Centenarian experiences 10 decades in town
Mary Elizabeth Clarke was born in Newport on Feb. 18, 1883, the youngest daughter of Isaac Clarke and his wife, Mary Wood Soule Clarke. Her family moved to Jamestown in 1888 and she lived here for most of her 103 years. Isaac and Mary Wood made their home in a house at the corner of High and Cole streets and started an ice business at the pond that sat west of Southwest Avenue between Narragansett and Spring streets. In the winter, Isaac harvested the ice on the pond. During the summer, they sold the ice. Mary Wood kept the books.
Before the era of widespread mechanical refrigeration, ice harvesting was big business. The ice was cut from the frozen pond in large blocks. The ice blocks were stored in double-walled ice houses that were tightly insulated with straw or sawdust.
Mary Elizabeth went to the local school, which at the time included ninth grade. She graduated at age 15, and soon after she began to help her mother at her father’s firm. After her father’s death seven years later, Mary Elizabeth and her brother, Arthur, helped their mother continue the business.
When she was 23, Mary Elizabeth married William Lawton Arnold. The bride and groom both came from distinguished colonial families. He was a descendant of one of the original purchasers of Conanicut Island, Benedict Arnold, who was the governor of Rhode Island from 1663-66. Mary Elizabeth traced her ancestry to Mayflower passenger George Soule; her great-great-grandfather had fought in the American Revolution.
The Clarkes were a close-knit group — none of the five siblings moved away from Jamestown — and William Arnold was happily included in the family. The couple settled on Howland Avenue, which was practically across the street from her childhood home. William involved himself in the village life of early 20th century Jamestown. He volunteered for the fire department and was chief from 1916-19. An active member of the Republican Party, he was elected to the town council.
William was a self-employed house painter and decorator. To make sure Mary Elizabeth would have a place to live, and a source of income after his death, he built three houses on contiguous lots in the village.
Their home base was 64 Howland Avenue, which was built soon after their 1905 marriage.
The house at 49 Cole Street started out as a “summer” home. In the summer, the Arnolds rented their home on Howland and moved to the smaller Cole Street house. When the house was enlarged and winterized in 1932, the whole family pitched in. William Arnold was the architect; Arthur Clarke, Mary Elizabeth’s brother, was the plumber and heating contractor; and Edgar Arnold, Mary Elizabeth and William’s son, handled the electrical work and painting.
Fifty-three Cole Street, directly behind the Howland Avenue house, was usually rented, although Arnold’s paint shop still stands at the back of that property between the two houses.
After 30 years of marriage, William Arnold died in 1936 at the age of 59. Mary Elizabeth, now known to family and friends as “Aunt Lizzie,” stayed in the Howland Avenue house, surrounded by grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Her only child, Edgar, lived next door. As William had planned, she rented the Cole Avenue houses, most often to family members for a nominal rent. William E. Clarke Jr., a nephew, paid $18 a month, according to one receipt from the 1930s. Mary Elizabeth’s granddaughter and her family moved into 49 Cole Street in 1956; their daughters still live there.
Mary Elizabeth’s great-granddaughters remember her fondly.
“My great-grandmother loved to garden. In front of her Howland Avenue home, she had beautiful roses. In her living room, she had African violets that completely covered the hand-carved wooden table she kept them on.”
“Every Sunday morning, she made homemade bread. My sister and I would have breakfast at her house before church. Fresh-squeezed orange juice and homemade bread toasted.”
In her mid-90s, Mary Elizabeth’s fragility required her to leave the home she had lived in for more than 60 years and move to the John Clarke Retirement Center in Middletown. She died there on Aug. 10, 1986, at the age of 103.
February 18, 1983, her 100th birthday, was proclaimed “Mary Elizabeth Clarke Arnold Day” by the town council.
