My grandmother, Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark wrote on the back of this photo: "Terrible picture of me with Tim in 1921 at Stewart Farm. Mama Jones (that would have been her stepmother, Susanna Jeanetta Reinhardt Jones) gave me the lace for the bottom of his gown which I made. Papa Jones (Leander Emory Jones) bought him this first pair of high top button shoes. I don't think he was impressed with any of it!"
If my father were alive, I would now most likely be up a tree somewhere for sharing this photo! Every family seems to have one or two of these. There are more in my family collection. My grandmother, Mabel (Jones) Clark wrote the caption at the bottom, "Tim, age 14 mo." On the back side it says, "Taken at Stewart Farm. My Aunt Belle (Leeper) Miller, wife of Uncle Edward Sutton Miller is at right. Flora Belle (Miller) Romig, her granddaughter, is the child on the floor." 
This photo is labeled: "Baby Tim (Clark) at Stewart Farm, 1921." It would be my guess that the photo was taken the same day as the first photo in this blog. I don't know if you'll be able to see it in this photo, but my grandmother, Mable Rachel (Jones) Clark did tatting. This was handwork done with a tatting shuttle and the result was beautiful lace-like tatting. Some of her work is on the pillow. I have the set of pillowcases that she made and gave to me when I was married in 1970 and a couple of other pieces.
This is a favorite. It's a photo of my father, John Leander "Tim" Clark taken when he was six months old at the Stewart Farm. He is playing with a handmade stuffed rabbit, a stuffed teddy bear, a rattle with bells(laying on porch floor, and some kind of little cross, which I suspect was some kind of "teething" toy to help his baby teeth come through his gums. 
This is a picture of Tim Clark, age 4, standing in snow at the Maple Hill Central Office, where his mother, Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark was chief operator. The big bush behind my dad is a lilac bush. My Dad and my Grandmother used to joke about this bush a lot. Every spring when I was growing up, it would be loaded with beautiful sprays of fragrant, purple lilacs. When I would comment on it, my Dad would say, "You know that's the second bush that's been there. My Mom killed the first one cutting switches off it to whip me." My Grandmother Clark would always protest loudly, buy I suspect from the stories I've heard, my father probably needed the discipline.
My Grandparents, James Peter "Jim Pete" and Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark, gave my father John Leander "Tim" Clark, a black pony that my father called "Blackie." He spent a lot of time training the horse to do tricks and he used whistle commands. This photo was taken in about 1928 and the little pony is "filled" with cousins: L-R are Flora Belle (Romig) Oliver, daughter of Edna Belle (Miller) Romig and Ulysses "Reed" Romig, next is my father John Leander "Tim" Clark, and the two sons of my Great Aunt and Uncle, Olin and Edith Belle (Jones) Strowig, Wray and Dean Strowig. The Strowigs lived in Abilene, Kansas at the time. The photo is taken at the Maple Hill Central Office.
My father, John Leander "Tim" Clark, had a favorite teacher at Maple Hill Grade School. She was Miss Helen Lauck, daughter of Maple Hill's country doctor, Dr. W. W. Lauck. Dr. Lauck and his family lived just up the street north from the telephone office and my Grandmother Clark said if she missed my father, it was probably a pretty good guess that he was at the Lauck house. I remember one story she told about telephoning the Lauck house to ask if he was there and to tell him to come home for supper. Miss Lauck asked if he could stay for supper and my grandmother protested that he was dirty from playing and it would probably be best if he came home. My father heard what his mother said and asked for the phone. "Mom, they're dirty too and they don't mind if I stay for supper." Grandmother didn't protest. This photo was taken after Dad had gone to Mill Creek and caught some minos for a science project at school. They put them in the horse tank to keep them alive until they could meet some more horrible fate at the hands of Miss Lauck's class.
This is a 1931 photograph of students at the old Maple Hill Grade School, a two-story frame building that stood in the same location as the current brick school on the west side of town. My father, John Leander "Tim" Clark, is right in the middle of the photo and my grandmother put a red "x" on his shoulder. My mother, his future wife, Lucille (Corbin) Clark, is standing just behind him. In the hat and coat with a fur collar, is Miss Helen Lauck and to her left is Miss Mary (Oliver) Raine, who taught for decades at the grade school.
Olie Romick, who was the first graduate of Maple Hill High School and was on the school board at the time.
This is a photo of my father, John Leader "Tim" Clark, taken when he graduated from Maple Hill High School in May, 1939. I'm going to include a photo of myself, taken when I graduated from Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas in 1971 to show the resemblance.
I believe I have now used all of the childhood photos of my father, John Leander "Tim" Clark and will bring this blog to a close.
Happy Trails!
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