Black male, about 75 years old at the time of his death on 5 January 1929. His residence and place of death was the Colored Widows Home in Pensacola, Florida. His occupation was Laborer, but the informant (the Colored Widows Home) did not know his place of birth or anything about his parents. Dan A. Nee, the coroner, listed his cause of death as “undetermined. Probably due to valvular heart disease.” He was buried by T.M. Lloyd Co. at the Escambia County Poor Farm on 9 January 1929.
(NB: The “Colored Widows Home” was probably the Widows’ and Orphans’ Home at 900 North E Street in Pensacola. This was the only benevolent institution specifically listed as “(c)” for “Colored” in the 1931 City Directory.)
Collier Clark appeared in the 1921 Pensacola City Director, living at 1219 W Jackson Street and working as a janitor. He appeared in the Pensacola City Directory for 1907, a man of color working as a laborer and boarding at 1518 N. Tarragona Street.
Collier Clark was enumerated in the 1900 U.S. Census for Freeport Precinct, Walton County, Florida. He was identified as a Black male, and married, though he lived by himself. His birth date was given as May 1860. He was born in Virginia of two parents born in Virginia. Like many of his neighbors, he worked as a saw mill hand. He could read but not write.
A Colier Clark (Col’d) appeared in the Returns of Qualified Voters for Decatur County, Georgia in August 1867. The clerk acknowledged that he met the qualification of having lived in the county for at least 12 months, and noted that he was born in Virginia. This Colier is probably too old to be the man who died in Pensacola, but it may have been his father.
In June 1867, Martha Little went to the Freedman’s Bureau in Bainbridge (Decatur County), Georgia, and complained that Collier Clark was beating her daughter. The daughter was later identified as being Clark’s wife, Margaret, and the heading of the case – Collier Clark vs. Marg. Clark of Bainbridge, both freedman – seems to indicate that her name was Margaret Little Clark. Collier and Margaret may have been Collier’s parents, but I have not been able to confirm this relationship.
SOURCES:
Florida Certificate of Death for Collier Clark (No. 482), Florida Deaths, 1877-1939. Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 June 2016. Index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Clark, Colier. Ancestry.com. Georgia, U.S., Returns of Qualified Voters and Reconstruction Oath Books, 1867-1869 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Georgia, Office of the Governor. Returns of qualified voters under the Reconstruction Act, 1867. Georgia State Archives, Morrow, Georgia.
The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Records of the Field Offices For the State of Georgia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872; NARA Series Number: M1903; NARA Reel Number: Roll 51, Registers of Complaints, Vol 1, Jun 1867-Jul 1868; NARA Record Group Number: 105; NARA Record Group Name: Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1861-1880; Collection Title: United States Freedmen’s Bureau, Records of Freedmen’s Complaints 1865-1872. Ancestry.com. U.S., Freedmen’s Bureau Records, 1865-1878 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2021.
Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Household of Collier Clark. Year: 1900; Census Place: Freeport, Walton, Florida; Roll: 177; Page: 27; Enumeration District: 0119. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.