Clark Hawley

Clark Hawley was born on January 7, 1840, in Canada, the son of Harvey (b. 1807) and Elizabeth (Likens, b. 1812).

Connecticut native Harvey married Canadian-born Elizabeth, probably in Ontario (“Canada West”) where they lived for many years, sometime after 1853 Harvey took his family and left Canada, and eventually settled in Michigan. By 1860 Clark was working as a farmer, attending school with his seven younger siblings and living with his family on a farm in Keene, Ionia County.

He stood 5’11” with blue eyes, brown hair and a florid complexion, and was a 22-year-old farmer probably living in Ionia County when he enlisted in Company C on February 28, 1862, and was mustered the same day. During the Regiment’s movements in July and August he was “left lame on march” and was supposed to follow the Regiment by train. He was a company cook in September of 1862, and was left sick at Upton’s Hill, Virginia on October 11, and admitted to Mt. Pleasant hospital in Washington, DC on October 17, 1862. Clark was alleged to have deserted from Mt. Pleasant hospital on November 20 and again on November 22, but these charges were removed in 1878. Apparently he reported to Camp Distribution, Virginia, on November 23 and was examined for discharge on December 31 and but was first rejected. He was examined again on January 17, 1863, and discharged for valvular heart disease on January 29, 1863 at Camp Convalescent, Virginia.

Clark eventually returned to Ionia and for many years worked as a salesman.

He was married to Canadian-born Eliza Converse (1846-1934), and they had at least one child, a daughter: Emma A. (1863) or Etta B. (b. 1865, Mrs. Schilds).

In June of 1889 Eliza and Clark were divorced; she had sued on the grounds of cruelty By 1870 Clark was working as a farmer and living with his wife and child in Easton, Ionia County. (His parents were still living in Keene in 1870.) In 1880 Clark was working as a “dealer in agricultural implements” and living with his wife and daughter on Jefferson Street in Ionia, Ionia County. Clark was still living in Ionia County in 1888. Clark subsequently married Mrs. Julia Ann King (nee Miller, b. 1854), on December 1, 1889, in Saranac, Ionia County. Clark was living in Ionia County in 1890.

In 1877 Clark applied for and received a pension (no. 159619), drawing $22.50 per month by 1915, and increased to $32 in 1918.

Clark died of chronic heart disease on July 28,1920, in Ionia County, and was buried in Oak Hill cemetery in Ionia (see photo G-794); his wife Eliza and daughter “Emma” are also buried with him.

In October of 1920 Julia moved to Florida. In 1920 she applied for and received a pension (no. 920049). That same year Eliza and her daughter Etta Schilds were living in Ionia. Julia was living in Boynton, Florida in 1934.