In 1935 Lucille Clark Hoskins wrote to her half sister, Madge Clark Baker, recalling her memories of her grandparents; E. Elizabeth Woodbury and Moses Hobart Clark. She wrote"Grandfather and grandmother were childhood sweethearts, he used to bring apples to her when they went to school. Grandmother rode horseback and fell and broke her arm. She was considered quite a woman with the horse, she drove a four horse team down Woodbury Mountain. I remember when a little girl, probably frightened, sitting in the seat beside her. We had got to the R.R. crossing, the train coming very near, the horse rose up on his hind feet, she drew that whip across his back and he dropped down and took us across..."
Writing about E. Elizabeth's four brothers Lucille said; "The boys were very ungodly. When the boys were young the father left home and was to come home a certain day. So the boys thought that they would have a dance, he came unexpected, opened the door and said "Where am I, in HELL!"
E. Elizabeth was born 25 September 1832 in Greensboro, Vermont and died 28 June 1906 in Barnet. Moses Hobart Clark was born 14 october 1831 at Washington, Vermont and died 15 April 1919 in Burlington. On 2 June 1832 they married. They moved to Barnet about 1900 where Moses and his son Charles Edward Clark operated a wagon making business. Four of their five children are discussed in the post immediately previous to this one. The youngest child, Nellie, never married. I have in my possession a newspaper clipping about her death but cannot find it at the moment. The story made us Smith kids laugh when we read the clipping as teenagers and from the distance of a century more or less it has a comical quality. In August of 1937 she was riding in the back seat of a car carrying her niece Lucille Hoskins and driven by Lucille's husband, Frank. They had a small collision at a crossroads but the car was driveable and no-one seemed hurt so they continued their trip. When they arrived at their destination, Nellie was dead in the back seat. The death certificate, which I do have, says "Hemorrhage into tissues of neck and lacerations of soft parts". Nellie was born in 1864 and was 73 years old at the time of her death.
I have seen the Clark and Woodbury gravestones in Wolcott. E. Elizabeth's epitaph is:
She hath done what she could
Beautiful hands, beckoning hands
Calling the dear ones to heavenly lands
1 comment:
Dereka, this is great! I have been trying to learn about E. Elizabeth Woodbury's family for a while, now, and your information is incredibly rich. I think her brother may have been Asa H., my direct ancestor. Asa's wife, Mary, was also a Clark, and I am tempted to think that she might be related to Moses, although I've seen nothing to suggest such a link. Would love to know if you've ever come across anything. Also, on Elvira Elizabeth's parents, John and Elizabeth, of course. I did see their stone in Craftsbury Common Cemetery a few summer's back. At any rate, thanks so much for posting!-Seth Briggs
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