William Clark

CLARK, BAKER, GAMMEL, WALLACE, HANEY, HAVER, CARROLL

Posted By: James C. Murphy (email)
Date: 5/21/2009 at 07:21:46

WILLIAM CLARK, one of the early settlers of Independence Township, located on section 34, where he now resides, in the autumn of 1856. His homestead, which contains 160 acres, is one of the best farms in the township, and in addition to this he owns forty acres on section 27, a half a mile from his home. He has worked hard to make his farm valuable. He has four and a half miles of fencing around his home farm, and his building improvements are excellent and in good repair. He is one of the most practical farmers in the county, his farm showing the result of having a thrifty and painstaking owner. He first visited Iowa in 1843 and entered eighty acres of Government land in Jefferson County, on which he located in 1846. He improved his land rapidly and soon had a fine farm of 150 acres, on which was one of the best orchards in the county. He sold his farm in 1856, and moved to Appanoose County.
He came to Iowa a poor man, and his present prosperity but illustrates what can be accomplished by industry and well-directed purpose, assisted by a good wife, a man's best gift. In addition to prosperity he has gained the confidence and esteem of a large circle of friends and acquaintances, which is more to be valued than riches. He and his wife are members of the United Brethren church, and live practical Christian lives, work and faith going hand in hand with them. In his early life Mr. Clark was in politics a Whig. In the days of Fremont he became a Republican, and in 1878 identified himself with the Greenback party. Mr. Clark is a native of Pennsylvania, born near Philadelphia, May 15, 1816. His parents, John and Elizabeth Clark, were natives of Scotland, and came to the United States in 1816, landing in this country about three weeks before the birth of our subject, and a few years later established his home in new Lisbon, Ohio, where our subject was reared, and there they both died, the mother in 1835 and the father in 1839, both aged about ninety years. Of a family of thirteen children our subject is the sixth. Of the others only Mrs. Christie Baker, John, Mrs. Ann Gammel and Margaret are living. Mathew and David died while in the service of their country during the war of the Rebellion. Mr. Clark was married September 18, 1841, at New Lisbon, Ohio, to Margaret Wallace, who was born in Ireland, June 16, 1818, and when six years of age accompanied her parents, Peter and Margaret Wallace, to the United States. They have a family of eight children: John, of Lucas County, Iowa; Margaret A., at home; George, of Kingman County, Kansas; Eleanor, wife of Michael Haney, of Decatur County, Iowa; Sarah, wife of Hiram Haver, of Butler County, Kansas; Alpheus, of Wayne County; Laura, wife of James Carroll, of Decatur County, and William, at home. Their first-born died in infancy.