When I was a kid, I loved playing dot-to-dot. Do you remember those? Are they still a thing? You drew a line from the dots labeled in numerical order until you created the outline of an image, usually an animal. Super simple drawings for the little ones only have 5-10 numbered dots, but for the older kids, they could get really complicated. I remember seeing 100-200 dots designs. In my research of genealogy and local history, I have learned that connecting dots is not as easy as it was when I was a kid. I’ve learned, sometimes the hard way, that dots don’t just connect because you want them too and forcing dots to connect, doesn’t make them fact.
In the last few years of my professional work as a local historian, I've learned that past generations have tended to cover predominantly white history, while ignoring the fact that the history of other ethnicities was happening at the same time as and often intertwined with the mainstream history. It's been a goal of mine to research both sides of history as they occur. For example, the following family I'm about to discuss has history that goes back prior to the Civil War and they were a slave-owning family. Preserving the history of the enslaved people in this narrative is just as important, so I spent equal time researching both sides. In fact, sometimes I spend more time researching African American history because sources are so hard to come by.
Recently, I have been trying to find the connections between three cemeteries in the Eufola and East Monbo communities of Iredell County, North Carolina. The Clark/Clarke (spelling variations) family was very prominent in southwest Iredell County, owning land all along the Catawba River on the border between Iredell and Catawba counties. When the family settled in this area at the end of the 18th century, the Catawba River and its tributaries were the area’s main source of water and water travel. This was also nearly 200 years before the creation of Lake Norman, North Carolina’s largest man-made body of fresh water. On what is now Lake Norman State Park property are two cemeteries related to the Clarke families. One is the relocated family cemetery which was moved from its original site to make way for Lake Norman. The other is a lone grave of Julia Clark, wife of Alexander Clark, who died in 1849. Even after years of research by the county library’s local history librarian and park rangers, we still don’t know how Julia is related to the Clarke family of Iredell County.
In the early 1980s, the Genealogical Society of Iredell County conducted an informal cemetery survey where they asked the community to report abandoned cemeteries and any information they had about the site (how many graves, current landowners, etc.). There is a reported listing of a Clark family slave cemetery somewhere along Carriage Road, across from Eufola Baptist. I have not yet been able to confirm its exact location, but I hope to be able to write a follow-up post once I do discover it. It's one of my top priorities to find in the county! According to the 1840 census, patriarch James Clarke had 28 slaves, which was a lot for that area. However, his homestead was further south from the reported cemetery. William and Christopher, two of James’ sons, lived on adjoining properties closer to the cemetery and according to the 1850 and 1860 slave schedules, they collectively owned 11 and 18 slaves, respectively. It’s possible the Carriage Road location is the final resting place of those enslaved by William and Christopher, while the earlier enslaved people are buried somewhere near the Clarke homestead in an unknown location.
Twenty years after the end of the Civil War, in 1885, William Clarke sells a portion of his land to an African American church, which would become Clark’s Chapel Baptist. The church now hosts the largest Black congregation in the county. In speaking with come church members, it’s possible that the reported slave cemetery is closer to the original site of the church. The current location of Clark’s Chapel is reportedly not where it was first located.
The following map shows the locations that I have been researching.
† Clark’s Chapel Baptist is located in the upper left corner of the map Green star- Original location of the William Clarke house which was built around 1850. Yellow star- Unconfirmed location of Clarke family slave cemetery, which was reported to the Genealogical Society of Iredell County in the 1980s. White star- Original location of the Clarke family cemetery and homestead. It is unknown when the house was originally built, but it would have been prior to James Clarke’s death in 1841. Blue star- New location of the stones from the Clarke family cemetery, now on state park land. Red star- Site of Julia Clark’s stone on state park property.
The earliest known date in which we see the Clarke family in North Carolina is around 1769, when James Clarke and his wife, Catherine Hayner or Horne settle on the west side of the Catawba River in Lincoln County.<1> Of their six sons, three remained in what would become Iredell County on the east side of the river (Iredell formed in 1788). John, Alexander, and James Clarke made their homes in what is now the East Monbo area of Iredell County. Alexander never married and John’s male line does not survive, so all the Clarkes who trace their ancestry back to this area are descended from James II.
James married Jane Houston, daughter of the prominent resident Samuel Houston, who was an early settler. James and Jane established their homestead with their nine children on land that is now covered by Lake Norman. In 1961, Duke Power Company recorded the relocation of eight cemeteries, two of which were in Iredell County. Aerial photos from 1956 show the family homestead prior to the installation of the lake.
According to the official report released by Duke Power, the original site of the cemetery was somewhere in that open field, only a few hundred yards from the house.<2> It did not have far to go and is now located on Lake Norman State Park property, only a few hundred yards from its original location.
James and Jane Houston Clarke are buried at this cemetery along with some of their children, grandchildren, and James’ brother, Alexander. The cremains of two descendants who died in 1980 and 2016 are also buried here.
James Clark II died in 1841 without a will. The library has extensive estate records of items sold from the estate, and the Register of Deeds has two very important documents dividing land and slaves owned by James to his children. Although the family Bible dated 1791 is now lost, rumor had it that the Clarke family recorded their slaves in that Bible. It was not uncommon for slaveholders to records birth and death years of their slaves for tax purposes, but placing the names in the family Bible tends to be rare. It is usually a sign of a family who was not abusive to their slaves.
Although we know today that the institution of slavery was wrong in many ways, we must remember that it was a way of life for our ancestors. Somewhere between the cruel slave owners and the pious, abolitionist Quakers, there was a group of people who viewed slaves as their workforce and therefore wanted to keep them in good graces and health in order to obtain the best possible work ethic from them. It is possible that the Clarke family fell into this moderate group, which led to them documenting the names of their enslaved and eventually providing land for an African American church in this area after the Civil War.
I always believe that every burial is a story, and even though we may not know the name of the person buried, we can acknowledge that they lived their own story. In the case of slave cemeteries where it is near impossible to identify who is at rest, I try my best to find names, even if only first names, of those who could be buried at these sites. According to the report by the Genealogical Society, the Clarke slave cemetery contained one inscribed stone that read "Cyrus, a servant of William Clarke." Again, names on slave burials is rare and another indication of respect between the family and the enslaved.
Cyrus was a start, but I wanted more names. I began with documents from the estate of James Clark. I found the 1841 deed where his lands and slaves were divided among his children. At least 37 slaves are mentioned by name in these documents, which is an incredibly helpful resource for tracing African American genealogy. From there, I went looking for the next document where the names of these people would have been listed. Following the Civil War, the next place where names of African Americans were listed would have been the cohabitation bonds of 1866. By law, slaves were prohibited from obtaining marriage licenses, but many of them had relationships with a significant other and produced children. The cohabitation bonds record the names of the man and woman who wanted their relationship to be legalized, the number of years they had been together, and the names of their children. I cross-referenced the names in the James Clarke deed to the cohabitation bonds and found seven matches.
In 1841, John Clark (1819-1859) received four enslaved people from his father’s estate, one of which was named Reuben. In 1866, there is a Rheubin Clarke listed in the cohabitation bonds with Mary Brown. According to this record, the couple had been together 19 years and had eight children: Martin, Wash, Henry, Laura, Pink, Rubin, Sarah Ann, and Frank. Kids were usually listed in birth order. In the 1870 census, Reuben and Mary are found in Rowan County with five of their children and a woman named Margaret. John Clark also inherited a slave named Margaret, and it’s possible that she and Rueben were siblings. The 1870 census gives us the ages of Reuben and Mary, and now I can go back in time.
Slave schedules never recorded the names of individual slaves, but they did record the name of the slaveholder and the genders and ages of the people they owned. A common tip for researching African American genealogy during this time is to find the age of a person in the 1870 census, then trace back the age through the slave schedules. Knowing Reuben was about 40 in the 1870 census, I began looking for a male slave of about 30 years in the 1860 schedules, and a 20-year-old male in the 1850 schedules. As it turned out, I found two males in 1860 whose ages (26 and 34) could be Reuben. Ages were often guessed in enslaved people. Many never knew an exact date of birth or even a year. In 1850, I found two males aged 18 and 22. Both males in both slave schedules were owned by a John Clark. What was more intriguing to me was that on the next page from John Clark was a Tobias Brown who listed a female slave of about the same age. It was common for laborers from neighboring plantations and farms to become couples. Slaveholders typically did not object to these unions because they produced children, which would eventually be additional free labor. Although not always, most emancipated African Americans took the name of the last white family for whom they worked. If this tradition held true in this case, Mary Brown could have been living very close to Reuben Clark and in the 19 years of their union produced eight children.
I find the family again in the 1880 census, but then their trail goes cold. Without an 1890 census, there is a 20-year gap before the next census. I cannot find them on the 1900. I found a peculiar newspaper article out of Rowan County in 1889 which mentions that “Reuben Clark, an old colored tenant on the Marsh plantation had, during the night, left for parts unknown, taking his family and personal effects with him.”<3> According to the article, Mr. Clark had accumulated a debt and was trying to avoid harassing creditors. If this is the same man, I cannot find him in papers after this. It’s possible he left the county. I was able to find marriage licenses for some of Reuben and Mary’s children, tracing them as late as the 1930 census. My goal in doing all this work is to eventually find descendants of these individuals, and possibly discover further family history. I have really been trying to connect the former slaves of the Clark family to the Clark’s Chapel Baptist which formed in 1885, but so far have been unsuccessful.
I have tried focusing on the enslaved people inherited by William Clarke (1825-1895) through his father in order to try and name those who could be buried on the land. According to the 1841 will, William received Milas, Allen, Cyrus, and Mahala. We know that Cyrus died and was buried on the property. I do not know whether he died enslaved or if he died after 1865. It's possible that he lived to see the end of the Civil War and continued to live on the property as a tenant farmer. I found Milas/Miles listed in the cohabitation bonds with Adeline Clark. William's brother David inherited an Adeline, so it's most likely the same woman. Miles and Adeline had been together since 1852 and had seven children: Emerson, Andy, Harriet, George, Ely, Rosa, and Caroline. I cannot find Allen or Mahala in the 1870 census, so it's possible they had died by that time or had moved away.
There is much more research to be done on these families and I hope to write another post about additional research I have found. The Clarke families, both white and Black, have come to be very special to me as I uncover their history. I'm grateful to the Clarke descendants who have provided me with photos and information to aid in my research.
<1> Wagner, Mary Clark, The James Clark Family Record, 1969. <2> Duke Power Company, Relocation of Various Cemeteries from Area Inundated by Waters of Lake Norman, p. 21-25. <3> Carolina Watchman, 11 Apr 1889. Accessed through Newspapers.com on Aug. 3, 2023.
William Clarke (1825-1895)
Wade and Mabel Setzer Clarke (married 1898)
William Clarke family (about 1890)
The James Clarke homestead (built prior to 1841) in a photo taken before the installation of Lake Norman in 1961. All photos provided by a descendant.
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