Clark, Thomas O; 1905 Bio, Pitkin County, Colorado
http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/pitkin/bios/clarkto.txt

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Donated April 2001
Transcribed by Judy Crook <jlcrook@rof.net> from the book:
Progressive Men of Western Colorado 
Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill.

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Thomas O. Clark

     Turning his back resolutely on the adventurous occupation of his 
father, which though full of incident and interest is also full of 
hazard, ever since steam has depoetized commerce and reduced the fury 
of wind and wave to some measure of control, Thomas O. Clark, of Aspen, 
and one of the progressive and prominent ranchmen of Pitkin county, has 
found in the wilds of Colorado one as full of perils and hardship at 
times, wherein often the chances of life and death seemed even, but in 
which the danger and privation came from men and beasts and not the 
watery waste.  He is a native of St. George, Knox county, Maine, born 
on April 2, 1857, and the son of Reuben and Sophronia (Blake) Clark, 
also natives of that state.  The father has served many years on 
sailing vessels as cook, mate and captain successively.  He is a 
skillful navigator and has weathered many a storm at sea when the 
stoutest hearts have quailed, and brought his craft safely through the 
tempest.  He is a determined Democrat in politics and a man of fine 
public-spirit in reference to the welfare and progress of his country.  
Three children were born in his family, two of whom, Dora and Thomas 
O., are living.  A daughter named Abbie died at the age of twenty-
three.  The son, Thomas O. Clark, received a public school education in 
his native town, and in 1873, when he was sixteen, came to Colorado in 
search of fortune, or at least an opportunity to make one if he could.  
He located in Gilpin county and went to work as a teamster at two 
dollars and a half a day.  After working faithfully in this capacity 
for three years and a half, he purchased an outfit of his own and 
during the next thirteen years was engaged in freighting and teaming on 
his own account.  In the autumn of 1889 he moved to the vicinity of 
Aspen, and with that place as his base of operations continued teaming 
until the fall of 1902.  He then leased of the railroad company the 
ranch he now occupies, which comprises six hundred and forty acres of 
land, four hundred and fifty acres of which can be cultivated.  To the 
improvement and development of this property he has since devoted 
himself, and he has succeeded abundantly in his laudable ambition to 
make it one of the best ranches in the county.  It yields under his 
skillful husbandry large crops of hay and grain and a plentiful supply 
of other ordinary farm products.  He has also given some time and 
attention to mining with success.  He owns a residence in the town of 
Aspen where his family live in the winter so as to secure good school 
facilities for the children.  In the social and fraternal life of the 
community he is active and serviceable, belonging to the Masonic order 
in blue lodge and Royal Arch chapter, to the order of Elks and the 
Woodmen of the World.  He and his wife are zealous members of the 
Baptist church.  On May 12, 1875, he married with Miss Emma Seavey, 
like himself a native of St. George in Knox county, Maine.  She was the 
daughter of Captain John H. and Catherine Seavey, also natives of 
Maine.  The father was a sea captain and sailed from New York to 
various European countries, and after years of life on the ocean, 
braving many dreadful storms and other dangers of the deep, was finally 
lost in the gulf of Mexico in September, 1856.  He took over the first 
cargo of wheat donated by the United States to Ireland in the time of 
the great famine there.  He was an ardent Democrat in political faith 
and an enthusiastic member of the Masonic order.  By his first marriage 
Captain Seavey became the father of one child, Charles, who died in 
1863.  His second marriage was to the sister of his first wife, Miss 
Clara C. Hooper, and they had two children, Ella and Mrs. Clark.  Mr. 
and Mrs. Clark have had three children, Earl and Lyster living, and 
DeLoss, their first born, deceased.

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