Henry H. Clark, M. D. A man
of the character and ability of Dr. Clark was not
made for obscurity and the circumstances of time and
place have not been the makers but the instruments of
his stewardship in the profession that he has
signally honored and dignified by his long and
effective services. He has the distinction of being
the veritable dean of his profession in the State of
Iowa at the time this publication is issued, and has
maintained his home at McGregor, Clayton county, for
nearly half a century-years marked by large and
worthy achievement as a man of affairs and as one of
the most able and influential physicians and surgeons
of this favored section of the Hawkeye state. The
doctor is one of the favored mortals whom nature
launches into the world with the heritage of a sturdy
ancestry, splendid physical powers, an alert and
receptive mind, and energy enough for many men. Added
these attributes are exceptional intellectual
attainments and the valued lessons of a wide and
varied experience. Planted in a metropolis, such a
man would have used his talents in competing with and
uplifting his fellow men. Planted in a pioneer
community he used them in developing the things the
environment needed and has marked the course of his
life by earnest and self-abnegating service in the
alleviation of human suffering and distress. In his
profession, to the exacting demands of which he has
subordinated all else, he has manifested that true
human sympathy which transcends mere emotion or
sentiment to become an actuating motive for
helpfulness. It is needless to say that he is honored
and revered in the county in which he has accorded
his unselfish and efficient professional
ministrations for many years, and his benignant
influence in community affairs in general has given
him precedence as one of the essentially
representative citizens of Clayton county, so that
there is all of consistency in according to him
special recognition in this history of the county.
Dr. Clark was born in Centre
county, Pennsylvania, on the 12th of October, 1842,
and is a scion of sterling families that were early
founded in the old Keystone state. He is a son of
John and Helen (Wolf) Clark, who were born and reared
in Pennsylvania and whose marriage was there
solemnized in the year 1839. Both were natives of
Union county, that state, and representatives of old
and influential families of that section of the
Keystone commonwealth. John Clark owned and operated
a farm in his native state until about the year 1852,
when he removed with his family to Illinois and
became one of the early settlers of Stephenson
county, where he purchased a tract of three hundred
and twenty acres of land and developed one of the
fine farms of that section of the state. To the
management of his extensive landed estate he
continued to give his active supervision until 1870,
after which he lived virtually retired until his
death, which occurred in 1888, when he was about 75
years of age, the old homestead farm being placed in
charge of his son James after he himself retired from
the labors and responsibilities that had long
engrossed his attention. His devoted and cherished
wife passed to the life eternal at the age of 75
years, and concerning their children brief record may
consistently be entered at this juncture: William
went forth as a loyal and valiant soldier of the
Union and when the Civil War was precipitated on the
nation, and he sacrificed his life in the cause, as
he was killed while participating in the historic
siege of Vicksburg. He was a member of Battery L,
Second Illinois Artillery, and his command was
commonly known as Bolton's Battery. Dr. Henry H., the
immediate subject of this review, was the next in
order of birth. John S. is engaged in the real-estate
business at Belvidere, Illinois, and is a prominent
and influential figure in the affairs of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows in Illinois, in
which the year 1916 finds him serving as chief
examiner for the state organization. James B. is a
prosperous retired farmer and maintains his home at
Hampton, the judicial center of Franklin county,
Iowa. Mary J., twin sister of James B., is the wife
of Theron E. Heary, and they reside in the city of
Dwight, Illinois.
Dr. Henry H. Clark acquired
his preliminary educational discipline in the common
schools of his native state and was a youth of 12
years at the time of the family removal from
Pennsylvania to Illinois, where he continued his
studies in the schools of Stephenson county and later
pursued high academic studies in Rock River Seminary,
at Mount Morris, that state. With high ideals and
ambitious purpose, he early formulated plans for his
future career and determined to prepare himself for
the medical profession. He finally entered the
Chicago Medical College, in which he completed, with
characteristic zeal and fidelity, the prescribed
curriculum and in which he was graduated in the
spring of 1870, with the degree of Doctor of
Medicine. It was thus given him to have left Chicago
in the year prior to that which brought devastation
to the city through the historic fire that swept the
present great metropolis in 1871.
After his graduation the
doctor served the customary period as an interne in
Mercy Hospital, still one of the leading hospitals of
Chicago, and in this connection he gained most
valuable clinical experience, besides receiving from
the hospital a diploma which he prizes more than any
other honor that has been bestowed upon him during
the later years of a signally active and useful
career.
On the 10th of October,
1870, two days prior to his twenty-eighth birthday
anniversary, Dr. Clark, an ambitious and well
fortified young physician, established his residence
in the village of McGregor, Clayton county, Iowa, and
here entered upon a professional novitiate that
proved of short duration, for his ability and
gracious personality soon gave him precedence as one
of the successful and influential members of his
profession in the county, where he has controlled
during the long intervening years a specially
extensive practice. In the early days he faithfully
and unselfishly faced many hardships and arduous
labors in pursuing his humane mission, for he
traversed long distances in winter's cold and
summer's heat, over roads that were scarcely worthy
of the name, and with ready response to the call of
duty, no matter how dark or stormy the night or how
slight the probability of his receiving due financial
compensation for his services.
It need scarcely be said
that in the highest and best sense Dr. Clark has
proved himself humanity's friend-and greater tribute
than this can be given to no man. He has wielded
large influence in community affairs and has been a
leader in the furtherance to these things that make
for civic and material prosperity and progress.
Typical of his broad
sympathy and public spirit was his action when, in
1902, he erected and equipped his modern hospital at
McGregor, the same bearing his name and being
recognized as having the best appointments and
facilities of all similar institutions in Clayton
county. The hospital makes the best of provisions for
the treatment of disease and for the handling of
surgical cases according to the most approved methods
of the twentieth century. The institution draws an
appreciable support from far outside the limits of
Clayton county and is a noble monument to the
liberality and professional zeal and loyalty of the
founder and owner.
Dr. Clark has served
consecutively since 1903 as a member of the Iowa
state board of health, and he became a member of the
state board of medical examiners at the time of its
organization, his service in this connection having
continued until the expiration of his term and having
covered a period of about thirteen years. He is
actively identified with the American Medical
Association, the American Association of Railway
Surgeons, and the Surgeons' Association of the
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. He has
long been an honored and influential member of the
Iowa State Medical Society, and before this
representative body he delivered in 1916 a specially
interesting and tech, nically valuable address upon
the subject of surgery. The doctor holds membership
also in the Cedar Valley Medical Society, and has for
many years been a leader in the councils and
activities of the Clayton County Medical Society, of
which he was one of the organizers and of which he is
serving as president in 1916. For a period of about
thirty years Dr. Clark has had the distinction of
serving as president of the United States board of
pension examining surgeons for Clayton county, and he
gave fifteen years of effective service as a member
of the board of education of McGregor, of which he
was president several terms.
His political allegiance,
fortified by well taken opinions concerning economic
and governmental policies, is given to the Republican
party. Until this point in the narrative has been
left the making of reference to a specially notable
and distinguished phase in the career of Dr. Clark.
He was about nineteen years
of age at the inception of the Civil War, and in
1862, in response to the call for volunteers, he
enlisted as a private in Company G, Ninety-second
Illinois Mounted Volunteer Infantry, which was
assigned to the Army of the Cumberland and which was
a part of Wilder's famous Mounted Brigade with which
he continued in active service from August, 1862,
until final victory had crowned the Union arms and
the war reached its close. He lived up to the full
tension of the great conflict between the North and
the South and with his regiment participated in
fifty-two engagements, including a number of
important battles. He was always to be found at the
post of duty, a loyal and valiant soldier, and though
he was often in the thick of the fray and assigned to
hazardous duty, it was his good fortune to escape
wounds and capture. In the later years he has
vitalized the more gracious memories and associations
of his military carer by maintaining affiliation with
the Grand Army of the Republic.
In the year 1872 was
solemnized the marriage of Dr. Clark to Miss Judith
Baugh, daughter of Judge Downing Baugh, who was one
of the honored and influential pioneers of Clayton
county, where he established his residence in the
earlier '50s, upon coming with his family from Mount
Vernon, Illinois. Both he and his wife continued
their residence at McGregor until their death and
their names merit high place on the roll of the
honored pioners of the county.
In conclusion is entered
brief record concerning the children of Dr. and Mrs.
Clark:
Alice May, who is her
father's efficient and valued coadjutor in the work
and management of the Clark Hospital at McGregor, was
graduated in the medical department of the University
of Iowa as a member of the class of 1902, and she not
only has a large and representative private practice,
but also has the unique distinction of being the only
woman physician in the United States to hold regular
appointment as a railway surgeon.
Florence L. is a young woman
of fine intellectual and literary talent and articles
from her pen have appeared in leading newspapers and
magazines of the United States.
Harry H. is a special agent
of the Department of Agriculture, with headquarters
at the national capital, and to him has been assigned
the conducting of technical agricultural
investigation in every state of the Union.
Maude G. is the wife of Judd
J. Dunaway and they maintain their home at Miami,
Arizona.
William Clarence passed to
eternal rest in 1906, at the age of 21 years.
Ethel B. is the wife of Carl
Bickel, of McGregor, and they have a winsome little
daughter, Barbara.
source: History of
Clayton County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical
Times Down to the Present; by Realto E. Price,
Vol. II, 1916; pg. 68-72
-OCR scanned by S. Ferrall
