Representative Frank Gray Clark View All Years

HON. FRANCIS GRAY CLARK

Francis Gray Clark was born in Roxbury, Vermont, April 17, 1838. He removed to Bridgewater, Vermont, with his parents in 1843, and was educated in the common schools. He later attended an academy in South Woodstock, Vermont, till the spring of 1859, when he entered Barre Academy. He entered Middlebury College in 1860, and remained there till the summer of 1862, when he enlisted in Company G, Sixteeth Vermont Volunteer Infantry. He was in the service about a year and was actively engaged with his regiment in the Gettysburg campaign. General Stannard’s brigade, to which the Sixteenth Vermont belonged, took a conspicuous part in the third day of the battle of Gettysburg and aided in repulsing Pickett’s charge. Mr. Clark, the captain being disabled, was in command of the company at that time.

Returning home, he joined his class after a year’s absence and graduated in 1864. In the fall of that year he took charge of Chester (Vt.) Academy, but on January 4, 1865, enlisted for a second time in the Twenty-sixth New York Cavalry, which was stationed on the northern frontier to prevent incursions from Canada. He was mustered out at the close of the war in June, 1865. He at once began reading law in the office of General F. W. Hopkins, then clerk of courts at Rutland, Vermont. In May, 1866, he entered the law office of General Peter T. Washburne of Woodstock, Vermont, and was admitted to Windsor county bar in December, 1866. He decided to remove to the West, and settled in Belle Plaine, Benton county, Iowa, where he practised law successfully for several years. In 1872-3 he was a member of the House in the Fourteenth General Assembly, both at the regular and special session.

In November, 1876, he removed to Cedar Rapids where he resided till the time of his death. He was steadily engaged in the practice of the law, the firm being known as “Clark & Clark.” His oldest son, Charles Francis Clark, at this time a member of the Thirty-ninth General Assembly, was the junior member of the firm.

Mr. Clark was married, first, in Rochester, Vermont, September 5, 1865, to Harriet N. Newton, who died September 28, 1892. Mrs. Clark was a woman of especially fine attainments and scholarship, and a successful teacher before her marriage. Mr. Clark was married the second time September 1, 1896, to Mary Virginia Loy, of Cedar Rapids. The widow and five children survive decedent. The children are Maude, Charles Francis, Paul Newton, David Flagg and Robert Lane, one child Charles Newton having died in 1869.

Mr. Clark occupied a position of leadership in the life of the state and in the community in which he lived. He was at one time senior vice department commander of the G. A. R. of Iowa, and commander of the military order of the Loyal Legion. He was charter member of the First Congregational Church, of Cedar Rapids, and has been a member of its board of trustees since its organization in 1879. He was president of the school board for year. For nearly forty years he was a member of the board of trustees of the Cedar Rapids Y. M. C. A., and vice president of such board. He was at one time member of the city council and was distinguished in the life of his home city for public spirit and wide civic interest.

The career of Mr. Clark was notably marked by those civic activities and fine ideals of service that distinguish the best American manhood. He was the type that makes for the safety of society and for the development of the best in the life of the family and the state.

We cannot better indicate the character of Mr. Francis Gray Clark than to quote from appreciation prepared by his fellow members of the First Congregational Church, of Cedar Rapids. We quote as follows:

“It is hardly a figure of speech to call him the father of the church. One of the first, if not the very first, in its founding and planting, he was the last of the little charter band of twenty-four to have watched its growth, led and joined in its labors, and shared in its accomplishments. In addition to his many other responsibilities, the rare experience was his to have held the office of trustee of the church for nearly forty-two years. To no other individual is the church under such indebtedness on the score of wisdom, prudence, zeal and untiring devotion.

“And now his peaceful passing, beyond the allotted span of fourscore years, has but deepened and sweetened the impression of his fine and sturdy character, and his genial personality. His was a life well lived in three dimensions; it was long and broad and deep. To us remains a serene and grateful memory. To him is fulfilled the promise of a crown of life for those who have been faithful unto death. The sympathy of the church, made up of human hearts, for the sorrowing household, is mingled with pride in the untarnished record of that useful life.”

Be It Resolved, by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-ninth General Assembly: That in the passing of Honorable Frank G. Clark this assembly would express its realization of the loss of one of the strong, fine men of the state, a citizen of great public spirit and usefulness and of the highest civic ideals, and the House would tender by this resolution its sympathy for the family that survives.

Be It Further Resolved, that a duly enrolled copy of this resolution be forwarded to the family of deceased.

J. B. WEAVER,

E. H. KNICKERBOCKER,

GEO. B. PERKINS,

Committee.

Adopted April 4, 1921.