Dr. Elijah Smith Clarkson, deceased. Dr. Clarkson was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky on the 30th of May, 1807, where he was raised on a farm, and educated in the "Old Field" schools. He was the youngest son of Major William Clarkson, a soldier of the revolution, and a native of Albemarle county, Virginia, who came to Bourbon county, Ky., at a very early period, entered and settled upon a large body of land. He had a large family of children, none of whom are now living. The maiden name of his wife was Mary Smith. Dr. Clarkson commenced the study of medicine in Cincinnati, under old Dr. Drake, father of the late Judge C. D. Drake, in 1828, and graduated in the medical department of the old Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, under Profs. Drake, Eberle, Caldwell, McDowell, etc. He first entered on the practice of medicine near Cincinnati, Ohio, (now within the city limits), but two years after, in 1834, moved to Boone county, Kentucky, where he purchased a farm, and continued to practice and carry on the farm until 1857. On the 30th of March, 1833, he married Miss Caroline F. Menzies, then of Boone county, Kentucky, but a native of Staunton, Virginia. To this union were born ten children, of whom only four are now living: Dr. C. A., Mary Elizabeth, Marguerite M. and Adam W. In the fall of 1857 he disposed of his farm in Kentucky, and moved to St. Louis county, Missouri, where he lived until the spring of 1859, when he moved to this county and located on a farm of 720 acres, one mile south of Marshall, where he engaged largely in the production of hemp, corn and wheat, and lived until the winter of 1863-4, when it became so dangerous for southern men to live in Saline county, that he returned to Boone county, Kentucky, remained there until 1867, and then returned to Marshall. In the mean-time all his crops and personal property on the farm having been taken, or destroyed, he was unable to meet the balance due on the purchase money for his farm, and lost the same completely. When he returned to Saline, he engaged in the practice of his profession in and around Marshall, until he became too feeble to continue it. He was an earnest and sincere Christian, a member of the Old School Presbyterian Church; and died on the 15th of February, 1881.
