• A visit to Union 2013. If you grew up in Union, West Virginia and you have not been able to return to Monroe County recently, chances are you will enjoy a little tour of Union and the area.

    View a Picture Tour of Union & Monroe County.



Memories

Margaret Clark – Farmers Day Queen 2011

 

                                                 Margaret Clark in 1946

When the Union Chamber of Commerce selected “Heritage and History” as the theme for its annual Farmers Day celebration on June 4, 2011, they could not have found a more fitting Queen than Margaret Clark of Union.

Margaret is a 1946 graduate of Union High School and upon graduating from Marshall University she returned to Monroe County to teach classes at Gap Mills and then Union High School where she retired.

Margaret was one of two children in the Clark family; her brother  Morgan was a life long farmer who raised sheep and angus-cross cattle.  Her family has farmed for three generations on the historic 160 acre farm located near Union where she now lives.  The earliest section of her home is a two-room log fort or “blockhouse” originally built by the Byrneside family in the late 1700s.

Margaret’s roots in Monroe County run deep.  Her father, Samuel M. Clark, grew up in the area near Union then known as Thorny Hollow, and her mother, Constance Johnson Clark was born in 1891 in the farmhouse where Margaret lives today.  Margaret’s father Samuel Clark was a Revolutionary war veteran and early Monroe County pioneer who settled in Union in 1783.  Her maternal grandparents moved from Johnsons Crossroads to the Union area after purchasing the current farm from a relative of her grandfather Johnson in the late 1800s.

Our 2011 Farmers Day Queen, Margaret Clark, has spent her life working and farming in Monroe County and her dedication to her students and involvement in many community activities truly embodies the spirit and work ethic of the farm families that contribute so much to local communities throughout Monroe County.

Submitted from:  The Monroe Watchman