My Genealogy Hound

CLENDENEN, H. P. farmer and stock raiser, Sec. 21, P. O. Carrollton, is one among the oldest settlers now living in Greene County; was born in Bourbon Co., Kentucky, Oct. 12, 1812; he was the son of George W. and Mary Clendenen, deceased, who emigrated from Kentucky to St. Charles County, Missouri, in 1817, living there till 1820, then moved to Greene County, Ills., where they entered a small tract of land; they lived in the county for a number of years and passed from this world to a better, leaving many friends to mourn their death. Their son, who heads this sketch, was but eight years of age when he came to Greene County, in 1820, and received his preliminary education in the old-time log school house, with puncheon floor and slab benches, with the door swinging to and fro on wooden hinges; he commenced life by working on a farm for eight and nine dollars per month till he accumulated enough money to enter 320 acres of land from the government, which was in 1835, and owns the same land now that he entered; as he accumulated, bought land till he now owns 1,703 acres, which lays in the Illinois Bottom; he followed flat-boating in his younger days, making his own boats and filling them with produce that he raised on his farm, making from one to three trips a year, for fourteen years, and can tell some of those old flat-boat Stories when steamboats and railroads were comparatively few. He worked hard in his younger days, starting with nothing but a determined will, to make something in the world for himself. Was married in 1843, to Marian Clark, who was born in Greene County, in 1832, was the daughter of Absalom and Lydia Clark, who emigrated from Ohio in 1815 to the American Bottom, and to Greene County in 1817. Mr. Clendenen’s union was blessed with six children, three living: Mary, married to Robert King; Orson, married to Ella Flatt, and Jennie, married James Ellis. Mrs. C. died in 1863, at the age of 37.