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Jasper County, Iowa
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Lyman
C. Clark Washington
Township, Jasper County has never had a better farmer or a more honorable
citizen than the late Lyman C. dark, and all who knew him well will readily
admit that he was ever a gentleman of high standing to whom was not denied a
full measure of success, although he was compelled to carve out his own fortune
with the assistance of no one but his faithful life companion.
He was long a recognized factor of importance in connection with the
agricultural interests of this locality, being identified with its material
growth and prosperity from the pioneer days, his life being very closely
interwoven with its history. His
early life was beset with such obstacles as would have discouraged a man of less
sterling mettle, but he persevered in the face of all adversity and won, not
only material success, but also the good will and esteem of all who knew him,
for he was public-spirited, broad-minded, liberal and scrupulously honest. Mr.
Clark was born of an excellent New England family on January 4, 1846, in
Worcester, Massachusetts. He was
the son of John and Lucy (Bond) Clark, both natives of Massachusetts, where they
grew up and were married and there the father spent his life. After his death
the mother married a Mr. Stone and they came west. Lyman
C. Clark was educated in the schools of Massachusetts and in about 1853, after
having made his home in Vermont for some time, he came to Knox County, Illinois,
and there bought one hundred and sixty acres, and later his mother and
step-father joined him there, having driven overland from Vermont.
He found there a new and sparsely settled country and he tried to develop
a farm from the wild sod, but he found it a hard task, one of his chief
annoyances being the frequent destruction of his fences by prairie fires. While
living in Illinois he was married at Galva, and in 1869 he and his family
immigrated to Jasper County, Iowa, where he bought one hundred and sixty acres
in Washington Township, and he later bought forty acres of timber in Mound
Prairie Township. He succeeded in developing a good farm and in gaining a
competence, but not without great toil and much sacrifice on his part and that
of his wife, to whose sympathy and judicious counsel was due in no small measure
his large success. Here they found
a new country and they underwent the usual hardships and privations incident to
pioneer life. Some of their land has been undermined for coal from shafts from
the east. He was an extensive stock feeder and no small part of his income was
derived from handling live stock of various grades. Mr.
Clark was married on June 16, 1859, to Cordelia R. Steams, who was born in
Rockingham, Windham County, Vermont, on February 13, 1836. She
was the daughter of Samuel E. Steams and wife, a highly respected family who
spent their lives engaged in agricultural pursuits, moving to Union County,
Iowa, in the late fifties. Mrs.
Clark died December 25, 1911. To
Mr. and Mrs. Clark the following children were born: Mrs. Alice M. Fry; Mrs.
Anna L. Jones; Mrs. Abbey Green, of Luceland, Canada; Norris J. runs the home
farm; Mrs. Mary B. Clement; Cyrus L lives in Polk County, Iowa; Martha S. is
deceased; Louis O., Jesse A. and Mrs. Gracia Haldefer. The death of Lyman C.
Clark occurred on May 20, 1908, loved and honored by all who intimately knew
him, for he was a man whom to know was to admire. The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. 737. |
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