The family surname started out or was used by earlier ancestors as "Clinkinbeard"; subsequent generations such as Robert used the "Clinkenbeard" spelling version.

The Date of Birth for Robert appears from more compelling census sources to be in the year 1843. Although the headstone inscription and two obituaries used the year 1847, that was most likely an error in the submitted obituary text and an engraving error (neither of which were uncommon in the early 1900's; inscription errors nearly impossible to undo without damage to a monument). The census and years married in the 1900 and 1910 U.S. Census reports, and other documents, clearly favor the January 20, 1843 DOB.

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Obituary transcription courtesy of D. Truitt -

Obituary From "Ottumwa Daily Review," August 22, 1910:

ROBT CLINKENBEARD PASSES AWAY TODAY

WELL KNOWN OTTUMWAN EXPIRES AFTER PROTRACTED ILLNESS OF PARALYSIS
Robert Clinkerbeard [sic] aged 63, passed away at the late home, 124 North Ward street, this morning after a protracted illness. He is survived by a widow, also six brothers and one sister, the brothers being Samuel of Morris, Okla., George of Ramesville, Kas., William of Glasgow, Kas., Nelson of Kansas City, Mo., Charles of Seattle, Wash., Harrison of Moulton, and the sister, Mrs. Mary Jane Lewis of Seymour.

Mr. Clinkenbeard was born in Jefferson county, Jan. 20, 1847 (sic) and removed to Ottumwa in October, 1891. He was wed to Miss Kate Mikesell on January 23, 1865.

Interment will be made in Fairfield (sic. Evergreen cemetery in Fairfield, Iowa).

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First husband of Mary Catherine Mikesell Clinkenbeard/Bunnell. She remarried to a George Bunnell, but is buried with Robert Clinkenbeard in her maiden Mikesell family plot in Evergreen cemetery.