Jacob S. Clark was born in 1834 in Dryden, Tompkins County, New York. In 1850 Jacob was probably working as a farm laborer and living with the Clancy Casar family in Groton, Tompkins County. New York. By 1860 Jacob was working as a cooper and living with New York natives John (b. 1790) and Lurinda Clark (b. 1797) in Dryden, New York; also living with them was Frances Clark (b. 1843).
Jacob stood 5’6” with blue eyes, dark hair and a dark complexion and was 27 years old and probably living in Grand Rapids when he enlisted in Company C on May 13, 1861. (Company C was made up largely of German and Dutch immigrants, many of whom lived on the west side of the Grand River in Grand Rapids. This company was the descendant of the old Grand Rapids Rifles, also known as the “German Rifles,” a prewar local militia company composed solely of German troopers.) He was discharged for hemorrhoids on May 12, 1862, at Annapolis, Maryland.
After his discharge Jacob returned to Michigan, and by the summer of 1863 when he registered for the draft he was single and working as a farmer in Nelson, Kent County. He eventually settled in Otsego, Allegan County.
He married Ohio native Mrs. Matilda M. Lane Kinney (1831-1923) on April 4, 1869, in Otsego, Allegan County, and they had at least two children: son Almanza (born 1869) and daughter Mary (born 1873).
By 1870 Jacob was working as a farmer and living with Matilda, two of her children from her former marriage to Isaac Kinney (Flora and Abi Kinney) and their son Almanzo, in Otsego, Allegan County. In November of 1879 Matilda began divorce proceedings against Jacob in Allegan County, although it is unclear whether or not the decree was ever granted.
By 1880 Jacob was working as a farmer and living with Matilda and two children in Otsego, Allegan County. For reasons unknown, Matilda left Jacob and took her children to Nebraska in 1884. Matilda filed bill of divorce in Allegan County in 1879 but, again, the decree was never granted.
Jacob subsequently married Ohio native Esther Linderman (1842-1917) on January 4, 1885, in Courtland, Kent County, although he had apparently failed to divorce Matilda.
In 1890 he was living in Egerton, Kent County, when he applied for and received a pension (cert. no. 699,293). He was living in Courtland, Kent County in 1892.
Jacob was residing in Sheffield, Kent County, when he was admitted in August of 1893 as a married man to the Michigan Soldiers’ Home (no. 1963) in Grand Rapids, listing his wife Esther as his nearest relative. He was reportedly suffering from a total paralysis of his left side and partial paralysis on the right.
Jacob died at the Home on January 23 or 24, 1894 and reportedly buried in Edgerton, Kent County.
By 1900 Matilda was reported as a widow and living with her son Almanzo in Table, Cherry County, Nebraska. In 1904 Matilda, listed as Matilda Clark a remarried widow of veteran Isaac Kinney, applied for and received a pension (cert. no. 8100) based on Isaac’s service in the 19th Michigan Infantry. In 1910 Esther Clark was living in Tecumseh, Lenawee County, when she applied for a pension (application no. 935,814). The certificate was never granted and was rejected on the grounds that Jacob had never divorced his first wife.
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