Frank Bernard Clark

On October 16, 1875, Frank Bernard Clark was born in Bradford, Kentucky. He was the firstborn of John Joseph and Belle (Stairs) Clark. By the time he was four years old, the family had moved to Grant's Lick, in Campbell County, Kentucky.

The 1890 census was destroyed by fire, and Frank cannot be positively identified in the 1900 census so there is some question as to where he was located during that time. It is known that he was in the military in the very late 1890's, but his particular place of service is unknown.

In 1907, he and Ella Myrtle Nower were married. Frank and Myrtle did not stay in Kentucky. Their first son, Richard Covell was born in Illinois on March 31, 1908. The 1910 census shows the family living in Kansas City, Missouri, although family members today believe that Juanita, the second child, was born in Indiana in September of that year.

At this time, it is unknown where the next two children, Ernest William (1913) and Evelyn Lucille (1915) were born. However, Frances Irene was born in Covington, Kentucky in 1918 and her sister, Irma Elizabeth, was born in 1920 in Fort Thomas, Kentucky.

Frank was a painter and carpenter, although it is known that he was once a marshal in the town of Augusta, Kentucky. During the early days of his marriage, the fingers of his right hand were cut off in a corn shredder late one night after a long day's work leaving him with only a thumb on that hand.

In their later years, Frank and Myrtle lived on Second Street in Ripley, Ohio. On September 18, 1960, Frank entered the Veteran's Hospital in Cincinnati. Six days later, he died there of heart failure. He was 84 years old. He is buried in Locust Grove Cemetery in Dover, Kentucky.

The Clark Family

It's hard to imagine giving birth to twelve children and having only six survive past their twenties, but that is what John J. Clark and his wife, Belle, experienced.
John and Belle were married in 1874 at the home of her father, Noble Stairs in Kentucky, most likely in Bracken County. On October 16, 1875, their first child, Frank Bernard, was born. At that time, the family was living in Bradford, Kentucky. Frank lived until he was 85 years old, dying in 1960. It is unknown where Edgar Perry, their second child, was born in 1877, although his World War II draft notice states that Franklin County was his place of birth. Nothing else has been found to indicate the family was ever in Franklin County. He died one month before his brother Frank.
In 1879, a daughter, Bessie, was born and a year later, in 1880, she and her family are listed in the Campbell County, Kentucky census. They were living in the town of Grant's Lick. In August of the same year, Bessie died and just a month later, baby Jennie joined the family. She lived until 1900, possibly dying in childbirth.
On April 11, 1882, Belle gave birth to twin boys, Omar and Homer. Little Omar lived only five months. His brother's death date is not known at this time, but from the above photograph, he was still alive in the late 1950's.
Named after his maternal grandfather, Noble Clark was born October 31, 1883. His sister, Vella, arrived two years later on February 22, 1885, but lived only a short time. She died on July 15, 1885. On September 10, 1886, Charles Taylor was born. He would live to the age of 83.
Mary Sudie Clark joined the family on March 30, 1888. She lived until November 25, 1893. Her death is possibly the one that was written about in the Kentucky Post newspaper on November 28 of that same year. The article states that the six year old daughter of J. J. Clark, of Kane Post Office, Kentucky in Campbell County was burned to death. She had been playing near a burning stump close to her home when her dress caught fire. More evidence will need to be found before it can be said for certain that this was Mary Sudie's fate.
Another boy, Carl, was born in May of 1892. He lived only until July. John and Belle's last child was Nelva Ruth. Born on May 2, 1895, she is the only daughter to have survived past the age of twenty. Like her brother Homer, her date of death is unknown at this time.
I would like to thank Ronald Clark, grandson of Edgar Perry, for some of the information about the children of John and Belle Clark.