas Royal died August, 1834; his widow died in September 1844., both in Sangamon Co. Ill. They were buried in the Geo. Brunk Cemetery several miles southeast of Springfield.
There is a stone at the grave which gives his birth date as 1758. That is not correct as the church records in England show he was baptized March 17, 1752. My mother told me he was a tall man.
In 1911 the D.A.R. unveiled, with appropriate exercises, a bronze tablet on which are inscribed the names of the twenty-four revolutionary soldiers who were buried in Sangamon Co., the name Thomas Royal being one of them. The tablet is near the south entrance of the County court house.
Hannah Cooper, the first wife of Thomas Royal, gave her son, William, an ancient family bible in which are some family records that are still legible.
It was handed down to his descendants until a few years ago when it was placed in the archives of the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, and I am informed by the Regent of the D.A.R. in that city that it is still there.
One of Hannah Cooper’s brothers was a silversmith. My mother had a teaspoon that he had made and on the handle of which was engraved the name “Cooper.” It was destroyed when my father’s home burned down January 15, 1888.
The descendants of Thomas Royal are a host now and could hardly be traced. I have the names of many of the later generations but probably all of them can trace their ancestral lineage back to some one of the names given above.
As before stated, I do not know whether or not any of Thomas Royal’s relatives ever came to America from England.
There is a family who spell their name as Royall, whose ancestors came from England many years before the revolution.
They are keeping in repair a mansion at Medford, Massachusetts which was built between 1637 and 1677 which at one time belonged to one of their ancestors.
If they were related to Thomas Royal it would be almost impossible to establish that fact.
Mt. Pulaski, Illinois
March, 1927
Robert D. Clark
[This ends the elaboration. It is followed by 63 pages of tightly written genealogy. There are also notes in the margins.]
No comments:
Post a Comment