7 generations on Howard land
longed to family members eventually included Elk Ridge Farm, where Long Gate Shopping Center is located; Font Hill Farm, now a residential neighborhood off Centennial Lane; and Fairfield Farm, the current site of the Columbia neighborhood of Running Brook.
The new research on the Clark brothers’ early days in Maryland was done at the request of Robert Clark, president and CEO of Historic Annapolis and Martha Clark’s cousin. He retired from the securities business in 2010 and took the nonprofit’s helm in 2012.
“When I got this job, I mentioned how my father, James Thomas Clark, was interested in the randomness of the three Clark brothers’ 30-year indenture with Charles Carroll,” said Robert Clark, an Annapolis resident. “This was something we had talked about our whole lives.”
At his request, an Anne Arundel County archaeologist was able to translate the building terms regulated by the brothers’ contract with Carroll into modern-day measurements, which in turn have led to the location of their mill and other structures at Doughoregan Manor.
“When my dad and I went there, we clearly saw man-made stone formations, and his eyes got the size of hubcaps,” Robert Clark recalled of his father, who died shortly afterward in January 2017.
“I told him to wait while I climbed the hill, and he said, ‘Robert, I’ve waited 95 years for this and I’m not waiting in the car.’ ”
After he shared this story at the reunion, Clark family members had a collective “aha moment.”
“This will provide us with a good tree to continue putting branches and leaves on,” he said.
Robert Clark also believes he has found references to Clark family members in published letters exchanged by Charles Carroll and his father.
ALGERINA PERNA/BALTIMORE SUN Clark family members pose for a portrait. Their ancestors came from Ireland when Howard County was still part of Anne Arundel County.
“These are very interesting leads that we hope to continue to research,” Martha Clark said, while noting that details about their reasons for immigrating to America remain unclear.
“Did Charles Carroll pay for their passage here, or were they escaping revolution?” she asked.
Andy Clark — who retired in October as owner of Clark’s Ace Hardware on U.S. 40 and turned over the 173-year-old familyowned business to one of his four daughters, Margaret — agreed that it was gratifying to learn more about the family’s beginnings.
But he said the reunion also served to drive home the fact that current Clark family members aren’t much different from their forebears.
His grandfather had a hardware store, where he also sold feed for cattle and chickens, and his father continued in the feed business and sold fuel before tragedy struck.
“My parents were killed in an auto accident in1972 and they left the business to my brother, Edward, and me,” he said, noting that Edward Clark is now a plumber in Virginia.
“It came across to us as kids that we were to be honorable people,” he said of growing up in Howard County, adding that the trait is still integral to the Clark family’s way of doing business and giving back to the community today.
Martha Clark pointed out that Andy Clark’s daughter Margaret and her own daughter, Nora Crist, represent the seventh generation of Clarks continuing the work of their Maryland ancestors.
"This shows what Howard County continues to mean to the Clarks, and what the Clarks have meant to Howard County.” janeneholzberg76@gmail.com
The new research on the Clark brothers’ early days in Maryland was done at the request of Robert Clark, president and CEO of Historic Annapolis and Martha Clark’s cousin. He retired from the securities business in 2010 and took the nonprofit’s helm in 2012.
“When I got this job, I mentioned how my father, James Thomas Clark, was interested in the randomness of the three Clark brothers’ 30-year indenture with Charles Carroll,” said Robert Clark, an Annapolis resident. “This was something we had talked about our whole lives.”
At his request, an Anne Arundel County archaeologist was able to translate the building terms regulated by the brothers’ contract with Carroll into modern-day measurements, which in turn have led to the location of their mill and other structures at Doughoregan Manor.
“When my dad and I went there, we clearly saw man-made stone formations, and his eyes got the size of hubcaps,” Robert Clark recalled of his father, who died shortly afterward in January 2017.
“I told him to wait while I climbed the hill, and he said, ‘Robert, I’ve waited 95 years for this and I’m not waiting in the car.’ ”
After he shared this story at the reunion, Clark family members had a collective “aha moment.”
“This will provide us with a good tree to continue putting branches and leaves on,” he said.
Robert Clark also believes he has found references to Clark family members in published letters exchanged by Charles Carroll and his father.
ALGERINA PERNA/BALTIMORE SUN Clark family members pose for a portrait. Their ancestors came from Ireland when Howard County was still part of Anne Arundel County.
“These are very interesting leads that we hope to continue to research,” Martha Clark said, while noting that details about their reasons for immigrating to America remain unclear.
“Did Charles Carroll pay for their passage here, or were they escaping revolution?” she asked.
Andy Clark — who retired in October as owner of Clark’s Ace Hardware on U.S. 40 and turned over the 173-year-old familyowned business to one of his four daughters, Margaret — agreed that it was gratifying to learn more about the family’s beginnings.
But he said the reunion also served to drive home the fact that current Clark family members aren’t much different from their forebears.
His grandfather had a hardware store, where he also sold feed for cattle and chickens, and his father continued in the feed business and sold fuel before tragedy struck.
“My parents were killed in an auto accident in1972 and they left the business to my brother, Edward, and me,” he said, noting that Edward Clark is now a plumber in Virginia.
“It came across to us as kids that we were to be honorable people,” he said of growing up in Howard County, adding that the trait is still integral to the Clark family’s way of doing business and giving back to the community today.
Martha Clark pointed out that Andy Clark’s daughter Margaret and her own daughter, Nora Crist, represent the seventh generation of Clarks continuing the work of their Maryland ancestors.
"This shows what Howard County continues to mean to the Clarks, and what the Clarks have meant to Howard County.” janeneholzberg76@gmail.com
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
