WALTER EUGENE
CLARK
by CHARLOTT Y. JONES
luvnnonni@aol.com
Walter Eugene was the first son of Willard F. Clark and Mary Caroline (Berrian) Clark. He was
born in Jubilee Township, near Brimfield, Peoria County, Illinois on 14 September
1858.
After the drowning of his father, Willard, Walter, along with his baby brother James Lucius
Edwin and their mother Mary Caroline, they resided with Mary Caroline's mother Sarah Berrian
and her unmarried son George Berrian. However, Sarah Berrian died in 1861 and Willard and
Lucius mother than married Enos George Mack.
Not much is known about Walter , but he had to go to work at a very early age as the family was
very poor.
In 1878, Mary Caroline Mack died of breast cancer. Her smaller Mack children were farmed out
to work and be cared for by her sister Charlotte Berrian Baggs. In the 1880 census it shows the
younger Mack children living with the William Baggs family, but it also lists Walter Clark,
nephew. I cannot understand this, but it states that he is a servant. I imagine that he worked on
the farm of William Baggs, or possibly Baggs, two son-in-laws Moon and Slocum.
Walter's uncle George Washington Berrian had sometime after the death of his mother Sarah
Berrian moved to Kansas. It is quite possible that the Clark boys felt closer to their Uncle George
Berrian than their step-father Enos Mack, as it has come down through the family that Enos was
not the best of fathers or husband for that matter.
Eventually Walter Clark would go to Kansas to George Washington Berrian's. No date is known
as to when the Berrian family then moved to Colorado But young Walter went with them . By
that time he was either their son-in-law or would soon be. He married his first cousin, Georgianna
"Annie" Berrian after going to Colorado. She was the daughter of George Washington Berrian
and Lucinda Sophia Munshower.
Walter and Annie would have one daughter, Grace Clark who was born 5 June 1897, probably in
Pueblo County, Colorado.
Walter and Annie would divorce, but do not know any dates there either. I find no indication that
Walter every remarried. He died in Alamosa, Pueblo County Colorado in 1927
Walter's daughter Grace married Jesse Hollingworth in 1912 and they were divorced in 1929.
Grace married a second time to Jesse Waite and had two daughters, Anna Emaline and
Josephine.
I do not know if contact was kept between my great-grandfather James Edwin Lucius Clark and
Walter Eugene Clark, his older brother. Walter definitely knew where Lucius was, first in
Columbus, Washington Territory, then Biggs, Oregon, onto Wasco, Oregon and finally Hood
River, Oregon.
I can only surmise that they would have been close growing up, as there was just the two of them
and their half-brothers and sister. There is always that possibility, that they had had some sort of
disagreement. There could have been a great family upset within the family, when Walter and
Annie divorced.
Willard, thus remains much of a mystery. A lot of research still needs to be done on him and his
family.
END OF DOCUMENT
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