The Clark Family is a family of remarkable depth and resilience — Tough-Minded and Tender-Hearted. Our story begins in Chatham, Virginia, rooted in the strength of those who endured the unimaginable and still built something extraordinary for those who followed. From a single family on a Virginia plantation, the Clarks have grown into a far-reaching family that gathers every year to honor that legacy and reinforce those bonds.

Out of the House of Esther

The Clark Family roots can be traced to a mulatto slave on the Thomas H. Wooding Plantation called “Little Cherrystone”. Oral history indicates that her name was Esther (affectionately known as “Legacy”). Records at the Chatham Courthouse indicate that she was born in Richmond and died in 1857 at the age 60. According to the will of Thomas Hill Wooding of 1829, Esther (his mulatto woman) issued three girls: Ann Walker, Edna (Edney), and Tempey.

Edney married Robert Clark who was on the William Clark Plantation called “Pineville”. Oral history indicates that on the wedding day of one of Thomas Wooding’s sons and a granddaughter of William Clark, Robert was given as a wedding present. Records indicate that Robert was born in 1825 and Edney in 1828. Robert and Edney issued 12 children.

According to the 1850 will of Susanna Wooding, wife of Thomas H. Wooding, Edney at that date, 1850, had three children: Sam Walker, William Henry, and Robert, Jr.

William Henry born in 1848 married Clestia Keatts in 1868 and issued 10 children. Five of these children survived: James Walker, Richard, Albert, Jesse and Mary.

James Walker Clark married Anner Lee Carter and issued 17 children; Richard Clark married Mary Bet Coles and issued 15 children; Mary Clark married Edgar Lee McKenzie and issued 8 children; neither Albert nor Jesse was ever married.

The Reunion Tradition

From James Walker Clark and Richard Clark’s combined 32 children grew the broad, far-flung family we are today. In 1955, the family gathered for the very first Clark Family Reunion, hosted by Matthew and Lula Mae Clark in Chatham, Virginia. That single gathering became an annual tradition — one that has continued for over 70 years, through joys and hardships alike, through a pandemic and back again.

We still return to Chatham. We still honor those roots. And we still build those bonds — generation by generation.