John Mordecai Clark

  General Notes:

The John Mordecai Clark Family

John Mordecai Clark and Nancy Jane Stinnett were married on Nov. 15, 1893 and had 5 children, Elizabeth Grace, Juanita, Raymond Albert, Sidney and Winnie Lou. Nancy sadly passed away of breast cancer in 1918 at the age of 44. Gracie was born in 1895 and she was my grandmother.

After Nancy's passing, John married Nora Seay Bible in 1922. At the time, she had three children from a previous marriage, Martha, Hugh and Loyd Bible. John and Nora subsequently had two more children, Ambrose and John Milburn. Both of these boys were known by their nicknames most of their lives to those that they grew up with. I believe they lived in California most of their adult lives. They were known as Dobbin and Doodle to the folks of Smithwick. The second picture is believed to be the John Clark home near the banks of the Colorado between Pleasant Valley and Smithwick. I think this house was later lost in a fire. Could be Dobbin and Doodle standing on the porch with their Dad.

Doc Whitman (my uncle) told me that he often visited the boys there when he was an adolescent and the one thing he remembers about Pap Clark is that he slept in his shirt. I thought this was an unusual thing to remember, but perhaps it is a reflection of GGF's failing health at the time. Doc also reminisced that a young man once came courting Martha in an old truck with a load of watermelons, and he had to abandon the vehicle when the floodwaters unexpectedly caught them in the big flood of 1935. Doc would have been 12 at the time and he said he remembers gathering the scattered melons afterward and taking several to the Clark house for a big feast.

by Grant Ray Thompson on Facebook 17 Jan 2015

Clyde Lyda comment: yes, i remember all this family well except John M. whos funerial i barely remember. Ambrose was nick named (Dobbin) and Doodle was the nickname of john M. Clark jr. I think Dobbin was in the navy in ww2 and stayed in calif and became a union carpenter. Doodle lived in and around Burnet county except for the last few years moving to the little town on hwy 16 between Llano and San Saba.The last i heard doodle health was bad.

Grant Ray Thompson comment: Here is a later picture of John M. Clark. I heard another interesting story about him at the goat gathering from my cousin Warren (Pud) Lyda. I was recounting the story of Martha Bible being courted by Jimmy Sears that was told by Doc - about the Model T with a load of watermelons that was stranded by the Big Flood in the 30's - and he said he had an even better one about Pap Clark. He said, "I bet you didn't know your great grandfather got his throat cut on Main Street in Marble Falls." Of course I was astounded and requested that he proceed. The story goes that John Mordecai and one of the Bibles (also a more distant relative) were having a dispute over a pecan crop and proceeds from a sale. Apparently the Bible descendant became overly agitated and pulled our his pocket knife, took a slash at GGF, and connected with his jugular vein, releasing copious amounts of blood. Warren says the story goes that John calmly put his fingers on the vein, stopping the flow, walked across the street to the doctors office and got stitched up. I do not know what happened to the pecan crop. Just goes to show you that the story of Cain and Abel will always be with us in this life.

Naomi Chadwick commented 7 Dec 2015: My dad told me that same story about Uncle John. I believe Hollis Bible was the one that cut his throat. You know that we are related to Red and Weston Hays? There are a lot of stories about those two! Their dad was Emmet Hays and their mother was Ada Clark. She was the daughter of Tipton Clark, Hugh Clark's brother. Ambrose (Dobbin) changed his name to Noah; he lived in San Diego and John (Doodle) lives in Cherokee. I knew both of them when I was growing up. Doodle and his family came to our house often as he like to play guitar with my Dad.

Clyde Lyda commented on 8 Dec 2015: The Clarks lived on the Lyda place iin a house near 1431 after Johnj M. passed.Joh M's funeral is the first funeral i remember. I believe the house picture is of a house 0n the Clark place near the banks of Sycamore Creek near the lower end of the Lyda place close to the river.Our family knew them all and grew up with them.The llast I heard of Doodle he had moved from Cherokee and was in very bad health.I know Amiel Frasier lived in this house in the mid 30's because we used to walk down from the Lyda House to listen to the Grand ole opry on some Sat. nites.on his battery powered radio.

John married Nancy Jane Stinnett on 15 Nov 1893. (Nancy Jane Stinnett died in 1918.)

John next married Nora Seay. (Nora Seay was born in 1893 and died in 1964.)