Tombstone Tuesday: Batte Peterson Clark

This is the gravestone of my husband's great-grandfather, Batte Peterson Clark, Jr. John and I visited this grave at Fairlawn Cemetery in the fall of 2005. We planned a trip to Dallas for John's 25 year high school reunion, and I talked him into adding a few extra days so we could drive up into Oklahoma to look for his family graves. It was a fun and fruitful trip to a part of Oklahoma that I had never visited before.

B. P. Clark has a family legend attached to him, and so far, I haven't found anything to confirm or disprove the following story that I found in some notes made by John's Uncle Terrence who passed down some of his genealogy research to his family.

My grandfather Clark

Batt Peterson, 4th child of Batte and Mary Clark, born in 1855, when about 16 years of age rode out of Alabama to La [Louisiana] to avenge the murder of his brother... He rode from there into La. soon afterwards the body of the man who killed Albert his brother was found behind a stump on a La road. Batt Clark never did say that he killed the fellow, but he did say enough to his son Albert to make him believe that the fellow was trying to waylay his papa as he had his papa's brother. Grandmother Watts always said that Batt killed the fellow and then road into Panola County, Texas. In those days one could commit a crime in La and get into Texas and be safe from the law.

Batte Peterson Clark was born in Alabama, lived in Texas for much of his adult life, and spent his final years in the area around Comanche, OK. His entry in my database can be seen HERE, and you can also visit his entry on Find a Grave.