Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897

CHARLES S. CLARK,

[p. 570] proprietor of the Locust Grove Stock Farm of Hickory township, and a leading capitalist of the same township, was born March 17, 1844, and remained under the parental roof until he had acquired a sufficient education in the district schools of his native township to enable him to cope more intelligently than would otherwise have been the case with the many problems of life. When a young man he went to the oil districts of Pennsylvania, which were then coming into prominence and attracting many speculators, and engaged as a common laborer; after a while he was enabled to purchase with his accumulated savings what proved to be a very valuable oil claim, large in extent and wonderfully rich in promise, which proved to be a veritable mint to Mr. Clark, who rapidly accumulated a fortune. He invested freely, with no thought but of a successful future and eventually became one of the largest owners of oil-wells in the vicinity where he was located. For twenty-two years, until 1890, he was engaged in the oil business, and finally relinquished his interests for large considerations, and came to what he has made the foremost stock farm in Lawrence County. This property he purchased in 1882, and it comprises 160 acres of valuable land, rich and fertile, adapted in every respect to general farming and to stockraising; since 1890 he has devoted most of his time and attention to the raising of fine, blooded horses for the markets; among the many very valuable animals which he has brought out and developed are the following with records: St. Vincent, 2:13½; Minnetonka, five years old, 2:29½; Goshen Maid, eight years, 2:24; Tornado Charm, four years, 2:24¼; and Perry Vincent, four years, 2:22¾; all of these are from the Wilkes family. Mr. Clark is one of the directors of the First National Bank, and has been a director in an Oil Trust. He is a Republican in politics, but has never been very actively interested.

In 1876, he was married to Louise Kennedy of Millerstown, Butler Co., Pa., and they have been blessed with one child, Richard. Mr. Clark is regarded as one of the most substantial business men of Lawrence County, and has the satisfaction of knowing that what he has accumulated has been by his own untiring industry and far-sighted judgment. He is a notable example of that type of man so popular to Americans, the self-made man.

His grandfather, George Clark, was born in Eastern Pennsylvania, and settled in Mercer County about 1800, in what is now known as Washington township, Lawrence County; he was a farmer by occupation and followed kindred pursuits all of his life, and was considered a fairly prosperous man, who was able to live in comfort and to enjoy many of the good things of life. He was a Democrat in his views on political subjects, but never aspired to hold political office. He married a Miss Jordan, who was born in Washington township, and to him and his wife were born a large family of children, of whom the father of our subject, John Clark, was the third in seniority. They were Presbyterians in their religious faith. Our subject's grandfather died in 1877, aged seventy-five years, and was followed ten years later by his wife at the age of eighty-two years.

John Clark was born in Washington township, and attended the schools there until he reached manhood's estate, when he became a farmer, and very successfully followed the pursuits of agriculture all the years of his active period, his death taking place in 1877, when he was aged fifty-five years. He married Lucinda Palmer, a daughter of John Palmer, and to them were given four children: James W., who married a Miss Rodgers of Plain Grove township, and has six children—Lewis, Cassius, Nettie, Mary, and Clara; Charles S., of whom this biography is written; Sylvester, who married a Miss Maxwell of Erie Co., Pa.: Melissa, who married W. H. Caswell of New Castle, Pa., and has two children, Anna and Charles. They were Methodists in their religious views and affiliations. Our subject's mother, at the age of seventy-seven years, still survives her husband.


Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897

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