Amanda Clarissa "Clara" (Adams) Meck (1868 - 1915)

Solomon Ellsworth Meck (1864 - 1949)

Amanda Clarissa "Clara" Adams was born on April 18, 1868 in Ryot (Oak Shade), St. Clair Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of George Washington and Joanna (Barnes) Adams.

When Clara was little, her family moved a few miles away to Portage, Cambria County. She had been living near her paternal grandparents Solomon and Ann Adams in Ryot, and in Portage she lived near her maternal grandparents Tobias and Elizabeth Barnes.

Clara was only 20 when her mother died in 1888 at the age of 42. She assumed the responsibility of raising her 6-year-old brother Ervin.

On April 18, 1889 Clara married Solomon Ellsworth “Sol” Meck, in Portage. Sol was born on September 30, 1864, in Broad Top Township, the son of John Andrew Jackson and Rebecca (Krieger) Meck.

Clara was 3-months pregnant with their daughter Emma when they were married. They made their home in Broad Top Township, Bedford County, where Solomon grew up, and Ervin went to live with them. Solomon mined coal from the Broad Top mountain. Her brother Harvey worked as a coalminer there as well.

Clara and Sol had six children. They were: Emma (Meck) Leighty-Stunkard, Pearl R. (Meck) Ford, Andrew Jackson “Jack” Mack, Clifford Meck, Stella (Meck) Bivens, and Genevieve Edith “Jenette” (Meck) Custer.

In 1891 her sister Ann married her brother-in-law William Grant Meck. Sadly, Ann died from childbirth in December 1874. Clara and Sol raised Ann's infant girl, Bertha as their own. She also took in Bertha's 2-year-old brother Harry. Harry went to live with his father when he remarried in 1897, but he came back to live with Clara and Sol when he was 13.

In 1908 her daughter Pearl had a son out of wedlock named Warren. Warren's father was a local boy whose last name was Eichelberger. Clara assumed the care of Warren until Pearl married Charles Ford in 1910.

In 1909 Emma also gave birth to a child out of wedlock, whom she named Edna. Edna’s father was Cornelius Robert McCue, who had a reputation as a womanizer. Clara raised her until Emma married Charles Leighty in 1915.

On February 16, 1915 Clara died following cancer surgery at Nason Hospital in Roaring Spring, Blair County. She was 46 years old.

Curiously, their last name has been spelled both M-E-C-K and M-A-C-K. Sol and his son Clifford used the former spelling, while his father and his son Jackson used the latter spelling.

Sol lived as a widow for 34 years. He died on November 29, 1949 in Everett, Bedford County. He was 85.



Clara and Sol are buried in Hopewell (Sunndyside) Cemetery, Hopewell Township, Bedford County.

Clara and Sol had about 42 adult grandchildren, who produced numerous great-, great-great-, and great-great-great-grandchildren.