Clarkson Frederick Warden

Marriage record provided by FamilySearch.org (LDS), full record at [https://www.familysearch.org/s/image/show#uri=http%3A%2F%2Fpilot.fa...]

Shows Fred Warden (Clarkson Frederick Warden Shotwell) was married to Lillie M. Parks on September 20, 1893 in Howell, MI. His "mother" (really his aunt) was listed as Orilla Shotwell (Warden) and his father was listed as A. Warden. Lillie M. Parks' mother was listed as Eliza Beardsley, and her father was listed as William (?) Parks. It also lists # of times previously married as TWO for Clarkson F. Warden... but I believe this to be a transcription error on the record (probably stemming from him saying "two" when asked how many times he'd been married before, and him mentally including the 9/20/1893 marriage in his count). ACTUALLY Fred Warden married as his 2nd wife Maggie Masters in March 1892 and she had his son Ray Worden (Warden)in November of that year. This information is well documented in ancestry.com

According to the marriage record, Lillie M. Parks was 16 when Clarkson Frederick married her at 24. He later married his third wife when she was 18, the same age as his eldest son Archie (from his first marriage). Family legend says that Fred met his third wife when there was a "cast party" after a high school production of "Romeo and Juliet" where his soon-to-be-third wife was Juliet. His son brought her to the house for the party, and eventually "Dad" married the girl, by which he had an additional nineteen (19!) children.

Clarkson Frederick "Fred" Warden was twice named national Father of the Year, and an article in the Detroit Times when he was 79 shows him plowing a field since he was quite robust even at that advanced age. He fathered his last child at age 64. As an older man (some time after age 80), he had one leg amputated.