More Memories from the Life of Nicholas L. Clark, Sr.

There are many memories from 1951, but none are clearer than those surrounding the disastrous 1951 flood, which occurred during the month of July.

The record-breaking flood occurred throughout Nebraska, northern Kansas, Iowa and Missouri    I read in the Maple Hill News reports in the Alma Signal Enterprise that over 60" of rain fell from March through June at the Tod Ranch south of Maple Hill. There were no flood control projects or dams built on any of the major rivers at that time, so there was no way to hold or store flood waters. Of course, that all changed after 1951.  Today it would be impossible for such a flood to occur unless one of the dams broke on a major Kansas River.

I have a very clear memory of how we first experienced the flood. It had rained all weekend Monday dawned clear and beautiful. Our family lived in a small rental house in the north end of Maple Hill, next door to Aunt Bonnie (Thomas) and Uncle Charlie Mitchell. My mother went over and suggested to Aunt Bonnie that we all drive to Grandmother Mildred Corbin's to wash. So we loaded laundry in the car and drove to Grandmother Corbins.

It took a while for my brother Gary and I, helped by my mother, to carry wash water from the well in our wagon. We had to fill the Maytag as well as two rinse tubs with water. That could take as many as ten trips to the well, which was 100 yards away. Then we had to put an electric heater in the Maytag wash tub to heat the water. I suppose it may have been 10am before that was done. We had the white clothes in the washer when the phone on the wall of Grandmother Corbin's kitchen began to ring short continuous rings. That was a signal to all on the party line that there was emanate danger of some kind. Grandmother rushed to the phone and was silent as my other Grandmother, Mable R. (Jones) Clark relayed information from the Central Office: "Leave your homes immediately and flee to higher ground. A 10' wall of water is coming from McFarland towards Paxico and Maple Hill."

Grandmother looked shocked as she turned to us and said, "We must leave now. Don't take anything just get in the car. We have to go to town NOW!" I remember Gary and I started to cry as the women picked us up and headed for Aunt Bonnie's four-door Plymouth sedan. My mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark drove and Grandmother Corbin got in the passenger seat. Gary and I sat on their side of Aunt Bonnie Mitchell in the back seat. As mother was starting the car, Grandmother Corbin told us what Grandmother Clark had said on the phone. Mother started the car, put it in gear and threw gravel behind the tires as we turned right out the circle drive of the farm and headed towards Maple Hill.

This is a 1951 photo of the Kansas River flooding both sides of east Topeka. My maternal great grandmother, Lucy Mae (Lemon) McCauley-Banta-Strong's home was flooded on Paramore Street in the area known as Oakland. Although nearly 80, she refused to leave her home. The water eventually reached a depth of 3' in the second story of her home but she stayed put. Later, we found that she had lots of cash hidden in baking powder cans about the house. She didn't trust banks and always kept a lot of cash in her home. She died four years later, and I remember Grandmother and Grandfather Corbin carefully going through cabinets, looking under carpets, and pulling mattresses apart. They always doubted they found much of what was there.
It was about a quarter mile from the Corbin house to the first left turn in the road. There were three houses there, those of Don McClelland and Hattie (McClelland) Wilson, the Young Family and the Paul McClelland Family. As she turned the corner, mother looked into the rear view mirror and said, "Oh my God, the water is coming behind us."

We all turned to look behind the car and sure enough, there was a little wall of water coming fast right behind us. Mother literally floor boarded the accelerator because for the next quarter mile we would be running parallel to the on-coming water. If we could make it one-quarter of a mile and cross a small bridge crossing a slough, we'd be safe. The road into Maple Hill made a sharp rise after the slough bridge.

Luckily, the Corbin Farm sat on the brink of a high ridge. The Mill Creek bottom was a good 10' below the Corbin farmhouse. Therefore, the full force of the wall of water greatly diminished as it approached. What was coming towards us was probably not more than 12" high if that but it certainly looked ominous.

The water reached the road and began to go under the car just as we reached the bridge of the slough and safety. Mother continued to drive to the top of the little hill and then stopped the car. We got out and looked behind us and could see nothing but water across the entire Mill Creek valley to the south. We had beat the flood waters and we were safe, but what was to come was one of the worst flood disasters in Kansas History.

There were 41 students in Maple Hill High School when I started in 1959. My 1962 graduating class of 10 (five girls and five boys) will celebrate our 50th Reunion in June of this year. I'm hopeful all of us will be there and each of us has remarkable achievements in our own fields of endeavor. In high school I had the basics, English, math, chemistry, literature, history, government, biology, and we also had electives. I took two years of Latin and two years of Spanish and I also took three years of typing and then shorthand in my senior year. I was always glad I had taken the classes because I could take almost word-for-word notes in college classes. I also played in our 30-piece band and sang in our choir. We fielded a six-man football team and had basketball and track teams.

This is a photograph taken in 1938, showing the Maple Hill High School Football six-man team plus a substitute, on the playing field.   The football field was located where the baseball diamond currently is in Maple Hill City Park.   My father, John Leander "Tim" Clark is the second from the right end.  In the background are the Beaubian Hotel (which was then occupied by the Hedges Family) and the Rock Island Depot.  If anyone knows who the other players are, please leave me a note in the "Comment" sectoin at the bottom.

The Kansas capital, Topeka, was just 25 miles away and during my growing up years, for the first time, Maple Hill began to transition from a rural, remote farming village into a bedroom community. The younger generation no longer worked on area farms, but left the farm and went to the city for their livelihood. I was the first person in my family to attend college and graduate. My brother Gary Wayne Clark graduated from Emporia State College. We both worked our ways through college, and our first jobs in high school were as hands for area farmers, but our "real" first jobs were in Topeka. Our grandparents and parents were always there urging us on and doing what they could to help. My mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark, worked six to eight hours Monday through Saturday at the Oberhelman Egg Plant in north Maple Hill, washing and candling eggs, and Mom sent almost every cent she made to Gary and I to help us stay in school.

My first experience with college was a failure. I had received a "one" rating at the area music festival and advanced on to the state festival in Emporia, Kansas. Ruth Raine drove me there to participate and her daughter Ruth Ann Raine (Rogers) was my accompanist. I sang Handel's "Where Er You Walk." One of the judges at state contest was Dr. Morris Hayes, director of the Kansas State University Varsity Men's Glee Club. I did well and again received a "one" rating. Dr. Hayes approached me after the contest and asked if I would like to attended Kansas State and participate in the Men's Glee Club as well as the Select Choir. He offered me a tuition scholarship and I accepted. I was 17-years-old and pretty immature.

I started to K-State in the fall of 1962 and lived with Dr. and Mrs. McIntosh. Dr. McIntosh was a member of the Ag faculty at Kansas State and his wife Connie was a charming red haired Scotch lady. They had a beautiful home and they welcomed me to it. I had gotten to know them through Miss Blanche McLeod, a teacher at Maple Hill High School. Miss McLeod had gotten me involved in the St. Andrews Society Band and Choir at Manhattan, Kansas and Dr. and Mrs. McIntosh were members.

I definitely was not ready to be a college student. I was 17, terribly homesick, loved all of the music classes and activities but HATED having to participate in ROTC as well as having to take swimming lessons. The old Nichols Gymnasium at K-State was not heated and you could literally have ice cycles freeze in your hair after class. I was assigned to a class of mostly Eastern Indian students who hated the water and would cling to the rest of us rather than put their heads under water. Then in late November, one of my favorite people, Uncle Charlie Mitchell suffered a stroke and was hospitalized. I knew a fellow that was driving back and forth from Maple Hill to Manhattan every day and I called him and asked for a ride home. I believe Uncle Charlie was in the hospital for about a week before he passed away but it was several more days until his funeral. I felt Aunt Bonnie Mitchell needed me and she welcomed my presence through the whole illness and funeral. However, I missed nearly two weeks of classes and although I returned to K-State, I was never able to catch up. After flunking out, I returned home where my mother was able to contact friends at Southwestern Bell Telephone and get a job for me.

The Old Nichols Gymnasium at Kansas State University, often called "The Castle" where I took swimming lessons.

Although I always regretting failing at Kansas State (and I'm leaving a bequest in my will to repay the scholarship) it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me because I was able to work and mature. I very much liked my work at Southwestern Bell in Topeka and my boss asked me one day if I'd like to apply for a pay telephone coin collector's job that was open in Emporia. I accepted that opportunity and moved to Emporia, where I shared an apartment with four students from Marysville, Kansas They were all great guys: Steve Boyda, Gene Houtz, and Butch Ackerman. We had great times in Emporia and I often went home with them for weekends.

There was one thing that used to bother me. Butch Ackerman caught rattlesnakes in the stones of the local lake dam in the evening. He would bring them back to the apartment and put them in a glass aquarium until morning. If I remember correctly, the science lab paid him $25 each for the snakes and he loved catching them. However the rest of us didn't like listening to them rattle all night. I was glad I was sleeping on the top bunk. Each morning I would carefully look all over the floor before I'd get down and dress. No snakes ever escaped the aquarium.

Southwestern Bell was an upwardly mobile culture, and after working our of Emporia for about 18 months, I was offered a job in Texas. I still had no intention of leaving Maple Hill, the bonds were just too tight. I quit my job, which at the time was probably a terrible mistake, but in the long term, it was the best thing that could have happened.

I returned home and looked through the job ads in the Topeka Daily Capital and noticed a counter sales position at Whelan's Lumber Company in east Topeka. I made an appointment and went for an interview with Wayne Whelan, the president. I had a resume and he asked some questions, but at the end of the interview he said, "Do you know Raymond Adams, Sr. at Maple Hill?" I said I knew him and had started to school with his daughter Ann. He said, "Do you think he would recommend you for this job?" I said, "I think so, my dad worked for his brother." He said, "You'll do and you can start tomorrow." Sometimes it isn't what you know but who you know that gets the job. I worked at Whelans from 1965 to 1972, at first full-time and then part-time after beginning at Washburn University. By the time I decided to go back to college in 1968, I had matured considerably and ready to settle into my studies and work part-time jobs to pay my way through.

White Concert Hall was opened in 1968 and thankfully suffered little damage in the disastrous tornado which destroyed many campus buildings on June 8.  This is where all of my music classes were held and where the choirs performed.   I performed in a senior voice recital here in 1971.
I was fortunate to have a good tenor voice and got a music scholarship to Washburn University of Topeka, after singing for Dr. Floyd Hedberg, chair of the choral music department. Dr. Gordon Gaines became my vocal coach and instructor. Gordon was a graduate of the Julliard School of Music and Columbia University and had performed in 40 lead roles on Broadway and in opera.

The interior of White Concert Hall, Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas.

He had a big baritone voice and a jovial personality. He was a very good teacher and I excelled under his tutelage. Dr. Gaines called me one day and asked if I would like to sing for funeral services at Penwell Gable Funeral Home and Parker Funeral Home in Topeka. I had sung for lots of funerals at Maple Hill Community Congregational Church and the morbidity of the job didn't really repel me. I received $10 for each service and usually had one or two services six days each week which gave me a very good income for that time. In addition, I worked at the new Whelan's Home Center in Fairlawn Shopping Center in the afternoons and evenings after school as a counter clerk. On Sunday, I sang as a paid soloist at First Presbyterian Church in Topeka, another job Dr. Gaines helped me get. In addition to all that, I was able to carry 12 to 16 hours of college work and have a very full and fun social life. I knew my parents couldn't afford to send me to college, but I also knew that I had to have a college education to complete the goals I had set for my life. Washburn University only had 1,800 students when I went there, but it provided an excellent education that has served me well all these years. Bigger isn't always better.

This is the way First Presbyterian Church in Topeka, Kansas looked when I was tenor soloist.   It has since been greatly enlarged.   It sits directly across the street west of the Kansas State Capital building.

I will never have any regrets about being born and raised in the rural environment of a small Kansas farming community surrounded and nurtured by three generations of my family. What we need to know, isn't always learned in school it is absorbed by osmosis from grandparents, parents, friends, teachers, preachers and others who inhabited the little community of 400 where I grew up: Maple Hill, Kansas.

I have sung many tenor solos from the chancel of this sanctuary at First Presbyterian Church, with Richard Gayhart at the console of the 80-rank Mooler tracker organ, the largest in Kansas.  Richard was organist from 1947 to 1994 and also directed the choir for several periods during that time.   I have many wonderful memories of  the music and choir programs and personalities from 1969-1971.


I believe I will stop there and continue in another blog. Happy Trails!

Tim and Lucille (Corbin) Clark's Oldest Son: Nicholas L. Clark, Sr.

I love to write about everyone else's family, but I hate to write about myself.   One time, when I was director of Heritage Hill State Park in Green Bay, Wisconsin, I had to go before the Appropriation's Committee of the Wisconsin Legislature to ask for a $3 million increase.  One of our veteran legislators from the area, Cletus Vanderperren, gave me some sage advice:   "Give'em just the meat Nick."  I pared down my remarks by about 75% and offered just the essentials and got the increase.

I have had a wonderful life.   The sixty-seven years have just flown by and still are.  

I think it's good to have to struggle and work for what you get.   My family didn't have a lot of money, but they were all good, loving, hardworking, rural people with roots deep down in Kansas soil. I grew up in a very rural farm and ranching community, Maple Hill, Kansas.   As I look back on it, we were probably about twenty years behind the times, maybe even more, but that's not always a bad thing.

This is a map of Wabaunsee County, Kansas taken from the "History of Kansas," Nobel Prentis, 1899.   I like it because it not only shows Maple Hill, but all the other towns even though nine that are named no longer exist.  Wabaunsee County is on the northeast corner of the Flint Hills Region of Kansas, known for its beautiful blue stem pastures and fertile farms and ranches.   The little community of Snokomo is where the Clarks first settled when they moved from Indiana to Kansas in 1877 or 1878.   John Clark, Sr. and 16 members of his extended family came by covered wagon to the home of Dr. Samuel Beach, where they stayed until their log home was finished.  The Beach and Clark families had been acquaintances in Indiana.

I have seen a lot of change in my lifetime, and I suspect that my children and grandchildren will see even more.   When I was a young boy, my father worked for ranchers and so we had both horses and cars.  My children wouldn't be able to conceive of such a thing.   Now my grandchildren have battery-powered play cars they can drive. 

Change is good, but change is better if we have the opportunity to plan for it and ease into it.  That isn't always the case.   When my great great grandparents saw the sky turn black from the Great Grasshopper Plague of 1874, they didn't have a chance to plan.  But neighbors banded together to help neighbors, and they somehow survived.   When the skies turned black as the dust storms of the 1930s approached, my grandparents tacked wet sheets over the windows of their homes and tried to avoid the brown lung dust pneumonia.  But there was no time for planning, you had to rely on basic survival instincts and also the cooperation of your family, friends and neighbors.

This is a photo taken of a Kansas dust storm on April 14, 1935.


I was so fortunate to inherit those genes and they have benefited me throughout my life.   I'm sure it sounds trite, but "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."   I don't know what it feels like to be unemployed, because I was never without a job.   During my lifetime, the workforce was ever increasing and upwardly mobile.  In my profession, museum development, I was good at what I did so I was either able to apply for another job and move up, or I was recruited for a job because of my success.

This generation, and probably the next, exists in an entirely different environment. The economy has been in decline and is more than stagnant.  The workforce as we knew it, is not only downwardly mobile but is no longer present.   Millions of people have been trained in universities and technical schools for jobs that no longer exist.  Middle class workers, both blue collar and white collar, have found themselves unemployed and unable to move to new jobs.  People are struggling, but the ones that are able to survive, are the ones that have grown up watching their parents and grandparents and great grandparents never giving up and willing to put their shoulder to the plow.  What wonderful examples of how to cope with life.

This is a photo of Lucille (Corbin) Clark when she was pregnant with Nicholas L. Clark, Sr. in 1944.   It's a good thing my Mother is in Heaven, because she always threatened terrible things if I ever showed this photo to anyone.  Forgive me mother!   I love it.

I was born on a cold, snowy day, November 16, 1944 at Christ's Hospital, which is today Stormont Vail Hospital, in Topeka, Kansas.  I believe that I was the first baby in my family to have been born in a hospital.   It was much more common to be born at home prior to the 1940s. 

In 1992, my mother wrote these memories of my birth on the back of my birthday card:
"Happy Birthday my first born.  I can't believe you are 48 years old, my dear, but time waits for no man---eh!!  It was a snowy day when I went to Christ's Hospital in Topeka to deliver all 9 pounds and 11 ounces of you.   Dad and I had spent the night in north Topeka, with Grandma Strong (Lucy May (Lemon) McCauley-Banta-Strong) and about 5pm I began to have labor pains.  We drove Mom and Dad's (Robert and Mildred (McCauley) Corbin-Clark) old Chevy to the Hospital, where you were delivered by Dr. Robert Pfuetze, who would later deliver Gary Wayne and your own children Nicholas and Amy.  The nurses brought you to me and I said, "Is that my baby?   He's so big!"  You were dark complected and looked like a little papoose which is exactly what some of the nurses said.  When they would bring you to nurse, they would say, "Here's Two Ton Tony and he's hungry!"  I was in a room with a lady who had a little 5 pound boy and they called him "Cricket."  We had fun and in those days we stayed in the hospital a lot longer.   For 9 days, they wouldn't let me out of bed.  After about 4 days they let me sit up and dangle my feet over the edge of the bed.  I went home on the 12th day and Dad and I went to stay with Mom and Dad (Robert and Mildred (McCauley) Corbin in the Adam's old stone house east of town.   Everyone came to see you and brought you nice gifts.  Bonnie and Charlie, Grandma and Grandpa Clark ( James Peter and Mable Rachel (Jones) Clark.   That Thanksgiving, I was still in the hospital and both sets of your grandparents and Dad came and brought dinner to share with me."

I really don't know why or how Mom came under the care of Topeka's first  Obstetrician, Dr. Robert Pfuetze, but she did.  The entire field of obstetrics was new and he was also new to Topeka.   He passed away in the 1980s, and I remember reading in his obituary that he delivered 30,000 babies over his career, and at least four of them were Clark's.

I weighed 9 pounds and 11 ounces---just a delicate little thing.   Both my Mom and my future wife said if they had known about the size of babies in the Clark family they might have thought twice about marrying.   My paternal aunt, Thelma Maree Clark, daughter of James Peter and Mable (Jones) Clark, weighed in at over 13 pounds and my father, John L. "Tim" Clark weighed 11 pounds and 6 ounces.   I always wondered how my Grandmother Clark was able to have them naturally.

Mom said most of the time expectant mothers could count on being in delivery rooms 12 to 36 hours before babies were born, but I was more determined!  A mere two hours after they arrived the nurses were telling Mom the baby would soon be here.  Dr. Pfuetze arrived and I was born only a few minutes later.   My parents brought me to the home of my maternal grandparents, Robert and Mildred (McCauley) Corbin on the Franklin Adams Farm east of Maple Hill.  The large stone house sat on top a high hill about three miles east of Maple Hill.   My father, John L. "Tim" Clark was helping my Grandfather, Robert Corbin, pick about 600 acres of corn on the river bottom farm.

The stone house was already 60 years old, and Grandmother Corbin used to tell about how hard it was too keep the wood stoves "glowing" in order to keep the rooms above freezing in winter.  Grandfather Corbin cut all of the firewood from the timber along the Kansas River.  The house sat on a high hill and winter winds swept across the Kansas River Valley making it frigid in winter. 

This is the first photograph of me that I know of.   In the photo is my maternal grandmother, Mildred Mae (McCauley) Corbin holding me.   The photo was taken on the front steps of the Adams stone house east of Maple Hill.   Grandmother is wearing a short-sleeved dress and I would estimate the photo was taken in spring or summer of 1945.


Grandmother Corbin and my mother said that I had a cold soon after they brought me home and they worried about my congestion and getting pneumonia or whopping cough.   One day, my maternal Great Grandmother, Lucy Mae (Lemon) McCauley-Banta-Strong and her husband Jerrod T. Strong drove out from Topeka to see me.   Grandma Strong told them they had me bundled up way too much and what I needed was fresh air.   She removed some of the blankets and took me outside, where it was sunny but about 25 degrees, and walked around for a while and then she brought me inside and mashed some canned peaches and feed me enough to provide a "tonic" effect.   Sure enough, I got better right away.   Those old pioneer mothers knew how to "make do" without a lot of help from modern medicine.

I also remember a visit to  Grandma Lucy Strong's when I was about five or six years old.   I was a skinny, sickly kid for the first five years of my life because I had terrible tonsils and was always having sore throats and colds.   Grandma Strong said what I needed was kerosene.   She went out on her back porch, got a tablespoon of kerosene from the jug, mixed it with sugar and poured it down my throat.   Well---I'm not sure it cured my cough but it didn't kill me either!


This is a photo of Lucille (Corbin) Clark with son Gary Wayne on the left and Nickey Lee Clark on the right. It was taken at the farm of Robert and Mildred Corbin 1.5 miles south of Maple Hill in 1949.

I had a sort of idyllic childhood in that I had so many older family members around to help raise me and spoil me.  My maternal and paternal grandparents both lived within a few miles.  My maternal great grandmother lived 25 miles away in Topeka and my paternal step-greatgrandmother, Susanna Jeanetta (Rinehardt) Jones in Maple Hill.   We exchanged visits often.   I had one paternal aunt, Thelma Maree (Clark) Hedges who was ten years older than my father.   My mother had four siblings who were either married or working away from home.  I had Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Charlie Mitchell and many other extended family members and I was close enough to spent lots of time in all of their homes.    I was the first grandchild on my mother's side of the family, all of whom spoiled me rotten.

One of my earliest and most pleasant memories were the extended family gatherings that occurred almost every Sunday.  I believe similar get togethers were held in many rural homes at that time.   My maternal grandparents, Robert and Mildred Mae (McCauley) Corbin were actively involved in the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church.  My mother and her brother and sisters all attended Sunday School and Church there as did Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Charlie Mitchell and other extended family members.   It was the only church in the community at that time.  My maternal grandmother, Mable R. (Jones) Clark, was the chief operator at the Maple Hill Central Office and her work schedule sometimes prevented her from attending.  Her husband, James P. Clark died on Christmas Eve in 1948, so she was widowed when I was four-years-old.  I don't have any memories of Grandfather Clark.  

This is a photo of Lucille (Corbin) Clark and Nicholas "Nickey Lee" Clark taken in 1945 in front of the coal shed at the Corbin Farm south of Maple Hill, Kansas.  On the back of the photo is written, "Just taking his first steps."

The Corbins had Sunday dinner for the extended family every week.  Usually, my Grandmother Corbin would make chicken and dumplings, or chicken and dressing, or some main dish along with mashed potatoes and other garden vegetables (fresh in summer and canned in winter).   My mother and the other women would usually bring a dish or dessert to pass and this was a real repast.  Sometimes the minister and his family would join us and other friends might also be invited.  There would often be from 15 to 25 people for Sunday Dinner every week.   I really don't know how my Grandmother Corbin did it on a four-burner kerosene stove.   I do know that she baked bread and pies or cake on Saturday and also cleaned chickens if necessary.   She would get up early on Sunday morning and begin preparation so we could leave for church at 10:30am.

This is a photo of Mildred Mae (McCauley) and Robert Corbin at their farm south of Maple Hill.   This is the house where extended family Sunday dinners and afternoon sing alongs were held.

After the dishes were cleared, we would all go to the living room and sing.   Grandmother Corbin, her daughter Joan (Corbin) Andrews-Frazier, my aunt Sarah Emma (Corbin) Justice, aunt Vivian (Corbin) Wild---all could play the piano and we sang for an hour or two every Sunday.   Sometimes Uncle George Corbin, his wife Freda (Kitt) Corbin and their children would come and join us at mid-afternoon.    Since I was the first grandchild, it took a while but as I was joined by other children, we would have great times playing outside.  

About 4pm, Grandfather Corbin would bring a 50# chunk of ice out of the "cave," which was really a concrete storm cellar where he had an old ice box for storing ice.    We would put the ice in a gunny sack and break it up with a sledge hammer.   Grandma Corbin would be making the raw ice cream in the kitchen, or on the back porch, and putting it in the freezer can.   Here is her recipe:

Grandmother Mildred Corbin's Ice Cream Recipe
1 quart of whipping cream
12 eggs beaten
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 cups of sugar
Fill the ice cream canister to within one inch of the top with milk.
Add fresh fruit or chocolate chips or crushed peppermint candy as you wish.

She did not cook the ice cream as you would today.   No one was worried about getting sick from cracked or spoiled eggs in those days.  At first the cream came from their own milk cow but when they decided to quit keeping a cow, they traded eggs for cream with Steele and Ellen (Stenstrom) Romick who were their neighbors on the south side of Mill Creek.

Then she'd bring out the canister and we'd put it in the big hand-cranked ice cream freezer and make home made ice cream.   Along with the ice cream we'd have the desserts that everyone had brought and we'd eat left overs from lunch.    Could there be a better way to spend a Sunday?

This is a photo of a 2 gallon White Mountain Ice Cream freezer that is identical to the one we made ice cream in.

We also went to my Grandmother Clark's for Sunday dinner.   In a town of 400, the telephone office was generally not so busy that Grandma couldn't operate the central office and also prepare dinner.  Both of my grandmothers were excellent cooks.   Grandmother and Grandfather Clark had a small dairy and so there was always lots of fresh butter and cream to use in cooking.   Since Grandmother Clark had a steady job and income throughout her life, we might have had a little more elaborate menu than at my Corbin grandparents, but it was all good.

I have a little folder of recipies that are all in Grandmother Clark's handwritting.   There is a little 3"x5" card taped to the front of the folder that says:  "A reciept isn't a reciept unless it has 12 eggs, 2 cups of sugar, a quart of cream and a pound of butter."  That is exactly the way Grandmother cooked.  She would have been a big fan of present-day TV food chef Paula Deen!

No one excelled at making desserts more than my paternal grandmother, Mable R. (Jones) Clark.  My favorite pies were always her burnt sugar (sort of a rich butterscotch) pie and her pineapple cream pie.   Her crusts were made with Crisco lard and were the tenderest and richest I've ever experienced.   Her three-layer chocolate cakes and icings were to die for.   When there was going to be a cake walk or a cake auction, Grandmother's cakes always brought the most.

Grandmother also made ham and beans with fluffy baking soda dumplings.   They were everyone's favorite.  She would mix the egg dumplings, drop them into the boiling beans from an old table spoon and then put the lid on.   I can still hear her saying, "Now don't take the lid off for 10 minutes or they'll be ruined!"   I don't know if that was true or not but no one dared test her rule.

This photograph brings back lots of wonderful memories.   It was taken in the 1950s in the Maple Hill Central Office with my paternal grandmother, Mable R. (Jones) Clark at the switchboard.  The central office was a room attached to the front of a three-room house with a screened-in back porch.  At the extreme left is the Warm Morning coal stove which heated the office.  Just a corner of the big oak partner desk is showing behind the stove.   On the floor, the big Emerson electric fan with brass blades is cooling the room.  Grandmother is holding one of the sets of plugs and beginning to complete a call.  Behind the switchboard is the switching equipment.   When there was an electrical storm in progress, no one went near the switchboard because if lightning hit a pole or line that was ungrounded, blue fire shot out everywhere.  If you look above the switchboard, you'll see a little black box on the wall with a level on the side.   That was the box that turned on the big siren that sat opposite the Central Office on a telephone pole.   If there was a fire, the siren would be sounded.   Monday through Saturday, Grandmother manually sounded the siren for one minute at noon.    There were times when I walked the two blocks from Maple Hill Grade School to have lunch with Grandmother.    I always hurried so she could lift me up to blow the siren.   She was a selfless, wonderful lady who served the community and her family and friends for 43 years.

I was always fascinated by the switchboard and learned how to operate it at a fairly young age.   Grandmother even got to the point she would trust me running the switchboard for a few minutes while she ran an errand, was cooking or doing something else.    There were a couple of cranky telephone customers who didn't like to have me answer their calls but most people didn't mind.   Every line had its own drop on the switchboard so if one of them made a call, I would just get Grandmother and have her answer and complete their calls.  

I really enjoyed taking the plug, pushing it into the drop, opening the cam and then saying, "Number Please."   The customer might tell you the person's name they wanted to call rather than their number, in which case you had to know their number.  I remember memorizing the name and number of customers from a chart Grandmother had.   There were two plugs for each call.   One plug went into the originating caller's drop and the other went into the drop being called.  When you had both plugs in place, then you'd press a button on the switchboard to make the necessary number of rings.   For instance, your number might be 1312, which mean that your ring was three longs and two short ring.  Many times, Grandmother Clark would be operating the switchboard in the central office and my brother Gary Wayne Clark and I would be sitting at the big partner desk behind the switchboard drawing pictures or playing dominoes.   Grandmother Clark loved to play dominoes.   She was also a good artist and could draw birds, and dogs and cats much to our enjoyment.   I have many of her hand-drawn patterns for birds and flowers as well as alphabet letters which she would trace on towels and pillowcases which she would embroider and then give as wedding or birthday gifts.

A photo of Nicholas and Gary Clark taken in the living room of the Robert and Mildred Corbin farmhome in about 1951.

My brother Gary Wayne Clark was born on January 26, 1947 and since there were just two of us, we were both spoiled rotten by our parents, our grandparents and our aunts and uncles.    I want to share a story here that is probably inappropriate but true.We had a cousin, Helen Butefish Shipp, who was distantly related to us through both the Butefish and Shipp families.    She was a lovely person, very kind, and effusive in her praise of people.   My maternal uncle, George S. Corbin, fought in World War II.   He was badly injured in the Burma Campaign, was sent home to recuperate at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Colorado.  I don't know exactly how long he was there but many months.   He had been riding in a jeep when it was attacked.

Anyway, he came to his parents farm after his release and Grandmother and Grandfather Corbin cared for him until he was able to be on his own.  Soon after Gary was born, my mother brought him and me to visit Uncle George at Grandmother Corbin's.   While we were there, cousin Helen came to visit Uncle George not knowing we were there.   Helen came in and greeted grandmother and Uncle George and then she started making over Baby Gary.   "Oooooohhhh Hoooooney, you are just the sweetest, handsomest little man----and on and on."    I was in the kitchen coloring at the table and when I heard Helen come in and start making over Gary, I headed for the living room and just sort of peaked around the corner of the door.

I believe this photo was taken the same day as the one above, since we have the same clothing on.  In the background is the enclosed back porch of the Robert and Mildred Corbin farm home.   In the center background is the old gate that provided access to the fenced-in yard.  There was a chain fastened to the left gate post which went to the right upper corner of the gate.  On the chain was a big iron gear of somekind, which provided weight so that when you opened the gate, the weight of the gear pulled the gate shut.  The yard was fenced so the chickens couldn't get in and make it messy.  Hiding behind us or helping hold us up is my Aunt Joan (Corbin) Andrews-Frazier.

Helen saw me but just kept praising Gary.   Finally she looked over and said, "Well there's Nickey Lee.   Come say hello to Cousin Helen."   What she didn't know was that my Uncle George Corbin and his brother-in-law, Uncle Rick Andrews, had been teaching me to say swear words and thought it was cute to hear me repeat them.   After Helen's greeting, I straightened up and said, "Kiss my ass."  Of course Mother and Grandmother were horrified and Uncle George was bent over in uncontrollable laughter.    After I was in high school and thereafter when Cousin Helen saw me, she would remind me of the occasion and we would both have a good laugh.


This is a photo of Maple Hill Grade School which was built in 1904 and replaced by a modern, one-story brick elementary school in 1953.    I went to first, second and third grade in this building and finished fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eight grade in the new brick school.

As I remember this building, there was a large center hallway and stairs connecting the two floors.   On either side of the hallway downstairs were two rooms.   Each room had two grades.  When it was originally built, the upstairs was used as a high school.   That arrangement continued until Maple Hill grew enough in the 1920s to build a new, modern brick two-story building just north of this one, to house a high school.

I started to school in this building in 1950.   There was no kindergarten at that time, and if you were going to be six before December 31, you could start first grade when you were five.   There were two in my class that were five, Claudia Arnold and myself.  As I look back on it, I don't think it was a wise rule because I wasn't really mature enough to begin school, was also very young when I started to high school and was only 17 when I started college.   

I don't recall what the occasion for this photo was, but it was taken in 1950 on the west side of the old, two-story Maple Hill Grade School.   I believe I can identify most of the children but would appreciate you making corrections or providing the names of the unidentified in the comment section at the bottom on this blog.    Janice McClelland is standing in back and is holding Donald Kent Raine.   Second Row, L-R: Bonnie Sloan, Mary Sue Kitt, Ann Adams, Kathryn Adams, Lana Schulte and Pam Weisgarver.  Front Row, L-R:  Trudi Mee, two little blonde girls are unknown to me, next is Lana Schulte, and the little girl holding the black doll is unknown to me.

I don't remember much about the first grade, but I do remember something that happened over the summer between first and second grade---well two things.    Our first and second grade teacher was Miss Breakey.   I'm not sure I'm spelling that correctly but phonically it is accurate.    Miss Breakey was a very large woman.  I suspect she may have weighed 250 pounds or more.   Over the summer, she had a new and very risky operation to remove the fat from her stomach area and band her stomack.   When I started second grade, I couldn't believe that I had the same teacher.   Today, we'd consider her stocky but she was not at all heavy set.   I thought that was some kind of miracle and of course, it kept the Maple Hill gossip mills rolling for a long time.

This phtograph was taken during the Christmas Program at the old Maple Hill Grade School in 1950.   I believe it ahs members of both the first and second grade classes, but I don't think all class members are included.   This was most likely a chorus or song number and didn't include all members of both classes.

In the back row, L-R are Pam Weisgarver, Roberta Oliver, Patty Holmes, Mary Sue Kit, Marlene Lawson, the tall girl in the back is either one of the Bland or Pamami girls, Idon't know the next girl, then another of the Bland or Pamami girls, I don't know the blond girl, and then Ann Adams.    In the front row, L-R is Nick Clark, Rosemary Knott, Larry A. Schulte, Trudi Mee and Bonnie Sloan.


Education:

Elemetary and High School
I attended Maple Hill Grade School and Maple Hill High School, Maple Hill, Kansas

High Education:
I graduated from Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas in December, 1971 with a degree in American History and Elementary Education
I graduated from the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho in May, 1979, with a Master's Degree in American History and a minor in Museum Studies.

Marriage:
I was married to Verona Shannon Little, daughter of Lawrence E. Little and Wilma A. Huelsmann-Little-Hargis at First Presbyterian Church, Topeka, Kansas on August 1, 1970 by Rev. Orlo Coughill.  My marriage ended in divorce on February 14, 2005.

Children:
Two children were born to this union:   Nicholas Leander Clark, II on May 1, 1973 and Amelia Mary Verona Clark on March 30, 1977.

Career:
I worked for Southwestern Bell Telephone for two years between 1963 and 1965.   I was first a public office assistant and then a coin telephone collector.

While attending Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas I worked several part-time jobs.   I was a tenor soloist for Penwell-Gable Funeral Home and Parker-Price Funeral Home, both in Topeka, Kansas.     I was also a counter sales clerk for Whelan Lumber Company and Whelan Home Center, Topeka, Kansas.

I taught American History, Spanish and Psychology at St. Marys High School, St. Marys, Kansas from 1973-1977.

After graduating from graudate school at the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, I was director of Heritage Hill State Park, Green Bay, Wisconsin from 1979-1983.

I was first Director of Development and then Executive Director of the Southern Oregon Historical Society, Medford/Jacksonville, Oregon from 1983-1987.

I was Director of the Minnetrista Cultural Center and Oakhurst Gardens, Muncie, Indiana from 1987-1995.

I was Director of the Museums At Prophetstown, Battle Ground, Indiana from 1995-2000.

I was a museum cosultant from 2000 through 2003, and headquartered in Lafayette, Indiana.

I was a Commission Lay Pastor at Burrow Presbyterian Church, Burrows, Indiana from June 2004 through December 2009.

I have since been retired, and currently live in Palm Springs, California.

I have been interested in my family genealogy for the past 30 years and now enjoy writing this family history blog.
I believe I'll end there and continue in another blog.   Happy Trails!

Lucille (Corbin) Clark's 80th Birthday

Why is it that you can never find anything when you want it???    Yesterday when I was writing about my mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark, I knew I had a photo of the extended family taken at her 80th Birthday Party on Sunday, April 22, 2001 but I couldn't find it.    Today, when I was looking for something else, I found the photo.  

This is going to be a work in progress!!    I should know every single person in this photograph, but I don't.  So I'm going to begin with those I know and fill the others in as relatives send me the information.   I will use (?) when I'm not sure of the person's name.

This is the largest size that I'm able to use in this blog, and still, it is going to be very difficult to tell who these folks are.   I am able to stay that all of them are my mother's brothers, sisters, brother-in-laws, sister-in-law, children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews and cousins.

Identifications:    First Row, L-R - (?), Sandra "Sandy" (Root) Corbin holding (?), George Samuel Corbin, Freda (Kitt) Corbin and (?) standing in front, Sarah Emma (Corbin) Justice, Lucille (Corbin) Clark in turquoise jacket, not sure who the girl in the long yellow flowered dress is nor the boy in the black t-shirt next to her.   Behind them is Joan (Corbin) Andrews-Frazier, and Robert Frazier,  I don't know who the couple are next to Bob Frazier in the black t-shirt and the black pants suit holding the baby.

Second row:  Jennie (Volavka) Justice, Robert Frederick Corbin, Laro Hill, Ronald George Corbin, Shiela Kay (Corbin) Hill, Chy An April Justice in the yellow dress being held by her grandfather, Leslie Forest Justice, Kimberly (Tarbutton) Wild, Hilary Martin and her grandfather, George Wild, Jr., I do not know who the two blond girls are to the right of George Wild, Jr., Cameron Tyler, Bruce Charles Andrews standing behind daughter Lindsey Jill Andrews, Lauri (Pierce) Andrews, Karen (Cochran) Clark, I don't know who the girl is in the bib overalls, Coleen Ann (Andrews) Tyler, just behind Coleen is Lee Allen Tuck, and standing on the end in the shirt and tie is Nicholas L. Clark.

Back Row, L-R:  Gary Wayne Clark (with white hair,) Loren Lee Justice (with sun glasses,)  I don't know who the next two men are, Shannon (Wild) Heim, Randolph Corbin "Randy" Wild, Jr. standing in front of his father, Randolph Corbin Wild, Sr., Amelia Mary Verona (Clark) Allendorf just barely visible in front of Steven K. Clark, Stanley J. Clark, Timothy John Clark, Nicholas Leander Clark II, and James Alan "Jim" Tyler.

Lucille Clark's youngest sister, Vivian Mae Wild, passed away on January 1, 1999 and is not in the photograph.

I believe this is the last time the Corbin Family was together for a photograph.    I hope if those viewing this photograph know any of the people I have not identified, they will list them in the comment section below.  

Happy Trails!

Continuing the Story of My Parents: Lucille (Corbin) and John L. "Tim" Clark

I left off yesterday with the birth of my twin brothers, Steven K. and Stanley J. Clark on January 27, 1955.   However, there are a couple of things I want to mention before moving forward.

One was the catastrophic flood of 1951 during which most of the rivers and streams in northern and eastern Kansas spilled over their banks and caused unbelievable damage.

Our family had moved from the Sells Ranch to the Harve Clark farm south of Maple Hill, and then we moved into a small, frame house at the north end of Maple Hill owned by Joe "Huck" and Ruth Raine.   It was right next door to the much bigger house of Charles and Bonnie Mitchell and my mother and Aunt Bonnie did a lot of things together both in household chores and socially.    Aunt Bonnie raised chickens and my brother Gary Wayne and I used to love helping her feed them and gather eggs.   She and Uncle Charlie also had a large garden on the south side of their house so there was always work to do in the summer and also work in canning and preserving foods.    Aunt Bonnie and my mother shared a Maytag washing machine and both washed on Monday mornings on Aunt Bonnie's back porch.  

I've always wondered why "Aunt" Bonnie Mitchell seemed to give so much attention and love to my mother and I believe one of the reasons was that she had a daughter Sybil, who was the same age.   Unfortunately, Sybil was eating supper and choked to death on a piece of meat when she was two and one-half years old.   Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Charlie could not save their daughter, and I think they just sort of "adopted" my mom as a replacement.   That's not to say that Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Charlie didn't love all the Corbin family, because they certainly did.   It seemed where ever you saw the Corbins, the Mitchells were also there.

I don't remember just how long we lived in the Raine house but I know for sure we lived there in the summer of 1951.   
On a Monday in late June, 1951, Aunt Bonnie, my mother, Lucille Clark, myself and brother Gary Wayne went in Aunt Bonnie's Plymouth to spend the morning with my maternal grandmother, Mildred (McCauley) Corbin at their farm south of Maple Hill.    I recall Grandmother Corbin was washing on her back porch and I don't really know why we weren't washing at Aunt Bonnie's, but I was only 6. 

This is a photo of the Kansas River as 1951 flood waters poured over dikes and into the city.   Most of the city on the north side of the river was flooded.

Suddenly, the telephone in the kitchen began to sound forth with short rings.   That was the emergency signal.   My paternal Grandmother, Mabel R. (Jones) Clark, was the central office telephone operator and she was on making an emergency line call to warm people along Mill Creek of impending disaster.  This is what she said, "The depot agent at McFarland has advised that a 10' wall of water is coming down Mill Creek.    Leave your homes and go to high ground immediately.   I repeat, leave your homes and go to higher ground immediately."

I don't remember Grandmother Corbin saying anything to Grandmother Clark on the phone but she turned around and said, "We have to get out and go now!"   With that, I do remember Gary and I started to cry but the women picked us up and we headed for the car.   Mother drove and Grandmother Corbin sat in the front seat.  Gary and I sat in the back with Aunt Bonnie Mitchell.    Mother started the car and turned left out of the big circle driveway throwing gravel with both rear tires---something unheard of!!

Grandmother Corbin was telling us what she had heard on the phone and just then Mother looked in the rear view mirror and said, "There it comes---the water is just behind us."   Mill Creek was within sight of  the Corbin house, but the house was on the edge of a high ridge that was probably 20' to 30' above the bottom land.   So far as anyone knew, flood water had never reached the house.

This picture was taken in 1956 at the Corbin Farm south of Maple Hill.  The corner of the chicken house and the coal shed are in the back ground.    Since "Aunt" Bonnie Mitchell is holding the cake, I'm assuming that it is her birthday, July 27th.   L-R are Randolph "Randy" Wild (born in 1955) Robert Corbin, Mildred (McCauley) Corbin, Bonnie (Thomas) Mitchell and Charles M. Mitchell.

We drove a quarter mile east to where the gravel road turned north.   At that corner, Mill Creek  meandered to within 100 yards of the road.   There were three houses there, one belonging to Don and Hattie McClelland, one of Paul and Margaret McClelland, and the other to the Yount family.  Again, they were on high land and no one remembered them being flooded previously, even though they were very close to Mill Creek.

The water was still coming up as we reached the corner, but the land sloped upward even more as we went north.   There was a slough that ran along the north side of the Rock Island Railroad track for about a mile and both ends of the slough connected with Mill Creek.   So the water coming from the west was making its way down the main creek stream and also cutting through the slough.   There was a small concrete bridge that drained the slough and just as we crossed it, we saw the high water coming through the slough.    The land probably rose another 30' to the top of the hill from the slough, so by the time we reached the crest of the hill, we were high and dry.   We all got out of the car and looked behind us and the whole Mill Creek Valley was one big lake.   We were very glad we were safe.

All spring, heavy rains had been falling on the Kansas river and Mill Creek Valleys.  The rain gauge on the Tod Ranch southeast of Maple Hill, measured 60" of rain for the spring.    There were no man-made dams or lakes on the Kansas River at that time, so the flood had its way with most of northern and eastern Kansas as well as Nebraska and Missouri.   Needless to say, the flood of 1951 instigated the building of many major dams and lakes along the Kansas River and its tributaries.

We got back in the car and headed for Maple Hill.   Grandmother and Grandfather Corbin stayed with Uncle Charlie and Aunt Bonnie Mitchell for about two weeks until the flood waters receded.  That same evening, Grandfather Corbin walked from Maple Hill towards their flooded farm.   He waded through waist deep water until he reached Don and Hattie McClelland's farmhouse.   Some of their lower outbuildings were under water but the house itself just had water up around the foundation.   Don McClelland had his livestock all up in the front yard and Grandfather Corbin borrowed a big draft horse to ride one-quarter mile west to his farm.

When he got there, he found much the same thing.   Water had come up around the foundation of the house about 10" high but had not gotten into the house.   The storm "cave" south of the house was flooded, the chicken house and barn were flooded and the water well for both stock and house use had been filled with flood water and was ruined.    But it could have been much worse.   Grandfather had caught a ride to work at the Kansas Highway Department with a co-worker that day so their car was still at the farm.  It had not been flooded but he wanted to get it out in case there was another bigger flood.    He rode the horse back to McClelland's and walked back to the concrete bridge draining the slough, where he found my father, John L. "Tim" Clark spear fishing for big carp which were visible in the water and sort of trapped by the bridge.   Dad took Grandpa Corbin back to Maple Hill in his car, and along with Uncle Leslie Justice and Uncle Charlie Mitchell, they returned to the farm.

Grandfather Corbin had a gigantic old John Deere tractor that had metal wheels and had to be started with a crank or by turning the flywheel.   The body and motor were very high and hadn't been in water so when he turned the flywheel it started right away.   The water had receded enough so that they could hook the tractor to the car and pull it to safety without damaging it so they did.   Grandpa had been wise because the Kansas River began to rise dramatically and trapped the Mill Creek flood so that during that night, the water came up again but without flooding the house.

My father, John L. "Tim" Clark was working for Chuck Fauerback operating his big D-9 Caterpiller to build farm ponds and terraces.   Chuck called my father and said, "Tim, you wanna have some fun?  The Rock Island Railroad wants to try and save its track along the Kansas River at Willard and they want us to push boxcars of rocks into the river to try and prevent the bank from washing any further."    My Dad not only needed the work but also thought it would be a fun job, so he told Chuck he would meet him at Willard, Kansas

To get there, my father had to drive about 50 miles out of his way, using roads that were built on high ridges to avoid flooded roads and bridges.    When he got there, Chuck had traveled from his home in St. Marys, doing the same thing with his big flat bed truck, and had two dozers ready, a D-9 and a D-10.    Little did they know what was ahead of them.    It would be over 70 hours before they again had an opportunity to rest.  The Rock Island hauled freight cars loaded with stone to the site almost continuously and the men pushed the cars into the raging Kansas River to but no avail.  The work was extremely dangerous because the flood waters kept eroding the river bank away.

This is a photograph of a 1950 D-9 Caterpillar Dozer like my father, John L. "Tim" Clark operated.

The tracks were lost to the Kansas River and to my Dad's surprise, after the waters went down not one of the boxcars could be seen.  The river had swallowed them up and covered them with sand.

My Mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark was called into service by my Grandmother Mabel (Jones) Clark who needed her help in operating the Maple Hill Central Office.    Usually, the rules were that no calls were accepted after 10:00pm and until 6:00am.   But because of the flooding and the need for people to be warned of impending danger and evacuated from homes, the United Telephone Company authorized Grandmother Clark to keep the office open 24/7.    So my mother, cousin Mable (Phillips) Herron, my Grandmother Clark and a few others arranged shifts so that someone was always at the switchborad.

I believe that the 1951 Flood was the last time we saw large numbers of steam locomotives in use on the Rock Island Railroad.   Steam engines had pretty much been replaced by diesel locomotives but were brought out of storage and round houses and used as ballast to keep railroad bridges and tracks from washing away during the flood.

This is a photograph of a steam locomotive that was used as weight ballast during the 1951 flood.

I don't recall how many there were in the Maple Hill area, but I would say five or six.   They would be positioned on tracks, bridges or trestles but there would be some crew members who would use one of the engines to chug into Maple Hill where the men would have lunch at the Maple Hill Cafe.   People would drive down to the Rock Island Depot at the south end of town, where they would have fun looking at the steam engines.   I remember climbing aboard one of the engines and having the crew members let us pull the levers to make them go forward and backward and blowing the steam whistle.   That was big stuff for a six-year-old!

I have visited with my brother, Gary Wayne Clark, and neither of us can put absolute and specific dates as to when we moved from place to place but we both remember events that occurred while we lived in specific houses.   For instance, we both had our tonsils removed at Stormont Vail Hospital while we lived in the Raine House.    I don't remember whether we had them done at the same time or whether I had mine taken out in 1951 and he had his removed in 1952.    We both remembered that we were given lots of ice cream until our throats healed.

I'm fairly certain that our family moved from the Raine house to the home my Grandmother, Mable R. (Jones) Clark, owned in the south part of Maple Hill.   We lived there from about 1952 until 1958 when my mother replaced my Grandmother Clark as Maple Hill Central Office chief operator.  We them moved to the the house that included the Maple Hill Central Office on Main Street.   We lived there for a couple of years.

One of my uncles, Richard G. "Rick" Andrews, was employed at the Veteran's Hospital in Topeka, Kansas and was able to help my father, John L. "Tim" Clark get a job there in 1959.    My mother was working full-time as the chief operator at the Maple Hill Central Office, so for the first time our family had a regular, dependable income.

In 1959, the U. S. Army was selling what had been former barracks dormitories at Ft. Riley, Kansas.  Mom and Dad bid on one of the buildings and bought it for $1,000.00.   My great grandmother, Susanna Jeanetta (Reinhardt) Jones owned two lots on the south side of her home on Prairie Avenue and she gave them to my parents.   My Dad and my uncles all worked to dig the footings, poor concrete and lay the cement block foundation.  Maple Hill had no city sewer in those days so they also had to put in a septic tank and lateral field.    One day I went to high school and when I came home Mom said that our new house was on the foundation.  A moving company had moved it from between Junction City and Manhattan, Kansas to Maple Hill.

Dad was a good carpenter as was Rick Andrews.   As I remember, there weren't any interior walls in the barracks but there was some fiber board, electrical wiring and plumbing but all that had to be torn out.   Dad and volunteer help, mostly from the family, put in the new sheetrock, wiring and plumbing.

Southwestern Bell bought the United Telephone Company and announced that they were closing all of the small central offices and converting all systems to dial telephones.   My Mom's career as a telephone operator was very short because my Grandmother Mabel Clark retired in 1958, and my Mom left the telephone office in 1961.    I believe that we moved into the new house, which was right across the alley from the Maple Hill Central Office, when they closed the telephone office in June, 1961.     I was a junior in high school and my brother Gary Wayne was a freshman.  I believe the twins, Steve and Stan Clark, were just starting to kindergarten.    We all really enjoyed having our own home that we owned and didn't have to think about moving again.

My mother soon took a job as secretary at the Maple Hill Grade School and worked there for 17 years until retiring in 1989.   Mother loved being a school secretary because in addition to doing the attendance reports and collecting school lunch money---she could "mother" 80 to 100 children.   If there was one thing my Mom was good at, it was loving and taking care of kids.   I don't know how many children went through grade school while she was there, but she knew each one of them by name and followed them long after they graduated.   She kept boxes of birthday, wedding, get well and sympathy cards at her home and she remembered as many as she could for as long as she could.  Her "kids" were so important to her and at her funeral dozens and dozens of them, long grown up and with children at their sides, came to tell us how much she meant to them.

Dad was at first a nursing aid, but later transitioned into occupational therapy at the VA Hospital.   He worked with patients in rug weaving, small carpentry projects, and all kinds of crafts.   It was something that kind of surprised his family and friends because it was foreign to the sports, fishing and hunting that filled his free time.   Dad loved his work and his patients liked him.   

Mom was very active in the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church and in the American Legion Auxiliary at Maple Hill.   She taught Sunday School and sang in the church choir from the time she was in high school until long after we were out of high school.   She served on the Church Board of Trustees and spent the last 10 or more years of her life as church historian.   After she retired from Maple Hill Grade School, she joined the quilting group and spent many happy years around quilting frames with her friends.   She made quilts for her four sons and for several of her grandchildren.  She loved to embroider and cross stitch and did that work on many of the quilt blocks the quilters put together and worked for silent auctions.    The quilters donated thousands of dollars to the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church.

The Maple Hill High School Band and American Legion Color Guard march in the Armistice Day Parade held on Maple Hill's Main Street.   The American Legion Hall is the two-story building on the right side of Main Street in the background.   This photo is from about 1949 or 1950.

Grandfather Robert Corbin, Great Uncle Robert McCauley, Uncle Richard Andrews, Uncle Leslie Justice, my brother Gary Wayne Clark and many other family members were all veterans of the U. S. Army.    My Grandmother Mildred Corbin, Aunt Bonnie Mitchell, my Mom and all of most of my mother's sisters were active in the American Legion Auxiliary in Maple Hill.   The legion and auxiliary were responsible for building the American Legion Hall and for holding Armistice Day Dinners there.   The American Legion always provided a color guard for the Memorial Day Services at the Old Stone Church and they still do.  


Lucille (Corbin) Clark was happiest when she had a baby in her arms.   This picture was taken with her great grandson Wyatt Allendorf in 2008.   She loved giving them all baths in her kitchen sink.     Below is Grandma Lucy, Granddaughter Amy (Clark) Allendorf, and Great Grandson Wyatt Allendorf getting his bath in the kitchen sink.


Just as my mother and father were contemplating being able to retire and enjoying themselves, my father became ill with lung cancer.    Dad retired from the Veteran's Hospital earlier then he had planned at the age of 60 in 1981.   He was not able to recover and died in April 1982.   Mother continued working at the Maple Hill Grade School and retired in 1989 after 17 years.
  My Mom enjoyed 22 years of retirement and during that time was very active in raising her grandchildren and great grandchildren, participating in church activities, quilting, and other kinds of community endeavors.  Mom was never one to sit at home and do nothing, she enjoyed being active and working in the community.  Mom enjoyed traveling and came to visit me in Oregon, Idaho, Wisconsin, and Indiana where I was working.   She also loved to travel with her brothers and sisters, going to Las Vegas, Branson, Missouri and other places.   Her sister Joan (Corbin) Andrews-Frazier and her children were wonderful in always including my Mom when they traveled.   She enjoyed them all.   Mom was always ready to go when invited.

This photo was taken in 2009 and shows my Mom, Lucille Clark, sitting in the middle of her quilting "family" at the Maple Hill Community Congregational Fellowship Hall.

Her family held an 80th birthday party for her on April 22, 2001 at the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church Fellowship Hall.   There were 108 relatives present and as many friends who came to wish her many more happy birthdays.   Mother didn't like the "limelight" as she called it, but she always enjoyed having friends and family nearby to hug and visit with.

A 2006 photo showing four generations:  Nicholas L. Clark holding grandson William Henry Allendorf, Lucille (Corbin) Clark and Amelia M. V. (Clark) Allendorf.



An October 13, 2006 photo of Lucille (Corbin) Clark holding great grandson Liam Clark, son of Nicholas and Natalie (Bachynsky) Clark, in their new home in Lafayette, Indiana.

Mother enjoyed remarkable health.   My brother, Gary Wayne Clark, moved in with her in 2007 and lived with her the last five years of her life.    They were great companions and helpmates.   Mother continued to drive, attend church and participate in family gatherings until she was 89, when her health began to fail.   She would always say, "I've been so blessed and I'm at peace with my Lord so I'm ready to go when He is."    The Lord called her after a short hospitalization on January 5, 2011---her father Robert Corbin's birthday.

Mom wouldn't like me telling about her wake and funeral but I want to leave these words for posterity.   I knew my mother was a good person and that she gave far more than was required to family, friends and complete strangers---but I don't think any of her sons had any idea the extent of her selflessness until we spoke with the hundreds who came those final days.  The students who knew her from Maple Hill Grade School told us of how she had had a hand in changing so many lives.  People I didn't even know told me how she had taken them to the doctor, given them money for medicine, bought groceries for them and on and on.    We were just emotionally drained after receiving their condolences and hearing their tributes.   The pastor, in his tribute at the funeral, said that "....Lucille Clark was Christ's hands and feet on earth."   I don't know what more anyone could say.    We who loved her still miss her every day.   Over 300 attended her wake and both the Maple Hill church and fellowship hall were filled for her funeral service.  Good works go hand in hand with Christian faith.    If any of us who knew her fail---it isn't because she didn't set a good example.

Children of Robert and Mildlred (McCauley) Corbin: Lucille (Corbin) Clark

Lucille (Corbin) Clark was my mother.   She was born on April 22, 1921 at Elbing, Butler County, Kansas, the oldest child of Robert and Mildred (McCauley) Corbin.   She was the granddaughter of George Washington and Sarah Ann "Sadie" (Todd) Corbin, and the great granddaughter of James and Cynthia Ann (Casteel) Corbin.

I really hate speaking of mother in the past tense.   She died at Midland Care Hospice, Topeka, Kansas on January 5, 2011 after an illness of about 10 days.   Mother was just short of her 90th birthday and we who loved her were fortunate to have her with us for so long.   She had a relatively healthful life and was seldom ill.   She had one major surgery when she was in her early 80s, and that incident is worthy of repeating because it says a lot about Mother.

Mom had not been feeling well and went to the doctor to find relief.   Her doctor sensed there might be something more than just a tummy upset and sent her for a colonoscopy.   The test revealed that she had two large polyps in her intestine and the doctor took a biopsy.  Mother had a impenetrable faith and she immediately began to pray for healing and asked all those around her to pray for her.   She was a lifelong member of her church, the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church, and the pastor and members immediately began a prayer chain asking that she be healed.  Other relatives and friends asked their churches to pray and soon there was a network of thousands of people praying for Mother.

The day of the surgery arrived and her family was in attendance.   The doctor had told us that the operation usually takes about l.5 hours.   Her pastor and family had prayer with she and her doctors and nurses before they went into surgery.   One hour passed, then two hours and three hours.   Finally, about three and one-half hours after the surgery began, the doctor came into the waiting room and asked to meet with her four sons and their spouses.

We went into a special conference room and sat down.  The doctor closed the door and said, "I wanted to speak with you because I've never experienced what happened in the operating room this morning.  We opened your mother up, opened her intestine, and we found nothing, not even a scar from her biopsy.    If you believe in the power of prayer, this is the best example I've ever seen."   

We were all stupefied.   We were sorry that Mother had needed the operation when nothing was found.  Within a few days, there was talk of a law suite but my Mother, in her most forceful way, said, "Absolutely not.   If we sue, we're saying that this wasn't a miracle of God and I won't have it!"   There was no law suite but we're still giving thanks that Mom was healed.

That surgery, was an example of a long life of testing and faith.   Mom could "get her Irish up," but she was far better known for her love and mercy.  To her brothers and sisters and their families, she was known as Aunt Lucille, the oldest sibling, the "rock" who believed there was nothing more important than family.

This is the earliest picture of Lucille (Corbin) Clark that I am aware of.   In fact, this is the earliest photo of any of the children of Robert and Mildred Mae Corbin that I am aware of.  From L-R:  George Samuel Corbin, standing in the rear my mother, Lucille (Corbin) Clark, in front of her Joan (Corbin) Andrews-Frazier, in the read Mildred (McCauley) Corbin, in front of her Sarah Emma (Corbin) Justice, in the rear Robert Corbin and in front of him the youngest child, Vivian Mae (Corbin) Wild.  Since Vivian was born in 1932, we believe that the photograph is from about 1935 or 1936.  Lucille would have been about 14 or 15 years old.

She was the oldest of five brothers and sisters born to Robert and Mildred Mae (McCauley) Corbin.   To say she had a life of challenges was to put it mildly.  The Corbins were proud but poor.  Mother was born in 1921 and within a few years, the family was within the grips of the Great Depression.  Grandfather Corbin worked hard in the oil fields, on his mother-in-law's farm, on the Adams Cattle Ranch, as the janitor and bus driver for the Maple Hill Grade and High School, and finally as a highway maintenance worker for the State of Kansas, helping maintain Interstate 70.

I have heard my maternal Grandmother, Mildred Corbin, talk many times about sending mother to the general store in Maple Hill to buy a pound of hamburger and five pounds of beans and making that last a week for the family of seven.   I've heard both Grandmother and Mother talk about using sugar, flour and feed sacks to make clothing, pillowcases and sheets, aprons, etc. for the family.   I've heard Mother talk about taking two slices of bread with rendered lard on them to school for lunch.  Life was very hard and every time it seemed that they were going to get ahead, something happened.   But I would never say that all of their misfortunes caused them to lose their faith or to become discouraged.   They were always optimistic and hoping and working towards better times.

This is an early photo post card of the Maple Hill School, Maple Hill, Kansas.   From the time it was built in 1904, until the new two-story brick high school was completed in 1929, high school was held on the upper floor and grade school on the lower floor.  The basement had a large furnace/coal room, and a large multi-purpose room where you could eat lunch or play in bad weather.

My mother went to Maple Hill Grade School in the old two story frame building on the west side of Maple Hill.   The school sat exactly where the present one-story brick building is located.   She went to Maple Hill High School, which was practically new, and graduated in 1939.   Mother worked very hard helping with her brothers and sisters and with the housework.   She told me that Grandmother Corbin taught her how to make bread before she was 10-years-old and that she often helped her mother prepared the evening meal.   Mom was never afraid of hard work and in fact, Mom worked hard all of her life.  The thing most people remember, is that Lucille (Corbin) Clark almost never did anything for herself, she was always working for her family and for others.    Over and over again, when we were growing up and throughout her life, she would say, "It is more blessed to give than receive."   That was just they way mother lived her life, giving to others.

Lucille Corbin began to date John Leander "Tim" Clark in high school, although they had been in the same class throughout elementary and high school.  They were the same age, and their birthdays were just four days apart.  Tim Clark was born on April 19, 1921, the youngest child of James Peter and Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark.   He was born south of Maple Hill on the David Stewart Farm and lived in the Maple Hill Community all of his life.

Tim Clark's youth was a little easier than his future wife's.   Tim's mother was the Maple Hill Central Office Telephone Operator and she therefore had a steady income from 1914 through the Great Depression years and until she retired in 1958.   Tim's father at one time owned the Maple Hill Livery Stable and then bought a small acreage in south Maple Hill where he kept a few milking cows and also traded in riding and work horses.   He would attend farm sales and purchase farm equipment at the request of area farmers. 

My father did help milk the cows in the morning and evening and then helped separate the milk from the cream and deliver both to customers in Maple Hill.   He and his sister, Thelma Maree Clark both helped their father with the dairy.   Thelma learned to operate the telephone office switchboard but married at a young age and never was interested in working in the telephone office as a relief operator.   So far as I know, my father never learned to operate the switchboard and didn't help in the central office at all.

This is a photo of John Leander "Tim" Clark taken in 1926 at the Central Office after a fishing trip with his Grandfather Lee Jones.

My father used to say he lived a charmed life as a child because his maternal grandfather lived right across the alley from the Central Office and from a very young age they were hunting and fishing companions.   In fact, I have often heard my Grandmother Clark tell the story about her husband, Jim Pete, and her father, Lee Jones, taking Tim fishing when he was only 18-months-old and tying him to a tree on the creek bank to keep him from falling in Mill Creek.

My Dad loved to hunt and fish his entire life.   During the summer, he would come home, eat supper and almost immediately head for Mill Creek or the Kansas River to fish.   If he wasn't fishing, he was playing baseball with one of the Maple Hill teams.   He pitched until he was 50 and then umpired for various Maple Hill teams until he became ill with lung cancer when he was 60.

He and Mom dated throughout high school and continued to date after graduation in 1939. 

My mother, worked as a caregiver for Mrs. John "Fanny" Turnbull after graduation.   She first lived in her home and when Mrs. Turnbull's health declined, they both moved to the Kansas City home of Roderick and Edith Turnbull, son and daughter-in-law of Fanny Turnbull.   Roderick wanted to send Lucille Corbin to college in Kansas City but mother missed Tim Clark and wanted to get married so she turned the offer down.

This photo was taken on January 14, 1942, the day Tim and Lucille Clark were married.   It is taken standing on the sidewalk at the north side of the Maple Hill Central Office.   The Clements Hotel/House is in the background.  It was until recently, the home of Roy and Frieda Kimble.

John Leander Clark and Lucille Corbin were married on January 24, 1942 at the parsonage of the Oakland Christian Church in Topeka, Kansas by Rev. Kenneth Tuttle.  Mom said that Dad did not want a big church wedding and so their parents agreed to having them elope.   Richard and Lois Clark were their only attendants.

My mother said that my Dad did not have a job when they married, so cousins Charlie and Bonnie Mitchell invited them to move into their farm home south of Maple Hill, on what was called The Young Place, home of Bruce and Mary (Clark) Young.

My Dad had a trapping line and hunted coons and coyotes.   I have some of his old receipts from selling furs and he made between $2000 and $3000 over the winter, which was a very respectable living.

Mother said that she helped with the farm chores on the Mitchell/Young place and that Dad's mother, Mabel R. Clark, gave her a part-time job working as relief operator in the Maple Hill Central Office.

I was their first child and didn't come along for three years.   Nicholas Leander "Nickey" Clark was born on November 16, 1944 at Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka, Kansas.   An interesting aside is that Nicholas was delivered by Dr. Robert E. Pfuetze, one of the first obstetricians in Topeka, Kansas.  Dr. Pfuetze also delivered the son and daughter of Nicholas Clark, Nicholas II and Amelia Clark.   Amelia was one of his last babies delivered in March 1977.

Mother said the nurses thought I looked like "a fat papoose."    I weighed 9# and 6 oz. and had long black hair.   There were no problems with the delivery but in those days mothers stayed 7 to 10 days in the hospital.  Mother and Dad brought me home from the hospital and stayed a few weeks with her parents, Robert and Mildred (McCauley) Corbin.   It was World War II and Tim and Lucille still did not have a home of their own.  My Grandfather Corbin was working for Franklin Adams at that time, farming his river bottom corn land east of Maple Hill.   My father, Tim Clark, was helping him pick the corn crop when I was born.   Mother said it was very cold and a light snow was falling and they didn't know if they'd make it to Topeka on the old gravel roads---but they did.



This is my first photograph, taken on the back steps of the old stone farmhouse known as the Holden Place, three miles east of Maple Hill.   The house stood atop the highest hill and overlooked the Kansas River.   My Grandmother Corbin said all she remembered was that the wind constantly blew on top that hill and it made the house and walking to the barn (which was located at the bottom of the hill) an unwelcome task.

Before I was born, my father began working for Alex and Helen Adams as a cowboy.   They lived on the old Sells Ranch south of Maple Hill, and Dad helped Alex with both his horses and with his cattle.   Although Helen Adams could drive, she always had Dad drive her to Topeka where she wanted to be seen being chauffeured.

Dad told me many times about another highlight of working for Alex and Helen.  Alex Adams was part owner of ranchland in Western Kansas along with his brother Horace G. Adams and other members of the family.

Horace and Alex Adams had quarter horse sales at Maple Hill once each year and they would invite people from all over the country to attend.   They would stay in Topeka and special trains would bring them to Maple Hill for the sales.   Some even came in their own private rail cars.   One that dad remembered was Lulu Long, whose father had been a venture capitalist and made millions in lumber founding both Longview, Washington and Longview, Texas.

One of the highlights of the sale was the wild game dinner.   Alex and Helen would send Dad and one or two of the other ranch hands on the train to western Kansas and tell them to kill as much game as they could.   They would shoot antelope and quail and pheasant and other game, put it on ice, and ship it back to Maple Hill where it would be cleaned and prepared for the wild game dinner.   Dad said it was the best time of his life being sent on a journey like that and getting paid for it!!

This photo was taken at the XI Ranch headquarters along the Cimmaron River in extreme western Kansas about 1920.    The widow of Alex Adams, Helen Adams Lewis, sold their interest in the ranch to Raymond E. Adams, Jr. in 1960.


Alex Adams was born  at Maple Hill, Kansas in 1900 and died at a very young age in 1948.    He had instructed his widow, Helen Lewis Adams, to give his favorite bay gelding quarter horse "Red" to my father, which she did.  After Alex Adams died, Dad went to work for his sister, Mary Dougan, at a large river bottom farm she owned near Silver Lake.    I must have been four years old because I have one very clear memory.   I had been told repeatedly not to leave the yard around the house.   The farm was right on the Kansas River and there was a dike that ran along the field.   I really don't remember what happened, but  I think I followed one of Dad's coon hounds down the field road to the dike.   The next thing I knew, I saw Dad coming across the field towards me.   My Dad was 6'3" tall and I can still see those big long strides.

I started running for the house as fast as I could, because I knew what was coming.   Dad stopped long enough to break a willow switch off and it found it's mark about every third step until we reached the house.    I never went to the river bank again!

My younger brother, Gary Wayne Clark, was born while we lived at the Dugan Farm on January  26, 1947.   He weighed 8 pounds and 6 ounces and was a very healthy, happy little boy, also delivered by Dr. Robert E. Pfuetze.    We lived at the Dugan Ranch until March 1949, when we moved to the Sells Ranch south of Maple Hill, where my father worked for Mrs. William S. (Alice) Sells, an elderly widow, and her daughter Miss Ava Sells.  They were happy to be back in the Maple Hill Community.

This is a photo of John Leander "Tim" Clark with his coon hounds and some of the pelts he skinned and stretched while living at the Sells House, south of Maple Hill.


My mother and father moved into the one and one-half story ranch tenant house located back a long drive south of Maple Hill.   A second small ranch house a little east of our house was occupied by Mrs. Sells and her daughter.   During the depression, William S. Sells had lost the major portion of his ranch holdings along with the large house occupied by Alex and Helen Adams.   Somehow, they were able to retain about 900 acres of pasture and crop land and two small tenant houses, a barn and a large chicken coop.    The ladies never took an active part in farming or ranching but hired my father to do the work.    I have not been able to find a photograph of the house other than the one shown, and it has since been razed.

I do have a couple of very clear memories from our time in the Sells House.  One is that I started to the first grade at the old frame Maple Hill Grade School.   The lane from our house to the main road was probably 1/8th mile long.   On cold days, my dad would bundle up in some kind of long, wool overcoat he had, saddle "Red" and take me horseback from the house to the main road to catch the school buss.

The other took place when we were all sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch.  It was probably in 1950 or 1951.   The telephone rang and it was my Grandmother, Mabel R. Clark, making what was called an emergency line call.   When the phone rang with continuous short rings, that was a sign there was an emergency and people on the party line should all answer.   My Grandmother said that the Stockgrowers Bank had been robbed and that the robbers had made their escape from Maple Hill by car and were headed south on our road.   She said that the sheriff was in pursuit and that everyone should stay in their houses and keep out of sight.

My dad was doing nothing of the kind.   He loaded his 22 caliber repeating rifle and headed for the elevator of the big double corn crib behind our house.    If the robbers turned into our driveway and headed down our lane, my father was going to be ready to spray them with a little lead!



This is a photo of Nicholas L. "Nickey" and Gary Wayne Clark taken about 1949.  I think I was three and Gary was one.

Mother, Gary Wayne and I stayed in the house and we heard nothing from dad's gun.   Within maybe 10 minutes, Grandmother Clark called back to let everyone along the line know that the Sheriff had apprehended the robbers as they tried to break into the home of Oscar and Blanche Lett Richter, which was about one mile north of the Sells Ranch.    I remember that we had the radio on, and a group of local musicians was singing, "You Are My Sunshine."   Mom began to sing with them and urged us to sing along to keep us calm and quiet.   I still know the words to that song!

Seeing this photo reminds me of one other thing.   My dad had a pair of hand operated hair clippers and he used to cut my hair with them.   It looks like he must have just cut my hair in the photo.   Those clippers would pull like the Devil when they needed oil or sharpening.

In about 1952 or 1953, Mom and Dad moved again to the old Harve Clark place.   My Dad farmed for Mr. Brownlee, who owned about 320 acres across the road.   I believe that we rented the house we lived in from our cousins Reed and Edna (Miller) Romig.   Their grandchildren, Johnny Joe and Anita Oliver still live on the property.

I almost died when we lived in that house.   I had the croup and it went into Scarlet Fever.   We first called Dr. John Wilson Lauck, the aged country doctor from Maple Hill, and he then asked Dr. Henry Miller from Rossville to come.   I had a very high temperature and my throat swelled shut.   They didn't have the drugs we have the antibiotics we have now.   My Grandmothers, "Aunt" Bonnie Mitchell and cousin Mrs. Fred (Mable) Clark stayed up with me day and night.   I really don't recall what the doctors gave me but it worked and I slowly recovered.    They watched me carefully for a long time because Scarlet Fever can come back as reumatic fever, which weakens or destroys the heart.   Fortunately, none of that happened.


This photo is Lucille (Corbin) Clark with sons Gary on the left and Nickey on the right.  It was taken under the old walnut tree on the Robert and Mildred (McCauley) Farm south of Maple Hill in about 1950.


My Grandmother Clark owned a house at the south end of Maple Hill.    I believe in 1953 or 1954, we moved into her house.   We really liked living in town because we could walk to school and the Maple Hill Central Office was right on the way to and from school, so we could visit Grandmother Clark there often.    We had lots of cousins and relatives living in Maple Hill.   My mother had begun to help my Grandmother Clark regularly at the Central Office.   My father had gotten a job working for Chuck Fauerback, operating a Cat D-9 bulldozer.   Chuck operated a company that built farm field terraces, dug ditches and carved out ponds.   My dad really enjoyed the outdoor work and the work and money were good and steady during spring, summer and fall.   During the winter, he continued to hunt and run his trapping lines.    With both salaries, it seemed like our family was at least able to keep it's head above water.

Speaking of water, there was no running water in the house and no indoor plumbing of any kind.   We had to carry water from a well for drinking, bathing and washing.   The outhouse was located along the back side of the property on the alley.   There was no indoor plumbing in the house for several years to come.    My brother Gary Wayne and I carried many buckets of water from the well but I'm sure what we carried was minuscule compared to what my mother carried.    My Grandfather Clark's old cow and horse lot was on that property and Uncle Ed Miller would bring his horse down and plow the lot so we could plant a large garden.   Mom, Dad and we boys had a huge garden on the lot---but I'm certain most of the work was done by Mom.   There was also a barn on the lot which was in very bad repair and we tore it down while we lived there.

Then in 1955, there came an event that rocked our world.   Mom and Dad were 39-years-old and I was eleven.    Gary was nine and I'm sure the furthermost thing from anyone's mind was that there would be an addition to our family, but in late summer 1954, Mom told us that we were going to have a little brother or sister.    Gary and I were very excited about that possibility and we were certain that it was going to be a sister.  After all, we had two boys and we wanted a sister.   We planned and planned for the arrival of our sister.

On January 26, 1955 we had a birthday party for Gary Wayne Clark.   I remember that Grandmother Clark, Grandfather and Grandmother Corbin, Uncle Charlie and Aunt Bonnie (Thomas) Mitchell were there and that Aunt Vivian and Uncle George Wild dropped by.   I don't know how she did it, but she made a big double layer chocolate cake and we all had such a good time.    Everyone went home and Gary and I went to bed and fell asleep.

This photo was taken in the summer of 1955.  This is the way I remember Stan (on the left) and Steve (on the right.)   They were always happy little boys, even when their big brother's teased them.   I was 11 and Gary was 9 when they were born, so for all intents and purposes, it was like my parents had two families.   I was going to college when they started to kindergarten, etc.   But we seemed to catch up somehow.

Neither of us woke up so all that occurred must have been done very quietly, but during the night, my mother went into labor.   In the morning, both Grandmother Corbin and Aunt Bonnie Mitchell were there when we woke up.   They prepared breakfast and got us ready for school and we were just ready to leave when the phone rang.    My Dad was on the other end and Gary and I were both listening at the receiver.   "What do you think we have boys?" was his question.   "A sister of course, when can you bring her home?"   "Nope---sorry.   We have twin boys, Steven K. and Stanley J."

I remember Gary and I were so disappointed we didn't even want to talk about it and went off to school, regretting the loss of the sister we never had.



This photo was taken in summer 1955 behind the Maple Hill Central Office.  Steve Clark is on Dad's left side and Stan Clark is on Dad's right side.   I always liked the little curls my mother made down the center of their heads.

Mom and Dad had not known they were going to have twins.   Mom had gone to Dr. Orval Smith at St. Marys, Kansas for her prenatal visits and he had not detected two heartbeats.   Mom said that she gained so much weight during the pregnancy that she had thought about twins, but the doctor had said nothing.   If I remember correctly, she gained 55 pounds or more.   The twins were both large, healthy babies.   They both weighed in excess of 6.5 pounds.

This is a photo of Lucille (Corbin) Clark with her twin sons, Steven K. on the left and Stanley J. on the right.   The photo was taken in the living room of the house at the south end of Maple Hill owned by Grandmother Clark.

Steven K. and Stanley J. Clark were born on January 27, 1955 to John L. and Lucille (Corbin) Clark.   They were born at Gen Hospital in Wamego, Kansas.    Mom stayed in the hospital for about five days and it was a good thing.   Grandmother Mildred Corbin and Aunt Bonnie Mitchell had planned to wallpaper Mom and Dad's bedroom while Mom was in the hospital.   But now they also had to find another crib and gather together a whole second set of baby diapers and clothing.   All was still in readiness when Mom and Dad brought the twins home.   They were such good, happy babies that Gary and I soon forgot about having a sister and bask in the attention having twins brought to our family.

I believe I will end this blog here although there is much more I want to say about my parents and brothers.   It will wait for a later blog.

Happy Trails!!