CLARK FAMILY

The Clark family was closely linked to the Ayres family due to several marriages among the siblings in the same generation. Elizabeth Jane Clark (1859-1948) married Robert Ayres (1859-1945); Eliza Betsy Clark (1874-1954) married Albert Ayres (1870-1955), and John Clark (b.1864) married Harriet Anna Ayres (1864-1920).  Elizabeth and Eliza and their families  were living in Dixons Creek from the 1880s but fluctuations in farming and the timber industry resulted in some of the family members moving from time to time between this area and central Gippsland. Eliza and Albert Ayres and their family remained in the Dixons Creek area while Elizabeth and Robert Ayres had returned to Drouin by 1915. John and Harriet Clark always resided in the Drouin area. Their son Stanley was killed in action in France in 1918.

Sarah Clark (1867-1949) was the fourth of child of John and Ann Clark. She married Thomas Edward Lyons who farmed at Dixons Creek in the late 1890s. Their three eldest children were enrolled at the Dixons Creek school; Ethel commenced in 1895 and Fred and Leslie in 1899. Fred enlisted for war service on 20 August 1914.

The youngest son of John and Ann Clark, William Henry Clark (1871-1888) attended Dixons Creek School in 1888. He died in December of that year at the age of 17 and is buried at Yarra Glen Cemetery.