ELIJAH CLARK, a gentleman of fine intelligence, an extensive reader and essentially a self-made man, is one of the most prominent residents of Davis, to which town he retired from active farm life in 1865. He is the owner of a fine property in this county, including his present home. This comprises five acres of land and a handsome and substantial residence, where our subject with his family, enjoys all the comforts and many of the luxuries of modern life.

Mr. Clark possesses more than ordinary mental powers and from early life has forced himself to think deeply concerning those things which have been the subject of much speculation and wherein great minds have materially differed. He has availed himself of the high privileges of this day and age, furnished by books which are the solace and comfort of those whose minds reach after something different from common care and the ordinary routine attendant upon daily life. As a result, he has become a liberal thinker and finds that the theories of Robert Ingersoll approach more nearly, perhaps, than those of any other at the present day, the views which he has been forced to entertain. There are few books relating to religion which he has not carefully perused, and as a consequence he has become ripe in thought, fluent in speech and able in argument.

The early life of Mr. Clark was well calculated to develop the independent spirit which was his natural heritage. He was left an orphan at a tender age and early in life was thrown upon his own resources and began his struggle with the world. His career has been marked by more than ordinary success, his industry and enterprise rewarded, and he now occupies an enviable position, socially and financially, among his fellowmen.

Our subject is a scion of an excellent old New England family, of which his grandfather, Daniel Clark, by whom he was reared, was one of the finest representatives. He was born in Connecticut, learned the trade of a blacksmith early in life, and afterward became a resident of the States of Vermont and New York. It is believed that he died in Cortland County, in the latter State, after he had reached the advanced age of fourscore years. He served on the side of the Colonists in the Revolutionary War. Our subject was living with him when the news came of Commodore Perry’s great victory on Lake Erie, which caused the old man to throw up his hat with a shout and otherwise give expression to his satisfaction. The boy of five or six years old, not understanding the import of it all, was greatly frightened at the antics of his grandsire, who usually was staid and sedate.

The father of our subject died when his son was a very small child, and greatly to his regret, he does not know his name. The mother followed her husband not long afterward. Mr. C. remembers hearing her called Sallie, but of his maternal grandparents he has no record. His two sisters, Mercy and Almira A., are also deceased. The former died young and the latter was married to Harrison Munson, and left seven children, but only one, a son, survives.

The birth of Elijah Clark took place in Clinton County, N. Y., July 29, 1810. He was taken into the household of his paternal grandparents, where he remained until sixteen years of age, about which time his grandmother died. Subsequently he went to Cortland, N. Y., where he learned blacksmithing and afterward worked as a “jour.” About 1830 he migrated to Michigan and followed his trade a few years in St. Joseph County, whence he came to Rock Grove Township, this county, about 1837. Here he purchased a tract of land and also established a shop, where he built up a good patronage, and was known as one of the most expert workmen of his class in that vicinity. He wisely invested his capital in lands and is now the owner of 132 acres in Rock Grove Township, besides eighty acres just across the line in Green County, Wis. He farmed in connection with blacksmithing for a number of years, but in 1865 abandoned active labor and retired to Davis, as above mentioned.

The marriage of Elijah Clark and Miss Harriett Hodgson was celebrated at the home of the bride in Rock Grove Township, April 18, 1839. Mrs. Clark was born Jan. 14, 1818, in New York State. She came West with her father in her youth, and by her marriage with our subject was the mother of four children, one now deceased. She departed this life at her home in Rock Grove Township, Oct. 17, 1861. The second son of our subject, Orla by name, served as a Union soldier in the late War as a member of the 74th Illinois Infantry. He yielded up his life at the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, and now fills a soldier’s grave in a cemetery in Georgia. He was a promising youth of fine mental capacities and admirable disposition, and his death was a sad blow to the stricken father, who had already been bereaved of the mother of his son. The latter was twenty-one years of age at the time of his death and had never been married. Edwin was the first child; Emma became the wife of Emanuel Day, who is farming in Pawnee County, Kan.; Ada married William McConnell, of Vinton, Benton Co., Iowa.

Mr. Clark was a second time married, in Green County, Wis., to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Isaac and Sarah (Beaver) Brobst, natives of Union County, Pa. The parents were of German ancestry, and were married in Marion County, Pa., whence, after the birth of seven children, they migrated to Illinois in 1845. After one year spent in Stephenson County, where they had purchased a tract of land in Rock Grove Township, they moved across the line into Green County, Wis., and took up a quarter section in Spring Grove Township, where they established themselves permanently. There the mother died, July 31, 1884, when seventy-five and one-half years of age. The father is still living, at the age of seventy-nine; he makes his home with his children in Rock Run Township, this county. Elijah and Mrs. Elizabeth Clark became the parents of three children: Frank, the eldest, married Miss Barbara Haas, and is farming in Rock Grove Township; Zoe and May are at home with their parents. The latter was born on her father’s sixty-seventh birthday.

The wife of our subject was the fourth in a family of eleven children, six sons and five daughters, and is the only daughter now living; two of the sons are also dead. She was born in Union County, Pa., Sept. 16, 1836, and accompanied her parents in their several removals until her marriage. She remained under the parental roof, receiving a common-school education, and being trained to all useful domestic duties until becoming the wife of Mr. Clark. Mr. and Mrs. C. have a remarkably pleasant home, and enjoy the friendship and society of the most cultivated people of Davis.

Contributed by Carole Parrish - Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Ill. 1888