USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 3
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CLARKE.
16, 1836, the county was reorganized and its limits further defined. Thus did the present county of Clark come into existence. The members of the first county court were John Taylor, Thaddeus, William and R. A. Mc- Kee, with Willis Curd, clerk, and W. S. (Sandy) Gregory, sheriff. The first county court met at the house of John Hill, in Des Moines Township, April 10, 1837. The com- missioners appointed to locate a permanent seat of justice were Stephen Cleaver, of Ralls ; O. Dickerson, of Shelby, and Michael T. Noyes, of Pike County. They selected a tract of land four miles east of the site of Kahoka, and in 1837 a town was laid out, which was named Waterloo. This place re- mained the county seat until February, 1850, when the county court changed the judicial seat to Alexandria, where courts were held until August 9, 1855, when it was ordered that the Circuit Court of Clark County be notified that the county seat had been changed back to Waterloo. Waterloo re- mained the county seat until 1872, when the present courthouse was completed at Ka- hoka, and in it the county court first met, January 15th of that year. The first county court met about two miles west of the present site of Kahoka. The second term was held at the house of Joseph McCoy, the first county treasurer, which place was the meet- ing place until August 8, 1837, when the court made an order moving the county seat to Waterloo. The first circuit court for the county of Clark was held April 6, 1837, at the house of John Hill, in Des Moines Township, about two miles west of the present site of Kahoka, Honorable Priestly H. McBride, presiding judge. The first grand jury re- turned no true bills and was discharged. At the December term, 1837, the first indictment was found against J. C. Boone, who was charged with larceny and burglary. Clark County, being on the dividing line between the North and the South during the Civil War, was in a constant state of agitation, first from one side and then the other. In all, however, the county fared well, and dam- ages within its borders were small. The county furnished a large number of soldiers to the Northern side, and a few to the cause of the Confederacy. Clark County is divided into thirteen townships, named, respectively, Clay, Des Moines, Folker, Grant, Jackson, Jefferson, Lincoln, Madison, Sweet Home,
Union, Vernon, Washington and Wyaconda. The assessed valuation of real estateand town lots in the county in 1899 was $2,439,860; estimated full value, $4,879,720; assessed value of personal property, including stocks, bonds, etc., $974,240; estimated full value, $1,948,480; assessed value of railroads and telegraphs, $727,590.47; assessed value of merchants and manufacturers, $75,135; esti- mated full value, $150,270. There are fifty- nine miles of railroad in the county, the Keokuk & Western passing from east to west near the center; the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, passing diagonally through the county in a southwestwardly direction, and the St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern, passing south from the eastern center of the county, along the Mississippi River. The number of schools in the county in 1898 was ninety- one ; teachers employed, 114; pupils enrolled, 4,805; permanent school fund, $29,898.56. The population of the county in 1900 was 15,383.
Clarke, Enos, lawyer, was born near St. Clairsville, Belmont County, Ohio. He is of Scotch-English descent and the founders of his family in this country, who settled in Vir- ginia, were active patriots in the Revolution. During his childhood his parents removed to Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois, where he received such instruction as was afforded by the common schools of that day, then prepared for college in a private classical school, and in 1855 entered Madison Univer- sity, at Hamilton, New York, from which he was graduated in 1859, sharing the highest honors of his class. Having determined upon law as the profession of his life, he studied in the office of ex-Chief Justice Sam- tel M. Beardsley, of Utica, New York, and was admitted to the bar of Oneida County, New York. Justice Beardsley having died just prior to this time, he became a member of the firm which succeeded to the large and important business of that eminent lawyer, his associate being a son of the deceased jus- tice, and the firm known as Beardsley & Clarke. At the bar of his district, it was his good fortune to frequently meet those who were classed with the leading legal minds of that long-distinguished bar, composed at that time of men since eminent, as Justice Ward Hunt, Roscoe Conkling, Hiram Denio, Francis Kernan and others. While condi-
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CLARKE.
tions seemed to assure honor and success at that bar, he had cherished the purpose of returning to the West, and in 1863, in re- sponse to overtures from Edward R. Bates, of St. Louis, Missouri, he removed to that city and entered into a law partnership with him. This relation was terminated by the death of Mr. Bates, and in 1866 he became associated with John C. Coonley, the firm being Clarke & Coonley. This continued until the removal of his associate to Chicago, and then he formed a partnership with George A. Madill, under the name of Clarke & Madill, which was maintained until about the time Mr. Madill was elected judge of the circuit court, when Mr. Clarke formed a law co-partnership with Daniel Dillon under the name of Clarke & Dillon, and this continued until 1878, when Mr. Dillon was also elected judge of the circuit court. About this time he found it necessary to withdraw from pro- fessional life on account of an illness which came upon him in the fullness of his powers and prospects, and was protracted through many years, and he has since devoted his attention to various official and private trusts committed to his care. In 1867 he was appointed register in bankruptcy of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri by Chief Justice Chase, under an act of Congress enacted that year, and performed the duties of this position, often arduous and exacting, through the va- ried volume of cases and issues presented with a method, ability and fidelity which brought distinction and honor to the office. At a na- tional commercial convention, called to con- sider proposed bankruptcy legislation, held in the year 1888, he was appointed a member of a committee of three to prepare and submit to Congress a draft of a new bankrupt law, which was thereafter formulated and became known as "The Torrey Bill." His active life was largely occupied with political concerns, natural consequence of his early training and the importance of the questions at issue. In his boyhood he had imbibed from his environ- ments a deep-seated abhorrence of slavery. During these impressible years of his life, while moved by parental teachings, he came under the personal influence of Owen G. Lovejoy, brother of the martyred Elijah P. Lovejoy, which tended to strengthen the convictions governing his subsequent politi- cal life. In New York State, at the begin-
ning of the Civil War, he furnished prompt assistance in the organization of troops for the Union cause, and afterward in Missouri rendered service as a member of the Seventh Regiment of the State Enrolled Militia. On the occasion of the National Fast Day pro- claimed by President Lincoln, in 1862, he delivered, at the request of the citizens of Utica, a public address on the state of the country. On coming to St. Louis he allied himself with the few who were then prepared to assert themselves as anti-slavery men, in forming the first immediate emancipation association known in a slave State. In 1863 he was a member of the famous delegation of seventy appointed by a mass convention held at Jefferson City, under the leadership of the late Justice Charles D. Drake, to visit President Lincoln and urge the removal of General Schofield from the command of the Department of Missouri and the appointment of a commander more radical in his Union- ism and anti-slavery sentiments. In 1864 he was an alternate delegate from St. Louis in the convention which nominated President Lincoln at Baltimore. During the same year he was elected from St. Louis to the Legisla- ture, and in that body he commanded respect and attention by his vigor of address upon questions which the more timid would have avoided. Among measures of public interest which he introduced at that time was a reso- lution providing for a constitutional amend- ment conferring the right of suffrage upon the colored people, and he advocated it in a speech remarkable for its force of argument and boldness of utterance. It was widely cir- culated and received the warm commenda- tions of Senator Charles Sumner, Gerritt Smith and others. When John M. Langston, the colored orator of Ohio, on conclusion of a State canvass, made a visit to the State capital, during the session of the Legislature, it was upon presentation by Mr. Clarke that he was accorded the privilege of delivering an address in the chamber of the House-the first time in the history of Missouri that the courtesy had been extended to a colored man. In 1868 the Missouri (now "Globe") "Demo- crat," on its own motion, brought out the name of Mr. Clarke for the position of Attorney General of the State, and with a number of the leading Republican papers in the State, warmly advocated his nomination, but the selection of a St. Louis man (E. O.
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CLARKE.
Stanard) for second place on the ticket re- ferred the choice of a candidate for Attorney General to the western part of the State. When the Liberal movement in Missouri came into existence, and even before, Mr. Clarke vindicated the consistency and logic of his convictions by giving it the support of his name and his active efforts. Having al- ready maintained a protest against a gov- ernment half free and half slave, he now recognized that the State, in time of restored peace, could not long exist with its former voters half enfranchised. and half disfran- chised. This led him to join in remonstrance against the extreme measures of his party, and ally himself at the outset with a dozen or more persons, with Carl Schurz in the lead, in an organization known, in 1868, as the "Twentieth Century Club," which preceded the liberal movement and prepared the way for that removal of disabilities from voters that followed it. In 1870 he was a delegate to the State Republican Convention, urging the restoration of the suffrage to all dis- franchised persons, and in 1872 he was a dele- gate to the National Liberal Republican Convention at Cincinnati, and supported the nomination of Charles Francis Adams for President, and that failing, he supported Hor- ace Greeley. The same year, in the State Liberal Republican Convention, he was nom- inated for Lieutenant Governor on the State ticket with Governor Woodson, but declined in favor of another. With the readjustment of parties, he resumed active affiliations with his old-time party, and has since usually given his support to its policies, and now and then participated in its conventions. He is recog- nized as a scholar, a thinker, a student and a speaker of impressive address, and never fails to impart a charm and an interest to dis- cussion in the lyceums and clubs in which he is a frequent participant. As early as the year 1866, on invitation from the Alumni Association of his alma mater at Hamilton, New York, he delivered before the literary societies the annual commencement address, the poem on that occasion being delivered by the then venerable Dr. Smith, of New Eng- land, author of the national anthem, "Amer- ica." This event was the first when so young an alumnus had received this distinction from that historic institution. His deep interest in educational matters led to his election, in 1865, as one of the curators of the Univer-
sity of Missouri, and he served a number of years. Some years ago he retired to his beautiful home at Woodlawn, near Kirkwood, suburban to St. Louis. There, with his library and attractive environments, he pursues his literary researches with even more enthu- siasm and real enjoyment than in his earlier days, and is a keen observer of all current events. During recent years improved health conditions have permitted the resumption of more active interests, which, in many direc- tions, now engage his attention. He is a member of the Ohio State and Missouri His- torical Societies, the Contemporary Club, and other organizations in the city, and mem- ber of standing committee of legislation of the World's Fair committee of two hundred. His home is yet shared by the bride of his youth, to whom, as Miss M. Annette, daugh- ter of the Honorable John J. Foote, of New York, he was wedded in 1862. A daughter, Rowena A., is their only child.
Clarke, Joseph Marcus, journalist and banker, was born June 4, 1814, at Bethel, Ohio. His parents were Houten and Nancy (Riley) Clarke. The father was an English- man, who came to Ohio when a young man, there married, and reared a family of three sons and four daughters. Smith, the oldest, married and settled in his native State. Wright was for some years a member of Congress, and afterward served as third auditor of the treasury under the adminis- tration of President Grant. Joseph Marcus, the third child in order of birth, mastered the common school course in the place of his nativity, afterward adding to his education in academies in Bethel and Bavaria, Ohio. His first effort in business life was at Shawnee- town, Illinois, where, for two years, he man- aged with signal success the Illinois "State Journal," the third newspaper in the State, with respect to age, one of high reputation, and of which much was expected. His health was impaired by the confinement, and seeking its restoration, he spent three years in travel through Virginia, Kentucky, Ala- bama and Tennessee, busying himself with dealing in horses. This tour proved most satisfactory, for while it was profitable in a pecuniary way, it cured him of his physical ailments. For a couple of years he managed a plantation near Richmond, Virginia, after- ward removing to New Liberty, Kentucky,
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CLARKE.
where he engaged in mercantile pursuits for some years. In 1854 he settled in Osage County, Missouri, and cultivated a farm for fifteen years. While residing here he repre- sented his county in the Legislature during the session of 1858 and 1859. About 1866 he returned to Kentucky, again locating at New Liberty, where he established the "Owen News," the first newspaper printed in the county. He conducted this successfully for some years, when he returned to Mis- souri, and engaged in the banking business at Jefferson City, eventually becoming presi- dent of the First National Bank of that city. He was an earnest member of the Christian Church, and the acknowledged founder of that organization in Jefferson City. Major Clarke was twice married. While traveling in the South he met and married Miss Elizabeth E. Mottley; several children were born to them, all of whom, with the mother, are de- ceased. In 1845, near Richmond, Virginia, he was married to Miss Lavinia E. Nunley, daughter of Anderson and Frances (Russell) Nunley, and of this union was born one son, Julius S. Clarke. Major Clarke died Decem- ber 7, 1889, and his loss was deeply felt throughout the community. He was a man of great force of character, whose influence and example were potent in all concerns en- tering into the welfare of the people among whom he lived. With a versatility of talent which served him in various and diverse lines, he was constant in all his purposes, and all of his effort was to a definite and useful end. Benevolence was a feature in his char- acter which marked him pre-eminently before his fellows, his kindness and charity reaching all classes of the suffering and distressed, yet so quietly that his good deeds went unher- alded, except by the recipients of his bounty. In movements for the public good, he was active and liberal. Jefferson City is indebted to him for its city hall, a fine edifice, elegant in its appointments. In recognition of this munificent gift, as well as his worth as a man and value as a citizen, the city has set up his statue in that building. The figure is of bronze, in exact life size, standing six feet two inches in height, designed by Doyle, of New York, and is a real work of art, as well as a piece of faithful portraiture. In the same building are fine oil portraits of Mrs. Clarke, widow of Major Clarke, and of their deceased son, Julius S. Clarke, executed by Miss Ober-
miller, of Toledo, Ohio, at a cost of $1,000, under order of the city authorities, who were desirous of yet further honoring the memory of this philanthropic family. Julins S. Clarke, at the time city attorney, died at the home of his mother in Jefferson City, August 5, 1878. He had received his literary education in Louisville, Kentucky, afterward studying law at Jefferson City, Missouri, where he was admitted to the bar. Although but a young man in years, and scarcely entered upon the active work of life, he had won for himself an honorable place in his profession; giving promise of unusual usefulness and high dis- tinction. He inherited the best traits of the father, displaying virtues of the highest type, and wasregarded with confidence and esteem, in all the relations of life, by all classes of people, who, to this time, cherish his mem- ory and deplore his untimely death with deep sorrow. He was a member of the Christian Church, consistent in his life, and abounding in works of charity and kindness. The re- mains of father and son rest side by side in the cemetery near Jefferson City, in a family mausoleum of impressive design, built of Carthage limestone, eighteen feet in length and thirteen feet in width, erected in 1898. Mrs. Clarke survives. She is a devoted mem- ber of the Christian Church, in whose special work and beneficences she maintains a deep interest and bears a liberal part, at the same time extending aid to all worthy objects throughout the community.
Clarke, William Bingham. - The name of W. B. Clarke is illustrious not in Kansas City alone, where he is prominent in financial and social circles, but throughout the West. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, April 15, 1848, his parents being the late Aaron Clarke, formerly of Milford, Connecti- cut, and Caroline E. Bingham, of Andover, in the same State. He was educated in the public and private schools of his native city, and afterward studied law and was admitted to the bar. In his subsequent career as a banker, financier and capitalist, he found his legal attainments invaluable. He acquired a practical mastery of the banking business in two of the largest banks in Cleveland. In . 1869 he visited the Northwestern States in search of a favorable locality for engaging in banking on his own account, deciding at length on Ahilene, Kansas, then the head-
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CLARKE.
quarters for the Texas cattle trade for the West. It was a place of rapid growth and of much prominence, with all the wild charac- teristics of a frontier town. Mr. Clarke, ever strictly temperate, and carrying no weapons, was always treated with respect and had no personal difficulties in this lawless commu- nity. He there established and carried on a successful and rapidly increasing business. After the scattering of the cattle trade, he removed to Junction City, Kansas, there organizing the First National Bank of that place, which he afterward purchased and changed to a private banking house bearing his name. He early saw the advantages of buying bonds in all parts of the State and negotiating them in the East, where money was more plentiful and consequently cheaper. He has conducted his "Kansas Bond Bureau" for nearly twenty years without the loss of a dollar to any of his clients. Following the panic of 1873, a county upon whose bonds he had advanced a large sum of money re- pudiated its obligations, causing him a total loss of the whole sum invested. On the heels of this misfortune (for misfortunes never come singly) came the suspension of several of his correspondents, followed by a run on his bank, which forced him to make an as- signment for the benefit of his depositors. He called a meeting of his creditors ; made a statement of his financial condition, and the causes which led to it, and laid before them a proposition to pay them 25 per cent of his indebtedness, which-such was their confi- dence in his integrity-they accepted with- out a murmur and signed a full release. He was thus able to keep his bank open and con- tinue his legal warfare against the delinquent county to recover the sum due him. Not long afterward, to his own gratification and much to the surprise of his creditors, he was enabled to declare a dividend of 10 per cent on his discharged indebtedness. At the end of seven years, having won his case in the United States Supreme Court, at great ex- pense, he collected the amount of the repudi- ated bonds, with interest, and at once de- clared a further dividend of 65 per cent and interest for the entire time depositors had been deprived of the use of their money. In his determination to discharge every shadow of obligation against him, he even made good to certificate-holders their losses in selling their claims, which they did at the moment
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of his suspension, when the excitement was at fever heat. This way of doing business-all too uncommon everywhere-and which Mr. Clarke could not have been legally compelled to, was widely commented upon and dis- cussed by the press throughout the country -no such record ever having been made by a banker before. No combination of circum- stances could have inspired the public with greater confidence in Mr. Clarke than this misfortune, and the able manner in which he extricated himself and others from its effects. After relieving himself from these moral obligations, which seemed to worry him more than his creditors, he continued his banking and bond business with remarkable success, for he had come to be recognized as the most extensive and best informed dealer in municipal bonds in the State.
In 1886, having been chosen president of the Merchants' National Bank, of Kansas City, Missouri, in which he was a .large stockholder, he reorganized his private bank in Junction City, Kansas, into the First National Bank of that city, in which he still retains an interest and is one of the directors, the president of that bank being the Honor- able G. W. McKnight, the young man who came west with Mr. Clarke, in 1871, to Abi- lene, and was with him and has been connected with him ever since. Mr. Clarke then removed with his family to Kansas City, Missouri, where he has since resided. In 1881, when telephones were being introduced throughout the East, Mr. Clarke's attention was directed to their utility for business and other pur- poses, and he invested largely in the stock of The Missouri & Kansas Telephone Company, becoming its president. During his admin- istration the business grew to a remarkable degree, largely covering the field indicated by its name, and also the Indian Territory. Other important enterprises calculated to enhance the prosperity of Kansas City and to open up its tributary country, have always re- ceived his liberal and practical co-operation, and he is prominent in the city's financial, commercial, religious and social circles and helpful in all to a remarkable degree. He is a thirty-second degree Mason; has been twice president of the Kansas City Club ; once president of the Country Club; third, second and first vice president of the Commercial Club, and in 1891 was elected president of that remarkable semi-social organization. On
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CLARKSBURG-CLARKSVILLE.
account of his private business, however, he found it impracticable to do the office justice, and therefore declined the election. He is an officer and director in several benevolent associations, and has been conspicuously identified with various other interests of a charitable, social and business character. In 1888 Mr. Clarke organized the United States Trust Company, of Kansas City, Missouri, of which institution he was the first president, and still holds the office. In 1891 he became interested in the manufacture of salt at Salt Lake, Utah, and in connection with some associates and prominent officials of the Mormon Church organized the industry into one large corporation controlling the entire output of salt from that great lake. His bus- iness interests brought him in close touch with the Mormon Church, and the business has been conducted most successfully. In Colorado he early became interested with many of the leading and wealthy mine-own- ers and capitalists in developing the mines of their State. Some of the largest enterprises conducted in Colorado have had the benefit of his co-operation in their development. When the proposed road connecting Salt Lake City with Los Angeles and San Pedro, California, was organized, he was invited into it and became one of its incorporators, bringing to it a large amount of influence and prestige. As a layman of the Protestant Episcopal Church he has always been prominent, and in the State of Kansas was the first treasurer of that diocese, and held the office until his removal to Missouri. When the diocese of Missouri was divided and the new one formed, known as the Diocese of West Mis- souri, he was chosen the first treasurer of that diocese, and still holds the office. He has six or seven times been elected a delegate to the Triennial Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States. He is a prominent member of the Sons of the Revolution, and is also a member of and has held important offices in the Society of Colonial Wars. In 1896 he was requested by the National Republican Committee to assist in stamping out the free silver fallacies, then at their height. He immediately organized a Sound Money League, and was elected its president, and in that capacity used his re- markable executive and organizing powers for the benefit of his party. The league secured in a few weeks a membership of
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