DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Robert H. and Pauline Clark House in Victoria County. Now settle in, because this story covers a lot of ground — and I do mean a lot of ground. Pennsylvania.
Mississippi. The battlefields of the Mexican War. Brownsville.
A cannery on the Gulf Coast. And finally, a Greek Revival house right here in Victoria that's still standing to tell the tale. Robert Clark was born in 1818, and by the time his story was finished in 1910, he had lived through enough to fill a shelf of books.
He started out a Pennsylvania man, moved himself down to Mississippi as a young man, and then — because apparently that wasn't enough territory — he went and joined the fight in the Mexican War. He came back severely wounded. That word, severely, is doing real work in this story.
Most men would've called it a life after something like that. Robert Clark? He moved to Brownsville.
Down there he entered into a partnership with a man named Charles Stillman, and by all accounts it was a successful one. The two of them eventually opened a cannery together, forty miles to the southeast, in a town called Indianola, right there on the Gulf. Now, 1870 brought something new into Robert's life — he married Pauline Shirkey Crocker, who was born in 1846.
And for a little while, things were good in Indianola. Then 1875 rolled around, and a hurricane hit. Robert Clark moved his family to Victoria.
Some men wait for a sign. That man recognized one when it arrived on a storm surge. Here in Victoria, he kept right on prospering — buying and selling cattle.
And in 1877, he built this house. Frame construction, Greek Revival style, with a central portico and boxed columns. Something with a little dignity to it.
Something built to last. Pauline Clark, born in 1846, lived until 1940. Robert and Pauline are both remembered for their civic contributions to this community, and they're both buried in Evergreen Cemetery.
That house they built in 1877 is still here. Some things, if you build them right and in the right place, just hold.
What the marker says
Pennsylvania native Robert Clark (1818-1910) moved to Mississippi as a young man. A veteran of the Mexican War, in which he was severely wounded, he later moved to Brownsville and entered into a successful partnership with Charles Stillman. The two men eventually opened a cannery in Indianola (40 mi. SE). In 1870, Clark wed Pauline Shirkey Crocker (1846-1940). After a hurricane hit Indianola in 1875, he moved his family to Victoria, where he continued to prosper as a cattle buyer and seller. In 1877, he built this frame Greek Revival house with central portico and boxed columns. Robert and Pauline Clark, remembered for civic contributions, are buried in Evergreen Cemetery. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2004