Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Clement, Arthur C 
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Author: Past and Present of Will County, IL; 1907

Arthur C. Clement, whose intense and well-directed activity has gained him 
prominence among the representatives of the real-estate and loan business in 
Joliet, was born January 16, 1852, in the first frame house built in this 
city. He is descended from ancestry which in its lineal and collateral 
branches has been distinctively American through many generations. The first 
representative of the name in this country was however, a native of England—
Robert Clements, Jr., who came from the “merrie isle,” thirty years after the 
establishment of the Plymouth colony and settled in Haverhill, Massachusetts. 
He was one of three trustees to whom the town was deeded by the Indians. In 
subsequent years he became a man of great influence in the village, where his 
father and family joined him and where he continued to reside until his death. 
Without statistical account of the intervening generations it is noted that 
the family was established in Vermont, for, in Windsor, that state, Benaiah 
Clement (the final "s" had now been dropped from the surname) was born and 
spent much of his life, passing away at the age of forty-nine years. His son, 
Charles Clement, father of our subject, was born in Windsor in 1810 and, 
attracted by the opportunities of the new but developing west, made a trip on 
horseback to Illinois in 1833. For a brief period he was in Peoria and then 
removed to Joliet, where he purchased an acre of ground, including what is now 
the northwest corner of Bluff and Exchange streets. For two years he engaged 
in merchandising in connection with Mr. Wilcox, and later they, with Mr. Allen 
and others, began the publication of the Joliet Courier in Merchants Row on 
North Bluff street. The first impress of the first edition of this paper, 
bearing date April 20, 1839, is now in possession of Arthur C. Clement. It was 
his father who also built the first frame house in the city, and thus he was 
closely associated with much of the early development and progress of the 
city. Returning to New England on account of ill health, he was for a brief 
period connected with no active business enterprise, but on again coming to 
Joliet in 1860 he established a dry-goods store on the corner of Jefferson and 
Ottawa streets, the present site of the Will County Bank. For three years he 
conducted the store and after selling out in 1863 he engaged in making loans 
on farm lands and other realty, figuring as one of the prominent and 
successful business men of the city until his death, December 11, 1878. His 
political allegiance was given the democracy and for a number of terms he 
served as alderman of Joliet, while ail matters relative to the city's welfare 
and progress found in him a co-operant factor. In 1844 Charles Clement was 
married to Miss Cordelia Wilcox, who was born in Elbridge, New York, in 1825, 
and died in Mayville, that state, in 1893. Her only daughter, Mrs. Alice C. 
Chaney, is a resident of Chautauqua, New York. The only son, Arthur C. 
Clement, was taken by his parents to Chester, New Hampshire, on their removal 
from Joliet in the '50s and prior to his tenth year was a student in the 
public schools there. Later he resumed his studies in his native city and his 
collegiate work was done in Cornell University, in which he matriculated in 
1868, being graduated on the completion of the four years course, in 1872, 
with the Bachelor of Science degree. As a student in the office of Olin & 
Phelps, of Joliet, he began preparation for the practice of law and afterward 
spent a year in the Chicago College of Law, being admitted to the bar at Mount 
Vernon, Illinois, in 1875. Locating for practice in his native city, he was a 
member of the law firm of Phelps & Clement, until 1878, when, at his father's 
death, he became administrator of the estate and continued the loan business 
which his father established. In 1885 the firm of Clement & Oliver was 
organized, having an existence until 1891, after which Mr. Clement continued 
in business alone for some years, but in 1897 he formed a co-partnership with 
Samuel D. Chaney, his brother-in-law, which was continued until 1903. Since 
that time he has engaged exclusively in the management of his own affairs. Mr. 
Clement has contributed in substantial measure to the improvement and progress 
of the city through the erection of buildings, including the Clement block, 
which has a frontage of one hundred and thirty-two feet on Ottawa street and 
eighty-eight feet on Jefferson street. He bears a name which anywhere passes 
current on commercial paper and which has become a synonym for modern business 
enterprise and probity in Joliet. Mr. Clement was married in Auburn, New York, 
to Miss Georgia Smith, a daughter of Alfred Smith, a prominent citizen of that 
place. They have two children: Charles A., now in the insurance and real-
estate business at 226 Jefferson street, Joliet; and Laura, who is in her 
senior year at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. Mr. Clement has 
recently erected a fine residence at the corner of Clement and Campbell 
streets, where he now resides. He is a charter member of both the Union League 
and the Commercial Clubs. At the time of the erection of the Silver Cross 
Hospital he was serving as its president and he has given substantial 
assistance to many benefactions. The name of Clement has figured conspicuously 
and honorably in connection with the business life of Joliet from the days of 
its villagehood, and in carrying forward and enlarging the business 
established by his father, Arthur C. Clement has shown an aptitude for 
successful management, that has added new luster to the family name. 

Additional Comments:
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907

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