Frances Adair Clark

Several years ago, among a box of my grandfather's things dating from his early adulthood, I found a wallet containing a passel of photos of a young woman identified as "Frances." The photos include pictures of her and her friends at home, at Princeton, and at an unidentified college. The writing on the back of the photos suggests the young woman and my young grandfather had a fun and congenial acquaintance.

Recently, in a water-logged and crumbling box of my great-grandfather's correspondence that I pulled out from under the eaves of my granddad's garage, I found a Christmas card from Presbyterian missionary friends of my great-grandfather's who were stationed in Korea in the 1930s. The card contains a photo of the couple, Mary and Monroe Clark, seated in their living room and on the wall of the room is a photo of the same young woman who is in the photos in my grandfather's wallet: Frances Adair Clark.

 

From the Cincinnati Enquirer, 30 August 1931:

Rev. and Mrs. William Monroe Clark, returned missionaries from Korea, who arrived in the States several weeks ago, accompanied by Misses Frances and Jane Clark, who are passing the summer with their grandmother, Mrs. Theodore Hamilton, and their aunt, Mrs. Charles Doermann, at their cottage at Virginia Beach, Va., are the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Settle (Carter Clark) for a few weeks before going to Princeton, N.J., where Rev. Clark will take a special course of study at Princeton University and Mrs. Clark will also take special training for the coming year. Miss Frances Clark will enter Converse College at Spartanburg, S.C., to continue her education. As yet it has not been definitely decided where Miss Jane, who is too young to enter college, will pursue her studies.

Times Union Brooklyn, 14 July 1935: Equinn Munkelwitz, of Collins Ave., is spending a week at Virginia Beach, Va., as the guest of Mrs. M.H. Doermann, of Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, and Miss Frances A. Clark of Seoul, Korea, Asia.

Cincinnati Enquirer, 24 June 1937: A lovely society function in Covington will be the marriage of Miss Frances Adair Clark, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. W.M. Clark of Korea, and Mr. William Munnell Equinn of New York at 8:30 o’clock Wednesday evening at the home of the bride’s aunt, Mrs. Charles Doermann, Fort Mitchell Heights, Fort Mitchell. Miss Clark, who was graduated last week from Mount Holyoke, is arriving in Fort Mitchell Saturday. Mr. Equinn, who has been attending the Medical School at Cornell University, also will arrive Saturday. They will be the guests of Mrs. Doermann and Miss Clark’s grandmother, Mrs. T. S. Hamilton until after the wedding. Miss Clark will have for her sister, Mrs Robert Settle, formerly Miss Carter Clark, of Hyde Park, Cincinnati, and for her bridesmaid her sister Miss Janie Clark, who has been attending Mount Holyoke this past year.

Cincinnati Enquirer, 01 July 1937: The wedding of Miss Frances Adair Clark and Mr. Equinn William Munnell was beautifully celebrated last night in the home of Mrs. Marguerite Doerrman, Fort Mitchell Heights, Fort Mitchell, aunt of the bride the couple plighted their troth before the alter arranged in front of the large windows in the south end of the living room, formed by a mass of huckleberry branches, smilax and ferns, against which stood tall baskets filled with white gladiolas with soft-glowing tapers at either side, that gave a churchly effect.

    

Editorial for Presbyterian Tribune c1949

-->

By Jesse Halsey

“Christmas is coming . . .” and what happens will depend upon where you live. What can Christmas mean to Christians in Korea, south or north? What can Christmas mean to millions in countries like East Germany where it used to be the great day of the year and now, because of religious repressions and economic strictures, little in material ways is possible. What about Yugoslavia with a non-existent harvest and a winter of starvation ahead? How does one keep Christmas without toys for the children and food for the table? It is all very well for us who have so much to be merry at Christmas, but what about the others?

In my last talk with Dr. Robert E. Spear, he said that, the greatest mystery of Divine providence was the fact that America had so completely escaped the judgments of God, abroad in so many parts of the earth. With our superabundance of good things, we are doubly obligated as individuals to share—“We bear the Christian name and mark.” And as churches, the needs of brother Christians in many lands claim our consideration just now for the Christmas—the Christ spirit—must “get abroad” else the whole thing is a mockery!

From a national point of view, we are learning that freedom is expensive. Most of us believe it is worth all that it costs. Uncle Sam is often pictured as Santa Claus by the caricaturists. The Marshall Plan is sometimes dubbed in terms of Kris Kringle beneficence. Just the same, increasingly, the country will bear the burden of rearmament and huge military expenditure. Along with it might it not be that some gestures of hope and goodwill, might be used?

At last report, the American Commissioner in West Germany had at his disposal some $50,000 contributed by friends for the relief of refugees and the feeding and housing of those who have managed to escape from the tyrannies of East Germany. Such persons—refugees from the Bolshevik terror—aided and rehabilitated, would be worth in terms of propaganda, the equivalent of many guns.

All through Indiana and Illinois, near hundreds of rural stations, there are great metal beehives of corn. In the western states the superabundance of nature (wheat) is often rotting on the ground for want of shelter. Potatoes in excess—subsidized for destruction—have become almost a national scandal.

Would it not be the very best strategy in the face of the world situation to dispatch some of these surpluses to the Adriatic and to Yugoslavia? If potatoes will not stand the voyage, certainly grain will. The best anti-communist, pro-American propaganda at our disposal is American surplus grain in hungry countries here and there the world around. Communism thrives on starvation. Communism literally goes on its belly. In playing Santa Claus, Uncle Same might be showing good business sense. Twenty or more divisions of Serbian soldiers right on the spot are one of earth’s most dangerous points! Would it not be excellent business for our government to help in the face of Yugoslavia’s famine?

We (editorial plural) have mixed our metaphors, jumbled our idealism with prudential economics in rather characteristic American style; this I confess. But more than ever before, we are convinced that food is akin to friendship, and that gestures of help are the best propaganda. Believing in preparedness, defending right with might, I still would leave no door or help unopened, trusting that friendship is better than ferocity and that the Christmas spirit is not confined to one day in December.