The Clark House

The Clark House. Sumner County Courthouse. This is the home of four brothers who served in the Confederate army, as did many of Sumner County’s young men. Their father, William F. Clark, a Protestant minister, died in 1847 at the age of forty-one, leaving his wife, Emma Douglass Clark, to rear the boys. Emma Clark, the daughter of Reuben and Elizabeth Edwards Douglass, was the granddaughter of Col. Edward and Sarah George Douglass who came to Sumner County in the late 1700s. , Three of the sons died in service. Pvt. Edward Clark, Co. C, 7th Tennessee Infantry, was killed in action at the Second Battle of Manassas on August 27, 1862. He was only 18 years old. Pvt. David Fulton Clark, Co. F, 30th Tennessee Infantry, was killed May 12, 1863, at the Battle of Raymond, Mississippi. Pvt. Reuben Douglas Clark, Co. C, 7th Tennessee Infantry, died of wounds he suffered during Gen. John Bell Hood’s retreat from Nashville in 1864. The fourth brother, Pvt. Charles Clark, survived the war. He enlisted in 1862 and was discharged in 1865 from the 19th and 20th Consolidated Tennessee Cavalry, in Gen. Tyree H. Bell’s brigade of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s command., A single room constructed in 1787 that served as the first Sumner County Courthouse is incorporated within the walls of the log house. Andrew Jackson appeared in court here in his capacity as attorney general for the Mero District., (Inscription under the photos in the lower left side) , Reuben Douglas Clark, , Charles Clark, , David Fulton Clark, , Edward Green Clark, -Pictures courtesy of Clark Chapter United Daughters of the Confederacy., (Inscription under the photo in the upper right side) , Clark House as seen from across Station Camp Creek.