From the 1885 History of Steuben County, Indiana

pages 620-621

Hon. Clark Powers, deceased, was born in Oneida County, N. Y., December, 1803, being the third in a family of five children, and the son of Josiah and Hannah Powers, of Granville, Mass. His youth was passed in Ontario where his father died when he was only five years old. After his father's death Clark found a home in that county with a good family who gave him a fair education, which he improved after coming of age. July 23, 1833, Wm. L. Marcy, Governor of the State of N. Y., appointed him Captain in the Eleventh Regiment of Infantry of the Twenty-fourth Brigade of that State. After faithfully performing the duties of that office for three years, at his own request he was, on the 17th of November, 1836, honorably discharged. In the spring of 1836 he and his brother Calvin came to Steuben County, Ind., and on the 18th of July of that year they entered a large tract of land in York Township. They then returned to New York and in the spring of 1837 Clark again came to Indiana. In that year he built a log cabin immediately north of where the maple grove now stands, in the southwest corner of section 29, for the occupation of his brothers and their families, he at that time being a single man. After they arrived his brother Winn and family lived in the cabin during the winter of 1837-'38, Clark making his home with them. During these years Clark made several trips on horseback from the city of Detroit, Mich., to this county, carrying money in saddlebags with which to make payments for his land, and to the exposure to cold and rain in these trips through the then pathless and dense forests may be attributed one of the causes which led to his early death. He lived with his brother Winn for about three years when he again returned to Ontario County, N. Y., where, Nov. 4, 1840, he was married to Miss Hannah Ketchum, who was born in Rensselaer County, N. Y., August, 1813. She was the daughter of Stephen Ketchum who was born in New York, Sept. 2, 1768, and Hannah Ketchum, nee Sutherland, born in the same State, Nov. 24, 1774, the mother dying in Rensselaer County, N. Y., December, 1827, and the father, February, 1839. Mrs. Powers was the eleventh in a family of twelve children. Her mother died when she was but fourteen years of age and her father marrying again, she at the age of nineteen moved to Ontario County, N. Y., where she became acquainted with Clark Powers and remained until her marriage. Immediately after their marriage they came to Steuben County, Ind., and commenced housekeeping in the cabin which he had built four years before, where they remained until 1843, when they built and occupied the house on the old homestead, since sold to N. Pettit, of Metz. After the death of her husband she manged well the affairs of the estate and of her household. She was a kind mother, a good neighbor and friend. The following children were born of this union -- Hannah M., born April, 1842, died February, 1879; Joanna, born November, 1844, is the wife of Hugh D. Wood, M. D., of Angola; William E., born December, 1845, died October, 1846; Josiah, born September, 1847, was a member of Company A, One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Indiana Infantry, and died at Chattanooga, Tenn., Aug. 4, 1864; Stephen A., born December, 1851, married, October, 1876, Dora Ferrier, is an attorney of Angola; and Elenora, born March, 1854, married Frank Cameron, M. D. Clark Powers was a member of the State Legislature for the years 1845-'46. He was a farmer by occupation, and by active industry and good management he amassed a large property. He was a man of actions rather than words and many an early settler has reason to remember him for his kindness to them in their times of want. He was proverbially honest, and it may truly be said his was a noble manhood, Christian-like and charitable. He did much to advance the interests of the county; was foremost in all public improvements till his death which took place more than a score of years ago, in the spring of 1859, and in March, 1885, his aged wife departed this life, being the last of the Powers pioneers that came here in 1837.

Submitted by Kim Davoli

E-mail: davoli82@juno.com