Garfield County CO Archives Biographies.....Clark, George A October 11, 1844 -
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net April 1, 2001, 2:03 am

Transcribed by Judy Crook from the book:
Progressive Men of Western Colorado 
Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill.

George A. Clark

     George A. Clark, the leading hotel keeper of Rifle, where he owns 
and conducts a house that pleases the commercial tourists and the 
general public in its appointments and the manner in which its 
accommodations are served, is a native of Hartford county, Connecticut, 
where he was born on October 11, 1844.  His education was secured by a 
limited attendance at the public schools and a term or two at Lewis 
Academy.  At the age of fourteen he went to work in a shoe store, and 
from that time until 1865 he was so occupied in his native state and 
Wisconsin, during a portion of the time being also a clerk in a 
mercantile house.  In 1865 he moved to Marquette, on the shore of Lake 
Superior, where he was variously employed until 1871, when he returned 
to his Connecticut home, and after remaining there for a number of 
months came to Colorado in 1872.  He made a short stay at Denver, then 
moved to Fairplay where he and A.B. Crook started a mercantile business 
which they conducted until 1876, meeting with good success.  In the 
year last named Mr. Clark opened the first hotel with hot springs 
bathhouse attached that was ever conducted in this part of the country.  
In the spring of 1878 he changed his residence to Leadville and soon 
afterward to Malta.  Here he engaged in merchandising and the livery 
business, and in connection therewith conducted the post office and for 
nine years served as justice of the peace.  In 1887 he sold out his 
interests at Malta and moved to the Rifle valley, where he purchased 
the improvements on the one hundred and sixty acres of land which he 
still owns.  When he settled here the country was also wholly 
undeveloped, there being few roads and no bridges, the settlers being 
obliged to ford the river when they wished to cross.  Of his ranch one 
hundred acres are tillable and produce abundant crops of hay, grain, 
vegetables and fruit, hay and cattle, however, being the chief 
resources of revenue thereon.  Since 1895 Mr. Clark has been a hotel 
keeper and the most prominent and successful one in the town of Rifle, 
showing in his business a skill in management and a suavity of manner 
that make him and his house universally popular.  In political faith he 
is an unwavering Republican, and in fraternal life belongs to the Elks 
and the Eagles.  He is the son of George and Henrietta N. (Cowles) 
Clark, the former of Scotch and the latter of English descent.  The 
father was a blacksmith and machinist and also a farmer.  He supported 
the Republican party with ardor and pushed his business with vigor and 
successful enterprise.  He died in 1880, having for a year outlived his 
wife, who passed away in 1879.  They had a family of ten children, four 
of whom are living, Josephine, at Denver, Mrs. A.B. Clark, at Fairplay, 
George A., at Rifle, all in Colorado, and Edward A., at St. Louis, 
Missouri.  Of the other six four died in infancy and Frederick A. and 
John in later life.  George was married on April 29, 1874, to Miss 
Minnie Norman, a native of Chillicothe, Missouri.  Mr. Clark is highly 
esteemed as a man of liberality, public-spirit and enterprise who has 
been a potent factor in promoting the growth and development of his 
county and community, and as a genial and companionable citizen.


Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/garfield/bios/clark21gbs.txt

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