Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/554

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

steadily increased during the last century can be questioned by few thoughtful and penetrating observers. While, perhaps, less obviously and institutionally exerted, it is, for that very reason, more pervasive and powerful. Especially is this the case when the church's leaders are men of broad minds and liberal sentiments, quick to "discern the signs of the times," men of the type so forci- bly represented in our day by the late Rev. William Meade Clark, D. D., of Richmond, \"irginia, whose death at the comparatively early age of fifty-nine years threw many thousands into deep and sincere mourning.

Rev. William Meade Clark, D. D., a son of Rev. John and Mary (Wilson) Clark, was born in Halifax county, Virginia, May 5, 1855, and died at his residence. No. 1008 Park avenue, Richmond, Virginia, April 29, 1914. He had been in ill health for a con- siderable length of time, his condition being aggravated by his persistence in attending to matters connected with his responsible clerical position, this being done greatly in opposition to the wish of the members of his congregation, who were without excep- tion strongly attached to him.

Rev. Clark, after an excellent preparatory training, became a student at the Univer- sity of Virginia, then studied at the Theo- logical Seminary of Virginia, from which he was graduated in the class of 1880, and in the following year (1881) was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood. Some years ago he was honored with the degree of Doctor of Divinity, conferred by the Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. Until he came to Richmond, Virginia, eighteen years ago, he had been rector at the following named churches : Boydton and Amherst, Virginia ; Chapel Hill, North Carolina ; Church of the Good Shepherd, Raleigh ; St. George's Church, Fredericks- burg.

In 1896 Dr. Clark came to Richmond, be- coming the rector of St. James' Church, which had been founded in 1835, and was then located on Fifth street, between Broad and Marshall streets. Its membership was not a large one at that time, but from the time that Dr. Clark occupied the pulpit, its congregation increased in size rapidly, and in 1912 it became necessary to think of re- moving to a more suitable locality. The old church building was sold, and new ground purchased at the corner of Franklin

and Birch streets, where one of the finest structures of its kind has been erected. Con- sistently and steadily increasing under the influence exerted by Dr. Clark, the congre- gation is now one of the largest in the city of Richmond. So constantly and strenu- ously did Dr. Clark labor in behalf of his beloved institution, that his congregation decided that it was but right and fitting that he should have an assistant, and accord- ingly, the Rev. Thomas C. Darst was called from Newport News, and made assistant rector of St. James. Active in all the affairs of his diocese. Dr. Clark since 1898 repre- sented Virginia at the general convention of the Episcopal church in the United States, and when this body met in Richmond, in 1907, he was chosen as general chairman of the committees in charge of that gathering. For many years he was a member of the general board of missions, was the examin- ing chaplain of his diocese and a member of several diocesan boards. He was a writer of marked ability, and compiler of "Colonial Churches in Virginia." As editor of "The Southern Churchman," the Episcopal organ in Virginia, his work was of a very effective character. He was prominently mentioned a number of times as a candidate for the bishopric, but he preferred to remain rector of St. James, and thus stay in close touch with the congregation to which he was bound by ties of mutual aifection.

Dr. Clark was married three times, his third wife being Alice Peirce, of Lancaster county. He had one child, a daughter, Emily, by the second marriage. He is sur- vived by his widow, a brother, George W. Clark, of Bristol, Tennessee, and a sister, Mrs. Lemon. The funeral services of Dr. Clark were conducted and attended by all the most eminent clergyman in the State of Virginia, and the pallbearers were men of the highest standing in the community. It was not in the field of religion alone that the beneficent influence of Dr. Clark was felt. Any project which had for its object the bet- terment of the community in any direction, whether moral or physical, was assured of his sincere and hearty cooperation, irrespec- tive of race or creed. And it was this broad- minded and tolerant view which gained him the love of all classes.

The Bowden Family. The Bowden fam- ily is directly descended from the old French