Old Bible Yields New Discoveries: Part I

The collection at Clarke House Museum contains a large family bible, acquired in 1983, which was a gift from the Evanston Historical Society as NSCDA-IL sought items to fill the period rooms being restored on the museum's first floor. The bible, published 1835 by H. & E. Phinney, Coopertsown, New York, came to the museum with no provenance. The accession record gives little more than a brief physical description and notes the bible “contains family records of the Solmes family, residence unknown”. No research was ever done on the Solmeses and the bible became an overlooked fixture on the parlor étagère, blending into the overall exhibit.

A Canadian family's history is hidden between the pages of an overlooked artifact on display at Clarke House Museum.

  Solmes Family Bible in the collection of The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Illinois at Clarke House Museum.

During a recent collections inventory it was discovered that the Solmes bible contained more than just the family record. At the front of the bible, glued inside the cover, were two blue and gold foil heraldic shields next to which was written “Barker Family Crest.” On the opposite fly leaf, written in pencil, “D. B. Solmes Book Feb, 8th 1869”. Tucked between its pages, untouched for decades, were an 1851 memory verse slip from the Wesleyan-Methodist Church, several c.1880 newspaper clippings of sermons by Rev. Dr. Talmage of Brooklyn, New York ; and a letter dated October 8, 1880; and — all clues to the story of D. B. Solmes and his family.

Treasures found just inside the front cover. Above: Text next to the shields reads "Coat of Arms or Crest of the Barker family." Below: "David Barker Solmes Book Feb 8th 1869" written in pencil on the fly leaf.  Someone, perhaps a child, attempted to replicate the capital "D".

Part I:  The Barker-Solmes Family

David Barker Solmes, the owner of the bible, was born May 20, 1817 in Solmesville, Ontario, Canada to Richard Solmes (1787-1867) and Lydia Cronk Barker (1783-1851). He was named for his maternal grandfather, David Barker (1730-1821), a native of "New Port," Rhode Island. The elder David had grown up on a120-acre New Port estate, the second generation of Barkers to be born in the colonies. He married Lydia Shove (1746-1804), also a Rhode Islander, on March 11, 1762 in Swansea, Bristol County, Massachusetts. The couple set up house back in New Port where they welcomed their first nine children: Samuel Shove (1763), Asa (1765), Edward (1766), David (1768), Pheobe (1770), James (1772), Elizabeth (1774), Sarah (1776; delivered in Dartmouth, Massachusetts), and Rebecca (1779). The growing family moved to Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York around 1780 where son Abraham (1781) and daughter Lydia Cronk (1783), the mother of David Barker Solmes, were born.

David Barker (1737-1821), colonial loyalist and maternal grandfather of the bible's original owner David Barker Solmes. Sketch is believed to have been based on a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Photo courtesy of the Barker family page on RootsWeb.

David Barker was a loyal subject of the British Crown and a devout member of the Anglican church. During the Revolutionary War, Barker supplied provisions to the British forces. Once this act was discovered, his property in Poughkeepsie, New York was confiscated by supporters of independence. Barker decided to join Major VanAlstine's party of Loyalists and remove to Canada in 1783 at the age of 51. His wife and the elder children accompanied him and the family departed from New York harbor September 8, 1783. The journey to an unsettled part of the Canadian countryside would be long and arduous. Fearing for the well-being of their younger children, the Barkers left them in the care of with relatives in the newly formed United States. Lydia Cronk Barker, just a year old when her family emigrated to Canada,  was one of the children left behind. According to family history she and her siblings grew up in either Poughkeepsie, New York or New Fairfield, Connecticut. The Barkers' last child, a son named Caleb (1786), was born two years after the family had settled into their new home in Ontario.

Although his property in Poughkeepsie, New York had been confiscated, Barker still had substantial means.  He brought seventeen thousand dollars with him and, although being near the point of embarrassment when he left New York, was able to bring along some valuable family heirlooms  including a Scotish-made clock and cabinet with secret drawers. These both are still owned by Barker descendants today. Each member of Major VanAlstine's party received 200 acres of land which they drew by ballot. David Barker's allotment was an area in Adolphustown, Lennox-Addington County, Ontario located between Hay Bay and the Bay of Quinte in the third concession, which became known as Barker's Point (now Thompson's point). David Barker first built a small log house, then erected a larger home along with other outbuildings which is believed to still stand today.

An early 20th century photograph of what is believed to be the Barker home in Ontario, Canada built c.1785-90.  
Photo courtesy of the Barker family page on RootsWeb.

A generous father, Barker gave each of his daughters, whether married or single, a large farm in Prince Edward County, Ontario. Daughter Lydia Cronk Barker eventually joined the family in Ontario and married her first husband Rueban Cronk who died sometime before 1814, giving her no children. At age thirty-one Lydia married Richard Solmes (1787-1867), a local farmer, on November 16, 1814. Richard and Lydia set up housekeeping in the village of Solmesville, part of Sophiasburg, Prince Edward County, Ontario. The couple welcomed their first three children: Rueban Cronk (1815), David Barker (1817), and Mary (1819). In 1821, the patriarch of the family, grandfather David Barker, died at his home at Barker's Point at age ninety-one. Two years later, Richard and Lydia Solmes completed their own family with the birth of daughter Lydia Margaret in 1823.

Monument to David Barker and Lydia Shrove erected by the United Empire Loyalists in the Old Meeting House Yard of the Adolphustown Friends. Photo courtesy of the Barker family page on RootsWeb.

David Barker Solmes  grew up to become a farmer and member of the Wesleyan-Methodist Church. He married Susan Lazier (1818-1853) on October 2, 1838 at Prince Edward Island, Ontario. The bible was probably presented to the couple as a wedding gift. On September 14, 1841 David and Susan welcomed their first child, a daughter, named Olive Rebecca. The young Solmes family attended the Wesleyan-Methodist Church in Demorestville, a small village of 300 within the township of Sophiasburg, Prince Edward County, Ontario. The congregation sat under the spiritual instruction of Irish-born minster Reverend William Pooley (1820-1896). [Learn more about Rev. Pooley and the Solmes family's spiritual life in Part 2.]

Susan and David welcomed a son, David Bishop Solmes, January 12, 1853. Unfortunately, baby David only lived five months and fourteen days, dying June 26, 1853. His mother, Susan Lazier Solmes passed away just two months later on August 8th. Left a widower with a twelve-year-old daughter, David Barker Solmes was remarried June 15, 1854 to Mary Eliza Stimson (1832-1900) in Hallowell, Ontario. The couple had seven children: Sarah Jane (1854), Jennie (1856) Rueban Clayton (1858), Franklin Stephenson (1860), a son with initials JWM (1860), Lillian M. (1863) and Richard Russell (1866). David Barker Solmes died at age eighty-two in Solmesville, where he had spent his entire life, on January 30, 1900. His widow, Mary Eliza, lived just six more years before passing away April 14, 1906.

The Solmes family bible passed to David Barker Solmes’ eldest daughter, Olive Rebecca Solmes. She is the addressee of the 1880 letter found within its pages and probably the one who tucked the Talmage sermons inside for safekeeping. [More on these items in Part 3]. It is yet unknown how the bible made its way to Illinois and into the collection of the Evanston Historical Society. The only connection to the Chicago area found to date is through Lydia Margaret Solmes Caniff, David's younger sister, who died in Chicago April 24, 1900. Lydia is probably the "Auntie Caniff" referred to in the 1880 letter written to Olive. The bible has a $5.00 price mark on its fly leaf and may have been picked up at a sale before it was accessioned into the Evanston Historical Society's collection.

Today, the Solmes family bible is on exhibit in the Clarke House Museum parlor. The bible's family registers and other contents can be viewed in person by appointment. If you have additional information on David Barker Solmes and/or his descendants, please contact Clarke House Museum at info@clarkehousemuseum.org.

Charles Walker

In short, taking into consideration the varied incidents of his active life, his indomitable perseverance and industry, and the financial ability he has exhibited, Mr. Charles Walker has had few equals and no superiors, as a skillful business man and a good citizen.

-Chicago Magazine, March 1857

The Clarke family's relocation to Chicago in 1835 can be largely attributed to the persuasion of Charles Walker. Walker was Henry Brown Clarke's brother-in-law, married to his younger sister Mary (1805-1838). Charles Walker was born February 2, 1802 in Plainfield, Otsego County, New York. He was the oldest son of Colonel William W.  and Lucretia (Ferrel) Walker. Charles had limited education but was a quick learner. He  started school at age six in a log school house built by local farmers. Working his father's farm most of the year, Walker had only three months during the winter to devote to study, doing lessons with a teacher during the day and his parents in the evenings. By age fifteen he became a teacher himself, teaching local children during the winter months. At  eighteen, while still employed as a teacher, he began to study law. The sedentary lifestyle of an attorney did not bode well with Walker's active disposition so, upon the advice of physicians, he soon gave up the law choosing instead to travel the countryside as a livestock buyer for his father.

At age twenty-one his health began to diminish, presumably from excessive time outdoors, and he decided to hire himself out to a friend as a mercantile clerk. Within two months he had mastered the trade and opened his own business in Burlington Flats, New York May of 1824. He soon owned a grist mill, saw mill, potash factory, and tannery in addition to his mercantile. Walker married his wife, Mary Clarke May 8, 1827. He dealt successfully in grain, cattle, and other sundries until 1828 when a large shipment of cheese, butter, and pork, en-route to a southern market, was lost at sea. Walker suffered financially, but was able to grow his business back until 1832 when a decline in prices brought on another blow. Still determined to make it in trade, Walker continued to buy and sell in the New York market.  In spring 1833 he was able to turn a damaged cargo of raw hides from Buenos Aries into a profitable venture by making the leather into boots and shoes for fall Indian payments in Chicago. His brother Almond Walker took these, along with an assortment of guns, boots, shoes, and raw leather to Fort Dearborn in Chicago autumn of 1834.

Realizing the profit to be made out west, Charles Walker set out for Chicago himself in May 1835. Confident in the potential of Chicago as a center of commerce, he purchased several real estate lots, one at the corner of Clark and South Water Streets. Through a partnership with Captain Bigelow of Boston and Jones, King, & Co.Hardware, Walker bought the land for $15,000 cash. That spring he purchased hides in St. Joseph which he added to the other goods picked up in Chicago, which he sent back to New York. The total shipment was said to be the first from the state of Illinois to be sent as far east as Utica or Albany.

In June 1835 he returned to Chicago with his brother-in-law, Henry Brown Clarke. While Clarke purchased land for his own estate, Walker introduced him to local business associates which undoubtedly secured Clarke employment with Jones. King, & Co. when he returned with Caroline and their two sons in October. Walker also returned to Chicago in 1836 to establish the firm Walker & Co. with brother Almond Walker and brother-in-law Eri Baker Hurlburt, Esq (also spelled Hulbert, 1807-1852) a general store on South Water Street that dealt in importing animal husbandry implements and household goods from the east. Even with his primary business affairs in Chicago, Walker continued to reside in New York.

When the panic of 1837 hit Chicago, Walker was one of few who remained in business. He was able to satisfy his debts and keep a good reputation, which enabled him to actually grow his operations during a time of economic downturn. He used depreciated Western money, still accepted and circulated in Chicago, to purchase large quantities of goods, then shipped the items to his Eastern creditors as barter payment avoiding any transmutation of currency. Walker's success allowed him to help Henry and Caroline when they experienced financial trouble in the late 1830s, saving them from foreclosure on their house. Although financially secure, Walker experienced personal tragedy with the death of his wife Mary in June 1838. He was remarried in 1841 to Nancy Bently (d.1881) at Lebanon Springs, New York. His new wife and son Charles H. Walker (by Mary) left from Otsego County, New York and permanently took up residence in Chicago May, 1845.

Despite the assistance from Walker, Henry Brown Clarke declared bankruptcy in 1842. That same year Walker formed the firm Walker & Clarke in Buffalo with Henry's younger brother Cyrus Clarke, Esq. (1806-1884) of Utica, New York. Walker was chosen as a director for the Galena Railroad in 1847. Another financial crisis occurred the same year, this time in the grain trade, but Walker's ventures again endured so that by 1851 C. Walker & Son of Chicago (formed with his son), Walker & Kellog of Peoria, and Walker & Clarke of Buffalo were among the largest purchasers of grain from farmers in the United States. He served as second president of the Chicago Board of Trade from 1849 to 1851.

Ad for Walker & Clarke, 1853.

Charles Walker contracted cholera around 1851 and was forced to leave the management of his affairs to his son Charles. He recovered, but the toll of illness lead him to retire from business altogether in 1855. In 1856 he served as president and director of the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska line, intended to be a continuation of the Galena railroad. Charles Walker died in Chicago June 28, 1869 leaving a lasting legacy as one of Chicago's early businessmen but more importantly, as a dear friend and devoted kinsman to the Clarke family.

Robert George Clarke

Please note that research on the Clarke family is ongoing and this article reflects the most current documentation held by the museum. Text is subject to change as additional information becomes available and is interpreted by Clarke House Museum staff. 

Robert George Clarke, sixth child of Henry and Caroline Clarke, was born May 10, 1838 at the family home in Chicago. He came of age during the time the Clarkes were suffering from financial trouble associated with the Panic of 1837. As a boy Robert would have helped his father, Henry B. Clarke, with the family's dairy farming operation. Robert was just eleven years old when his father died of cholera in 1849 and seventeen when Caroline Clarke, his mother, completed the modifications to the house in 1855.

When Caroline Clarke passed away in January 1860, Robert took over as head of household. Even though his older sister Mary and her husband Frank Williams were present to help care for the family, Robert was the eldest surviving Clarke male (older brother Henry James died in 1856) and took responsibility for holding things together. At the time of the 1860 U.S. census Robert was twenty-one and working as a book keeper. His personal estate was valued at $1000.

Robert Clarke was successful in his business partnership, Palmer & Clarke, with brother-in-law Frank Williams (husband of Mary Clarke) and uncle Charles D. Palmer (Caroline's brother). They dealt in animal hides, furs, and wool. The 1867 Chicago City directory list Robert as working in the firm and still living with his siblings at Clarke House, listed as 596 Michigan Avenue. It was around this time that Robert Clarke  began courting his future bride Clara Gage.

Clara was born June 15, 1848 in Keene, Cheshire County, New Hampshire to David A. Gage (1822-1889) and Faustina Mulliken Locke (1819-1850). At the time of the 1850 census Clara's father ran a successful hotel and boarding house in Rockingham, Windham County, Vermont. Unfortunately, her mother died just months later in November 1850 when Clara was only two years old. Her father soon remarried to Eliza N. Wetherbee (c.1829-1894). The Gage family moved in with Eliza's father, Isaac Wetherbee (1797- ?) following the death of her mother in September 1859.

Clara's father was a shrewd and ambitious businessman. In 1860 he took his wife and daughter, along with older brother George W. Gage (1812-?)  to Chicago where they boarded at the Tremont House in July of that year. David and George Gage met and formed a business connection with hotelier John Burroughs Drake (1826-1895), part owner of the Tremont from 1855-1871. By 1862 they had formed the firm of Gage Bros. & Drake. David A. Gage also became superintendent of the Chicago Horse Rail Road. Two years later Gage had formed another partnership Gage, Waite, & Rice and had moved his family to the Shermon House at the northwest corner of Clark and Randolph of which his new company was the proprietor. David A. Gage is listed in the Chicago City Directory as residing at the Sherman House from 1862-1871.

Sherman House, 1858. Photograph by Alexander Helsler.  Robert Clarke's wife, Clara Gage, lived at this hotel with her father and stepmother from the time they met until their marriage in 1868. Image courtesy of Chicago History Museum.

It is unknown where or when Clara and Robert met. They both had lost parents and this may have been one of the shared experiences that drew them together. They both also came from well-established and, at least initially, well-do-do New England families. In 1860s Chicago, theirs would be considered a good match.

A week before their wedding date, Robert applied for a passport for his honeymoon trip with Clara abroad. See Robert Clarke's 1868 passport application. The couple married November 15, 1868 and took up residence at the Clarke family home at 596 Michigan Ave. Robert continued to work for Palmer & Clarke. In 1870, Clara and Robert had established their own home just down the street, next door to Clarke House at 604 Michigan Avenue. Robert, now a successful cattle broker, had grown his modest finances to a personal worth of $25,000. Clara herself held $50,000 in real estate and $2,000 in personal assets. The couple lived quite comfortably with an Irish domestic servant named Bridget Bigley.

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 devastated the downtown Chicago hotel district, but did not reach the near south side where the Clarkes were living.  The Sherman House was laid to waste by the fire so, presumably, Clara's parents stayed with her and Robert in the months immediately following while the city scrambled to rebuild. In addition to ownership in Gage Bros. & Rice and the Frank Parmalee omnibus company, Robert's father-in-law, David A. Gage, had been elected Chicago City Treasurer in 1870. Gage was also appointed treasurer of the General Relief Committee following the fire, given charge over all monetary aid contributions sent to the city. On October 28, 1871, however, the Chicago Republican reported "there are anxious inquires concerning Mr. David Gage's use of the city funds since he has been Treasurer. Will he rise to explain?" Suspicion of illicit practices cast a dark shadow of the Gage-Clarke family and city authorities began to investigate where the money was going.

Chicago in ruins, 1871. With the Sherman House obliterated, Clara's parents probably stayed her and Robert following the Great Chicago Fire.

Clara gave birth to the couple's only child, son David Gage Clarke (named for her father), on March 25, 1872. Just a few months later Robert oversaw the sale of his childhood home to the Chrimes family. Robert could watch from his own front stoop as the mighty columns of his parents' Greek Revival mansion were removed and the house was jacked up then carted off by horses to 4526 S. Wabash Avenue in what was then the town of Hyde Park. With the old Clarke family home gone, Robert turned his attention to his own young family and their future.

Clara's parents soon returned to hotel living. Gage Bros.& Rice now operated the Grand Pacific Hotel, on Clark Street between Quincy and Jackson, which reopened in 1873. David A. Gage was not reelected City Treasurer and for good reason - he was at the center of an extraordinary scandal.  In December 1873 it was determined that Gage had grossly misappropriated city funds and the treasury was deficient to the tune of $508,703.58.  Read more about David A. Gage and his defalcation scandal here, beginning on page 856.  Disgraced by the embezzlement scandal, Clara's father and stepmother seem to have retreated to the comfort of family and are found in residence at the Clarkes' 604 Michigan Avenue house according to the 1875 and 1877 Chicago City Directory. David A. Gage is not listed as having any profession, a telling sign of his utter dismissal from the realm of Chicago business.

During the tumult occurring with his father-in-law, Robert seems to have tried to lead a normal life. By 1874 Palmer & Clarke appears to have dissolved and Robert is listed as working for C. L. Goodman & Co., a Chicago bread and cracker manufacturer which touted its "building [was] erected in the Burnt District and business fully resumed in 37 days after the fire of Oct. 8th and 9th, 1871."

From Cattle to Crackers: Advertisement for C. L. Woodman & Co. from The Railroads of Chicago. Chicago: The Western News Company, 1872. Robert Clarke is listed as working for this company in the 1874 Chicago City Directory.

In 1878 Robert had once again changed careers and is listed as manager of Anderson's Refrigerator Line and Coal Storage Company and, interestingly, boards at the Palmer House Hotel. The narrative given about his father-in-law in History of Chicago by Alfred Theodore Andreas mentions the Gages deeded property as payment for their debt. Further research is needed, but it is possible Robert and Clara's home at 604 Michigan Avenue could have been part of this land.

Gold had been discovered in Colorado in the 1870s and Americans rushed west to make their fortunes. Clara's father decided to escape his sullied past in Chicago and take on a new business venture in Denver, Colorado. David A. Gage and Michigan-born businessman Alexis M. Lay (1845-1921) formed the partnership Gage & Lay which ran the Grand Central Hotel at the intersection of Lawrence and 17th Streets in Denver. The1880 census lists Clara, her stepmother Eliza, and son David in residence with David A. Gage.  Robert's youngest brother Cyrus Clarke is also living in Denver in 1880, working as a miner. Robert Clarke was living away from his family working as a laborer and residing at 402 East 8th Street in Leadville. In 1881 Robert is listed as a clerk for the Little Chief Mining Company living at 123 East 4th Street in Leadville.

Grand Central Hotel, Denver, Colorado c.1880. Robert Clarke's wife and son lived at this hotel operated by his father-in-law, David A. Gage. Image courtesy of Denver Public Library Digital Collections.

Stock certificate for the Little Chief Mining Company in Leadville, Colorado.

Mines in Leadville, Colorado at the time Robert worked for the Little Chief Mining Company. Photo courtesy of www.miningartifacts.org.

Work was hard and days were long. Robert Clarke distinguished himself and went on to became the manager of the Gold Cup Mine in Tin Cup, Colorado. In 1896 Robert obtained a lease on the property. Unfortunately, three weeks later, he died  tragically in a mining accident on December 9, 1896 at the age of 58.

His death is described in Stampede to Timberline: Ghost Towns and Mining (1949) by Muriel Sibell Wolfe:

Three weeks after he took it [Gold Cup Mine] over it was still so early in the season that he and three other men improvised a toboggan with which to get down and up the ice-coated incline of the mine tunnel. One morning they started down as usual, but three hundred feet below the surface the toboggan caught on some caved-in rock. Three of the men jumped to safety and signaled the engineers to stop the hoist; but Clark [sic] stayed on the sled and succeeded in working it loose. Fifty feet of slack cable connected it to the hoist, and as the toboggan gathered speed Clark [sic] was unable to leap off. When the slack was taken up the sled stopped suddenly, throwing Clark [sic] headlong down the tunnel to his death.

Denver Republican. December 11, 1896.

Chicago Daily Tribune. December 10, 1896.

Robert's body was shipped from Tin Cup to Denver then returned to Chicago where he lay in state at sister Caroline Clarke Forman's home before being laid to rest at the Clarke family plot in Graceland Cemetery.

Clara and David remained in Chicago for many years following Robert's death. Later they are found living in Kansas City, Missouri where Clara died February 28, 1938. She was cremated and her remains were interred with Robert at Graceland. Their only son, David Gage, married a woman named Kathryn between 1930 and his own death March 11, 1944. The couple had no children. David too was cremated and placed in the Clarke family plot at Graceland Cemetery, Chicago along with his mother and father, Robert George Clarke.