1900 Biography - John M. Clark

JOHN M. CLARK is a man of progressive, enlightened views, and his standing as an old settler of Kidder county is well known. He has a fine home in township 139, range 70, and has met with unbounded success as an agriculturist.

Our subject was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1856, and was the third in a family of five children. His father, George Clark, was born in New York, and his people were from Vermont. He was a hotel keeper by occupation. The mother of our subject, who bore the maiden name of Eliza Merrit, was a daughter of a farmer, and her brothers all followed that occupation. The parents of our subject were married in Canada.

Mr. Clark was raised in Glencoe, Canada, and attended the city schools, and at the age of twenty-two left home and went to Whiteside county, Illinois, where he operated an engine ten years in a paper manufactory, and in 1888 he went to North Dakota, and in February of that year took government land in township 140, range 71, and began farming. He had but five dollars, and he and his wife worked for others during the first year. He then bought horses on time and built a shanty and a straw-roofed barn, and his first crop was in 1889 on rented land and he did well; then followed several years of failure and success in alternation, and in 1891 he had a good crop, and has since prospered. He now owns a farm of four hundred and eighty acres, with three hundred acres under cultivation, and he operates six hundred and forty acres each year, and engages the most extensively in grain raising of any farmer in that part of the county. On his home place he has a set of good buildings, and all machinery for conducting a model farm, and has made a good home for himself and family.

Our subject was married, in 1882, to Miss Mary Wilson. Mrs. Clark was of American descent, and was born in Ohio. She died in 1896. Mr. Clark was married to Mrs. Glenie Shoeburg in 1898. Mrs. Clark was born in Wisconsin, and is a daughter of George Watson, who was of American descent and was a farmer by occupation. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Clark, who is named Lee, and was born August 3, 1899. Mrs. Clark has two other children by her former marriage, named Liddia and Alice. Mr. Clark is a member of the Independent Order of Foresters, and politically he is a Republican.

Extracted 22 Nov 2020, by Norma Hass, from Compendium of History and Biography of North Dakota published in 1900, page 875.