Born at Newport, Me., in 1853. He comes of a family which bore an active and honorable part in the American Revolution, and his father was a union soldier. He lived in Minnesota from 1856 to 1870, and in 1878 graduated from Brown University, Providence, R. I., with the degree of B.A. Removing to Sioux City he studied law with Judge Isaac Pendleton, and was admitted to the bar in 1881. He was elected justice of the peace the following year, as a democrat, the balance of the party ticket being defeated. In 1884 and 1885 he was appointed county attorney. In June, 1886, he married Lillian F., daughter of Amos Hale, of Sioux City. At the election of November, 1889, Mr. Clarke was elected by nearly one thousand majority to represent Sioux City and Woodbury County in the Twenty-third general assembly of Iowa.