Biography

Randall Clark, who was most likely born into slavery, lived his entire life in the Burke’s Garden area of Tazewell County, Virginia, a rural county in the southwestern portion of the state on the border with West Virginia. In the spring of 1868, he and his wife Lucy Clark met with Elder Henry Green Boyle, a Mormon missionary from Utah. Elder Boyle wrote in his diary, “Today we baptized three negroes. After we baptized, we held a meeting. These negroes are the best in this county. They are the most respectable negroes here. We confirmed them at the water’s edge. I go to Thomas Henninger’s and stay all night.” Elder Boyle later added an entry to his journal listing the names of the three “negroes” he baptized that day which included Randall and his wife Lucy, both bearing the last name of their former enslaver, “Henegar” (more commonly Heninger).[1] Following the Civil War, Lucy and Randall adopted “Clark” as their last name but surviving evidence makes it clear that they are the couple who Boyle baptized.

The first known record in which Randall appears is the will of his enslaver, William Heninger, of Burke’s Garden.[2] The will, dated 1841, reads, “I also give to my son Thomas my negro slave Randal.” William Heninger died four years later and Thomas and Ann Heninger subsequently enslaved Randall in Clear Fork, also in Tazewell County, Virginia.

According to Heninger family tradition “a negro man was left to [Thomas] by his parents while the negro’s wife belonged to some other plantation owner, so Thomas bought the Negro’s wife…so she could be with her husband…and they raised a family while they were working on his plantation.”[3] This story likely refers to Randall and Lucy because it matches what is known of their circumstances. Randall was bequeathed to Thomas in the will and there was no one named Lucy among the Heningers other enslaved workers. Additionally, Randall and Lucy Clark later lived together as husband and wife, and it appears they and their children remained together while enslaved by the Heningers.[4] After the Civil War and Emancipation, the Clark family remained near the Heninger family in Clear Fork, as noted in the 1870 census. According to the 1870 and 1880 censuses, Randall never learned to read or write. He fathered at least eight children with Lucy, five of whom were most likely born into slavery. One of his sons died in infancy, in 1866.[5]

Randall was baptized and confirmed on 5 May 1868. Randall had likely been exposed to the Latter-day Saint gospel before he met Elder Boyle that year. Jedediah M. Grant, a Latter-day Saint missionary had baptized Ann Heninger in 1842, and a Latter-day Saint branch or small congregation was established in Burke’s Garden at that time. Missionaries were frequent visitors to the area and occasionally stayed in the Heninger home.[6] It is not clear what finally prompted Randall to convert, but the fact that he made the decision to be baptized within three years of receiving his freedom following the Civil War speaks to the value that he placed on religious agency.

After his baptism, Randall and his family remained in Clear Fork Township in Burke’s Garden but his level of activity in the church is unknown. Even still, Elder Boyle baptized his son Charles A. Clark in 1869, one year after Lucy and Randall, which suggests that Randall likely continued to practice the Latter-day Saint faith and was intent on passing it on to his children.[7]

While some church members remained in the area during and after the Civil War, most began to gather with the larger body of Latter-day Saints in the Great Basin. This included Thomas and Ann Heninger. In 1870, they began selling off their properties.[8] Heninger family history claims that Thomas “provided for his slaves” before leaving Virginia.[9]Terms of the Heninger land transfer are unknown but it is possible that Heninger did remember the Clarks before he left for Utah. Randall does become a landowner and is enumerated in the 1880 United States Agricultural Census. He owned fifteen acres of tilled land, sixty-five acres of woodland, and farm animals, including a cow, sheep, and poultry. The farm produced grains, sugar, molasses, and wood products from the woodlands.[10]

Randall maintained his status as a landowner, and one week before his death, he drafted a will.[11] He bequeathed over thirty-five acres of land to his children and grandchildren. Additionally, any money received from the sale of his mare, “Ada,” was distributed equally among his children. Randall died on 16 October 1894 of “liver trouble” in Stony Ridge, an unincorporated area of Tazewell County, the region in which he had lived his entire life .[12] His wife, Lucy, had passed before him in 1884, and he had outlived five of his children.

Although the archival record reveals little of Randall’s life and religious convictions, his choice to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the inheritance he left to his family make it clear that faith and family devotion anchored his life.

By Shannon Miller

[1] Henry Green Boyle, diary, vol. 5, 1867-1868, 4, 42, MSS 156, L Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Family trees often use the spelling Heninger, while early records spelled the last name in various ways.

[2] William Heninger, Virginia, Circuit Court General Indexes to Wills, Tazewell County, Will Book, No 2, 1832-1850, 293, 1 April 1841.

[3] Ina Jones and Janice Williams, “The Story of Thomas Heninger,” Thomas Heninger (KWJ5-V5C), Familysearch.org.

[4] United States, 1860 Census, Slave Schedules, Virginia, Tazewell County. The ages of the enslaved individuals are approximate matches with those listed in Randall and Lucy Clark’s household in the 1870 Census.

[5] United States, 1870 Census, Virginia, Tazewell County, Clearfork; United States, 1880 Census, Virginia, Tazewell County, Clearfork.

[6] On the organization of a Latter-day Saint branch at Burke’s Garden, see “Protracted Meeting and Conference,” Times and Seasons (Nauvoo, Illinois) 1 January 1843, 63 and on Ann Heninger’s baptism see Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Ogden 2nd Ward, CR 375 8, box 4892, folder 1, image 73, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[7] Henry Green Boyle, diary, 1869, vol. 06, 78; Sarah Day, “Charles A. Clark,” Century of Black Mormons.

[8] Virginia, Tazewell County Court, Deed Book 15, 1872-1876, 177, 441, Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia.

[9] Jones and Williams, “The Story of Thomas Heninger.”

[10] United States, 1880 Census, Agricultural Schedules, Virginia, Tazewell County, Clearfork.

[11] Randolph Clark, Virginia, Tazewell County, Will Book Vol. 6, 28 June 1888 - 16 April 1895, 498.

[12] Virginia, State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Death and Burials, 1853-1912, Tazewell County, 1894, Randal Clark, Virginia State Archives, Richmond, Virginia.

Documents

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