BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Clark Joslin
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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DR. CLARK JOSLIN was born in Bricksville, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, April 2, 
1816.
     The family is of Welsh origin in the paternal, and in the maternal line, English.
     His great-grandfather served through the Revolutionary War, and his father served in 
the war or 1812, under General Wm. H. Harrison, and drew his land warrants for 160 
acres; and Mr. Joslin still owns one of the forties bought by said warrant.
     The following is a sketch of Dr. Joslin's father, as furnished by him to the press in 
Anamosa:
                                              "ANAMOSA, IOWA, Jan. 2, 1869.
     "Editor Eureka--I promised to furnish you a brief narrative of my father (John G. 
Joslin); his nativity, travels, etc.  He was born Oct. 6, 1794, in Pittstown, Rensseaer 
County, New York.  His father and mother both died and left him a poor orphan boy at 
about six years of age, after which he lived with one of his uncles for a time, and then 
with other relatives, until he was fourteen years old, when he went into Ontario County, 
New York, and remained until Nov., 1811.  He then left his relatives in the East and went 
into Huron County, Ohio and articled with a man for a piece of timbered land on which 
he commenced clearing off the timber for the purpose of making him a farm; but in some 
way failed in making payments on the land, and finally lost it, together with all the labor 
he had done on it; mostly in consequence of the great change that was taking place at that 
time in money matters, on account of the approach of the war with Great Britain, which 
commenced in 1812.  He then enlisted in the service of the United States; first in Captain 
John Dibbell's company of infantry, serving about three months, when said Dibbell was, 
for some cause, discharged the service.  My father soon after went into Captain J. R. 
Reed's company of infantry, as a substitute for another soldier, and served about six 
months in said Reed's company, which was stationed at Fort Meigs, and under the 
command of General Harrison; and while there he helped to build Fort Meigs; and on 
leaving the service he received an honorable discharge, upon which the General 
Government granted him a bounty land warrant for one hundred and sixty acres of land.
     "After peace was declared between the United States and Great Britain, he went into 
Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and soon after married and settled on a farm in the Town of 
Bricksville, sixteen miles south of Cleveland, where he carried on farming up to the Fall 
of 1827, when he moved his family (then consisting of four sons and one daughter, 
besides himself and wife) to Washtenaw County, Michigan, and settled down on eighty 
acres of wild land one and a half miles east of the Village of Saline, remained there about 
a year, sold out and moved to the west side of the Town of Saline, about a half a mile 
distant from the town, and stopped there about a year, during which time he and myself 
(being his eldest son) went into St. Joseph County, Michigan, and took up a claim on the 
west side of Big Prairie Round, about one and on-half miles from the west side, east, and 
out in the naked prairie, and broke up about twenty or thirty acres of the land with the 
intention of moving on to it the next Spring.  But something so happened as to prevent, 
and he then sold out this claim with improvements, and bought two hundred and forty 
acres of timbered land five miles west of Saline Village, on which he settled and cleared 
up about seventy acres.  Remaining there until the Summer of 1837, he sold this farm and 
emigrated to Jones County, Iowa.  (His family then consisted of six sons and two 
daughters, besides himself and wife.)  Here he bought a large quantity of prairie and 
timber lands, and settled his family around him nearly as he had always wished to do, and 
made his permanent residence about four miles south of Anamosa, in Fairview Township.  
He was one of the first to settle in Fairview, and he and his sons helped to raise the first 
saw mill built in Jones County, on the Buffalo Creed, by Honorable George Walworth 
and G. H. Ford, Esq.  And he was also a Member of the first Grand Jury that sat in Jones 
County, of which he was made foreman. 
     "The District Court at that time convened at Edinburgh, about nine miles east of 
Anamosa, the present county seat, and Judge T. S. Wilson presided on the bench.
     "He attended the first public land sales in Dubuque in 1840, and was an acting justice 
of the peace at that time, having been elected to that office at the spring election of that 
year.  In 1850, he, with two of his sons, Daniel and Thurston, fitted up teams and started 
on the 13th day of May an overland trip to California, arriving in Georgetown, California, 
on the 7th day of Oct. following.  He and his sons prospected over a good portion of the 
gold mining country open at that time, sharing privations and hardships in common with 
others in search for the golden treasure, and without meeting with very good success, and 
becoming somewhat discouraged, after a stay of about one year, and he being quite out of 
health, together with his sons, started for home from Sacramento City, May 28, 1851, by 
steamer via San Francisco, and around by New Orleans and up the Mississippi to 
Muscatine, Iowa, arriving home sometime in July following.
     "They then turned their attention again to farming.  My father's health remained quite 
poor for one or two years after returning home; but he finally gained it again so as to be 
able to do considerable labor up to within two or three years past, when it began again to 
fail, on account of senile enlargement of the prostate gland--a common disease among old 
men, and proving fatal sooner or later with most subjects, as after a long and tedious 
illness it did with him, as he sank and died of this disease Aug. 25, 1868, and was buried 
in the cemetery at Anamosa on the 27th inst., his funeral sermon being preached on that 
day by Rev. N. B. Homan, at the Baptist church in Fairview.  At my father's death his age 
was seventy-three years, ten months and nineteen days.
     "He was a firm believer in the religion of Jesus Christ, and had been a member of the 
Baptist Church from my earliest recollection.  He was strong in the faith to the end of his 
days on the earth."
     Dr. Joslin was educated in Ohio and Michigan, and gave his attention to the study of 
medicine from his sixteenth year till 1833, when he entered the office of Dr. H. Wright, 
and subsequently that of Dr. Moses Rider.  He continued his studies for three years under 
these physicians, and commenced the practice in Michigan, where he first settled, and 
then in St. Joseph County, where he subsequently moved.
     On leaving Michigan he came directly to Jones County, Iowa, and commenced the 
practice of medicine, and has continued ever since, and is now the oldest medical 
practitioner in the county.  He has had an office in Anamosa ever since the town was laid 
out, and is a member of the Jones County Medical Society.
     He married, first, M. L. Wolcott, of Michigan, April 25, 1837, and by her had MARY 
L., born Oct. 27, 1837, married C. H. Bingham, and has Ralph, Frederick and Charles.
     Mrs. Joslin died, and Dr. Joslin married, secondly, Jan. 20, 1842, Elizabeth Hale, of 
Linn County, Iowa, and has had by her five children.
     I.  WILLIAM CULLEN, born Dec. 25, 1842, married Mary A. Caffrey, daughter of 
James Caffrey, and has two children, viz., Clark and an infant.
     II.  MARY ANN I., born July 20, 1845, married David Elias, and has three children, 
Charles, Edwin and Emma Elizabeth.
     III.  JAMES M. D., born Jan. 1, 1848.  He is a physician, and graduated at Keokuk 
from the "College of Physicians and Surgeons," in the class of 1874-5.  He is a promising 
young man, and will no doubt meet the expectations of the community.
     Dr. Joslin's two children, who died in infancy, were named, Henrietta, born Oct. 1853, 
and Elizabeth, born Aug. 20, 1856.
     The Doctor is a quiet unassuming man, free from ostentation, social and genial in 
disposition, and is well worthy the esteem in which he is held by his fellow-citizens.