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LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - NOVEMBER 20, 2016
Emily Clark from LeRoy - -Where Are You?
While doing research for
next years exhibit “Remem-
ber the Ladies*” I mentioned
the project to Dr. Judy Jensen,
who is a retired professor from
SUNY Brockport. Judy now
volunteers at the Susan B. An-
thony House in Rochester. She
asked what I knew about Emily
Clark of LeRoy, who is men-
tioned in Susan B. Anthony’s
diary. I had forgotten about
Emily Clark. She was an activ-
ist during the early 1850s and
was primarily involved with the
temperance movement that was
supported by many suffragists.
But I have decided that she is an
enigma.
Susan B. Anthony mentions
that she was in the company of
Emily Clark of LeRoy in May
1852 while she was in Batavia
lecturing on temperance:
“Miss Clark addressed the
people of Batavia last evening,
in a most earnest and truthful
manner; and was listened to
with marked attention. After the
address the Secretary of the So-
ciety stated its objects and the
means by which it is proposed
to effect them, and called upon
the friends present to co-oper-
ate with the Women's New York
State Temperance Society”
There is another account
that mentions that during the
summer of 1852, Emily Clark,
Mrs. Vaughn and Mrs. Attilia
Albro traveled throughout the
state collecting 28,000 signa-
tures on a temperance petition.
They canvassed thirty counties,
organizing temperance societ-
ies and urging New Yorkers to
adopt a liquor law similar to the
temperance law passed in 1851
in Maine, known as the “Maine
Law.” In January 1853, the la-
dies attended the Albany Tem-
perance meeting. This group in-
cluded Amelia Bloomer. They
presented the petition, with the
28,000 signatures and asked the
New York State Legislature to
proceed with a prohibitory law.
“In a brief and dignified speech,
Emily Clark presented the peti-
tion – after which they returned
to the convention and reported
the success of the mission.”
In 1853, Emily addressed
the Whole World Temperance
Convention on the topic of
electoral change: “Neolithic,
the fearful wreck of manhood,
now the destruction of all that
is noble, generous and manly in
youth, nor all the suffering of
womanhood, nor all the miser-
ies of childhood we so great but
they can be remembered by the
temperance ballot box.”
From the New York Tribune,
which printed her address: “The
arguments advanced to silence
women’s voice on this subject
are, perhaps, quite as strongly
supported by the Holy Scrip-
tures as those drawn from the
same sources to sustain the or-
thodox of that climax of abom-
inations, American slavery, the
Devine right of kings. (followed
by great applause).”
So who was Emily Clark
of LeRoy? It certainly seems
that she was working with some
very important women, but
where did she come from and
what happened to her?
I checked the Ingham Uni-
versity database and it appears
that Emily Clark graduated
from Ingham in 1849. The cat-
alogue for that year, mentions
that Emily was from LeRoy.
But was she living in LeRoy
with her family? Or was she liv-
ing in LeRoy on her own? And
was she born in LeRoy? So far,
I haven’t been able to find an
Emily Clark living with any of
the Clark families in LeRoy. I
emailed Wilfred Vasile to see if
he could find anything on Emi-
ly Clark in his genealogy files.
He said that she doesn’t appear
on the 1850 census but he did
find a notice in the January 2,
1856 LeRoy Gazette that men-
tions that Emily Clark married
J.R. Jackson of Potsdam on De-
cember 26, 1855. According to
the 1890 Ingham Alumnae cat-
alogue, Emily Clark taught two
years in Painsville, Ohio and
a year in Warren, Ohio and 2
years in Mt. Morris, NY. It also
mentions that she married John
R. Jackson in 1855 and had two
children. She was a Lecturer in
1859-60 on the Constitution of
U.S. with reference to slavery;
Lecturer on Temperance. She
lived in Malone, NY; Minne-
apolis; Valley Springs, Dakota;
Halifax Court House, Va. and
in 1890 was living in Bon Air,
Virginia.
What I suspect, is that when
she graduated from Ingham,
she became involved with the
temperance movement and for
a couple of years she traveled
around, speaking and organiz-
ing temperance groups. Appar-
ently, even after her marriage
in 1855 she was still lecturing
on slavery and temperance. She
believed that to make changes
it would be necessary to secure
electoral advantages, and that
would include securing suffrage
for women.
There are so many unan-
swered questions about Emily
Clark. Who were her parents?
When was she born and where?
Who was her husband? Why
did she move around so much?
Was that because of her hus-
band’s job? When did she die?
Where is she buried? A lot of
questions, and right now, not
many answers.
*This is a reference to a
comment made in a letter writ-
ten by Abigail Adams to her
husband, John Adams on March
31, 1776. Part of her comment:
“I long to hear that you have
declared an independency. And,
by the way, in the new code of
laws which I suppose it will
be necessary for you to make,
I desire you would remember
the ladies and be more gener-
ous and favorable to them than
your ancestors. Do not put such
unlimited power into the hands
of the husbands. Remember, all
men would be tyrants if they
could. If particular care and at-
tention is not paid to the ladies,
we are determined to foment
a rebellion, and will not hold
ourselves bound by any laws in
which we have no voice or rep-
resentation.”