Samuel E. Clark

From disappointment to delight ... here's the scoop:  Last week I visited the Washington County, PA, courthouse and made the disappointing find that they have no birth records prior to 1898.  Disappointing because I had really hoped to find a birth record for Samuel E. Clark, my 2nd great-grandfather who was reportedly born in the 1850s.  I wrote about him in a July post in which I noted:

"I've been trying to put together a post about Samuel and Margaret, but the more I dig into my info, the more conflicts I keep finding. I don't want to post the conflicts here until I'm a little more sure of my line of reasoning."

Apparently it's time to just throw some of my info out here and see if anyone else has different ideas as to Samuel's correct birth info.  I have bolded the variations in the following discussion.

The marriage license for Samuel Clark and Margaret Shimp is my primary lead that Samuel was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania.  Unfortunately, the informant was Margaret's mother - giving a little less credibility than if Samuel himself had been the informant.  However, there are several other sources that support the state being Pennsylvania.

According to Samuel's death certificate:

• Born 25 August 1853 in Pennsylvania
• Died 01 June 1936 in Moundsville, West Virginia

Per the 1856 Iowa State Census, Samuel was 3 years old and born in Pennsylvania - this agrees with the birth info above.

Per the 1865 Kansas State Census, Samuel was 11 years old and born in Pennsylvania.  More agreement with the death certificate.

The 1930 U.S. Census also supports a birthplace of Pennsylvania.  The age is off by a year, but that's common in census records.

Now for the conflicts ...

The 1900 U.S. Census reported Samuel's birth as August 1852 in West Virginia (of course it was still Virginia in 1852).

The 1910 U.S. Census also reported his birthplace as West Virginia (on the bright side, the age given is consistent with the birthdate on his death certificate).

The 1920 U.S. Census is the only source I've run across giving Kansas as Samuel's birthplace - but I make a good argument against that one on my website (just look up Samuel E. Clark).

At this point, I'm leaning toward Samuel's birth info being:

25 August 1853 in Pennsylvania

I'd like to find additional documentation to confirm if it was Washington County before I take that stand officially - the courthouse folks suggested searching for church records. Easier said than done!  If you're a Clark researcher who has input, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

One last thing ... I started this post with, "From disappointment to delight".  So what was the delight?  My husband and I took our Trek bikes to Wellsburg, WV, yesterday to ride the Brooke Pioneer Trail now that the connection to the Wheeling Heritage Trail is complete.  (If you like paved rail trails, we highly recommend both of those.)  We had a PERFECT day ... low 60s and lots of sunshine.  Delightful!