Those Robinson Girls: Joeannah Robinson Mason Doss

Preston M Robinson married Sarah N Edmonston,  1847 in Washington county Missouri.  To them were born five daughters – Elizabeth Jane Robinson, Mary Alice Robinson, Martha Thomas Robinson, Julia Parkhurst Robinson, and Joeannah Robinson.  This Blog Series on “Those Robinson Girls” gives a brief account of each daughter.

Joeannah Robinson was born 1862 in Washington county Missouri.  She was the youngest of five daughters of Preston McGrady Robinson and Sarah Nugent Edmonston, and my gg-grandaunt.  The interesting spelling of her name "Joeannah" is probably correct as it appears this way in her father's 1903 Will and then again on her tombstone.  Little is known of her childhood.  At the tender age of fifteen she was married to  Ezra Elmo Mason, a young man of about thirty who hailed originally from Virginia.  It is assumed that they married in Washington county Missouri, but no record has been located.  The marriage date of 8 January 1878 comes from a family record. 

Two years after their marriage EE Mason and his young wife Joeannah appear in the 1880 census of Carter county Missouri, in Jackson township.  His occupation is given as manufacture of lumber; no surprise in this growing hotbed of the timber industry.  They have a little daughter Essie Mason.  

Over the next ten years three more children are added to the Mason family, Edna Mason, Lou Mason, and Elmore Mason.  The family probably moved northward to the big city of St Louis Missouri.  In 1891 EE Mason is shown as the president of Clarkson Christopher Lumber Company in St Louis. 

A writeup in "The industries of Saint Louis:  Her relations as a center of trade, manufacturing establishments and business houses"; J. W. Leonard; J.M. Elstner & Co., 1887. (google ebook):

Clarkson - Christopher Lumber Company
EE Mason, President; HC Christopher, Vice-President; RM Fry, Treasurer
Wholesale Commission Lumber Dealers; Office, Northwest Corner of Fourth and Walnut streets.
This is one of the largest and most successful concerns in its line in the city or the West, and has done a large and steadily increasing business from its inception.  They deal very heavily in dressed yellow pine flooring, ceiling, siding, bridge, car and dimension timber and Tennessee yellow poplar, all of which they sell to large dealers, car works and railroad construction companies in car load lots or otherwise, delivered at any point.  They maintain the most favorable relations with manufacturers and are enabled to offer unsurpassed inducements, both in price and quality, to the trade, and do a very large business not only in the city but also throughout Missouri, Illinois, Kansas and other States tributary, in a commercial sense, to St Louis.  They possess unsurpassed facilities, and enjoy the respect and confidence of the trade as a result of their prompt and satisfactory filling of orders.

A family record indicates that EE Mason died 18 July 1891 in Fordyce, Dallas county Arkansas. He would have been forty-three years old.  About this time, Fordyce was opening up as a timber district and it seems likely that Ezra Mason was conducting business there.  Did he meet with an accident?  Hopefully old newspapers in Arkansas or St Louis will produce answers to this question.  

Ezra Mason's early death left his twenty-nine year old widow Joeannah Robinson Mason, with four young children to raise.  It is not known where she went, or who she turned to during her widowhood, but her oldest daughter, Essie Pearl Mason was married five years later, in 1896, in Washington county Missouri, so perhaps the Mason family returned to live near Joeannah Robinson Mason's parents.  I have not been able to identify this Mason family in the 1900 census.  But, when Preston M Robinson wrote his will in March 1903, he named his youngest daughter Joeannah Mason, so we know that she did not remarry before that time. 

In our Clarkson Family Letters there is a letter dated 4 August 1908 from Richard Albert Clarkson to his son Samuel Edwin Clarkson.  He mentions his sister-in-law Joeannah “Josie” Robinson Mason and her son Elmo (Elmore E Mason):  “We enjoyed Elmo’s short visit. A letter from sister Josie received yesterday says he likes Oklahoma so much she thinks she will probably move out with him to Bartlesville.”

Sometime between 1908 and 1910, Joeannah Robinson Mason was secondly married to Frank Doss of Farmington, St Francois county Missouri.  He was a widower, whose first wife Sarah McFarland Doss had died in 1906.  His youngest daughter Nellie Doss was living with Frank and Joeannah in the 1910 Census of St Francois county. 

Frank Doss died in 1932 and is buried with his first wife in Farmington, St Francois county Missouri.  His death certificate shows him as a widower, his deceased wife being Sarah McFarland.  It makes no mention of second wife Joeannah.  The reason for this is not known.  Joeannah Robinson Mason Doss, died in 1945 and is buried with her first husband in St Matthew Cemetery in St Louis, Missouri. 

The four Mason children all married: 
Essie Pearl Mason to Edwin J Bean, an attorney and judge of Jefferson county Missouri.
Edna Marie Mason first to Edward Berryman Barrow, a dentist, and secondly to Arthur C Norwine.
Lou Mason to Edward Butler, living in Ironton Missouri in 1913.
Elmore E Mason, a musician, to Caroline McNaughton of Trumball county Missouri (eventually divorced).

For more details on Joeannah Robinson, visit her page at Family Stories, pamgarrett.com.

Photo:  Farm Woodlot near Farmington Missouri; Department of Agriculture, National Archives Collection.

Aside:  In 1885, Ezra E Mason was appointed one of four executors in the Will of George W Clarkson of Iron county Missouri.  George Clarkson was the cousin of Richard Albert Clarkson, brother-in-law of Joeannah Robinson.  It is noted here to show some of the earliest relationships between the Robinson, Clarkson, and Mason families.

Aside:  For a time I speculated that the RM Fry, indicated as treasurer of Clarkson-Christopher Lumber Company, was my gg-grandfather, Reuben Macon Fry.  But, I have since learned that he is Robert Maxwell Fry – no apparent relationship to my own Fry family. 

Those Robinson Girls: Julia Parkhurst Robinson Ward

Preston M Robinson married Sarah N Edmonston,  1847 in Washington county Missouri.  To them were born five daughters – Elizabeth Jane Robinson, Mary Alice Robinson, Martha Thomas Robinson, Julia Parkhurst Robinson, and Joeannah Robinson.  This Blog Series on “Those Robinson Girls” gives a brief account of each daughter.

Julia Parkhurst Robinson, the fourth daughter of Preston McGready Robinson and Sarah Nugent  Edmonston, was born 17 January 1855 and lived out her childhood in Washington county Missouri.  She is my gg-grandaunt.  In 1876, when she was twenty-one years old she married James Paul Ward.  A few years later they are found in the 1880 census of Poplar Bluff in Butler county Missouri.  They added a little son Ivan Ward to their family.  James P Ward is shown as an engineer.  Shortly after the census was taken another son named Joseph Bartlett Ward is born. 

According to Mamie Edmonston's 1948 letter, "They (James and Julia Ward) had two sons, Edward and Ivan.  Ivan, a very handsome young man, was murdered by a drunken miner while they were visiting once at my aunts."  I have not been able to find any evidence of a son Edward Ward.  He is not with his parents in either the 1880 or 1900 census.  Joseph Bartlett Ward lived to about the age of ten, dying in 1891.  He is buried with his parents in St Louis.  I wonder if he might be the "Edward" Ward of Mamie Edmonston's recollection.  The 1900 census shows Julia Ward with one of two children living, and this would be her son Ivan Ward. In the following year Ivan would also be gone.  I know very little about the murder of Ivan Ward.  I have come up with a newpaper clipping to substantiate Mamie Edmonston's comment. 

Warsaw, Mo. - A man giving the name of L. F. Jackson, alias Charles Hicks, was arrested by authorities Saturday about five miles south at the Branstetier Ferry.  He answers the description of James Fatchett, who is wanted for the murder of Ivan Ward, committed at Irondale, Washington County, Mo., and is still at large and  $800.00 is offered for his capture.
[source]  The St. Louis Republic (St Louis Missouri), April 28, 1901

A followup places a James Fatchett in Washington county Missouri about this time and indicates that he died many years later, 1950 in Jefferson county Missouri. In October of 1901 the St Louis Republic announces changes to the Missouri National Guard, indicating "Ivan R Ward, killed by accident."  I would like to learn more about this "murder", a trial, and verdict.  This must have been a tremendous sadness in the life of our Robinson family. 

During these years around the turn of the century, the Wards moved to St Louis where James P Ward is shown as a railroad contractor.  Sometime before 1920, probably at James P Ward's retirement, they returned to Washington county Missouri and settled into the old Robinson family homestead at Irondale.  Julia Robinson Ward died in 1935 and James P Ward died in 1940.  They are buried with their sons in St Matthew Cemetery in St Louis Missouri. 


For more details on Julia Parkhurst Robinson, visit his page at Family Stories, pamgarrett.com.

Photo:   Street scenes showing railroad ticket broker offices on Market Street in St. Louis; about 1903.  record creator - U.S. District Court for the Eastern (St. Louis) Division; housed – NARA Central Plains Region (Kansas City); available through wikimedia commons.

Those Robinson Girls: Martha Robinson Thompson

Preston M Robinson married Sarah N Edmonston,  1847 in Washington county Missouri.  To them were born five daughters – Elizabeth Jane Robinson, Mary Alice Robinson, Martha Thomas Robinson, Julia Parkhurst Robinson, and Joeannah Robinson.  This Blog Series on “Those Robinson Girls” gives a brief account of each daughter.

Martha Thomas Robinson was born on the 13th of November 1852 in Washington county Missouri.  She was the third daughter of Preston McGready Robinson and Sarah Nugent Edmondston, and my gg-grandaunt.  Just before her 20th birthday, in 1872, she was married to Newton Jasper Thompson, and they settled near their parents in Concord township, Washington county Missouri.  Their farm was probably outside of the town of Irondale, and they appear in Concord township in the 1900, 1910 and 1920 census. 

Newton Thompson and Martha Robinson were the parents of nine children, including a set of twins.  Six or seven of their sons, and one daughter, lived to adulthood.  The children probably attended local schools in Irondale and participated in the family farming operations. 

Newton Thompson and his wife Martha both survived into their seventies, Newton dying in 1921 and Martha in 1929.  They are buried with many extended family members in Hopewell Cemetery in Washington county Missouri.

Identified children of  Newton Thompson and Martha Robinson:
Robert  Preston Thompson;  married Lora Ellen Morehouse; resided in Washington county Missouri; he died young of tuberculosis.
Edwin Thompson (twin); married Bessie Emerson; resided St Louis and Emeryville, Alameda county California.
Richard Albert Thompson (twin); married Maude Martindale; eventually settled in St Louis. 
Joseph G Thompson; married Marie Hoeffner; member of the St Louis Fire Department; died in line of duty 1915. 
Arthur Ivan “Pat” Thompson; married Ella Lowe; Methodist pastor; died 1961 in Breton, Washington county Missouri.   
Sarah Julia Thompson; married William Philip Carlyon and lived in Washington county Missouri.
Grover Cleveland Thompson; married Loretta; resided Berkeley, Alameda county California. 
Henry Thompson; may have lived in St Louis; nothing further known.


For more details on Martha Thomas Robinson, visit her page at Family Stories, pamgarrett.com.

Photo:   Hopewell Cemetery,  Washington county Missouri; Wikimedia commons, submitted by Txnerd.

Those Robinson Girls: Mary Alice Robinson Bebee

Preston M Robinson married Sarah N Edmonston,  1847 in Washington county Missouri.  To them were born five daughters – Elizabeth Jane Robinson, Mary Alice Robinson, Martha Thomas Robinson, Julia Parkhurst Robinson, and Joeannah Robinson.  This Blog Series on “Those Robinson Girls” gives a brief account of each daughter. 

Mary Alice Robinson was born on the 11th of December 1850.  She was the second of five daughters of Preston McGready Robinson and Sarah Nugent Edmonston, and is my gg-grandaunt.  In 1874, at the age of twenty-three, Mary Alice Robinson was married to Robert Bebee at Irondale in Washington county Missouri. 

In the 1880 census of Washington county Missouri, Robert Bebee was noted as a Forman at the Pilot Knob furnace.   He and his wife, Mary Alice Robinson, were the parents of six children, three of whom died in childhood. 

Sometime in the 1890’s, the Bebee family removed to St Louis where Robert Bebee took employment with the St Louis Fire Department.  He was a ladderman at Engine House #32, Hook and Ladder Company 8.  A Fire Department record indicates that he died in service 13 May 1902, but his tombstone gives his death date as 13 March 1903. 

Gould’s Blue Book of St Louis, 1903 and 1907, gives the Bebee home address as 6718 Virginia Avenue.  By 1910 Mary A Bebee, widow, is living with two of her grown children in St Louis.  A cousin, Mamie Edmonston in her 1948 letter describes Mary Alice as "one of the most ladylike and gracious women I have ever known."

Mary Alice Robinson Bebee died in 1923.  She is buried with her husband in Saint Matthew Cemetery of Saint Louis, Missouri. 

Children of Robert Bebee and Mary Alice Robinson, who survived to adulthood:
Maude Etta Bebee; married Thomas Mellow of England; resided in St Louis.
Robert Irl Bebee; married Alice Marion Dates; resided in St Louis and Charleston, Mississippi county Missouri.
Joseph Allen Bebee; married Martha Enid Ponder; resided St Louis and San Jose, California.

For more details on Mary Alice Robinson, visit his page at Family Stories, pamgarrett.com.

Photo:  Advertising poster; Fire Extinguisher Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of "Babcock" and "Champion", chemical engines . . ; US Library of Congress.

Further Reading:
History of the St. Louis Fire Department, with a review of great fires and sidelights upon the methods of fire-fighting from ancient to modern times, from which the lesson of the vast importance of having efficient firemen may be drawn. St. Louis Firemen's Fund.(St. Louis: Central Publishing Company, 1914).
A copy of this item is located at the Central Library, St Louis Public Library (ST 352.3).

Those Robinson Girls: Lizzie Jane Robinson Clarkson

Preston M Robinson married Sarah N Edmonston,  1847 in Washington county Missouri.  To them were born five daughters – Elizabeth Jane Robinson, Mary Alice Robinson, Martha Thomas Robinson, Julia Parkhurst Robinson, and Joeannah Robinson.  This Blog Series on “Those Robinson Girls” gives a brief account of each daughter. 

Elizabeth Jane Robinson was my gg-grandmother.  She was born on the 11th of January 1848 in Washington county Missouri.  She was the first born child of Preston McGready Robinson and Sarah Nugent Edmonston, and she was the first of a family of five daughters.  In fairly quick succession would arrive her younger sisters, Mary, Martha, Julia and finally Joeannah in 1862. 

I don’t know much of my gg-grandmother’s childhood, but it appears that she grew up on a family farm near the communities of Caledonia and Irondale in Washington county Missouri.  I can only speculate on the schooling of Elizabeth Robinson and her sisters, but it is clear that they received a worthwhile education.  Whether it was at home, in a local schoolroom, or at a boarding school is not known.

“Lizzie” Jane Robinson married Richard Albert “RA” Clarkson on the 3rd of September 1868.  He hailed from Essex county Virginia, had been orphaned as a young boy, and came west with his uncle a year or two after the Civil War.  He must have married Lizzie Jane not long after his arrival.  They appear with their infant daughter Camilla Clarkson in the 1870 Census of Washington county Missouri, in Harmony/Osage township.  RA Clarkson is noted as a Retail Dry Goods Merchant, a business he carried on through most of his life.  The town of Annapolis, in neighboring Iron county Missouri, was established in 1872, and RA Clarkson is listed among the first residents.  Lizzie Robinson and RA Clarkson lived in Annapolis for fifteen years.  Their four children were born there.

Our family is most fortunate to have a large collection of letters exchanged by our Clarkson family.  The largest portion of the letters is written between RA Clarkson and two of his children, Henrietta Clarkson and Samuel Edwin Clarkson, between 1903 and 1913.  But, there are a few earlier letters, and several letters written by Lizzie Jane Robinson Clarkson.   In May of 1886, Henrietta Clarkson writes to her two older sisters, Cammie and Annie, who are likely away at boarding school.  She mentions the chicken and dumplings they had for dinner, and the “train wreck” Papa met up with when he was returning from Ironton.  Also enclosed in the envelope is a letter from Mama (Lizzie Jane) to her daughter Cammie.  It’s an odd and hurried letter, discussing dresses that the girls are in need of.  Lizzie offers to purchase fabric in St Louis to send on to their dressmaker, if the girls will make clear what they need.  She closes the missive:

I do hope you are not just wanting these things to make a show, but if necessary then I will try and get. Now don’t go to crying and fretting over it just write on receipt of this a few lines telling me what you know, what color of silk and fingered or not. I do hope the Good Lord will forgive me for spending my Sabbath evening thinking about dress.

Just after this 1886 letter, the Clarkson family moved to Fort Smith Arkansas.  This would be Lizzie Robinson Clarkson’s home for the next forty-five years.  She became involved in many ministries of the Presbyterian Church.  She worked with a group of women to establish the Rosalie Tilles Orphan’s Home in Fort Smith. 

Elizabeth Jane Robinson was described by her granddaughter Elizabeth Boyd Reynolds in a letter to Charles Ninian Edmonston. She called her a colorful person who for many years supervised, from her home, a Ft. Smith orphanage, much to the dismay of her family.   She always drove a black horse hitched to a phaeton, wore sweeping skirts and a little bonnet on her head long after hats were in vogue.  She would stop her horse anywhere in the middle of the street to visit, much to the despair of the merchants, who finally wrote to the family to please keep her off the street before she was run over.  She was a large, strong woman both physically and mentally . Elizabeth claimed to be "scared to death of her" but said her younger sister Henrietta constantly chided her for not "kidding her along" as she did. 

Elizabeth Jane Robinson Clarkson died in 1930, at the age of eighty-two.  She had faced the death of her husband and two of her daughters, and a young grandson.  She is buried with her family in the Oak Cemetery in Fort Smith Arkansas.   

Children of Elizabeth Jane Robinson and Richard Albert Clarkson:
Camilla Hall Clarkson; married William Henry Vick of Fort Smith in 1898; removed to Oklahoma City.
Annie Preston Clarkson; married Alfred Waller Boyd in 1893; removed to Oklahoma City.
Henrietta  Jeffries Clarkson; unmarried; predeceased her parents in 1910 at age thirty-seven.
Samuel Edwin Clarkson; married Aubin Mildred Fry of Fort Smith in 1899; removed to Oklahoma City.

For more details on Elizabeth Jane Robinson, visit her page at Family Stories, pamgarrett.com.  You will find several of her letters to her son, Samuel Edwin Clarkson, among the Clarkson Family Letters at Family Stories, pamgarrett.com.

Preston McGready Robinson, Washington County Missouri

Preston McGready Robinson, son of Archibald Robinson and Jane VanLear, was born on a farm near Caledonia, Washington county Missouri on 8 July 1820.  His older siblings were John Robinson and Sarah Robinson who came with their parents to Caledonia the very year Preston Robinson was born.  Later three more daughters, Mary Robinson, Jane Robinson and Elizabeth Robinson, were born to Archibald Robinson and Jane VanLear. 

The Robinson’s migration followed a few years after a group of mostly Scots – Irish families left Kentucky to settle the Bellevue Valley of Missouri and establish the little town of Caledonia.  The first lots were auctioned in Caledonia in 1819.  It isn’t clear whether the Robinsons set up housekeeping in the new town, or on a farm outside of town.  But, they must have played a role in the growth of a brand new community.  Today Caledonia is a small village in Washington county Missouri, but it is noted for its Nineteenth century charm, with thirty-three homes and buildings on the National Historic Register. 

Preston McGready Robinson, was married on 2 November 1847 in Washington county Missouri to Sarah Nugent Edmonston, daughter of William Edmonston and Elizabeth Royse of adjoining Reynolds county Missouri.  She was born 12 November 1831 in McComb, Illinois.  Preston was twenty-six years old and Sarah sixteen!  They were married by John Thomas, preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  The witnesses to their marriage included Sarah’s brother, John Edmons(t)on, and Preston’s sister, Elizabeth Robinson. 

The 1850 Census of Washington county Missouri, Belleview township, page 109, consecutively lists three young families – Richard and Elizabeth (Robinson) Terrill, Preston and Sarah Robinson, and Samuel and Jane (Robinson) Reyburn.  The father of these siblings, Archibald Robinson, is also in Belleview township, on page 117.  It would be interesting to know the location of this "family" homestead. 

Minimal record searching does not yet tell us much about what Preston Robinson did for a living, but in census records he is shown as farmer and planter.  The few deeds I have read show him selling parcels of land, probably inherited from his father Archibald Robinson, though there are some buying and selling transactions he may have initiated himself. 

Preston Robinson and Sarah Edmondston were the parents of five daughters.  Birthdates and marriage information were found on a hand-written record in some Robinson – Edmonston family papers: 
Elizabeth Jane Robinson;  born  11 Jan 1848; married Richard Albert Clarkson on 3 Sept 1868
Mary A Robinson; born  11 Dec 1850; married Robert Beebe on 24 Feb 1874
Martha Thomas Robinson; born 13 Nov 1852; married Newton Jasper Thompson on 3 Sep 1872
Julia Parkhurst Robinson; born 17 Jan  1855; married James P Ward on 12 July 1876
Joanna Robinson; born 24 Oct 1862; married Ezra Elmo Mason on 8 Jan  1878

Probably Sarah Edmondston Robinson was responsible for the education received by these five daughters.  Eldest daughter Elizabeth Jane Robinson was obviously intelligent, and a good business-woman in her later years. 

Southeast Missouri was not a major player in the action of the Civil War, but it did see both Union and Confederate troops moving through.  There was probably more fear stirred, and more property damaged by the Northern Jayhawkers and Southern Bushwhackers, local outlaws with personal grudges.  In 1864, Confederate General Sterling Price drove his men across Missouri in an event known as Price’s Raid.  The Battle of Pilot Knob occurred on 27 September 1864, when Price’s 12,000 troops faced a small garrison at Fort Davidson.  If our Robinson family was “at home”, they may have been aroused by this battle in the neighborhood. 

One final postscript to the seemingly admirable life of Preston McGready Robinson is a 1902 letter written by Richard Albert Clarkson, Preston Robinson's son-in-law, to his cousin Richard Mundie, which says:

Mr. Robinson, my wife's father has a tumor on his hand which they fear is a cancer.  The poor man cannot live much longer and the unfortunate part of it all is he is unprepared as we fear, for death.  The drink habit fastened itself upon him years ago and it has sapped his manhood.  Poor fellow, how I pity him.   

Preston Robinson died on 1 July 1903, at the age of eighty-three, and is buried in Hopewell Cemetery at Irondale in Washington county Missouri.  His obituary tell us, “About two months ago, he accepted Christ as his Saviour, and gave every evidence of being ready and waiting, simply trusting and with patience he calmly awaited the summons 'come up higher’. “ It credits him with twenty-six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

For more details on Preston McGready Robinson, visit his page at Family Stories, pamgarrett.com.


More Reading:
There is an article available on the internet, written by Thomas Flanders, published in the Spring 1992 issue of Ozarks Watch, and titled Kith and Kin of Caledonia.  It doesn’t include any mention of our Robinson family, but it gives a nice flavor to the community in which they lived. 

History of Caledonia Missouri, by Muriel Akers   

History of Irondale [Missouri], by Joy Scott

Photo:  Tombstone of Preston McGready Robinson and his wife Sarah Nugent Edmonston Robinson in Hopewell Cemetery, Irondale, Washington county Missouri.  Photo courtesy of Esther Ziock Carroll, at carrollscorner.net.  This is a fabulous website for learning more about Washington county Missouri!

Moving back in time:  Albert Luther Clarkson 1901 > Samuel Edwin Clarkson 1875 > Elizabeth Jane Robinson 1848 > Preston McGready Robinson  1820.

1908: Clarkson 40th Wedding Anniversary

In September of 1908, most of the Clarkson family gathered in Fort Smith, Arkansas for a family reunion honoring the fortieth wedding anniversary of Richard Albert Clarkson and Elizabeth Jane Robinson, a remembrance of the marriage that took place on the 3rd of September 1868 in Washington county Missouri.  A “now treasured” family photograph was taken on that occasion.  This lovely recounting of the event was found, as a newspaper clipping, in the Clarkson family Bible.  The date “Sept 3rd 1908” was handprinted on the clipping.

Mr and Mrs RA Clarkson were given a most pleasant surprise on Wednesday, the occasion being a surprise family reunion in celebration of their 40th anniversary.  Early in the morning, unconscious of what the day would bring forth, Mrs Clarkson accompanied by her two grandchildren, Miss Elizabeth and Henryetta Boyd, of Oklahoma City, who have been visiting at the Clarkson home for a number of weeks, and Miss Etta Clarkson, went to Mt Vista to spend the day.  During their absence, Mrs Walter Boyd, Mrs WH Vick, Edwin Clarkson and little son, of Oklahoma City, arrived as a surprise to celebrate the anniversary of the marriage of their parents.  Mr Clarkson was soon let into the secret and upon the arrival of Mrs Clarkson and daughter at Electric park, returning from their day’s outing, they were most happily greeted by the rest of the family.  To complete the pleasant surprise a most sumptuous dinner had been prepared by the visiting members, and amid many congratulations and good wishes the day passed, making it one of great pleasure and thorough enjoyment.

  

Who’s in the photograph?

(front) Samuel EdwinClarkson, Albert L Clarkson, Henrietta C Boyd, Elizabeth Jane Robinson Clarkson. (rear) Elizabeth B Boyd, AnnieClarkson Boyd, Henrietta J Clarkson, Cammie Clarkson Vick, Richard Albert Clarkson.

For more details on the Richard Albert Clarkson and Elizabeth Jane Robinson Family, visit their page at Family Stories, pamgarrett.com.  Richard Albert Clarkson and Elizabeth Jane Robinson are my great, great grandparents.