Question:

Spelling of the family last name. Is the correct spelling "Clarke" or
Clark?" Such as Stephen and Sterling Clark?

John Reilly


> Posted by request.
>
> --Moderator, NYHIST-L
>
> * * * * * * * * * * * *
>
> The research team at Hyde Hall in Cooperstown, the state's least-known
> and best documented National Historic Landmark and New York State
> Historic Site (see website, in need of post-season updating, but
> generally very good) is used to having most questions answered by our
> incredible archive (materials from 1704 until 1966, the full range of
> Clarke family history in New York, fully indexed, housed by Cornell
> University Kroch Special Collections Library) has drawn a frustrating
> blank:
>
> The late 1880s bankruptcy proceedings against George Hyde Clarke,
> involving property liens and debts of over $1 million -- among the, if
> not the, largest bankruptcy in the country to date (that's what we've
> heard, per contemporary newspaper reports, but haven't figured out how
> to confirm)-- must be documented in some courts archive, but we can't
> figure out where. The properties were scattered throughout Central New
> York and down into the Hudson Valley, but his lawyers were in Utica
> and Cooperstown; Oneida and Otsego counties claim not to have the
> records.
>
> Anybody have any idea where we should look next? Anyone want to help
> us explore this? We have a mix of excellent and determinedly diligent
> volunteers working on this, led by the chief of our seasonal
> interpretive staff, Larry Smith.
>
> Please post to the list, or reply to [log in to unmask] with
> questions, information or comments.
>
> And if you haven't been here lately, come to Hyde Hall next time you
> get a chance -- LOTS of new fantastic "new" (original to house, from
> the too-long-stored collections) things on exhibit as the restoration
> nears completion. Tell the guys at the Park Gate (enter through
> Glimmerglass State Park) that you are heading up to Hyde Hall, and
> they will not charge the beach/campground admission fee.
>
> Thanks very much.
>
> Alice Smith Duncan
> Hyde Hall executive director
>