Clark, Lyman C.

CLARK, BOND, STONE, STEAMS, FRY, JONES, GREEN, CLEMENT, HALDEFER

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/27/2009 at 17:51:37

Clark, Lyman C.

Washington Township, Jasper County has never had a better farmer or a more honorable citizen than the late Lyman C. Clark, and all who knew him well will readily admit that he was ever a gentleman of high standing to whom was not denied a full measure of success, although he was compelled to carve out his own fortune with the assistance of no one but his faithful life companion. He was long a recognized factor of importance in connection with the agricultural interests of this locality, being identified with its material growth and prosperity from the pioneer days, his life being very closely interwoven with its history. His early life was beset with such obstacles as would have discouraged a man of less sterling mettle, but he persevered in the face of all adversity and won, not only material success, but also the good will and esteem of all who knew him, for he was public-spirited, broad-minded, liberal and scrupulously honest.

Mr. Clark was born of an excellent New England family on January 4, 1846, in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was the son of John and Lucy (Bond) Clark, both natives of Massachusetts, where they grew up and were married and there the father spent his life. After his death, the mother married a Mr. Stone and they came west.

Lyman C. Clark was educated in the schools of Massachusetts and in about 1853, after having made his home in Vermont for some time, he came to Knox County, Illinois, and there bought one hundred and sixty acres, and later his mother and step-father joined him there, having driven overland from Vermont. He found there a new and sparsely settled country and he tried to develop a farm from the wild sod, but he found it a hard task, one of his chief annoyances being the frequent destruction of his fences by prairie fires.

While living in Illinois he was married at Galva, and in 1869 he and his family immigrated to Jasper County, Iowa, where he bought one hundred and sixty acres in Washington Township, and he later bought forty acres of timber in Mound Prairie Township. He succeeded in developing a good farm and in gaining a competence, but not without great toil and much sacrifice on his part and that of his wife, to whose sympathy and judicious counsel was due in no small measure his large success. Here they found a new country and they underwent the usual hardships and privations incident to pioneer life. Some of their land has been undermined for coal from shafts from the east. He was an extensive stock feeder and no small part of his income was derived from handling live stock of various grades.

Mr. Clark was married on June 16, 1859, to Cordelia R. Steams, who was born in Rockingham, Windham County, Vermont, on February 13, 1836. She was the daughter of Samuel E. Steams and wife, a highly respected family who spent their lives engaged in agricultural pursuits, moving to Union County, Iowa, in the late fifties. Mrs. Clark died December 25, 1911.

To Mr. and Mrs. Clark the following children were born: Mrs. Alice M. Fry; Mrs. Anna L. Jones; Mrs. Abbey Green, of Luceland, Canada; Norris J. runs the home farm; Mrs. Mary B. Clement; Cyrus L lives in Polk County, Iowa; Martha S. is deceased; Louis 0., Jesse A. and Mrs. Gracia Haldefer. The death of Lyman C. Clark occurred on May 20, 1908, loved and honored by all who intimately knew him, for he was a man whom to know was to admire. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 737