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Below is a family biography included in the Biographical Review Volume of Biographical Sketches of The Leading Citizens of Hampshire County, Massachusetts published by Biographical Review Publishing Company in 1896.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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HORACE L. CLARK, secretary of the Williston & Knight Company of Easthampton, was born in West Springfield, October 2, 1837, and is the son of Anson Kingsley and Laura (Brown) Clark. He is a scion of one of the oldest and most honored families in New England, tracing his lineage to Lieutenant William Clark, who came from England in 1630 with the first settlers of Dorchester.

Lieutenant Clark lived in Dorchester until 1659, when he removed to Northampton, and there established a homestead on a site that is now included in the grounds of Smith College. He was a man of sterling parts, and held among other public offices that of Judge of the District Court. His son John, who was occupied much as his father had been, first married in 1677 Sarah Cooper, who bore him a daughter, Sarah, afterward wife of Zachariah Field. He married again March 20, 1679, Mary Strong, daughter of Elder John Strong. His son, John Clark, Jr., married October 31, 1704, Elizabeth Cook, daughter of Noah Cook and grand-daughter of Major Aaron Cook, and reared five sons and six daughters, nearly all of whom had families. The youngest son, Josiah, lived to be ninety-two; and at the time of his death there were living nine hundred and twenty-eight descendants of his grandfather, of whom at one time there were eleven hundred and fifty-eight. Eliakim, son of John Clark, Jr., was the great-great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He removed from Northampton to what is now Easthampton, where he was one of the early settlers and a large landholder, and gave the land for the East Street Cemetery. He married December 10, 1730, Esther Wright, daughter of Ebenezer Wright and grand-daughter of Samuel Wright, Jr., who was killed by Indians at Northfield, September 22, 1675. His son Asahel, our subject’s great-grandfather, was a soldier in the French and Indian wars, in active service at Lake George in 1755, and at Ticonderoga in 1758. He also served in the Revolutionary army, being promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. He married October 31, 1761, Submit Clapp, daughter of Major Jonathan Clapp. His son Eliakim, Horace L. Clark’s grandfather, enlisted as a minute-man in 1777, and fought in the ranks of the Revolutionary army when a youth of eighteen. He first went to the war, on alarm to Ticonderoga, at the age of fifteen, with his grandfather. Major Jonathan Clapp, a member of one of the most distinguished families of Northampton, of whom an extended account is given on another page. Eliakim Clark died in 1828, at the age of sixty-one. He was three times married, and had several children by each wife. He was the father of the twin brothers, Willis Gaylord Clark, editor of the Philadelphia Gazette and a poet of some note, and Lewis Gaylord Clark, of the Knickerbocker Magazine. The mother of Horace L. Clark’s father was Lydia, daughter of Jonathan and Lydia (Lyman) Kingsley.

Anson Kingsley Clark was born in 1790, and was the oldest of his father’s children. He also was a soldier, served in the War of 1812, and died in 1864. In 1815 he was united in marriage with Laura, daughter of Eli and Sarah (Lyman) Brown, of Easthampton, who also was of Revolutionary stock, both of her grandfathers, Captain Silas Brown and Captain David Lyman, having a record of service as Lieutenants in the Second Hampshire County Regiment. She died in 1879, and her remains rest with those of her husband in the West Springfield Cemetery. Of their children the following reached adult life: Harriet, wife of Harrison Bennett, now deceased; Mary Ann, deceased, wife of Oliver F. Pinney, of Springfield; Edson and Julia W. Clark, in West Springfield; and Horace Lyman, whose name heads this article.

Horace L. Clark finished his education at the Chicopee High School in 1853. He first worked as a salesman in a store of South Hadley, and from 1856 to 1860 was in Darien and Savannah, Ga. In 1862 he entered the employ of the Williston & Knight Company, and for the past twelve years has been secretary and superintendent of these large mills — a responsible position, which only a man of business ability and mental acumen could fill successfully. He is a Director of Easthampton Public Library Association and of the Easthampton Gas Company, as well as of the Williston & Knight Company.

On May 18, 1869, he was married to Sarah Webster, of Owego, N.Y., daughter of Moses L. Webster, of Vermont, and they have an interesting family of three daughters: Mary Webster Clark, a graduate of Smith College in the class of 1895; and Alice and Edith, young ladies in the class of 1898 in the same college. Mr. Clark votes in the ranks of the Republican party, and is interested in public matters, although not an active politician. He is a Knight Templar, being Past Master of Ionic Lodge. For some years he has been Deacon and Treasurer of the Payson Congregational Church, of which his wife and family are also members. He has a pleasant home on Park Street, which he erected in 1870.

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This family biography is one of the numerous biographies included in the Biographical Review Volume of Biographical Sketches of The Leading Citizens of Hampshire County, Massachusetts published in 1896. 

View additional Hampshire County, Massachusetts family biographies here: Hampshire County, Massachusetts Biographies

View a map of 1901 Hampshire County, Massachusetts here: Hampshire County Massachusetts Map

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