CLARKSON.
Five Clarksons filled a considerable space in the early history
of the county, Peter, John, William, James and Manoah.
There is documentary evidence that three of these
were brothers, John, William and James, sons of David
Clarkson, who came from Amherst; it is probable the other
two 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.
Peter began to purchase land in 1770, buying two hundred
and fifty acres from John Senter, not far from the present Rio
Station, which he and his wife Ann sold soon after to Thomas
Carr. Possessing apparently a large amount of money just
after the Revolution, he purchased during the decade of 1780
nearly three thousand acres, lying on Spring Creek near
Whitehall, south of Ivy Depot, and in the neighborhood of
the Burnt Mills. On this last tract he made his home until his
death in 1814. His children were Elizabeth, William, Julius,
Mary, the wife of Richard Harrison, David, and Ann, the wife
of Mann Townley. William and Julius were merchants in
Milton, but the former removed to Bourbon County, Kentucky.
Julius married Mary, daughter of Jesse Lewis, and
died in 1812. His widow afterwards became the wife of John
H. Craven, and his only child, Elizabeth, the wife of Thomas
W. Maury. David received a part of his father's place at the
mouth of Priddy's Creek, where he died early. He and his
wife Lucy, daughter of Joseph Morton, had four children,
Joseph Morton, who emigrated to Alabama, Elizabeth, the
wife of Richard D. Simms, Mary, the wife of James Collins,
of Madison, and Nancy, the wife of Francis Catterton. Ann,
the venerable widow of Peter, died in 1822, in the eighty-eighth
year of her age.
John and William settled beside each other, west of the
road between Hydraulic Mills and the Bowcock place. John
bought upwards of five hundred acres from Major John Wood,
and William upwards of four hundred from David Wood.
A place of business existed somewhere on their land, known as
Clarkson's Store, in all likelihood conducted by both, as both
were alike overtaken by business disaster. In 1807 they conveyed
their farms to the same trustees to secure debts due
William Brown & Co. of Richmond, and within nine years
both farms were sold by the trustees, that of William to
George Crank, and that of John to Nelson Barksdale. In
1820 John and his wife Nancy made another conveyance to
Barksdale, perhaps to dispose of the dower, in consideration
of a life estate in fifty-nine acres. It is not known whether
either of the brothers had children, but it is thought that
James Clarkson, who married Maria, daughter of David
Wood, was the son of John and Nancy.
James Clarkson made his home in the forks of Hardware,
his place embracing the mouth of Eppes Creek, and being
the same afterwards owned by the young patriot, Roberts
Coles, and now in the possession of Tucker Coles. He
bought it from William Champe Carter in 1799. He suffered
from the burden of debt, and to secure it placed his property
under a deed of trust; but he must have arranged his affairs
successfully, as in 1828 he and his wife Elizabeth sold his farm
to Thomas Maupin, son of William. He died in 1829 at the
advanced age of ninety-five. A son Reuben removed to
Meade County, Kentucky, and another, Julius, married
Margaret M., daughter of John Thomas. Julius died about
1835, and in 1838 his widow was married to Robert Cashmere.
Manoah Clarkson advanced in the course of life more
slowly, but more surely. In 1777 he bought nearly three
hundred acres on Ivy Creek near the Barracks, which he
sold two years later to John Harvie. He then rented from
Garland Carr in the forks of the Rivanna. At length he
purchased from David Anderson six hundred acres three or
four miles south of Charlottesville, a part of the old Carter
tract, where he lived until his death in 1829 in his eighty-eighth
year. He was twice married, and had twelve children,
Mary, the wife of Jeremiah A. Goodman, Nancy, the wife of
Jesse Lewis, Jane, the wife of Thomas Ammonett, Mildred,
the wife of Nathan Goodman, who went to Kentucky, James,
Anselm, who moved to Kentucky, Frances, the wife of M.
C. Darnell, Dorothy, Malinda, the wife of John H. Carr,
Elizabeth, the wife of William Watkins, Charlotte, the wife
of Edmund Hamner, and Martha, the wife of Dudley Jones.
