Hood County Texas Genealogical Society
LIFE OF JOSEPH ADDISON CLARK
1815 - 1901
From Biographies And
Sermons by F.D. Srygley
Published by F.D. Srygley in 1898
J.A. CLARK was born in Shawneetown, Ill., November 6, 1815. When he was an infant,
his parents moved to the Falls, on the Ohio River, where Louisville, Ky., now
stands, which was then little else than a rural village. From the Falls they
moved to Hopkinsville, Ky., and from there to Columbia, Tenn., while he was yet
in his childhood. In 1824 his father took him to Nashville, Tenn., on the
historic occasion of the national ovation in honor of Lafayette during the
visit of that celebrated patriot and philanthropist to the United States after
the War of the Revolution. On this trip young Clark
saw a steamboat for the first time. It was a small craft on which Lafayette came
up the Cumberland River to Nashville. Such a vessel would now be considered
little else than a toy boat, but it was then a marvel to hundreds of people,
and the first steamboat many persons in the great crowd had ever
seen. One year later his father died, leaving him, a younger brother, two sisters
(one of whom was an infant), and a widowed mother to make their way in the
world. Soon after the father died, the mother moved, with her four children, to
Selma, Ala., where he learned to be a printer. In 1832 they moved to Columbus,
Miss., and in 1834 the mother and three of her children returned to Kentucky.
In 1837 he followed them, and accepted a position as principal of an academy at
Mount Pleasant, near Liberty, Ky., which, as a post office, then went by the
name of Keene, Jessamine County. The academy was in the same enclosure with the
Baptist church. Edmund Waller, father of John L. Waller, of Bible revision
notoriety, preached for the Baptist Church at that place while he was in charge
of the academy. While there his younger brother died, and, in 1839, he moved to
Texas with his mother and two sisters. They went by water from Louisville, and
disembarked at Matagorda, at the mouth of the Colorado River. Three weeks after
they landed the mother died, leaving him in a strange and almost uninhabited
country, with two orphan sisters to provide for. Soon afterwards the older
sister married, and he moved with the younger sister to Austin, Texas. He was
living in Austin when the Congress of the Republic of Texas held its first
session in that city in the fall and winter of 1839. In connection with John
Henry Brown, afterwards -Major Brown, he prepared a "Topographical
Description of Texas;” but when the manuscript was ready for the printer,
obstacles which would be considered insurmountable by an author now had to be
overcome before, the book could be put on the market. Arrangements were made to
have the printing done in Austin, but no satisfactory facilities for binding
the books could be, found in the capital of the new republic. His energy was
equal to the emergency, however, and he took his part of the books to New
Orleans to have them bound. On his return, be landed at Lynnville, on Lavaca
Bay, and learned that Comanche Indians had just been there and burned the town.
The people all escaped in boats on the bay, except two women, who were made
prisoners by the hostile Indians. He could get no conveyance from that place to
Austin; but as he was not a man to be, discouraged or defeated in a purpose by
a trifle, he left his books and walked over two hundred miles through an Indian
country to Austin. He made the trip without accident or injury, but he never
beard of his books again. Indians were troublesome citizens around Austin in
those days. They killed two men while he lived there the same night at different
places within a mile of the city – one north and the other east of town. In
1841 he moved from Austin with his sister to Nacogdoches County, where he again
engaged in teaching school for a time, and, later on, in surveying. That
section of country had been settled in an early day by Spaniards, a few of whom
still lived there when he settled in the county. There is now a Spanish
building in the town of Nacogdoches which was erected more than two hundred
years ago. There, were, several large old Spanish grants of land in that
county, and he was employed as a surveyor to divide some of them into smaller
tracts. While engaged in this work, he formed the acquaintance of a Christian
girl by the name of Hettie De Spain. Acquaintance soon ripened into love, and
they were married in 1842. The purity of her life and simplicity of her faith
in Christ soon made an impression on him, and in less than a year he confessed
his faith in the Lord Jesus and was baptized into Christ. A short time before
he was baptized, he moved to Titus County, where he began to preach the gospel
in less than a year after he became a Christian. The country was thinly populated
and churches were few and far between. Where he lived, there was a large congregation
of undenominational Christians; but there were already two preachers there, and
he felt that he was more, needed and could do more good in other places.
Accordingly, he traveled as a preacher over the country on horseback long
distances, crossing ugly streams and exposing himself to many dangers. In those
early days nearly all meetinghouses and schoolhouses were "free for all
orthodox preachers to preach in; " but, as he opposed all, denominations,
all denominations opposed him and held that lie was not orthodox. This made it
difficult for him to find houses to preach in, and much, if not most, of his
preaching was done in private houses. When he found a place to preach, he
usually remained and continued the meeting till he, established a congregation
of Christians. Later on he would revisit such congregations to see, how they
were getting on and to give them any scriptural instruction and admonition they
needed. While engaged in this work, he went into Harrison County. There were
many meetinghouses and schoolhouses in the county, but he could find no house
he would be allowed to preach in. Finally a wealthy planter who belonged to no church
said to him: "You don't seem able to find a, house to preach in."
"No, sir; it seems that, I cannot." "There is a house on my
place that was built for a schoolhouse; but when I bought the place and built
near it, I appropriated it to my own use. If it were not for the use I have
made of it, I would ask you to preach in it. The floor is yet in it, and I
could clean it up so there would be no offensive appearance; but I have used it
for such purposes that I cannot ask you to preach in it." "What have
you been using
it for? " I have been using it for a stable, but I could clear it of all appearances
of a stable." "Well, Mr. Edwards, my Savior was born in a stable, and
I am not, ashamed to preach in one." After this colloquy the house was
fixed up, an appointment was made for preaching, and everything in and about
the house was so cleaned away that, no, one who did not know what use it had
been put to would ever have suspected it. He had a very successful meeting, and
baptized the wife and young son of Mr. Edwards, in whose house, the meeting was
held. Mr. Edwards himself was deeply moved by
the preaching and confessed that he believed the doctrine, but declined to become
a Christian because he had lived a wicked life so long, frequently using
profane language and sometimes drinking to excess, he feared he could not break
off his evil habits and live a consistent Christian life. The
preacher talked to him privately in a kind and gentle way, encouraging him to
commit himself to God and make the effort, relying upon divine help for success
He took the admonition gratefully and wept freely, but he could not he
persuaded to give himself to God. He remained a firm friend of the
preacher as long as they knew each other. Later on he moved to the town of Rusk,
in Cherokee County, and for a time practiced law; but after a few years he
abandoned the law as a profession and again went out to preach the gospel from
a sense of duty and at, the solicitation of members of three
churches in the bounds of his acquaintance. They did not ask him to preach at
those churches, but urged him to go wherever preaching was most needed and
would do most, good. He went, and those churches contributed liberally to his
support. He traveled over many parts of Texas, held many successful meetings,
baptized hundreds of people, and established a number of congregations. He
often traveled long distances and labored for weeks where there were no
preachers or churches, and but, few Christians. There are congregations still
flourishing in various parts of Texas which he
established half a century ago. In 1873 he moved to Thorp Spring and established
Add-Ran College for males and females. He superintended and managed the
institution till the enrollment of pupils ran up to about five hundred, when he
turned it over to his two oldest sons, A. Clark and R. Clark, in a flourishing
condition. The college was subsequently converted into a university and moved
to Waco, but he remained at Thorp Spring, where he still lives a life of
retirement and spends his time in preaching and writing for religious papers.
