No. 1 in L.A. again. Empty Mansions, the Huguette Clark story, is back atop the Los Angeles Times bestseller list. Thats 19 weeks on the list in Los Angeles, where the Clark family began arriving in 1880. Huguettes father, U.S. Sen. W.A. Clark (labeled No. 1 in this photo), built the railroad connecting L.A. to Salt Lake City and thus to the East, opening up the port of Los Angeles. Along the way, he started a little town called Las Vegas, now in Clark County, Nevada. W. A. Clark is pictured here in 1908 in Los Angeles with most of his siblings, as well as other relatives. (See key below.) More photos are at emptymansionsbook. LA Times list is at projects.latimes/bestsellers/lists/2014/06/08/. The photo of the Clark family is from the collection of the Newell family. Key: 1. W. A. Clark. 2. Mary Margaret Miller, W.A.’s sister, who with her husband, Ted, established department stores in Jerome and Clarkdale to serve W.A.’s Arizona mining towns. 3. James Ross “J. Ross” Clark, W.A.’s brother and partner in banking and other businesses. 4. Miriam Evans Clark, wife of J. Ross; Miriam’s sister Margaret married Marcus Daly, W.A.’s adversary in Montana business and politics. 5. Walter Clark, son of J. Ross and Miriam, who died four years later, at age twenty-seven, in the sinking of the Titanic. 6. Virginia McDowell Clark, Walter’s wife, who survived the Titanic disaster in a lifeboat with Madeleine Astor (Mrs. John Jacob Astor IV) and soon remarried, beginning a battle with her in-laws over custody of her son. 7. Amanda “Elie” Clark, onetime belle of Butte and widow of W.A.’s brother Joseph Kithcart Clark. 8. Anna Belle Clark, unmarried sister of W.A. 9. Effie Ellen “Ella” Clark Newell, youngest sister of W.A. and grandmother of Paul Clark Newell, Jr., co-author of Empty Mansions. 10. The Reverend James Newell, husband of Ella and grandfather of co-author Newell. 11. Elizabeth Clark Abascal, sister of W.A., who traveled to Paris with her two daughters as chaperones for Anna LaChapelle before Anna became W.A.’s second wife. 12. Anita Abascal, daughter of Elizabeth, niece of W.A. 13. Mary Abascal, daughter of Elizabeth, niece of W.A. 14. Alice McManus Clark, wife of W. A. Clark, Jr., and stepmother of W.A. III. 15. Paul Clark Newell, nephew of W.A. and father of co-author. 16. W. A. Clark III, grandson of W.A., known by the family as Tertius. 17. Mrs. Groshan, not a relative. Note: The only siblings of W.A. who lived to maturity but who are not pictured here died before 1908: Sarah Ann Clark Boner and Joseph K. Clark.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 03:30:27 +0000