My Genealogy Hound

JONAS CLARK. The subject of this sketch was born in Butler county, Ohio, in the year 1811. He comes of good Revolutionary stock, being a lineal descendant of Abram Clark, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He lived with his father, a farmer, until nineteen years of age, and then engaged as a clerk in the mercantile house of Major Elston, in Crawfordsville, Indiana. He was a participant in the Black Hawk War. Subsequently he renewed mercantile pursuits at Michigan City, Indiana, with his brother M. S. Clark. He engaged extensively in real estate transactions. He spent the winter of 1836-37 in Washington City, D. C, in the interests of the people of Michigan City in securing an appropriation for the improvement of the harbor, and was rewarded with success. In 1840 he removed to Iowa and engaged for many years in mercantile pursuits at Maquoketa. Married Eliza Wright in 1846, his wife being a native of New York. Their family of seven children, five sons and two daughters, are all living. Mr. Clark has, like his ancestors, been largely identified in the welfare of the country. He was chairman of the Whig central committee for six years; he was postmaster during Filmore’s and a part of Pierce’s adminstration; he was mayor of Maquoketa one term, and declined any further honors from the city; he was treasurer and one of the directors of the first railroad that secured a right of way through Iowa. From 1859 to 1861 he resumed mercantile pursuits in Lexington, Missouri. He was engaged in the secret service of the country during the late Rebellion, and was with the army at Vicksburg at the running of the blockade, and also the seige of Vicksburg. In 1868 he removed to Chetopa, Kansas, Labette county, being soon appointed justice of the peace, and commissioner of the United States Court, a position he held till he removed to Jasper county, Missouri, in 1877, where he was formerly engaged in mining. He came to Carthage in 1877, for the advantages of its fine location, good society, religious, and educational advantages. He is engaged in agencies and collections for eastern houses. Mr. Clark has lived a long, eventful, and useful life, and can feel that he has filled up the measure of a rounded and symmetrical existence.