Arvin Chester Clark 1884 – 1945

Born: 17 July 1884 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Parents: William Clark 1861–1943 and Anna Durgetto 1864 -1904

Siblings: None

Married: Jessie May Siegle 1891-1936 on 28 January 1911 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Offspring:  William S. Clark 1913 – 1973, Baby Clark 1920–1920, and June Anne Clark 1922 – 1973

Lived in: Cleveland, Ohio and Chicago, USA

Died: 10 Apr 1945 in Cleveland, Ohio and buried in Gilbert Clark lot at the Lake View Cemetery

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Arvin Clark, born 17 July 1884 in Cleveland, Ohio was the only surviving offspring of  William Clark 1861–1943 and Anna Durgetto 1864-1904.  In later life Arvin may well have looked back to a safe secure childhood and early adulthood while his father William was working with his brother-in-law John Samuel Oram.   The only photograph we have of Arvin, taken with his parents and the Oram family is used in the banner at the top of this site where Arvin is sitting on his mother’s knee.  Arvin’s mother Anna died in 1904 when he was 20 years.

Arvin lived with his parents and then with his father until Arvin married Jessie May Siegle on 28 January 1911.   A couple of weeks later on the 11 February 1911 William married his second wife Pauline.

In 1913 Arvin and Jessie’s son William Siegle Clark was born and Arvin’s great uncle and family patriarch John Samuel Oram died.

At the time of the 1920 census Arvin & Jessie May were living with their son William at 1580(?) Ansel Road. Arvin was the president of an auto supplies company working ‘on his on account’. Their second child, an unnamed daughter died on 25 December 1920 and was buried in the Clark lot at Lake View.  In 1925 their daughter June Anne was born.

While we were looking for the family in the 1930 census we found Arvin was a lodger at the Mira Mar Hotel in Chicago working as a salesman in the steel industry.  Not only had he moved away from Cleveland but Arvin stated that he was divorced. Then we found that his son William was living with Arvin’s aunts Josephine Oram and Marie Durgetto.   So where were Jessie May and daughter June?

The only entry for Jessie May was with The Sisters of the Good Shepherd on Carnegie and East 30^th Street in Cleveland. The history of the institution around the 1920s and 30s is not clear in http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=SOTGS but it seems to have been founded in the 1860s primarily as a home for “wayward girls and fallen but penitent women.” At some stage  “The sisters gave girls and women entering the Sacred Heart Class a new name to help them attain a better-adjusted life and sometimes reunited alienated families or located employment, often as a domestic.”   We can only hope that Jessie found the support she needed there, but we do not know if her daughter June was with her.

Jessie died in on 30 January 1936 and  was buried in Woodland Cemetery rather than the Clark family lot at Lake View. The only time we have been able verify Arvin’s assertion in the 1930 census that he was divorced is on Jessie’s death certificate, where her marital status is ‘divorced’.

We noticed that Jessie’s address in her cemetery record was the same as on her marriage certificate.  A quick check for Siegel (sometimes Siegle) in the Woodlands Cemetery records website http://wcfcle.org/interment/wcfiis_namelist.php established that Jessie’s father Andrew had died in 1933 and her mother Anna just a year after Jessie in 1937.  Thankfully Jessie was at her family home when she died.

In the 1940 census residents were asked if they had moved home since 1 April 1935.  We can tell from their replies that both Arvin and June had, for those five years lived at Arvin’s aunt Josephine Oram’s apartment on Eddy Road with Josephine’s sister Marie Durgetto. On the day of the 1940 census Arvin was ‘seeking work’ after leaving the steel industry.

Arvin died on 10 April 1945 at his residence 1866 E 93 St that was a grassy empty lot in 2012.  The newspaper notice ran: Arvin Chester, father of William S. and Mrs. June Clark [withheld]; grandfather of [two names]; son of the late William, at his residence, 1866 E. 93 st. Friends may call at Abel’s Funeral Home, 15333 Euclid ave., near Shaw, where services will be held Friday, April 13, at 2 p. m. 

Later Arvin’s offspring William and June both married and had descendants who are living in the USA in 2012.