DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Clark's Ferry and Clark's Ferry Cemetery, out here in Angelina County. Now, some crossings become crossings because there's simply no other way across, and the Neches River — running hard between Angelina and Polk counties — was exactly that kind of obstacle. In 1856, a man named I.
D. Clark looked at that river and decided he was going to be the answer to it. He established a ferry right there, and for folks traveling between those two counties, Clark's Ferry became about as important a spot as any on the map.
Clark ran that operation until 1859, when he died. And here's where the story takes a turn worth sitting with for a moment. His widow, Ann, stepped up.
With the help of two slaves, she kept that ferry running, kept those wheels of commerce and travel turning, until her own death in 1863. Two deaths in four years, and still the ferry crossed. The land stayed in the Clark family — that much held.
By 1881, a man named W. B. Clark was issued a license to operate the ferry, and things had grown enough around that crossing that somebody decided to make it official.
A town was platted right there at the crossing. They called it Clark's Station — also known, depending on who you asked, as Miami. And where there's a community, there's eventually a cemetery.
In 1860, one was established north of the town, quiet ground keeping its own kind of record of everyone who ever needed that crossing. The ferry itself lasted until the modern highways came through and made it unnecessary. The road moved on, the way roads do.
But the crossing, the cemetery, the story of Ann Clark keeping things going through grief and hardship — that doesn't wash away quite so easy.
What the marker says
Established by I. D. Clark in 1856, this ferry provided an important crossing on the Neches River between Angelina and Polk counties. When Clark died in 1859, his widow, Ann, operated the ferry with the help of two slaves until her own death in 1863. Ownership of the land remained in the Clark family. In 1881 W. B. Clark was issued a license to operate the ferry. A town was platted at the ferry crossing and named Clark's Station, also known as Miami. In 1860 a community cemetery was established north of the town. The ferry was phased out after modern highways were built. (1996)