Julius Clarkson (1749-1831)
of Virginia and Kentucky
by Neil Allen Bristow
Julius Clarkson (1749-1831) was a member of the large Clarkson family of the Virginia Piedmont, centered in Albemarle County. For some time I agreed with those family historians who held that Julius probably was one of the sons of David Clarkson of Amherst County who settled in Albemarle. In his well-known history of Albemarle, the Rev. Edgar Woods stated, “There is documentary evidence that three of these [Clarkson men] were brothers, John, William and James, sons of David Clarkson, who came from Amherst; it is probable the other two [Peter and Manoah] were also brothers in the same family. There seems moreover to have been three sisters, Mary, the wife of Thomas Carr, Susan, the wife of John Lewis, the father of Jesse, and Letitia, the wife of Zebulon Alphin.”1
Rev. Woods did not include Julius among the sons of David, but Julius' eldest daughter, Jane Shelton Clarkson Bristow (1776-1863), averred that she was born in Albemarle County, near Charlottesville.2 Also, in the 1787 tax lists of Virginia, we find a Julius in Albemarle listed in the District of Commissioner Thomas Garth, among the following Clarksons: David, James, John, and Manoah.3 Near John Clarkson were four Dickerson households, which probably included some of those who were found as neighbors of Julius in Bourbon county a few years later. There were also two Goodmans, four Carrs, one Allphin, and one Ellis; all names which occur in Clarkson genealogies.
Although it is clear from the foregoing that Julius did live in Albemarle, evidence has surfaced that he was the son of Anselm Clarkson of neighboring Louisa County, whose will, dated 26 Feb 1762, names “Julius Clarkson my youngest well Beloved Son” as well as his sisters Susana, Eliza, Mary, Martha, and Mourning, his brothers David and Peter, and his mother Elizabeth.4
Anselm was cited as early as 1746 when he was holding land on “the lower side of Cub Creek, on the north side of the Pamunkey.”5 (Pamunkey was an earlier name for the Anna River, and Cub Creek parallels modern US 522 south from US 33.) In 1748 Anselm Clarkson joined with Thomas Jackson, Josh. Fox, David Crenshaw, and Jeremiah Glenn to procession land in Fredericksville Parish (which included parts of both Louisa and Albemarle).6 Anselm may have had a familial connection with the Jacksons: In 1713 David Clarkson married Elizabeth Jackson in New Kent.7 Anselm was taxed at the Cub Creek location as late as 1759.8
Although Anselm began his 1762 will with the words “Being very sick & weak of Body” he may have recovered and lived on for another few years: In the 1767 Louisa tithe lists “Ansalem Clarkson” was charged with Julius and 137 acres of land.9 The following year Julius was charged to Mrs Elizabeth Clarkson, indicating that the elder Anselm had died and his widow, Elizabeth was responsible for Julius.10 In 1771 Elizabeth Clarkson was charged with 137 acres and one slave named Jammey, but not Julius.11 On 14 Dec 1772 Elizabeth sold her 137 acres in Saint Martin's Parish to Thomas Jackson.12
The Elizabeth named in Anselm's will as Julius' mother and in the tithe lists was most likely Elizabeth Butts. As Samuel W. Hughes noted, that name is repeated among Julius' descendants: Julius' daughter who married John McConnell in Bourbon County, Christmas 1804 and moved to Morgan County, Illinois, was named Elizabeth Butts Clarkson. The name also appeared as Elizabeth Butts Lewis, daughter of Julius' sister, Susan [Susannah] Clarkson, and John Lewis.13 However, Elizabeth's place in the Butts family has not been established. David Clarkson and John Butts were neighbors and business colleagues in New Kent County in the early 1700s.14 It is possible that Elizabeth was John's daughter, or perhaps the daughter of the Thomas Butts who served as Sheriff of Hanover County from around 1710 to 1715.
Julius married 16 September 1773 Elizabeth Sandidge (1754-1798), daughter of James Sandidge and Jane Shelton of Louisa County.15
The Piedmont Clarksons joined the postwar migration to Kentucky. Julius' granddaughter, Mary Beckley Bristow, wrote of the hazards facing the new settlers:16
- My grandfather Julius Clarkson moved to Bourbon Co., Ky. in seventeen hundred and eighty-nine when [my mother] was in her thirteenth year. I have heard her say she had spent many sleepless nights in aiding to prepare clothing and provisions for companies of our men to follow the merciless Savages who would come over to massacre families, steal horses, and then again make for the Ohio River. The Kentuckians would prepare with all speed and follow. Often were they overtaken and destroyed, and many of the best blood of the land lost their lives in these expeditions. Though as she remarks the Indians were greatly subdued before her Father came to Bourbon Co., Ky.
The last major Indian incursion had occurred in the summer of 1782, seven years before the Clarksons arrived from Virginia, when a joint British and Indian expedition against the American settlements culminated in the Battle of Blue Licks (about 27 miles northeast of where Julius and his family were to settle), but sporadic raids continued until the Indians were soundly defeated at Fallen Timbers, Ohio, in 1794.17
Julius appears on a Bourbon County tax list in March of 1791.18 Later lists specify that he was charged with 300 acres of first class land on Green Creek, which is in southwestern Bourbon County, flowing from the Fayette County line easterly to its confluence with Strodes Creek. Figures vary from year to year, but they reveal his prosperity: He had as many as a dozen slaves, six horses, and 22 cattle.19 Reflecting this standing, in 1795 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace by Governor Isaac Shelby.20
The Virginians who settled the Bluegrass brought tobacco with them from the Old Dominion, and a later historian noted that “Julius Clarkson ... was a very early settler, and is believed to have raised the first tobacco ever raised in this precinct. He cultivated tobacco very extensively.”21
Kentucky, especially the Bluegrass, also was noted for the production of livestock of all sorts: horses and mules for work, hogs and cattle and sheep for consumption. Before steamboats and railroads laced the country, the animals had to reach sometimes-distant markets under their own power, tramping hundreds of miles along primitive roads.22 One of the Clarksons' neighbors, Charles B. Colcord, was known as “the first man who ever took a drove of mules to New Orleans by land from Bourbon County.”23 Colcord (1789-1854) later became the guardian and stepfather of the orphaned children of Julius' grandson, Dr. John Sandidge Bristow, who had died on a similar venture, after delivering a herd of cattle to Missouri in 1820.24
Julius and his close kin were active members of the Primitive wing of the Baptist denomination. “Julious” Clarkson was twelfth on the list of men among the early members of the congregation at Bryans Station, founded by Ambrose Dudley in 1786. William Clarkson was listed as number 29, and Anselm (probably Julius' son) joined a little later as number 121. Their sisters Mourning and Mary were listed 17 and 18 among the women, along with two “Polleys” at 99 and 166.25 Several of the family later transferred to the Stony Point congregation, east of Clintonville. Ambrose Dudley (1752-1825), a noted preacher, was a frequent visitor at the Clarkson home.26 He was a leader in establishing “Particular Baptism” and the Licking Baptist Association in competition with the “Regular” Elkhorn Association in 1809-1810, and he served as Moderator of the Licking Association until his death. At least two of his sons, James Dudley and Thomas Parker Dudley, followed him into the ministry.
Elizabeth Sandidge Clarkson died 25 March 1798, leaving the widowed Julius with eight children.27 He waited more than five years to remarry, choosing a newly-widowed neighbor, Margaret “Peggy” Bell, relict of James Bell.28 Julius and Peggy had two more sons.
The returns of the 1800 census for Kentucky are missing, but a compilation of tax lists from around that date finds six Clarkson families in Bourbon county: Anselm, Charles, David, John, Julius, and William. It seems likely that all six were brothers. There were another six families listed elsewhere in Kentucky.29
The 1810 Federal Census lists twelve Clarksons in Kentucky, eight of whom were found in Bourbon county.30 Anselm, Anselm Sr., David, David Sr., Julius, Julius, Peter, and Reuben.
The 1820 Census included eight Clarksons in Bourbon:31 Anselm, Charles, David, H. B., James M., Julius, Julius W., and Peter. (Charles, David, and Peter may have been Julius' brothers; Anselm, James M., and Julius W. were his sons. H.B. is untraced.)
Mary Beckley Bristow many years later recalled an elderly and senile uncle David:32
- My Mother has been confined to her room and mostly to her bed for six weeks with Erysipelas. ... Oh, Sarah, you cannot imagine how I felt about my dear old Mother when I thought she was about to lose her mind. I could neither ask for her life nor her death. I could not bear the idea of giving her up, and yet I thought death preferable to the distressing state of mind she appeared to be in. At times again she would be quite cheerful. My mind reverted to the time when I was watching Uncle Davy and Aunt Mima who had both lost their reason before their death, and my prayer — yes Sarah, my prayer — was that I might never see either of my parents in such a situation.
In 1824 Julius' son, James Minor Clarkson (1792-1869), ran successfully for a seat in the Kentucky Legislature, teamed with William Thomas Buckner.33 They issued a joint statement of principles, emphasizing their support of settlers rights, legislative supremacy, currency reform, and other populist themes. A copy of the handbill survives at the University of Kentucky.34 In 1827 J. M. Clarkson was named a messenger of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church at Wades Mill, just over the line in Clark County.35
In 1825 Mary Clarkson, Julius' unwed sister, died. She left her small estate to their sister, Mourning Clarkson, to pass on her death to Julius' children.36 Molly's death was recalled by her great niece, Mary Beckley Bristow, who shared her interest in religious matters.37
In 1830, the Bourbon county Clarksons and their in-laws were doing quite well. Julius Clarkson was in his 80's, and his second wife, Margaret, was in her 70's. Three young men, perhaps unmarried sons, shared the their home. They had six male slaves and seven females. Next door were his daughter and son-in-law, Jane and James Bristow, at that time in their fifties. They had a crowded household, with a dozen children (and grandchildren?) and 23 slaves. Just down the road, his widowed daughter Nancy Clarkson Dickerson had five teenage children and 16 slaves. Reuben Lewis Clarkson, his eldest son, also lived next to Julius with his wife (Polly) and 15 slaves. Next door to Reuben were his son-in-law, Edmund Hockaday Parish, and his wife Mildred (both in their twenties) with two small girls and 12 slaves. Also in the immediate neighborhood were Cunningham and Lewis families, who were probably in-laws.
By that year Julius' sons Anselm E. and James Minor Clarkson had moved to Boone county, on the Ohio River, along with his grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bristow. Anselm had purchased on 29 Oct 1828 from Thomas Lindsay and his wife Rebecca for $4350; 543-3/4 acres on the Burlington-Big Bone Lick Pike.38 Apparently some of Anselm's brothers (or brothers-in-law) accompanied him and his wife Polly, because three young men were enumerated in his household, along with four teenagers and two younger children. They had at least ten slaves.39
Julius' will, written 28 Dec 1830, named ten children: Julius Willis Clarkson; Jane Shelton Bristow; Reuben L. Clarkson; Elizabeth B. McConnell; Anselm E. Clarkson; Nancy P. Dickerson; Polly B. White; James M. Clarkson; John G. Clarkson; and Manoah B. Clarkson. Three of his sons were to be executors: Anselm E., James M., and Manoah B.40 He also provided that his Bourbon county land be sold and a place purchased for Peggy in Boone County. His executors did so, purchasing in December 211 acres 1 rood 14 perches on Gunpowder Creek from Ephraim Clore & Gustavus Weaver for $2,324.41
Anselm and James' sister, Jane, and her husband, James Bristow, followed them north in the fall of 1831. On their arrival in Boone County, the three siblings were among the founders of Sardis Church in Union.42 Elizabeth Clarkson McConnell and her family moved even further, to Morgan County, Illinois. The general exodus from Bourbon County about this time reflected a belief that the land was exhausted after four decades of cultivation and that opportunities were brighter near the Ohio River.
Ten years later land prices in Bourbon had fallen so much that one of Julius' sons, Reuben Lewis Clarkson, considered moving back to the central Bluegrass.43 Two of Reuben's sisters, Nancy P. Dickerson and Polly B. White, remained on their land in Bourbon County.
At mid century, by what would have been Julius' 100th birthday, his descendants were scattered throughout the Bluegrass and into western Illinois and Missouri. Several of his grandchildren intermarried, sometimes more than once, and the resulting relationships among cousins are truly complex.44
Notes:
1 Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia (Harrisonburg, VA: C.J. Carrier, 1982 [1901]), 166. Rev. Woods seems to have confused his Susans. The second wife of John Lewis was most likely the daughter of Anselm of Louisa (see below).
2 “My Mother was born December the 17th, seventeen hundred and seventy-six (I have often heard her laughingly remark that she was born free after independence was declared) in Albemarle Co., Virginia, near Charlottesville.” Neil Allen Bristow, ed. Aunt Mary's Diary: The Writings of Mary Beckley Bristow (San Diego: Neil Allen Bristow, 1996), 75.
3 Netti Schreiner-Yantis and Florence Speakman Love, The 1787 Census of Virginia (Springhill, Virginia: Genealogical Books In Print, 198-), 136 ff. (The Virginia tax commissioners of 1787 did not count white females nor white children under 17. They did, however, tally stud horses and wheeled vehicles.)
4 “Louisa Wills Not Fully Proven, 1757-1902” pp. 14-1 and 14-2. “Will of Ansalm Clarkson, Senr.” The document was not included in the regular Louisa Will Books and thus is absent from the usual indexes and films. My deep appreciation to Nancy Bunker Bowen, who provided me with a photocopy.
5 14 May 1746 (Deeds A: 221-222.); and 23 Feb 1749 (Deeds A: 341) in Rosalie Edith Davis, Louisa County Deed Books A and B 1741-1759 (Bellevue, WA: Rosalie E. Davis, 1976), 27, 46.
6 Rosalie Edith Davis, Fredericksville Parish Vestry Book, 1742-1787 (Manchester, MO: Heritage Trails, 1981), 11. Since the “metes and bounds” method of describing property relied on noting sometimes transient natural features (such as “a large oak tree”) to establish property lines, members of the local parish vestry were required from time to time to go out and inspect the boundaries in person.
7 Register of Saint Peter's Parish, 47.
8 Deeds B: 328-330. Ibid., 147.
9 Rosalie Edith Davis, Louisa County, Virginia, Tithables and Census, 1743-1785 (Manchester, MO: Heritage Trails, 1981), 5. (Of course this might have been Anselm Jr.)
10 Ibid., 8.
11 Ibid., 11.
12 Louisa Deeds D-1/2: 426-427. Davis, Louisa County Deed Books C, C1/2, D and D1/2, 1759-1774 (Manchester, MO: Rosalie E. Davis, 1977), 140.
13 Samuel W. Hughes to Mrs Martha Woodruff, 6 Mar 1934. George Harrison Sanford King papers, Virginia Historical Society. Mssl K5823 a FA1 sec 1 (Clarkson).
14 Patent Book 9: 317; 611. Cited in Nell Marion Nugent, Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, v3 1695-1732 (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1979), 190; 86.
15 Samuel W. Hughes, “Sandidge” in Genealogies of Virginia Families from Tyler's Quarterly (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1982), 3: 245 ff.
16 Bristow, Aunt Mary's Diary, 75.
17 Thomas D. Clark, A History of Kentucky (New York: Prentice Hall, 1937), 77-84; 138-144.
18 Charles B. Heinemann, First Census of Kentucky, 1790 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1965), 21.
19 Bourbon tax lists for 1795 and 1796. (See Bob Francis' Bourbon County Databases <www.shawhan.com>.)
20 Kentucky Ancestors (Kentucky Historical Society) 28: 150.
21 W. H. Perrin, History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison and Nicholas Counties, Kentucky (Cincinnati: Guild Reprints, 1968 [1882]), 138.
22 Thomas D. Clark, Agrarian Kentucky (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1977), 35-37, describes the traffic.
23 Perrin, History of Bourbon, 528. The enterprising drover would have followed the Cumberland Trace from Lexington to Nashville and then the more famous Natchez Trace on down to the banks of the Mississippi, traveling more than 700 miles.
24 Bristow, Aunt Mary's Diary, 65.
25 See “Bryan's Station Church Book” [Typescript by unknown hand of membership roster and minutes of meetings, 1786-1901], Kentucky Historical Society files, s.v. Churches - Bryants Station Baptist.
26 Bristow, Aunt Mary's Diary, Index.
27 Hughes, “Sandidge”
28 James Bell in his will of 9 July 1805 had named his “friend, Julius Clarkson” as an executor. (Bourbon Wills C: 26). Julius and Peggy married 21 October of the same year. A check of earlier marriage records from the Virginia Piedmont turned up four Margarets who had married James Bells in an appropriate time frame, so her maiden name remains a mystery.
29 G. Gordon Clift, “Second Census” of Kentucky (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1976), 55.
30 AIS abstract of the 1810 Federal Census.
31 AIS abstract of the 1820 Federal Census.
32 Bristow, Aunt Mary's Diary, 35. Letter 8 Jan 1854 to Sarah Jane Clarkson.
33 Lewis Collins and Richard H. Collins, History of Kentucky (Berea, KY: Kentucke Imprints, 1978 [1874]), 2: 772.
34 J. B. Anderson Papers (47M63). Special Collections, Margaret I. King Library. University of Kentucky, Lexington. Read a transcript of the Handbill.
35 A. Goff Bedford, History of Clark County, Kentucky: Land of Our Fathers (Mt. Sterling, KY: author, 1958), 378. Messengers were delegates to regional meetings.
36 Bourbon Wills G: 275. It was dated 1 Aug 1822, proved Apr 1825. Her nephew, Reuben Lewis Clarkson was the executor.
37 Bristow, Aunt Mary's Diary, 45. Mary was inspired to keep her record by the example of “my dear old aunt Molly Clarkson, who departed this life when I was seventeen years old.”... She was “one who was so highly esteemed by all who knew her as a christian...” From this circumstance it is clear that the Mary Clarkson who married Thomas Carr (per Edgar Woods) was a different person.
38 Boone Deeds G: 349.
39 1830 Federal Census, Bourbon and Boone Counties, Kentucky.
40 Bourbon Wills H: 475, Dated 28 Dec 1830. Codicils dated 3 Feb 1831, and 7 Apr 1831. Probate 2 May 1831. Omitted from the will was the name of Sarah Clarkson Minor, said by some to have been the youngest daughter of Julius and his first wife Elizabeth.
41 Ibid.; Boone Deeds H: 440. The exact location of the land remains obscure, because the watershed of Gunpowder Creek covers most of central Boone County.
42 For the move, see Bristow, Aunt Mary's Diary, 52. Jim Duvall has transcribed some of the original minutes of Sardis from microfilm at the University of Kentucky Library, Special Collections:
"Minutes of a conference held at the house of Brother James M. Clarkson in Boone County on thursday the 27th October 1831 for the purpose of constituting a church � proceeded to choose Bro. Lewis Conner Mod. and Thos. P. Dudley Clerk, after which the following Brethren and Sisters gave in their names, as desiring to be formed into a constitution. Anselm E. Clarkson, Polly Clarkson, James M. Clarkson, Patsy Y. Clarkson, Thornton J. Wilson, Mariah Wilson, Wharton Jones, Sarah Porter, Jane Bristow, Phil, Lucy colored brother and sister belonging to Bro. J. M. Clarkson, Michael, Davy, M____ belonging to Bro. J. M. Clarkson. Agreed that the helps from Gunpowder Brethren Lewis Conner & James M. Stephens � Sand run William Whitaker, Benjamin Watts and our assisting brethren Will Hume, William Conrad [Williamstown] and Thos. P. Dudley [Bryans, Lexington], also Bro. Willis Graves from Bullittsburg, Brethren Robert Finnell and Caleb Norman from Mudlick be invited to seats with us the Presbytery to _____ ____ the constititutional principles and propriety of constituting said church."See Jim's Baptist History pages.
43 Bristow, Aunt Mary's Diary, 25.
44 See my introduction to Aunt Polly's Diary for some examples. Go to the database Aunt Polly's Kin on WorldConnect for a more complete picture.
