BIOGRAPHY: James A. Coleman CLARKSON, M.D., Mifflin County, PA 

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The Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, 
Comprising the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry, 
Pennsylvania.  Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897, Volume I, 
pages 425-426.
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  JAMES A. COLEMAN CLARKSON, M.D., Lewistown, Mifflin county, Pa., was born 
at Cassville, Huntingdon county, Pa., April 14, 1860, son of David and Kate 
(Walsh) Clarkson. Hon. David Clarkson, who served ten years as associate 
judge of Huntingdon county, was an influential citizen of Cassville, a 
friend and promoter of all enterprises tending towards true progress. He was 
one of the projectors and original stockholders of the Cassville Seminary, 
an institution which won for itself a deservedly high reputation, and of 
which the Doctor's mother, then Miss Walsh, was one of the most able and 
esteemed preceptresses. This lady, a daughter of John D. and Anna (McNamara) 
Walsh, was born in Rochester, N.Y., and received a superior education in 
some of the excellent schools of that State. Her parents were Irish by 
birth; her father was a schoolmaster in his native land, and continued in 
the same profession for a number of years after settling in New York. He 
died in 1847, leaving eight children. That marriage of Miss Walsh to Hon. 
David Clarkson took place April 21, 1856. She has always been an earnest, 
faithful worker; deeply interested in foreign missions, she has for many 
years been president of the Cassville Auxiliary of the Women's Foreign 
Missionary Society, and secretary of the Juniata District Society. She is an 
effective writer and speaker, and by tongue and pen has done much for the 
promotion of the mission cause in this State. Nor are her efforts confined 
to one department of work; as time and opportunity have served, she has 
interested herself in the Sunday-school, and in other branches of church 
enterprise, and in temperance reforms, zealously lending her aid wherever it 
might produce the best results. Two children of this marriage have died: 
Cora Lincoln, and Lorena Berkstresser. Those surviving are: Emrette F.; Dr. 
J. A. Coleman; and Anna Leone, who is one of the faculty of the State Normal 
and Training School at Cortland, N.Y.
  Judge Clarkson, by a previous marriage with Eleanor Corbin, had seven 
children, of whom two are deceased: W. Monroe, who died from wounds received 
in the battle of Gettysburg; and John Calvin. Those surviving are: Samantha 
A. (Mrs. W. E. Craine); Sarah Belle (Mrs. Lewis Hessman); Rev. Benjamin 
Franklin, pastor of the Franklin Street Methodist Episcopal church, 
Baltimore, Md., married Laura Kelley; Susan Ida (Mrs. R. M. Lewis); and Mary 
Eleanor, teacher of art at the high school of Altoona, Pa.,
  At the age of seventeen, having received a good common school education in 
Cassville, James A. C. Clarkson began teaching. Having taught school near 
his home for year, he became a pupil in the Altoona High School, and 
graduated in 1880. Estimating an education at its true value, and in no 
haste for mere money-making, the youth was willing to work for his 
intellectual outfit, and during this term at the high school, he performed 
the duties of clerk in the general store of his brother-in-law, W. E. 
Craine. After graduating, he taught the Cherry Grove School in Cass 
township, Huntingdon county, for a year, and taught also a year in 
Cassville. In 1882, he entered Dickinson Seminary, Williamsport, Pa., 
beginning a three years' course; but by diligence, he attained to graduation 
after two years of study, and received his diploma with the class of 1884, 
taking the highest honors here, as he had done in the Altoona High School. 
From his graduation until the fall of the same year, Mr. Clarkson read 
medicine in the office of John Fay, M. D., physician and surgeon for the 
Pennsylvania railroad, at Altoona, where he continued to spend his summers 
while a student at the university. In October, 1884, he matriculated in the 
medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, in a competitive 
examination; he graduated with credit in 1887. Directly after, he was 
appointed physician to the East Broad Top Iron and Coal Company, at 
Robertsdale, Huntingdon county; he remained there eighteen months, and then, 
in the fall of 1888, removed to Lewistown, where he has ever since carried 
on an honorable and successful practise. The Doctor is a member of the 
Mifflin County Medical Society, the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, and 
the American Medical Association. He has been initiated into Lewistown 
Lodge, No. 203, F. and A.M., Lewistown Chapter, No. 186, Royal Arch Masons, 
Lewistown Commandery, No. 26, K.T., and Lewistown Lodge, No. 97, I.O.O.F. He 
supports the Republican party.
  Dr. James A. Coleman Clarkson was married, April 4, 1888, to Emma 
Florence, daughter of John C. and Ruth E. (Frambes) Leeds, of Philadelphia. 
They have one child, John Leeds, born October 9, 1889. Mrs. Clarkson was 
born May 3, 1860, one of a family of six children, four of whom died in 
infancy; she has one sister, Revilla B., wife of Oscar A. Craine. The family 
are all members of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which Dr. Clarkson is 
an official member.