Lucien Douglas Starke was born at Pleasant Level near Cold Harbor, Virginia on February 9, 1826.
[2] His family moved to Richmond, Virginia where he attended private schools until he was sixteen years old.
[2] Presidents Pierce and James Buchanan appointed Starke as the collector of customs in Elizabeth City.
[2][4] On July 17, 1861, he joined the Confederate Army and was tasked with building and commanding a battery on the Pasquotank River to defend Elizabeth City.
[2] He was promoted to captain and became assistant commissary of subsistence and, later, acting inspector general in the Seventeenth Regiment of North Carolina Troops (Martin's Brigade) on May 16, 1862.
[2] Stark married Elizabeth Ferebee Marchant of Indiantown, Currituck County, North Carolina on January 8, 1855.
[2] Because his home in Elizabeth City was occupied by the Union Army, Starke and his children lived with relatives until 1865.
[2] Starke married Tabitha Lucretia Pippen of Tarboro Edgecombe, North Carolina on January 8, 1868.