Clark, Nelson Washington
- 1860 Village of Clarkston census records listed Nelson as a 52 year old merchant who was born in N.Y.
- Died 4/17/1876. Son of Jeremiah JR. & Sarah Clark.
- 1st wife, Phidelia/Fidelia A. 1860 census records listed Phidelia as a 49 year old woman born in N.Y. She died in 1863. According to the 1860 records the children were Phinett, age 17; Clarence D., age 16; Harriet, age 14; and Frank, age 11. All were born in Michigan. Also listed in the household at the time were Daniel Scadding, a 23 year old farm laborer who was born in England; Augustus Beleitz, a 22 year old farm laborer who was born in Holland; Charles A. Jackson, a 30 year old farm laborer who was born in N.Y. and Eliza Bowden, a 28 year old domestic who was born in Ireland and "Liza 6 WI."
- 2nd wife, Ellen. Died 1874.
- Nelson & brother, Jeremiah III, purchased the Clarkston lumber mill from Butler Holcomb in 1838 & building a grist mill on the property by 1839. Nelson was responsible for many of the town's improvements. About 1840 Nelson built a two-story clapboard private school at 90 N. Main & planted trees to line the front walk. In 1842, he platted the village, naming it Clarkston, & opened a store on S. Main St. (Tax records of 1850 cite N. W. Clark for lots 1, 2, & 3, assessed value $500, Block 25, now the site of the Clarkston State Bank, 15 S. Main.) Clark also built a carding mill & a fish hatchery on the property below the mill. See Mershon's book, 50 Years of Hunting & Fishing 1923, page 151 (available at the Wisner House, Oakland Co. Pioneer & Historical Society, Pontiac, Michigan), which lists Nelson as the first to privately hatch & plant Brook Trout in Michigan. He built a large Greek Revival residence at 71 N. Main. In 1857 he was Township Supervisor. Under his name the 1860 tax records listed a hotel & warehouse on n.e. 1/4 of the Southwest 1/4 of Section 31 in the s.w. corner of Independence Township (near the railroad tracks). (An invitation for an 1865 "Washington's Birth-Day Party" at the Clarkston Station Hotel was recently found. The proprietor was N. Graham. The party was held at 4 p.m. with music by the Clarkston Band.) Nelson left Clarkston in 1873 to live in Northville to further his fish hatchery business.
