JUSTUS CLARK

CLARK

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/22/2020 at 13:25:52

JUSTUS CLARK.—In close unity to its distinction as the great farm region, it occurs that one of Montgomery county's wealthiest and most prominent men, Hon. Justus Clark, is distinctively a farmer and is proud of that title. Mr. Clark was the son of Wright and Lucy Clark, and was born at Royalton, Vermont, March 22, 1819. He was born and raised on a farm and never forsook his calling. Trained in that industry and economy peculiar to his early home, it is to this that Mr. Clark attributes much of his success in life.

In 1830, while he was still a lad, his father acquired the Governor Chittenden farm, in Chittenden county, the largest and finest farm in that State. It has remained in the family ever since. Near here was Williston Academy, taught by the father of President Arthur, where Mr. Clark finished his education, young Chester being a lad of about twelve at that time. In 1835 Mr. Clark became a clerk in the store of Lathrop & Potwin, one of the heaviest merchandising houses in Burlington, Vermont. He rose rapidly and at twenty was offered a partnership, having then been manager two years. He determined not to accept this offer, however, and returned to the farm, and in May, 1839, came to Burlington, this State. Iowa had then been organized as a Territory less than a year, and Mr. Clark was a witness of the first Fourth of July celebration. In Burlington Mr. Clark became manager in the house of General M. M. McCarver and S. S. White, a prominent firm that built the first permanent cabin in Burlington. Here Mr. Clark was married to Mrs. Cartmill, a relative of Mrs. McCarver, and one of the earliest settlers of Burlington.

In 1842 Mr. Clark purchased a farm in Des Moines county, and began life on his own account. Farming has been his constant occupation ever since, he marketing in 1889 his forty-seventh consecutive annual crop of farm produce. It is Mr. Clark's strong belief that farming is one of the most remunerative of all occupations. His strong faith was shown at an early day when he began investing his surplus earnings in the cheap lands of Western Iowa, in Union and Montgomery counties. In 1868 he sold his home farm in Des Moines county, increasing his belongings in Montgomery county and improving them. He had, however, in 1857, purchased a farm in Cook county, Illinois, which he made a dairy farm and sent milk into Chicago for fifteen years. Mr. Clark did not personally superintend this farm, having a tenant manager. It proved a very profitable investment. After disposing of his Chicago farm in 1876, he built his present home in Red Oak on land entered by him from the Government thirty-five years ago. Previously, in 1869, he organized, with his nephew, B. B. Clark, as active partner, the lumber firm of Justus Clark & Co. In 1883 this business was closed out and the Red Oak National Bank established with Mr. Clark as president, B. B. Clark, vice-president, and Paul P. Clark, cashier. The remarkable fact about this institution is that of its $100,000 capital, $80,000 is retired capital, accrued from Iowa farms. It is as Mr. Clark delights to put it, "Iowa farm-made money."

In 1882 the Iowa and New Mexico ranch Company was organized, with Justus, B. B. and P. P. Clark, owners, for the purpose of raising stock cattle for Messrs. Clark's Iowa farms. This year they bring from their ranch here over 700 head: they have remaining 4.000 head of the ranch, the outgrowth of 1,100 yearling heifers placed there five years ago, - "an excellent investment," remarked Mr. Clark, "despite the low price of cattle."

Mr. Clark still continues remarkably active. He is at present operating 3,500 acres under fence, land on which no mortgage was ever laid since he was the owner. In addition to superintending his farm, he has exclusive charge of the New Mexico ranch, and continues active in his position as president of the bank, - certainly a busy life.

Politically Mr. Clark has been likewise active. He has, he says, laughingly, filled about every position from school director up to a disappointed aspirant. He assisted in building log schoolhouses, was a Justice of the Peace, six years county Commissioner and six years in the Legislature, both when the capitol was at Iowa City and when the first three Legislative sessions were held in Des Moines. In 1883 he was a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor on the ticket with Judge Kinne, "when," as Mr. Clark adds, "though we were defeated, the Republican majority was cut down 60,000 votes." Since this Mr. Clark has not been active as a politician, though he has had many flattering offers to become the candidate of his party.

Despite his activity in business, Mr. Clark has been hardly less active as a traveler. In 1850, the year following the gold discovery of 1848, joining four others, he fitted up an ox team and went across the plains 2,300 miles, 2,000 of which was through a hostile Indian country. The trip was successful, they reaching Coloma, where gold was first discovered. They engaged in mining for a time, returning home the next winter by sailing vessel to Panama, footing it across the Isthmus and returning via New Orleans. Since then Mr. Clark has been over every transcontinental line running to the Pacific, having crossed the Rockies fifteen times, in every style of conveyance from a pack train to a palace car. He has also been to Alaska and climbed the great glacier. In 1880 he went to Europe, not only to see cathedrals and ruins but also to study the agricultural and stock-raising industries. He visited all the great stock markets and farming sections, returning home, he says, with increased confidence in the profits of our rich lands for grain and stock purposes, and realizing their high value more than ever. "I have," he says, "no land for sale."

Six years ago Mr. Clark visited Old Mexico, returning to visit the New Orleans Exposition. He has spent most of his winters for the past twelve years in recreation, traveling everywhere from Alaskan glaciers to near the equator, skipping meanwhile not a year in active management of his farms. He takes great interest in various organizations, being Vice-President for Iowa of the National Cattle and Horse Growers' association, and likewise of the National Bankers' Association, and was President in 1887 of the Iowa Fine Stock Breeders' Association. He assisted in the re-organization of the Revenue Reform Club at Detroit and is Vice-President for Iowa. Mr. Clark had lived a long and busy life and deservedly looks back on it now with regret, but with pleasure and pride. Probably no man in the State is prouder of the prosperity and progress of Iowa than Mr. Clark.

Ben B. Clark, vice-president of the Red Oak National Bank, and his brother, Paul P. Clark, cashier of the same institution, are nephews of the president, Justus Clark, and native of Chittenden county, Vermont, the sons of Philo Clark, deceased. Ben B. was born in 1848 and came to Iowa in 1866, and engaged in the lumber business at Afton, where he continued until 1869, and then came to Red Oak, engaging in the same business, the firm name being Justus Clark & Co. In 1883 the Red Oak National Bank was organized, with Justus Clark as president; B. B. Clark, vice-president and Paul P. Clark, cashier; no change has been made in the official management of the bank since its organization. Paul P. Clark was born in Chittenden county, Vermont, in 1856, and came to Red Oak in the spring of 1874. Until the organization of the bank, he was engaged with the lumber firm of Justus Clark & Co.