Family Account of Lucinda (Clark) Summers


Family Account for Lucinda (Clark) Summers by her granddaughter, Grace Marlowe


"Lucinda Clark wife of Thomas J. Summers was truly a beloved woman. Rather short 
of stature, like her Chambliss ancestry, and fair to behold. Blue-eyed, fair haired, 
and a woman of great cleanliness. Her floors were sanded, and everything including 
herself was spotless. Like all the Clark's she was pleasant and easy to live with. 
She came from a large family and she said they never quarreled. She had a disease of 
the legs while a child living in Tennessee and couldn't walk for some time, so she 
only had a small education. She never got to go to school, but said her brother Joe 
taught her to read and write a little.
She told many stories of her girl hood in Tennessee, visiting with the cousins and 
grand parents, and the beautiful scenery. The old spring house where the butter and 
milk was kept and she always said that no water tasted like Tennessee water. She had 
a great-grandmother named Hall- the writer is not too authentic on this, but she often 
spoke of going to her grandmother Halls and the pleasant times they had. She said some 
times she was privileged to go to Nashville with her father and other members of the family, 
taking great loads of butter, cheese and fowl. That was a long and wonderful trip in those 
days, and she told how the slaves unloaded to wagons for the merchants, or the residents 
of the great mansions. 
She came to Jefferson Co. Illinois when 17 with her parents in a covered wagon and it 
was a thrilling trip, fording rivers and camping out along he trail. She nearly always 
spoke of her sisters, as sister Julia, etc. and having a step-brother, also a first cousin 
named Joe, she addresses them as "cousin Joe" and "brother Joe". She also addressed her 
husband as "Mr. Summers". She spent her life in doing for others. No matter how many of the 
Clark children came to visit her daughters, they were welcome, and they always said that 
"Aunt Lous" cooking was the best they ever tasted. After the death of her daughter Ann she 
cared for the infant daughter (Hattie Friend) she left, and when the baby grew older they 
lived in a little house in Bluford (Illinois). The Clark family were always "buddies". 
If an orphan of the family was left some member of the family opened its door to him or her, 
and gave them welcome." 

(Taken from a hand written copy by Grace Marlowe. 
She had written this sometime in the 1950's.)

Lucinda (Clark) Summers was the daughter of Jesse Morton Clark and Mary Chambliss.
She was born May 14, 1838 in presumably Tennessee. Lucinda Clark married Thomas 
Jefferson Summers on November 26, 1857. 

Submitted By: Julie Lusby