James Clark

Portrait and Biographical Album of Peoria County (1890)
Transcribed by Danni Hopkins!

The subject of this sketch is one of the oldest settlers of Peoria County, having migrated from Adams County, Ohio, to the place where he now lives in October, 1837. He was born in Adams County, Ohio, June 4, 1815, where he grew to manhood and lived until he was about twenty-two years of age when, as above stated, he removed to Peoria County and settled in Hollis Township. Although he changed his residence from one State to another, geographically considered, he has not changed his condition matrimonially viewed, but has passed his life in a state of single blessedness. During the first winter he was a resident of this county he worked in the city of Peoria, and in the second spring hired out to a Mr. Stephens, on the LaMarsh Creek, near where he now resides. Throughout the second winter of his residence in the county he employed himself at his trade of a blacksmith, which he had learned in Ohio. In addition to the trade above mentioned, he had served an apprenticeship to the gunsmith trade. He carried on blacksmithing upon the homestead in the intervals of operating his farm. He commenced the untied operations in 1840 and pursued them until nature protested too strongly, when he was compelled to relinquish active work and give himself up to the enjoyment of the repose his long and busy life had rendered necessary.

In 1858 our subject was elected School Treasurer of the township, and has held that office continuously to the present time. He was Road Commissioner of the district for twenty-six years. He is a Republican in political sentiment and takes an active interest in all questions affecting the welfare of the district in which he lives. His age and well-known integrity and intelligence make him an authority upon almost all questions arising from discussion in the neighborhood. He is held in high esteem by all who are privileged to secure his acquaintance.

Mr. Clark lives on his farm, but rents it and resides on the same, where he is kept from the loneliness he might otherwise feel by the presence of his brother Esau, who makes his home with him. The younger man was born in 1825, and removed to this county in 1857, coming to his brother, with whom he has since resided. Sarah, a sister of Mr. Clark lived with him for a number of years until her death in 1866. She was the widow of Sol B. McCall, and had one child—F. M. McCall, now a resident of Nebraska, removed hither from Ohio.

The parents of our subject were John and Elizabeth (Gall) Clark. The father was a native of Ireland and left that country when a child of four years. The mother’s family, the Galls, were of Dutch ancestry and belonged to that portion of the Dutch who settled New York and were driven out by the English when the latter obtained possession of that State. George, the father of Mrs. Clark, and grandfather of our subject, was a hero of the Revolutionary War. His son George, served in the War of 1812. At Hull’s surrender he was taken as one of the prisoners and, along with his comrades, put into a pen and fattened on raw corn. History does not inform us how the experiment succeeded, but the end of the war mercifully terminated their sufferings and restored them to their homes and civilized surroundings. The grandmother of our subject, the wife of George Gall, was a Miss Susie Nichols, and was a fitting mate for a brave man in those troublous times.

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