Representative George W. Clarke View All Years

HONORABLE GEORGE W. CLARKE

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee, appointed to prepare suitable resolutions commemorating the life, character and public service of the late Honorable George W. Clarke, of Dallas county, Iowa, beg leave to submit the following report:

George W. Clarke was born on a farm in Shelby county, Indiana, October 24, 1852, and died in Adel, Iowa, November 28, 1936. Burial was in Oakdale Cementery, Adel. His parents, John and Eliza J. Clarke, removed in October, 1856, to a farm a mile and a half southeast of Drakeville, Davis county, Iowa. There George grew to manhood, helped on the farm, and attended local public school. He taught school for about a year, first in the country, then in Drakeville, and in Bloomfield. In 1874 he entered Oskaloosa College and was graduated in 1877. He read law for a brief time in the offices of Lafferty and Johnson at Oskaloosa, then entered the law school of the State University of Iowa, from which he was graduated in 1878.

On June 25, 1878, Mr. Clarke was united in marriage with Miss Arletta Greene, who survives him. To this union were born four children; Charles F. Clarke, Fred G. Clarke, Mrs. Nile Kinnick, and Portia, who preceded him in death.

In 1878 Mr. Clarke established himself in the practice of law at Adel. He was soon elected Justice of the Peace and served four years. In 1882 he joined with John B. White of Adel in the firm of White and Clarke, which in the course of time came to be regarded as one of the leading law firms of that part of Iowa. It existed for nearly half a century, and when Mr. Clarke’s other interests required his retirement he turned his work over to his son Charles F. Clarke.

In 1899 George W. Clarke was elected representative from Dallas county and served in the Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth and Thirty-first General Assemblies. He was elected Speaker of the Thirtieth and Thirty-first General Assemblies.

In 1908 he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for Lieutenant Governor and was nominated in the first primary election in the history of the state, and was elected in the general election in the fall. For re-election as Lieutenant-Governor in 1910 he had no opposition for the nomination, and in the general election was again successful.

Mr. Clarke became a candidate for Governor in 1912, winning his party nomination over Perry G. Holden and Aaron V. Proudfoot and was elected at the polls in the general election. For re-election as Governor in 1914 he won the nomination over C. G. Lee and John W. Rowley, and in the general election, his plurality was 25,845. On retiring from the governorship in January, 1917, he served one year as Dean of Drake University College of Law and soon thereafter returned to Adel and resumed the practice of law for a few years. He engaged in no further actitivies in politics except that in 1926 he was chairman of a committee managing A. B. Cummins’ campaign for re-election to the United States Senate.

As a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Clarke at once took high rank as a man of judgment and knowledge. Both as Speaker of the House and as President of the Senate while Lieutenant Governor, he won encomiums for his fairness and skill as presiding officer. In the office of Governor he exhibited qualities of statesmanship and courage. The reorganization of rural schools, the development of permanent roads, workmen’s compensation, and capitol grounds extension were outstanding subjects and achievements during his administration. He constantly conferred with officials he believed were aware of conditions intended to be corrected, and those to be accounted for in the phases of finance, legislation, litigation and construction. He carried his own convictions into the minds of those he consulted and so created his most conspicuous contribution to his state in his time. He was a man of strong convictions, high ideals, a lover of nature and of the beautiful, and a lover of his fellow man—a clean conscientious Christian gentleman.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Forty-seventh General Assembly, That in the passing of the Honorable George W. Clarke, the state has lost a valuable and honored citizen, and the House would tender by this resolution its sincere sympathy to the surviving members of his family in their sorrow, and

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of the House, and that the Chief Clerk be instructed to send an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased.

HARRY F. COPELAND,

HENRY L. DAVIS,

S. M. THOMPSON,

Committee.

Unanimously adopted, April 19, 1937.