CLARKE, ANDREW DWIGHT

CLARKE, SUMNER

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 5/17/2004 at 16:44:26

Biography reproduced from page 20 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Too much credit cannot be given Andrew Dwight Clarke for the part he has taken in the upbuilding of Kossuth county, for his maintenance of its political and legal status and for his cooperation in all movements leading to its permanent improvement and benefit. He is a man whom to know is to esteem and honor, for his life has been upright and honorable in every relation and at all times has been actuated by high purposes and lofty ideals. He was born in Darlington, Canada, September 26, 1843, and when a little child of about two years was taken to Byron, Wisconsin, by his parents, Jasper A. and Laura A. (Sumner) Clarke. The father was born in Vermont and the mother’s birth occurred in the town of Jay, Essex county, New York. She was a daughter of Shubil Sumner, a soldier of the Revolutionary war and captain of the Silver Grays in the War of 1812. He was also an uncle of Charles Sumner, the distinguished Massachusetts statesman. Jasper A. Clarke, father of A. D. Clarke, was left an orphan in childhood and, therefore, knew little concerning his family history. The Sumner family, however, is one of the most prominent that has figured in connection with the annals of New England from pioneer times down to the present.

Andrew D. Clarke largely acquired his education in the country schools of the town of Byron, Fond du Lac county, Wisconsin, but in the school of experience has also learned many valuable lessons. He possesses an observing eye and a retentive memory and has learned to place the correct value upon those things which go to make up life’s contacts and experiences. At the age of seventeen years he put aside his text-books and thereafter gave his undivided attention to farm work until twenty-four years of age, when he came to Kossuth county, Iowa. Here he entered upon the study of law and after a course of thorough reading was admitted to practice in 1868. He at once opened a law and real-estate office and has since conducted a real-estate business, negotiating many important property transfers. In 1870, however, he abandoned the practice of law to concentrate his efforts upon other interests. He has always engaged in farming, although not himself an active worker in the fields, employing others to till the soil while he has given general supervision to the work. In his real-estate investments he has displayed notable sagacity, readily foreseeing the possible rise or diminution of values and making his purchases and sale accordingly. At times he has held large property interests in Kossuth county but in 1900 and 1901 he closed out most of his holdings here and invested in North Dakota, where he purchased a half million acres of Northern Pacific Railroad land. With his business associates he colonized and settled the entire tract and many thousands of acres more. He thus displayed his ability to handle projects of magnitude, giving proof of his executive force and administrative direction. His first venture in the financial field was in assisting Messrs. Call, Hutchins and Stough in organizing the First National Bank at Algona in the ‘80s. In 1892 he became an active factor in organizing the Algona State Bank, of which he remained president for nineteen years. In addition to the above he has been instrumental in forming eleven other banks, all of which proved profitable undertakings except the Minnesota National, which is now placed in liquidation and has paid in full all of its creditors and depositors. He has been president and director in ten different banks, handling a large loan business and loaning millions of dollars. That his business policy is a conservative and progressive one and that confidence has been well placed in making loans is shown in the fact that in thirty years he has never found it necessary to foreclose a mortgage. Having closing out his holdings in North Dakota, Mr. Clarke has invested extensively in Tennessee coal and timber lands, which are proving a marvel where developed. The first year’s returns for the company were over six hundred thousand dollars clear profit and the business is yet in its initial stages. The company of which he is a member owns extensive coal lands where large veins crop out in the open that show eleven feet of surface. Mr. Clarke is widely recognized as a forceful and resourceful business man, whose plans are carefully formulated and all of them carried forward to successful completion. He has, indeed, been an important factor in the substantial development of every district in which he has carried forward his business projects.

On the 22d of February, 1864, at Byron, Wisconsin, Mr. Clarke was married, and his children are Grace, Edith, Harold, Irma D., and Fred Sumner. Of these Grace and Harold died in infancy, while the other are now all married and well settled in life.

In national affairs Mr. Clarke has always been a republican and is instinctively a progressive republican. He fought for fifteen years to give Iowa a progressive governor and succeeded when was made the notable fight against Cowles and Ingham, “standpat” newspaper men from Kossuth county. This contest succeeded in landing Cummins in the governor’s chair and later in the United States senate, where he has no superior. This turn of political affairs drove Cowles and Ingham into the progressive rank and they are now publishing the Des Moines Register and Leader. It is a well known fact that Mr. Clarke has ever stood on the side of advancement and improvement in political matters as well as in business life and since attaining his majority has taken an active and helpful interest in politics. He served for one term as a member of the city council in Algona, was a member of the republican state committee for two terms and represented Kossuth county in the twenty-second general assembly in 1888-89. In 1904 he was a presidential elector, casting his ballot for Roosevelt, and he was made a delegate to the republican national convention in Chicago in 1908, which nominated William H. Taft, and was chosen to represent Iowa on the committee, which went to Cincinnati, to notify Mr. Taft of his nomination. He refused the nomination for lieutenant governor in 1910 and recommended George W. Clarke, of Adel, who was nominated and elected and is now lieutenant governor. Mr. Clarke has ever recognized the duties and obligations of well as the privileges of citizenship and has stood loyally in support of measures and movements which he deems of greatest value as factors in good government.

In 1897 Mr. Clarke was aided in organizing the Yeomen lodge, an insurance society, and was the first grand fireman of the first lodge No. 1, of Bancroft, Iowa. He is a charter member of Algona Lodge, No. 205, A. F. & A. M., and he also belongs to the Minneapolis Commercial Club. He is too broad in his views to be a sectarian in religion but has always endeavored to follow the golden rule, and it is a well known fact that he has ever employed constructive measures in his business, never seeking success at the cost of another’s failure, while again and again he has been known to extend a helping hand to a fellow traveler on life’s journey. In fact, his record was ever been a commendable one and his life work has been far reaching and beneficial in its effects. He has been very active and helpful in the building up of new sections of the country. He arrived in Kossuth county four years before the building of the railroad and he helped develop northwestern Iowa from a wild prairie district to a populous and prosperous region with not a single vacant section left. Indeed, he has been a most active factor in colonization in the west. His efforts were of a most specific character at Burt, where he built the first warehouse and also the first store building of two stories. He was the pioneer in settling Ramsey, German and Buffalo townships. He broke thousands of acres of wild land, built houses for the settlers, loaned money and with his business ability combined a spirit of helpfulness and consideration, never charging usury on his loans, never foreclosing a mortgage or forfeiting a contract. He did more to build up Kossuth county and Algona than any other living man. No worthy man was ever turned from his door empty-handed or without funds if he needed material assistance. At the same time he has never allowed his own troubles and vexations to worry others. His ideals of life have been high and he has lived up to them. His has been a clean life, actuated by noble purposes, and at the age of nearly seventy years he is a well preserved man, to whom life yet holds out many opportunities.

(Photo of Andrew D. Clarke accompanies this biography.)

Kossuth Biographies maintained by Linda Ziemann.
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