The Filson Historical Society Blog

Jonathan Clark, of the famous Clark family, passed away on November 25, 1811 – 200 years ago this month. Born in August 1750 in Albemarle County, Virginia, Clark was the oldest of the ten children of John and Ann Rogers Clark. Two of his younger brothers – George Rogers and William – achieved great fame; George for his exploits in Kentucky and the Northwest Territory during the Revolutionary War and William as co-leader of the epic 1803 to 1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition across the American West to the Pacific Ocean.

George Rogers Clark, portrait by Matthew Jouett, ca. 1825. No portrait for brother Jonathan is known to exist.

William Clark, portrait by Joseph H. Bush, ca. 1817

Jonathan was a source of solid support and advice to both George and William as to his other siblings. He also achieved success and was widely admired in his own right. Jonathan served as a representative to two Virginia Revolutionary conventions and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Eighth Virginia Regiment in the Continental Line during the American Revolution. He served with distinction in a number of campaigns and battles. He was one of the original Virginia members of the Society of the Cincinnati and in 1793 was commissioned a major general in the Virginia militia. Thus he, like George and William, also achieved the rank of general (all in militia service).

Jonathan moved with his family from Spotsylvania County, Va., to Jefferson County, Ky., in the summer of 1802, settling on a plantation on the South Fork of Beargrass Creek near his brother William’s Mulberry Hill plantation (and where the Clarks had settled in 1785). His house was located off of Dundee Road near Atherton High School and still stands (though greatly altered over the years).

Jonathan and Sarah Clark's Louisville home, located off of Dundee Road, photo by Jim Holmberg.

Jonathan moved at a fortuitous time, as great things were happening in the west beyond the Appalachians. Brother William set off on his “western tour” to the Pacific in the fall of 1803. Jonathan and other Clarks were there to see him depart. Big brother even sailed downriver a ways with the captains and the nucleus of the Corps of Discovery.

Jonathan Clark's diary entry for 26 October 1803.

William wrote letters to him during the expedition and sent reports, notes, and artifacts collected along the trail to him for safe-keeping and dispersal to family and friends.  When the captains returned to the Falls of the Ohio in early November 1806,  Jonathan noted it in his diary; as he did a celebration at sister Lucy Croghan’s home Locust Grove in honor of their return. As short as these diary entries are, at least they record these momentous events in the life of the family, our region, and the country.

Jonathan Clark's diary entry for 5 November 1806.

Engraving of the Falls of the Ohio, by Victor Collot.

Not long before his death, Jonathan recorded yet another event that proved to have great regional and national  importance. He took a ride on the first steamboat to travel on western waters. The New Orleans  left Pittsburgh in October 1811 and eventually reached New Orleans in January 1812.  While waiting at Louisville for the Ohio to rise sufficiently to pass through the Falls, Nicholas Roosevelt (the boat’s designer and one of its owners) gave rides upstream to demonstrate the paddlewheeler’s ability to travel against the current.  On November 9, Jonathan was one of the passengers to take a ride and see for himself what this feat of engineering foretold for river travel and the development of the country.  It is one of the few references by someone about, much less who rode on, the boat. One wishes he had described the boat and his excursion, but at least we have this: “Sailed in the Steam Vessle New Orleans - as far as the Diamond Island.” (Although uncertain, best evidence indicates that Diamond Island is present Twelve Mile Island.)

Diary entry noting ride on the steamboat "New Orleans", 9 November 1811.

Sixteen days later Jonathan Clark passed away. Thanks to his diary-keeping, as brief as his entries are, Jonathan recorded the momentous as well as the mundane over the course of more than forty years, and provided an important record of American history.

This begins a new feature of The Filson’s Blog. Historical images of buildings or a location from our collection will be juxtaposed with images from that same site today. The site and view might have changed little or it might be entirely different, with a new building, parking lot, etc. now there. Some of the changes might be for the better and in the name of progress; and sometimes the change will be a real loss to our architectural and historical heritage. But either way, the viewer will be able to step back in time and see what the site looked like THEN and what it looks like NOW.

THEN: Mulberry Hill - The Clark Family Home as it appeared ca. 1890

Our first “Then and Now” pairing is related to the founder of Louisville, George Rogers Clark. The famous “Hannibal of the West” founded Louisville in 1778 while on his way farther west to attack British posts in the Illinois Country. Clark made Louisville his home for most of the rest of his life. He believed so strongly in Kentucky being that “Eden of the West” that he persuaded his parents, John and Ann Clark, to move to Louisville from Caroline County, Virginia. With them came their three unmarried daughters (Lucy, Elizabeth, and Fanny) and youngest son William. They settled on a tract of land that George most likely selected for them on the south fork of Beargrass Creek. John Clark christened the estate Mulberry Hill. The nucleus of the Clark plantation was the house, of course. The property, although whittled down through the years) stayed in the Clark family until it was sold to the federal government in 1917 as part of the land acquired for Camp Zachary Taylor. The house iteself had collapsed through neglect about 1900, but the outbuildings were still intact. In order to make way for the camp, all the surviving buildings were razed (the fate of many structures on property acquired for the camp). When the camp was closed and sold at auction in 1921 Clark family members purchased forty-six acres containing the family cemetery and where the house had stood. That tract was donated to the city of Louisville for a park to be named in honor of Louisville’s founder. Today, George Rogers Clark Park is a popular destination located on Poplar Level Road. The playground equipment is located where the house once stood.

NOW: Playground equipment stands where the Clark cabin once did.

Only the family cemetery (many of the bodies were transferred to Cave Hill Cemetery in 1868) remains today to remind us where Louisville’s founder and one of our most famous pioneer families (William Clark and his enslaved African American York who lived for many years at Mulberry Hill would go on to fame on the Lewis & Clark Expedition) once lived.

For more information go to the Lewis and Clark in Kentucky website and Dr. Ernie Ellison’s pamphlet on Mulberry Hill on the Louisville Metro Parks website.

A dashing George Rogers Clark

Being new to The Filson, I frequently find intriguing bits of history winking at me from an office or hallway, perched on a mantelpiece, or looming on the stairs. But the whimsical figures of the Derby Clock are particular standouts – playful sculptures that evoke both the varied history of this state and the imaginative spirit of their creator, Barney Bright.

Bright designed the Derby Clock in the 1970’s for the city of Louisville. This ornamental clock was structured as an elevated race track, with five Kentucky historical figures contesting each other for a win at noon each day. Bright also sculpted observers to the race, significant historical figures as well, watching from a gazebo. Unfortunately, the Clock had mechanical problems, but apparently it’s being restored and should soon be placed for viewing at the Louisville Zoo.

Life-size figures from local lore race around the Louisville Clock.

A winsome Belle of Louisville

Here’s the fun part for me – in addition to the Clock, Bright also designed 250 collector’s sets of the racing figures, miniature versions of the statues on the Clock. These include George Rogers Clark, dashing in a green cloak and sword; Thomas Jefferson, genteel in a cart even as he clutches his horse’s tail; and my favorite, the Belle of Louisville, perched on a wave, legs in an elegant curve as her feet embrace a steamboat wheel – the personification of joy.

Lu Ann Weinstein donated these hand-painted, pewter sculptures to The Filson, and they truly demonstrate the power of both history and creativity. If you’d like to learn more about the Derby Clock and the intriguing figures contained therein, check out the official website  -http://www.louisvilleclock.com/clock-main.html.

Last week, the New York Times reported that New York University’s Hall of Fame for Great Americans (now affiliated with Bronx Community College) had fallen into disrepair:

George Rogers Clark by Matthew Harris Jouett

When it was founded in 1900, it was the first Hall of Fame in the nation, local historians say, and the elections to induct members were covered by the national press. Some stalwart defenders believe the renown even earned a reference in “The Wizard of Oz”: The Munchkins tell Dorothy, “You will be a bust, be a bust, be a bust in the Hall of Fame!”

But when the hall’s host, New York University, sold its Bronx campus in 1973, the collection languished. The 98 busts tarnished, soot gathered, and the Hall of Fame slowly slipped into irrelevance. An election has not been held since 1976.

Today, the colonnaded hall sits high above the city as an awkward appendage to the campus of Bronx Community College. To history buffs, it is a forgotten gem; to nearly everyone else, it is just forgotten.

As far afield as this story may seem, multiple collections at The Filson relate to the Hall of Fame.  As part of a broad effort to commemorate the life of Louisville’s founder, the George Rogers Clark Memorial Foundation advocated the frontiersman’s election to the Hall of Fame.  Records from the organization include correspondence between the group to the Hall of Fame’s College of Electors.  For several months in 1955, the Foundation bombarded electors with letters making the case for Clark’s election.  Yet, the group’s campaign failed.  They were more successful in other efforts, such as naming Louisville’s Second Street bridge after Clark.

In addition to the letters from a group advocating an individual’s election, Filson collections show the other side of the equation as well.  From 1949 to 1957, William Marshall Bullitt, a Louisville attorney and United States Solicitor General, served on the Hall of Fame’s College of Electors.  Bullitt’s papers, included in the Bullitt Family Papers-Oxmoor Collection, reveal both the internal discussions among electors as well as the interaction between the electors and those advocating for induction.

These Hall of Fame-related collections demonstrate the breadth of the Filson’s holdings.  Although centered around Kentucky, the Ohio River Valley, and the Upper South, materials at the Filson contain a wealth of information about people and institutions well beyond this region, even forgotten ones like NYU’s Hall of Fame for Great Americans.

A large part of our work in Special Collections is helping researchers access manuscript materials.  Over the years, an archivist notices patterns in research topics, and it is interesting to observe which collections are frequently used and which are not.   Some collections are used by a variety of researchers working on any number of topics from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century.  Sometimes, though, collections are overlooked.  Either based on the way they were cataloged or some other twist of fate, they are never used by researchers when they would prove to be a wealth of information.

Daniel Boone's 1787 entry in the Kentucky Fee Book.

Recently, I was in the stacks retrieving materials for a researcher when I spotted an interesting volume on one of our shelves.  It was labeled “Kentucky Fee Book, 1787-1788.”  Usually, any frontier era collections are heavily used, but I had no recollection of ever pulling this volume.  Curious, I glanced through the record book and almost immediately began spotting the biggest names in Kentucky’s frontier history: Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark, James Wilkinson, and Simon Kenton, among many others.  The book contains over two hundred pages recording legal fees paid for a variety of actions ranging from filing suits to registering land claims.

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