596327

[phelps.FTW]

[Brøderbund WFT Vol. 22, Ed. 1, Tree #2589, Date of Import: Dec 1, 1998]

Frank Clark came to the U.S. in 1905 with his parents from Melbourne, Australia. They lived in Benton Harbor, Michigan at the House of David, a cult originally started by John Wroe of England. The Clark family left the group when they realized it was a cult. Soon after, Moses and Edith divorced. Frank and Zillah went to live with their father and Evelyn, Sydney and Norman lived with their mother.

Frank Clark was a tool and die maker by trade and worked in almost every auto plant in Michigan. He was also a finishing carpenter and worked with his father to build many homes in Detroit, Michigan. He also worked at the Colonial Furniture Factory in Zeeland.

Frank became friends with the DeWitt boys and would spend time with them in Holland, Michigan. Their mother was Mary DeWitt an aunt of Jennie Kalkman. In 1932, Frank went to Alaska and filed on a homestead in Palmer. He traded labor on the M.D. Snodgrass farm for a cow and then traded the cow back for a piece of property. He then purchased 2 Absolete Alaska Railroad boxcars for $5 each. He took the lumber and used it to build the first frame house in the area. He then returned to Michigan because of his father's poor health and worked there. Since they had known each other for about 14 years, Frank and Jennie married in 1933. Because Frank felt so much better in Alaska, they returned to Palmer in May 1935 as settlers.

Both their daughters, Mary Jane and Betty Jeanne were born and raised there. Frank and Jennie homesteaded on Lazy Mountain for over 40 years while he worked for the Matanuska Valley Farmers Co-op Association. After retiring, Frank and Jennie usually traveled during the winter months, returning to Palmer in the summer.

Frank died at the age of 75 in their cabin on Lazy Mountain and is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Palmer, Alaska.