John R. Clark

John R. Clark is the secretary and treasurer of the Western Manufacturing Company of Albia, Iowa. He is a native son of the Hawkeye State, and possessed of the true Western spirit of enterprise—that spirit which has within a few years placed this section of the country on a par with the East, whose development covers a period of more than two centuries. He is a wide-awake and practical business man, and in the successful conduct of his affairs has secured a comfortable competence and won rank among the leading residents of Albia.

Mr. Clark was born on a farm in Troy township, Monroe county, January 3, 1855, and is a son of Wareham G. Clark, a native of Connecticut, where he lived until he had attained the age of eighteen years, when he went to New York and there became concerned in merchandising. In 1840 he came to the Territory of Iowa, making the journey by team. He took up a claim in Monroe county, and afterward when the land came into market entered the same from the Government. The traveler of to-day, in seeing the rich farms with their excellent improvements and the enterprising towns and cities, can scarcely realize that half a century ago this region was in its primitive condition, almost untraversed by white men and giving no indication of the development which would soon follow. Its transformation is largely due to such pioneer families as that of which our subject is a representative. The farm which is father secured was located three miles northwest of the town-site of Albia. He turned the first furrow upon the place and continued the work of cultivation until highly improved fields were yielding to him a golden tribute in return for his labor. He was not only a leading farmer, but his fellow citizens, appreciating his genuine worth, called him to public office and he was chosen a member of the Constitutional Convention which met at Iowa City in 1846, and he thus took an active part in shaping the policy of the State.

In 1843 Wareham G. Clark was united in marriage to Miss Jane L. Rankin, of Troy, Davis county, Iowa, daughter of W. W. Rankin, one of the pioneer settlers, who removed from Indiana to that county in 1840. Mrs. Clark was born in Ohio. The parents begun their domestic life upon a farm northwest of Albia, and the father there engaged in the raising of grain and stock until 1855, when he sold that property and purchased a tract of land southwest of Albia. There he continued to make his home until his death, which occurred June 16, 1890, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. His father was Oliver Clark, a native of Connecticut, who traced his ancestry back to the Puritan forefathers who landed from the Mayflower on the bleak coast of New England. Mrs. Clark, the mother of our subject, still survives her husband, and is living on the old homestead in Monroe county, in the seventy-first year of her age, having possession of all her faculties. Of her twelve children all reached years of maturity, and all of the number still survive, namely: Oliver S., William P., W. Grant, A. R., Emily R., John R., James F., Asaph D., Charles H., Homer I., Benjamin F. and Edwin L.

The gentleman whose name introduces this sketch is the sixth in order of birth. He spent his boyhood days on the family homestead and the work of field and meadow early became familiar to him. In the winter season he attended the district schools, and when he had attained his majority he left the old home and began farming on his own account. He went to Nebraska, where he secured a homestead claim. In his twenty-eighth year he located on a farm in Monroe county, where he made his home until 1886, when he removed to Albia, and turned his attention to merchandising, entering into partnership with his brother, W. Grant Clark, under the firm name of Clark Brothers, dealers in farm implements and machinery of all kinds. They also carried flour and seeds and handled large quantities of timothy seed. They now have the largest establishment of the kind in Monroe county, and their business has proved a very profitable one.

In 1892 our subject was elected, on the Populist ticket, to the office of County Auditor for a term of two years, and faithfully and acceptably served in that position. On his retirement from public office he aided in the organization of the Western Manufacturing Company, and was made its secretary and treasurer. He is one of the principal stockholders, and the success of this new enterprise is due in no small measure to his efforts. The company, which was formed in January, 1895, with a capital stock of $50,000, now has a large plant in active operation and is doing a good business. They manufacturer the celebrated Gold Standard pump, deep-well pumps, the Chieftain hay-stacker, and the new Tilting rake; also castings, moldings and lintels. A number of commercial men on the road keep the factory busy filing orders and the articles manufactured sell on sight, so excellent are they in quality and workmanship.

In 1883 Mr. Clark was united in marriage to Miss Lilia E. Boggs, a native of Monroe county, and a daughter of Perry and Jemima (Welch) Boggs. Her grandfather, Josiah C. Boggs, was one of the first settlers of Monroe county. In 1840 he left his old Virginia home and came to the Territory of Iowa, and in 1843 took up a claim northeast of the town site of Albia. He was a powerful man, six feet in height and weighing 240 pounds. His death occurred at the age of eighty-five years.

Although Mr. Clark is independent in his political adherency he has yet taken quite an active part in political affairs. As a citizen he is public-spirited and progressive, and his connection with the business interests of Albia and Monroe counties have done not a little to advance the meterial prosperity of the community.