Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEOEGIA AND GEORGIANS 385
unknown. Some of the members of the Clarke family lie buried in
Wilkes County, near the battlefield of Kettle Creek. General Clarke
was a resident of this county and a commanding officer in this battle.
But a number of counties were subsequently formed from Wilkes, in
any one of which he might have been buried. It is a matter of record,
however, that he owned an extensive plantation in what is today the
County of Lincoln; and, during the year 1912 a well-known genealogist,*
while engaged in making researches, discovered the old soldier's will in
the ordinary's office at Lineolnton. So putting1 these two things to
gether—the finding of his will and the fact of his residence—there is
little room for doubt that somewhere on what is today known as the
Oliver plantation the mortal ashes of General Clarke lie entombed. It
is true that White, in his "Collections of Georgia" states that the widow
Clarke, some twenty-eight years later, was buried beside her husband at
Woodburn; and while there is no such place in Lincoln known at pres
ent by this name, the same is equally true of Wilkes; and the probabil
ity is that it was merely the name which General Clarke, after the fashion
of the period, gave to his Lincoln county plantation. At any rate, there
is every reason to believe that in this locality rest the ashes of General
Clarke, the most illustrious of all the soldiers of Georgia in the Revo
lution.
* Miss Helen M. Presoott, Genealogist, Joseph Habersham Chapter, Daughters
of the American "Revolution, Atlanta, Georgia.
Vol. 1—25