Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 893
DAVID G. CLARK

The lives of the early settlers of every community are always interesting subjects upon which the biographer may dwell. Likewise, it is interesting to dwell upon the history of those families that are identified with the pioneer days of any state. The CLARK family, of Douglas township, Harrison county, Iowa, have been prominent in the affairs of that township for at least two generations.

David G. CLARK was born on March 11, 1850, in Jefferson township, Dane county, Wisconsin, the son of Alma and Anneliza (ADAMS) CLARK. They were natives of Chautauqua county, New York, and Quebec, Canada. His father was of old Yankee stock and his mother of a Dutch-Canadian family. She came to Wisconsin when a small child with her parents. His father came west with his brother when young men, and walked from Milwaukee to Prairie, Wisconsin, a distance of one hundred miles, carrying their supplies on their back and having only a blazed tree trail to follow. They bought a farm from the government where the father lived until 1876. In July, the father moved to Harrison county, Iowa, and in October, David G. followed. He had located in Minnesota, in the spring of 1875, but the grasshoppers ate up the crops. Undaunted by his misfortunes here, he came to Harrison county. Times were hard, and the first two years he was here, he had only fifty cents worth of sugar and one sack of flour. Cornmeal, in various forms, was the principal diet.

David G. CLARK worked for L. R. Boulter, for four years, near Jeddo. He then rented land for one year and bought forty acres in Cass township, in section 51, which cost seven dollars an acre, and which required a twenty-five-dollar payment for the first installment. He had to borrow some of the money to do that. Mr. CLARK then raised cattle for J. B. Seekell, of Logan, on shares, and thus got his start. He added eighty acres more to his first forty acres and lived there until 1904, when he moved to his present farm, which he had bought in 1903. The farm was poorly equipped, and where the buildings are now located, there was a grove of timber. Mr. CLARK improved the place and now has a good house, a barn, thirty-six by fifty-four feet, and other buildings, of the most substantial kind. He has ninety-five acres of land in the farm, which is situated in sections 16 and 21, of Douglas township.

Mr. CLARK was married to Eliza Jane BUCHANAN on October 18, 1872, who was born on January 5, 1848, in St. Lawrence county, New York, and who was a daughter of Hugh and Jane (ADAMSON) Buchanan. They were natives of Ireland, having come from near Dublin. They moved from New York to Wisconsin. To Mr. and Mrs. CLARK six children have been born, Nellie, Alma, Mary, Florence, Gertrude and Vera. Nellie married Irwin Hunt, and has five children, Arlon, Lois, Pearl, Eva and Opal. Alma married Bertha Cowan, and has two children, Guy and Glenn. Mary married William Stoner. Florence married John H. Stoner, and has one child, Lyle. Gertrude married William Hall, and lives in Montana, where they have a ranch. They have four boys, Howard, Leslie, David and Harold. Vera is still single, and lives at home.

Mr. CLARK does general farming and stock raising. His hogs are thoroughbred Duroc-Jersey and his other stock of a very excellent breed. He feeds about one hundred head of hogs each year and about one carload of cattle.

Mr. CLARK relates an interesting incident in his father's life. He lived about one hundred miles from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where there was a tract of land of about one hundred and sixty acres, which he and a Major Anderson both wanted. It being government land, it was subject to entry. Mr. CLARK's father got word one evening at four o'clock that the major had started to Milwaukee, on horseback, to file on the land. His father immediately got money enough from his father-in-law to enter the land and started out on foot to Milwaukee. The next morning when the land office opened he was sitting on the steps, having walked the hundred miles in about fourteen hours. Mr. CLARK's father used to carry his seed potatoes from Milwaukee on his back, as well as other supplies.

David G. CLARK is a Republican. He has been township trustee, justice of the peace, president of the school board, and has held other offices, although he has never been an office-seeker. All of the duties of these offices have been performed in a manner highly acceptable to the people of the township. Mr. CLARK is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Encampment and the Woodmen of the World. Mr. and Mrs. CLARK are representative citizens of Douglas township, in every way, and are honored by a large circle of friends and acquaintances.

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