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Kelley Clarke (1859-1937), was only six years old when his father, Anthony, died. Kelley grew up on the farm. When he became of courting age, he met a girl named Laura Ellen Swearingin from Greenup, Kentucky.

Kelley drove an express wagon to court Laura. They were married and moved to Kelley's farm and homeplace, a big log house in Danleyton. Some said they wondered why Laura wanted to leave town and a nice home to marry Kelley Clarked and move out in the country on a farm.

Martha Callihan Clarke, Kelley's mother, had remarried a man named Davidson after Anthony Clarke died and moved out of the farmhouse.

Kelley and Laura had ten children. From oldest to youngest, they are Roscoe, Will, Ed, Jim, Walter, John, Vashti, George, Martha, and Clyde.

Life centered around the family, farm work, church and school.

They had to take a boat across the East Fork River to get to Sunday School, but they never missed. Church was held every third Sunday of each month when the Circuit Preacher wiould arrive; in addition, the children also had to take a boat across the river to school every day. In the summertime when the weather was hot, the river sometimes got low enough to walk across on the rocks, but in the winter, the river froze completely solid. Kelley would walk out and test the ice for a safe crossing and send the children on to school.

Kelley ran the farm to provide a living for the large family. They canned fruits and vegetables for people on the halves. In otherwords, if people provided tin cans for the produce, Kelley and family provided the labor. Kelley would lable his cans and sell part of them at Osborne's Store in Russell, Kentucky. Even though the family had a good farm, the "cream of the crop" was saved for canning instead of eating.

For some of their income, they had nine cows and sold butter in Russell - forty lb. a week for 20 cents a lb. Kelley hauled the butter to Russell by horse and wagon in a big butter box and made a large wooden one, but didn't get around to painting it right away. One morning as he was going to town, a lady came out and stopped him to ask who in the family had died, as she thought the butter box was a coffin. Kelley had a good laugh over his "coffin butter box", but decided it was time to paint it; in addition, they had two or three yoke of oxen. In winter, he and the boys that were old enough would cut and haul cordwood. They made yheir own yoke for theoxen from poplar and hickory wood that grew on the farm. When it was too cold to work outside, they would work in the boys' room, a large room with two beds.

Laura raised ducks and geese on the farm. She sold them around the holidays to provide money for school slothes and Christmas presents. In the summertime, once each month, Laura would pluck the ducks and geese and save the feathers for making pillows. She would put a sock over the animals head and have one of the children hold it with the head tucked under their arm. She made two pillows for each of the eight children and made feather beds for each of the two oldest, Roscoe and Will. In addition, they raised sheep, which they would shear and take it to Greenup to sell.

The family also made charcoal. They would cut, haul, and stack the wood to kae a coal pit, then haul the coal to make charcoal. They had their own coal bank and hired boys from the Douglas family who lived nearby to help dig the coal. It took about a month to make charcoal and they hired a man to watch it at night so that it did not catch fire. When it was ready, they transported it to Argillite, Kentucky to be sold and shipped.

Another means of income was to sell timber growing on the farm. Melvins had a saw mill and they bought their equipment to the farm to cut wood for later use as house patterns.

Kelley build an ice house to store ice he removed in big chunks from the East Fork River in the winter. During summer, the family would host ice cream socials for neighbors and friends, as they were the only ones around who had ice.

Each year, George and Lucinda came back to Danleyton to visit the family and all the cousins enjoyed a good time. Kelley's children remember their Aunt Lucinda at the breakfast table saying "Pass the ja-lee Uncle Ka-lee". The children never forgot it and imitated her phrase for years to come.

There were two animals on the farm that all the children were especially fond of. They were a pair big white mules whose names were Doc and Pat. They were used for farm work, but were at their best for church and pleasure outings when Kelley would place big brass harness and hitch them to the surrey with fringe on top.

Kelley and Laura lived on the farm in Danleyton until 1920. Out of ten children, only Clyde and Martha, then 20, still lived at home. Kelley decided it was time to sell the farm and move into Flatwoods. He bought a large piece of land overing two blocks of what is now Clark Street (named for the Clarke Family) and all the land in between. Kelley's land bordered the property of his son, George. Kelley and Laura moved in with George and his wife while their house was being built across the street.

Kelley sold the farm to Mr. Caudill, who also owned a sawmill. It was part of the bargain for Kelley to get wood for a house pattern for the new house in Flatwoods. He and Mr. Caudill cut the wood and Kelley loaded all the rough timber on the wagon and took it to Ironton, Ohio to have it planed. It was a very nice home with floors and ceilings of oak, walnut for woodwork, poplar for weather-boarding and locusts for foundation posts.

Kelley no longer had the farm for income, so he had an ice house built. For the next twelve years, he started out at 7:00 A.M., going from house tohouse to sell ice. Raymond Stevens, a neighbor, had a truck and he hauled ice to FDlatwoods for $7.00 a load plus $2.00 for hauling. On holidays, Kelley needed two loads. After he got too old to work everyday, he turned his route over to the City of Raceland and they furnished his ice free for a year.

Marion, Kelley's brother, moved into the house with him and Laura. As the three gre older, Martha took care of them. CLyde, the youngest went to work for Armco Steel Mill. He took care of the family's financial needs. When Kelley got sick and needed oxygen, Clyde obtained the tanks from Armco, as that was more economical than anywhere else.

Laura died in 1923 at the age of 61 and Kelley died in 1937 at the age of 78. They are buried in Rude Cemetary in Flatwoods, Kentucky.

By this time, the descendents of the Clarke family had really grown. Listed in the tables below are the ten children and fifty-six grandchildren of Laura and Kelley Clarke. The tables are listed in order of from oldest to youngest, who each married and the names of their children in order from oldest to youngest.