William S. Clark - Family

Family

A few months after returning home from Germany, on May 25, 1853, Clark married Harriet Keopuolani Richards Williston. Harriet Williston was the daughter of Clarissa and William Richards, American missionaries to the Kingdom of Hawaii. In 1838, Harriet and her brother Lyman were sent from Hawaii to be taken in by industrialist Samuel Williston so that they could be schooled at Williston Seminary in Easthampton. William Richards died in 1847 in Hawaii. His wife, Clarissa, survived him, however she remained in Hawaii for some time after her husband's death and it was agreed that Williston should adopt both Harriet and Lyman Richards. Clark's adoptive father-in-law, Samuel Williston, would prove to be an important sponsor to his career. Williston was Amherst College's primary benefactor, and a highly influential figure in western Massachusetts.

William and Harriet Clark had 11 children, only 7 of whom survived to adulthood. Their eldest child and daughter, Emily Williston Clark, married F.W. Stearns, the son of prominent trader and department store owner R.H. Stearns. One of their sons, Hubert Lyman Clark, became a prominent zoologist.

Read more about this topic:  William S. Clark

Famous quotes containing the word family:

    “Being so wrong about her makes me wonder now how often I am utterly wrong about myself. And how wrong she might have been about her mother, how wrong he might have been about his father, how much of family life is a vast web of misunderstandings, a tinted and touched-up family portrait, an accurate representation of fact that leaves out only the essential truth.”
    —Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)

    “Public employment contributes neither to advantage nor happiness. It is but honorable exile from one’s family and affairs.”
    —Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

    “Every family has bad memories.”
    —Mario Puzo, U.S. author, screenwriter, and Francis Ford Coppola, U.S. director, screenwriter. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino)