Georgia Bios   John Clark

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Barbara Winge barbarawinge@yahoo.com

http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm Georgia Table of Contents:

JOHN CLARK
Retired Georgia Governor John Clark fought in the American Revolution.  He became a lieutenant at the age of sixteen and rose to the rank of Major General of the State Militia.  Those who knew Clark considered him a brave, strong-willed patriot who was not afraid to take a stand or fight for what he believed.  He was elected governor of Georgia in 1819 and re-elected in 1821.  In his day and for scores of years after his death, Clark remained a legendary hero, admired by the people of his state.

Like most, Clark had his faults and enemies.  He engaged in duels, one of which was with Secretary of the U. S. Treasury William H. Crawford, whom he maimed.  Clark made one of his lifelong enemies at an early age.  He was in love with a Miss Shivers, an orphan girl.  She was the sister-in-law of Jesse Mercer, the famous Baptist minister and founder of Mercer University.  Clark enticed her to elope with him one bitterly cold winter afternoon.  Together the two rode horseback for hours over the snow and sleet in search of a preacher.  When the girl became ill in the icy cold, Clark stopped at a friend’s so she could get warm.  Miss Shivers died that night from pneumonia.  Mercer never forgave Clark for the young woman’s death.  A bitter hatred developed between the two that lasted as long as they lived.

Clark’s political career was sullied by his attempt to build his own country in Georgia.  In what was known as the Trans-Oconee Republic, Clark and others attempted to establish a separate and independent government, an activity forbidden by the government of Georgia.

When Clark lost his reelection campaign for governor, he left Georgia and moved his family and slaves to St. Andrew Bay.  Andrew Jackson appointed him KEEPER OF THE PUBLIC FOREST.  This lucrative job entrusted Clark with protecting the live oak forests along the Gulf Coast for the U. S. Navy, which used the lumber extensively for shipbuilding.

Clark built a huge, sixty-foot pine log home with large fireplaces at each end near what is now the corner of Frankford Avenue and Beach Drive.  He also operated a plantation near Moccasin Creek in the Econfina settlement.

But Clark enjoyed the beauty of the bay for only a few years.  According to legend, he contracted yellow fever on a trip to New Orleans in 1832.  However, his obituary stated that he was attacked with “bilious fever” on St. Vincent Island “while getting live oak timber” and taken home to St. Andrews Bay in a small boat.

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