Ellias Luther Clark

 

 

 

 

Ellias Luther Clark

 

Born:  1859, New York

 

Died:  1952

 

Married:  Eva May Walrath.  They had ten children:  Carrie Belle, Lillia Watson, Gertie Christina, Norman, Sarah Timmerman, Rose Hansen, Ella Murphy, Mary Ann Ferris, Floyd B., Lloyd.

 

He shares the same Tombstone as Eva May

 

Eva May Walrath Clark

 

 

Born:  May 5, 1874, New York

Died:  December 23, 1951.  Age 77 years.

 

 

Ellis Luther Clark

 

Born:  Bath, New York

Buried:  Inman, Nebraska

Married:  1905 to Eva May Wheeler

 

 

 

Tombstone reads:

 

Ellias Luther Clark

Born:  1879 New York

Died:   1952

 

Eva May Walrath Clark

Born:  1872 New York

Died:  1951

 

Elias is the son of Frost Clark

Eva is the daughter of Jacob and Sarah Wheeler Walrath of New York

 

 

 

 

Ellis Luther Clark born in Bath, New York, was the son of a Union Soldier who took a bullet in his leg and died of blood poisoning.

 

Elias, three years old at the time, was the youngest of the children.

 

He married Eva May Wheeler and, in 1905, moved to West Virginia.  With the young their young daughter they came on to Holt County a short time later and settled on the Old Red Barn

Eighty west of Eliasa, uncle D. D. Smith.

 

In 1913 Elias homesteaded forty acres north of Page, which he sold to Bob Tomlinson, son of his old friend, George Tomlinson.

 

Mr. Smith had a well digging business and had sent for Elias to help him. 

 

Mr. Clark later took over the well business and worked at it for many years.  His tin covered wagon was a familiar sight in the region, with its sliding doors and near compartments for tools.

 

Later on Elias Clark was the man who built the telephone line that connected Mineola, Walnut, Dorsey, O’Neill, Page and other settlements.  Mrs. Clark and her five daughters ran the switchboard. 

 

Elias was noted for the unusual improvements he made on various ordinary objects.  His tin wagon was the first.  Later he equipped a car to serve the same purpose. 

 

After he and Mrs. Clark retired to O’Neill he fastened two bicycles together with iron bars.  He and his wife traveled many miles on the side-by-side wheels.  The he put large wheels on their bed so it could be moved easily.

 

His most startling project was the coffin he built for himself from an old organ.  It was beautiful wood and well made.  He stood it in the corner of the room and newspaper reporters took his picture in it. 

When he died, Biglins of O”Neill, came and took him and his coffin away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before Today, Holt County, Page 343

Transcribed and Contributed by:  Verdeen Guzman

 

 

 

 

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