Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Clarke, Louis G. 
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com January 16, 2011, 10:50 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 663 - 664
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     LOUIS G. CLARKE, who for many years was successfully engaged in the drug 
business in Portland but is now living retired from active affairs and resides 
at the Mallory Hotel, is accounted one of the highly respected residents of 
this city owing to his former business activity and his prominence in 
community affairs as the supporter of many measures which have had direct 
bearing upon the public welfare. He is also one of the leading Masons of 
Oregon, having held high office in the order.

     Mr. Clarke comes to the northwest from Ohio. He was born in Zanesville, 
Muskingum county, that state, a son of Levi and Mary Ellen (Ellmore) Clarke, 
both of whom are deceased. The father was for many years engaged in wagon 
manufacturing. In the public and high schools of his native city Mr. Clarke 
acquired a good education and there served his apprenticeship in the drug 
business, while later he pursued the regular course of study in the 
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and was graduated therefrom. In 1876, when 
twenty years of age, he came to Portland and cast his first vote in this city. 
Here he engaged in the drug business in partnership with C. H. Woodard, with 
whom he was associated under the firm name of Woodard, Clarke & Company until 
1904. His exceedingly progressive business methods, however, did not meet with 
the approval of his partner, who later sold his interest to Mr. Clarke and 
William F. Woodward, and some years later they organized the Clarke-Woodward 
Drug Company for the conduct of an importing, manufacturing and wholesale drug 
business. The new firm carried on the business with marked success until 1925, 
when they sold out to the Blumauer-Frank Drug Company and to the Liggett Drug 
Company, whereupon Mr. Clarke retired from active business, having in the 
meantime acquired a substantial competence as the result of his enterprising 
methods, his indefatigable energy and his sound judgment in commercial 
affairs. He remains, however, a director of the Oregon State Bank and he was 
one of the organizers and vice president of the Oregon Life Insurance Company. 
He is also a member of the Crawford Loan Association.

     Mr. Clarke was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth L. Church, a daughter 
of Stephen J. Church, secretary of the Portland Transportation Company of 
Salem, Oregon.

     Mr. Clarke has long figured prominently in Masonic circles and in 1915 
filled the office of grand commander of the Knights Templar of Oregon. He has 
been potentate of Al Kader Temple of the Mystic Shrine and is a member of 
Oregon Consistory No. 1, in which he received the thirty-third degree in 1894, 
this being the highest degree in Masonry and conferred only in recognition of 
superior service rendered by the individual to the order. On the 20th of 
October, 1921, he received the Grand Cross from the Supreme Council. He has 
served as chairman of the Masonic and Eastern Star Home at Forest Grove and 
has been most active in furthering the philanthropic work of this time-honored 
organization. His labors along other lines, too, have been far-reaching and 
effective. He was one of the founders of the Oregon State Pharmaceutical 
Association, was appointed a member of the state board of pharmacy by Governor 
Pennoyer and served as its first president. He was a member of General Beebe's 
staff, acting as a non-commissioned officer for three years. Under Mayor 
Joseph Simon he filled the office of police commissioner and in every position 
to which he has been called he has measured up to the full requirements of the 
office. For many years he has been a director of the Oregon Tuberculosis 
Association and in 1928 was elected president of the society. He belongs also 
to the Rotary Club and to the Waverly Club. His entire career as a business 
man, public official and citizen has been marked by conscientious loyalty to 
duty and principle, while his sterling character and his frank and 
straightforward relations with his fellowmen have long commanded for him a 
high place in the respect and esteem of those who know him.

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