Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/663

Rh CLARK, John Alonzo, clergyman, b. in Pitts- field, Mass., 6 May, 1801 ; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 27 Nov., 1843. He was graduated at Union in 1823, studied for the ministry, and was admitted to orders in the Episcopal church, 12 April, 1826. After serving for three years in missionary work in western New York, he became assistant rector of Christ church, New York city, and gained high reputation as a preacher. In the autumn of 1832 he accepted a call to Grace church, Providence, R. I., and in 1835 went to Philadelphia as rector of St. Andrew's church in that city. His health having failed, he made a visit, to Europe in 1837-8, and returned without material improvement. In the spring of 1843, completely broken in health, he resigned his rectorship. Dr. Clark, representing the evangelical section of the Episcopal clergy, wrote numerous volumes, including " The Pastor's Testi- mony " (1835) ; " Gathered Fragments " (1836) ; " A Walk about Zion " (1836) ; and •' Glimpses of the Old World" (1838; with memoir by Stephen H. Tyng, London, 1847).

CLARK, John Bullock, lawyer, b. in Madison county, Ky., 17 April, 1802 ; d. in Fayette, Mo., 29 Oct., 1885. He removed to Missouri with his father in 1818, was admitted to the bar in 1824, and began practice at Fayette, Mo. He was clerk of the Howard county courts from 1824 till 1834, com- manded a regiment of Missouri volunteer cavalry in the Black Hawk war of 1832, where he was twice wounded, and in 1848 was commissioned major-general of militia. He was a member of the legislature in 1850 and 1851, and was at the head of the force sent out to expel the Mormons from Missouri. He was elected to congress as a demo- crat in 1857, to fill a vacancy, and served till 1861, when he withdrew and joined the Confederates. He was formally expelled on 13 July, 1861. At the beginning of the war he was appointed briga- dier-general by Gov. Jackson, and commanded the Missouri troops till disabled at the battle of Springfield in August, 1861. Before his recovery he was elected to the first Confederate congress, and was afterward senator from Missouri till the close of the war. He then resumed his law prac- tice at Fayette. — His son, John Bullock, lawyer, b. in Fayette, Mo., 14 Jan., 1831, spent two years in Missouri university, and then entered Harvard law- school, where he was graduated in 1854. At the beginning of the civil war he entered the Confed- erate army as a lieutenant, and rose through the grades of captain, major, and colonel, to that of brigadier-general. He was elected to congress as a democrat, serving from 1 Dec, 1873, till 1883, and on 4 Dec, 1883, was chosen clerk of the house of representatives.

CLARK, Jonas, clergyman, b. in Newton, Mass., 25 Dec, 1730; d. in Lexington, Mass., 15 Nov., 1805. He was graduated at Harvard in 1752, and ordained as Rev. Mr. Hancock's successor at Lex- ington, Mass., 5 Nov., 1755, remaining there till his death. As was common in those days, he was farmer as well as clergyman, and cultivated about sixty acres of land. He was an ardent patriot. Edward Everett says : " Mr. Clark was of a class of citizens who rendered services second to no others in enlightening and animating the popular mind on the great question at issue." He well understood the state of the question between the colonies and the mother country, and from 1762 till 1776 drew up an able series of papers, giving instructions to the representatives sent by the town to the general court. These papers are still among the Lexington town records, and are conceived in a manly, yet calm and respectful spirit. Mr. Clark was noted for his hospitality, and was entertaining John Han- cock and Samuel Adams at his house on the night of 18 April, 1775, when Paul Revere warned him of the approach of the expedition sent out by Gage, one of whose objects was to surprise and capture these two patriots. When asked by his guests whether the people would fight, Mr. Clark replied that he had " trained them for this very hour ; they would fight, and, if need be, die, too, under the shadow of the house of God." It was but a few rods from Mr. Clark's house that the first blood of the revolu- tion was shed on the following day, 19 April, 1775, and the men that fell were his parishioners. " From this day," said he, when he saw their dead bodies, "will be dated the liberty of the world." Mr. Clark published several sermons, among them one to commemorate the battle of Lexington (1776).

CLARK, Laban, clergyman, b. in Haverhill, N. H., 19 July, 1778; d. in Middletown, Conn., 28 Nov., 1868. In his childhood his parents removed to Bradford, Vt., where he obtained a fair academi- cal education. In 1798 he united with a Meth- odist church, and soon became active as a class- leader and exhorter. He began preaching in 1800, and in 1801, joining the New York conference, en- tered upon itinerant work, in which he continued with great success for fifty years, in New England, New York, and Canada. In 1819 he offered the first resolution in favor of forming the Missionary society of the Methodist Episcopal church, and, in conjunction with Nathan Bangs and Freeborn Gar- retson, prepared its constitution. In 1829 Mr. Clark, then presiding elder of the New Haven dis- trict, heard that the buildings formerly occupied by Capt. Partridge's military academy in Middle- town were for sale, and at once offered to be one of ten to purchase them, with the idea of founding a Methodist college. Soon afterward the trustees of the buildings offered to give them to the New York and New England conferences, on condition that a college should be established and provided with an endowment fund of $40,000. Mr. Clark was active in the matter, and the result was the establishment of Wesleyan university in 1831. Mr. Clark became the president of tlie board of trustees, and held the office till his death, withdrawing from active labor in 1851, and settling at Middletown.

CLARK, Lewis Gaylord, author, b. in Otisco, Onondaga co., N. Y., in 1810 ; d. in Piermont, N. Y., 3 Nov., 1873. He and his twin brother, Willis Gaylord, were educated chiefly by their father, who was a soldier of the revolution, and a man of fine attainments. In 1834 Lewis became editor of the "Knickerbocker Magazine," which had been established in 1832 by Charles Fenno Hoft'man. It had been unsuccessful, but Mr. Clark soon retrieved its fortunes, and it became the foremost literary publication of the day, numbering among its contributors Irving, Bryant, Longfellow, Halleck, Willis, and many others whose names are familiar. Mr. Clark retained the editorship until 1859, when it died from financial mismanagement. During this time he wrote the " Editors Table " and the " Gossip with Readers and Correspondents," which were special features of tlie magazine, and had much to do with its p^ularity. These consisted of humorous or pleasantmories floating about town, the jests of the day, and bits from the editor's desultory reading, strung together with a running comment. For several years they also included a burlesque of a country newspaper, entitled the " Bunkum Flagstaff." This kind of writing, so common at the present da}^ was then comparatively new, and Mr. Clark may be said to have perfected it. It had much to do with creating a kindly feel-