Representative Andrew Dwight Clarke View All Years

This photograph is provided for official informational purposes only. The image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, or otherwise used without prior written authorization from the Iowa General Assembly. Requests for permission to use this image must be submitted to the Chief Clerk of the House for House members or the Secretary of the Senate for Senate members.

Andrew Dwight Clarke

Kossuth County

Born in Darlington, Canada, September 26, 1843, and when a little child of about two years was taken to Byron, Wisconsin, by his parents, Jasper A. and Laura A. (Sumner) Clarke. Andrew D. Clarke largely acquired his education in the country schools of the town of Byron, Fond du Lac county, Wisconsin, but in the school of experience has also learned many valuable lessons. At the age of seventeen years he put aside his textbooks and thereafter gave his undivided attention to farm work until twenty-four years of age when he came to Kossuth County, Iowa. Here he entered upon the study of law and after a course of thorough reading was admitted to practice in 1868. He at once opened a law and real estate office and has since conducted a real estate business. In 1870, however, he abandoned the practice of law to concentrate his efforts upon other interests. He has always engaged in farming, although not himself an active worker in the fields. His first venture in the financial field was in assisting in organizing the First National Flank at Algona in the '80s. In 1892 he became an active factor in organizing the Algona State Bank. On the 22d of February, I864, at Byron, Wisconsin, Mr. Clarke was married to Miss Mary Jo Phelps. In national affairs Mr. Clarke has always been a republican arid is instinctively a progressive republican. He fought for fifteen years to give Iowa a progressive governor and succeeded when was made the notable fight against Cowles and Ingham, "standpat" newspaper men from Kossuth county. This contest succeeded in landing Cummins in the governor's chair and later in the United States senate, where he has no superior. This turn of political affairs drove Cowles and Ingham into the progressive rank and they are now publishing the Des Moines Register and Leader. He served for one term as a member of the city council in Algona, was a member of the republican state committee for two terms and represented Kossuth County in the twenty-second general assembly in 1888-89. In 1904 he was presidential elector, casting his ballot for Roosevelt, and he was made a delegate to the republican national convention in Chicago in 1908, which nominated William H. Taft, and was chosen to represent Iowa on the committee, which went to Cincinnati, to notify Mr. Taft of his nomination. He refused the nomination for lieutenant governor in 1910. In 1897 Mr. Clarke aided in organizing the Yeomen lodge, an insurance society, and was the first grand fireman of the first lodge, No. 1. of Bancroft, Iowa. He is a charter member of Algona Lodge, No., 203, A. F. & A. M., and he also belongs to the Minneapolis Commercial Club.

House District 84