Mrs. Deborah Baker Clarke, the mother of F. J. Clarke of this city, with whom she passed several months some years ago, died at the house of her son, J. B. Clarke of Dowagiac, Michigan, on Monday December 21st in the 94th [s/b 84th] year of her age. From an obituary notice in the Cass County Republican we copy the following:
"She was born on the 23rd of September 1771 [s/b 1781], at Brooklin, Conn. Her father, Dr. Joseph Baker, was an officer in the revolutionary army. At an early age she was adopted as a daughter and educated in the family of Samuel Huntington, Governor of Connecticut, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, of whose wife she was a niece.
She was married at the age of 21 to Doctor Thaddeus Clarke of Lebanon, Conn., where she resided until 1821 when the family removed to the State of New York, and thence in 1842 to New Brighton, Pa., where her husband died in 1853. Since then she has lived with her children, principally with Mrs. Lippincott in Philadelphia and Washington, and with her son, J. B. Clarke, Esq., of Dowagiac.
Mrs. Clarke inherited from nature a remarkably perfect physical constitution, with a fine and well-balanced intellect, and these endowments, with superior advantages of education and association with cultivated and refined society, gave her a pre-eminence among her sex which but few can command. From her earliest years she evinced a great fondness for literature, especially for poetry; and though faithfully and assiduously discharging her duties of wife and mother to a large family, she fained a familiarity with English and American authors, seldom attained even by those whose lives have been devoted to literary pursuits.
With a memory of extraordinary retentiveness, her extensive reading, travel and observation, had highly developed her natural gifts and made her conversation an intellectual feast to all who were acquainted with her. During her protracted illness, and even a few days before her death, she astonished the friends who visited her by repeating page after page of the old English Poets.
With Shakespeare, Milton, Thompson, Cowper, Beathe, Collins, Goldsmith, Gray, Young, she seemed as familiar as with the Scriptures, much of which she had committed to memory.
Her religious nature was ever in the ascendant, coloring all her acts and conversation, and giving to her character a sweetness and spirituality which completed the charm of her womanhood.
Her love for her country was deep and intense, and during the late war her patriotism was busy in labors and contributions for the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, including over one hundred pairs of stockings which she knit with her own hands for the soldiers, being at that time over 80 years old.
Her funeral was attended by clergymen of the Congregational and Universalist denominations, who united in performing the last obsequies.
As the body lay in the beautiful casket prepared for its repose, the expression of the features was peace, triumph and immortal youth.
Her son, Major Charles E. Clarke, of the U. S. Army, accompanied the remains to New Brighton, Pa., where they are laid by the side of her husband's." [transcribed from the Mount Pleasant (Iowa) News, Dec 1874]
"She was born on the 23rd of September 1771 [s/b 1781], at Brooklin, Conn. Her father, Dr. Joseph Baker, was an officer in the revolutionary army. At an early age she was adopted as a daughter and educated in the family of Samuel Huntington, Governor of Connecticut, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, of whose wife she was a niece.
She was married at the age of 21 to Doctor Thaddeus Clarke of Lebanon, Conn., where she resided until 1821 when the family removed to the State of New York, and thence in 1842 to New Brighton, Pa., where her husband died in 1853. Since then she has lived with her children, principally with Mrs. Lippincott in Philadelphia and Washington, and with her son, J. B. Clarke, Esq., of Dowagiac.
Mrs. Clarke inherited from nature a remarkably perfect physical constitution, with a fine and well-balanced intellect, and these endowments, with superior advantages of education and association with cultivated and refined society, gave her a pre-eminence among her sex which but few can command. From her earliest years she evinced a great fondness for literature, especially for poetry; and though faithfully and assiduously discharging her duties of wife and mother to a large family, she fained a familiarity with English and American authors, seldom attained even by those whose lives have been devoted to literary pursuits.
With a memory of extraordinary retentiveness, her extensive reading, travel and observation, had highly developed her natural gifts and made her conversation an intellectual feast to all who were acquainted with her. During her protracted illness, and even a few days before her death, she astonished the friends who visited her by repeating page after page of the old English Poets.
With Shakespeare, Milton, Thompson, Cowper, Beathe, Collins, Goldsmith, Gray, Young, she seemed as familiar as with the Scriptures, much of which she had committed to memory.
Her religious nature was ever in the ascendant, coloring all her acts and conversation, and giving to her character a sweetness and spirituality which completed the charm of her womanhood.
Her love for her country was deep and intense, and during the late war her patriotism was busy in labors and contributions for the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, including over one hundred pairs of stockings which she knit with her own hands for the soldiers, being at that time over 80 years old.
Her funeral was attended by clergymen of the Congregational and Universalist denominations, who united in performing the last obsequies.
As the body lay in the beautiful casket prepared for its repose, the expression of the features was peace, triumph and immortal youth.
Her son, Major Charles E. Clarke, of the U. S. Army, accompanied the remains to New Brighton, Pa., where they are laid by the side of her husband's." [transcribed from the Mount Pleasant (Iowa) News, Dec 1874]
Mrs. Deborah Baker Clarke, the mother of F. J. Clarke of this city, with whom she passed several months some years ago, died at the house of her son, J. B. Clarke of Dowagiac, Michigan, on Monday December 21st in the 94th [s/b 84th] year of her age. From an obituary notice in the Cass County Republican we copy the following:
"She was born on the 23rd of September 1771 [s/b 1781], at Brooklin, Conn. Her father, Dr. Joseph Baker, was an officer in the revolutionary army. At an early age she was adopted as a daughter and educated in the family of Samuel Huntington, Governor of Connecticut, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, of whose wife she was a niece.
She was married at the age of 21 to Doctor Thaddeus Clarke of Lebanon, Conn., where she resided until 1821 when the family removed to the State of New York, and thence in 1842 to New Brighton, Pa., where her husband died in 1853. Since then she has lived with her children, principally with Mrs. Lippincott in Philadelphia and Washington, and with her son, J. B. Clarke, Esq., of Dowagiac.
Mrs. Clarke inherited from nature a remarkably perfect physical constitution, with a fine and well-balanced intellect, and these endowments, with superior advantages of education and association with cultivated and refined society, gave her a pre-eminence among her sex which but few can command. From her earliest years she evinced a great fondness for literature, especially for poetry; and though faithfully and assiduously discharging her duties of wife and mother to a large family, she fained a familiarity with English and American authors, seldom attained even by those whose lives have been devoted to literary pursuits.
With a memory of extraordinary retentiveness, her extensive reading, travel and observation, had highly developed her natural gifts and made her conversation an intellectual feast to all who were acquainted with her. During her protracted illness, and even a few days before her death, she astonished the friends who visited her by repeating page after page of the old English Poets.
With Shakespeare, Milton, Thompson, Cowper, Beathe, Collins, Goldsmith, Gray, Young, she seemed as familiar as with the Scriptures, much of which she had committed to memory.
Her religious nature was ever in the ascendant, coloring all her acts and conversation, and giving to her character a sweetness and spirituality which completed the charm of her womanhood.
Her love for her country was deep and intense, and during the late war her patriotism was busy in labors and contributions for the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, including over one hundred pairs of stockings which she knit with her own hands for the soldiers, being at that time over 80 years old.
Her funeral was attended by clergymen of the Congregational and Universalist denominations, who united in performing the last obsequies.
As the body lay in the beautiful casket prepared for its repose, the expression of the features was peace, triumph and immortal youth.
Her son, Major Charles E. Clarke, of the U. S. Army, accompanied the remains to New Brighton, Pa., where they are laid by the side of her husband's." [transcribed from the Mount Pleasant (Iowa) News, Dec 1874]
"She was born on the 23rd of September 1771 [s/b 1781], at Brooklin, Conn. Her father, Dr. Joseph Baker, was an officer in the revolutionary army. At an early age she was adopted as a daughter and educated in the family of Samuel Huntington, Governor of Connecticut, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, of whose wife she was a niece.
She was married at the age of 21 to Doctor Thaddeus Clarke of Lebanon, Conn., where she resided until 1821 when the family removed to the State of New York, and thence in 1842 to New Brighton, Pa., where her husband died in 1853. Since then she has lived with her children, principally with Mrs. Lippincott in Philadelphia and Washington, and with her son, J. B. Clarke, Esq., of Dowagiac.
Mrs. Clarke inherited from nature a remarkably perfect physical constitution, with a fine and well-balanced intellect, and these endowments, with superior advantages of education and association with cultivated and refined society, gave her a pre-eminence among her sex which but few can command. From her earliest years she evinced a great fondness for literature, especially for poetry; and though faithfully and assiduously discharging her duties of wife and mother to a large family, she fained a familiarity with English and American authors, seldom attained even by those whose lives have been devoted to literary pursuits.
With a memory of extraordinary retentiveness, her extensive reading, travel and observation, had highly developed her natural gifts and made her conversation an intellectual feast to all who were acquainted with her. During her protracted illness, and even a few days before her death, she astonished the friends who visited her by repeating page after page of the old English Poets.
With Shakespeare, Milton, Thompson, Cowper, Beathe, Collins, Goldsmith, Gray, Young, she seemed as familiar as with the Scriptures, much of which she had committed to memory.
Her religious nature was ever in the ascendant, coloring all her acts and conversation, and giving to her character a sweetness and spirituality which completed the charm of her womanhood.
Her love for her country was deep and intense, and during the late war her patriotism was busy in labors and contributions for the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, including over one hundred pairs of stockings which she knit with her own hands for the soldiers, being at that time over 80 years old.
Her funeral was attended by clergymen of the Congregational and Universalist denominations, who united in performing the last obsequies.
As the body lay in the beautiful casket prepared for its repose, the expression of the features was peace, triumph and immortal youth.
Her son, Major Charles E. Clarke, of the U. S. Army, accompanied the remains to New Brighton, Pa., where they are laid by the side of her husband's." [transcribed from the Mount Pleasant (Iowa) News, Dec 1874]
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