Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Clark, Matt 1852 - 
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com February 14, 2011, 3:01 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 939 - 940
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

      MATT CLARK, of Portland, who is regarded as the largest individual 
timber buyer in the Columbia River valley, has spent his life in various 
branches of the timber industry and the success which has come to him has been 
attained through his energy and persistency and the exercise of sound judgment 
in all of his affairs. Mr. Clark was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1852, and 
is a son of William G. and Mary (Miller) Clark, both of whom were natives of 
Maryland, the father born in Maryland county and the mother in Baltimore. 
William G. Clark was a lumberman and in an early day located in St. Louis. He 
bought logs at Stillwater, Minnesota, and floated them seven hundred miles 
down the river to St. Louis, where he has established one of the first 
sawmills in that locality. He was a member of the Presbyterian church, in 
which he served as elder for over fifty years. He died at the age of eighty-
six years and his wife died when her son Matt was but an infant.

     Matt Clark received his educational training in the public schools of St. 
Louis and while still a boy went to work for the mercantile firm of Bronson & 
Fulson, receiving a salary of thirty-five dollars a month, which just paid for 
his board and room. Six months later, at the age of nineteen years, he went to 
work in the Staples sawmill at a salary of seventy-five dollars a month, which 
was raised to one hundred dollars a month six months later, at which time he 
was put in charge of the mill. He was with that firm for fourteen years, and 
when the business was sold he organized the Matt Clark Transportation Company 
and engaged in towing logs out of Stillwater and Beef Slough, Minnesota, to 
the various large lumber operators along the river. At that time had nine 
boats on the Mississippi river, namely, the "Isaac Staples," "David 
Bronson," "J. K. Evans," "Menominee," "Evansville," "Penwright," "Jennie 
Hays," "Ben Hersey" and a yacht, the "Romana." In 1900 Mr. Clark sold his 
boating interests and went to work for the state of Minnesota, being put in 
charge of timber lands under the state auditor, who had supervision over the 
sales of state lands. In 1905 Mr. Clark established his residence in St. Paul, 
Minnesota, and opened a timber business at Duluth, which he conducted for four 
years and then, in 1909, came to Portland, Oregon, where he has resided to the 
present time. He was employed by James J. Hill to buy the right of way for the 
Deschutes branch of the Oregon Trunk Line, a part of the Great Northern 
Railroad, and since then he has been extensively engaged in buying and selling 
timber throughout the Pacific northwest, both as an individual and as the 
representative of many large eastern lumber concerns. During all the years of 
his activity here he has enjoyed a reputation as a reliable and honorable 
business man, commanding the confidence and respect of all who have dealt with 
him, and his judgment as to timber lands is regarded as absolutely dependable.

     Mr. Clark was married, in 1873, to Miss Olive Staples, a daughter of Mr. 
and Mrs. Isaac Staples. She died, leaving three children: Mrs. Mary B. Town, 
who lives in California; Jane, who is at home, and Mrs. Lilla Kearney, of 
Mankato, Minnesota. For his second wife Mr. Clark chose Miss Bessie Stimpson, 
a daughter of S. R. Stimpson, general manager of the St. Paul & Duluth 
Railroad, residing in Stillwater, Minnesota. Mr. Clark is a member of the 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and in his political views is a stanch 
democrat. A man of kindly and unaffected manner, deeply interested in the 
general welfare of his community and loyal and true in all the relations of 
life, he has an unusually large circle of warm friends and is highly esteemed 
wherever known.

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