Second mystery article stumped everyone

Published 8:52 pm Tuesday, June 6, 2006

By Staff
After all the response I received on five articles on old John W. Bedford, the Silver Creek farmer, where I asked my readers to guess who I was writing about and gave some clues of who he was with each succeeding article, I was truly amazed that five people guessed who I was writing about.
I'm sure people remember all the fun Peg and I had in our research of finding the old man's name, as he never had his name in any of his old diaries or journals.
After the articles on him, some of my readers asked me to come up with another mystery article.
I found it kind of hard, but gave it a try and wrote article 241 dated May 16, 2006, called “A mysterious letter from 1860s New York.”
I based it on a 146-year-old letter I still have dated Aug. 26, 1860.
The letter was from Henry Clarke, who was my great-grandfather, and was written to his father Charles Clarke, my great-great-grandfather.
Charles Clarke was in Dowagiac in 1840 or maybe before.
I took excerpts from this letter and used quite a few names mentioned in it.
A lot of my friends and visitors have seen and read this letter and it was published in one of my early articles as well as in the South Bend Tribune for the Indiana Historical Society.
I thought maybe some of my friends who remembered the letter would have guessed who I was writing about.
Also, the clues that he lived near the Mill Pond and a street was named after the family name and another descendant was a “writer.”
I had several people guess, but no one had the right answer.
Henry Clarke had a half-brother, Fred Clarke, who was the grandfather of Ruth (Clarke) Brabon, Carlile and Ted Clarke, all old Dowagiac residents.
Some other local descendants were Carl Brabon and his sister, Carlene Proctor, and also Judy Corak.
Henry Clarke had four daughters, Loraine, Ollie, Emma and Cora.
Loraine was married to Charles Bassett, who was the head pattern maker at Round Oak Stove Works.
Ollie was married to Wilbur Taplin.
Emma was married to James Baker.
Cora was the wife of Johnson Laporte, the owner of the old “Cannonball Express” stage coach that ran between Dowagiac and Cassopolis.
They had a daughter, Edna, born in 1891. She was my mother. Cora died two weeks after my mother was born. My mother was adopted by Wilbur and Ollie Taplin, Cora's sisters.
Family took care of family back in the old days.
The old Henry Clarke home was at 443 E. Division St., which was straight across from the old Riverside Cemetery gates.
I still have my mother's 1891 adoption papers written by longhand and stamped with a Cass County Probate seal.