OBIT: John Calvin CLARKSON, 1891, Tyrone, Blair County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by JRB

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/
_________________________________________ 

"JASON" IS NO MORE.
The Death of J. C. Clarkson at Tyrone Last Evening.

  Our Tyrone correspondent sends us the following: "John Calvin 
Clarkson, the whole-souled, generous, kind-hearted man and able 
educator and excellent newspaper correspondent under the nom de plume 
of "Jason," is not more.  He peacefully and calmly passed away at his 
rooms on West Juniata street last evening at 6.15, after an illness of 
one week's duration.  His sisters, Mrs. Ida M. Lewis and Miss M. E. 
Clarkson, and other friends were with him.  His aged father, although 
sent for, had not arrived.  He had been feeling so much better all day 
that his death was a surprise."
  John Calvin Clarkson was the son of Judge Clarkson and Elenor, 
deceased, and was born in Cassville, Huntingdon county, about fifty-
three years ago.  He was educated at the Cassville seminary and the 
greater part of his life was devoted to teaching in Blair, Huntingdon 
and Bedford counties.  At the time of his death he was principal of the 
East Tyrone public schools.  Besides his venerable father who resides 
at Cassville, he leaves to mourn their loss two brothers and six 
sisters.  They are: Rev. B. F. Clarkson, of Baltimore; Dr. J. A. 
Coleman Clarkson, of Lewistown; Mrs. R. M. Lewis, Mrs. S. Craine and 
Miss M. E. Clarkson, of this city; Mrs. Bell Hessman, of Rock Island, 
Illinois, and Misses Emrette and Annie Clarkson, who reside with their 
father.
  Brief services will be conducted in Tyrone this morning by Rev. 
Hamlin, assisted by Rev. Gilbert, of the Methodist Episcopal church and 
the remains will be placed on seashore express and taken to Mapleton, 
from which point they will be conveyed to Cassville, where services 
will be conducted at 10 o'clock Sunday morning by Rev. Adams.  
Interment in Cassville cemetery.
  Mr. Clarkson was a successful teacher.  A man of more than ordinary 
natural ability, he was also a profound student and that which he knew 
he had the faculty of imparting to his pupils.  A student of human 
nature as well as of books, he was able to meet the deeper wants, and 
to reach the hidden forces, instincts, desires, of those who were the 
subject of his instruction.  Hence his school room was always a scene 
of busy industry.  His pupils were contented, happy and ambitious.  
They got their lessons because their teacher's magnetic influence led 
them to love learning for its own sake.  When he was in health there 
was no man in the ranks of common school teachers who was his superior 
in leading the young into the ways of knowledge, and there are hundreds 
who will gratefully remember him many years hence.  What better 
immortality can the faithful teacher desire than that of living, after 
his own tongue is silent, after his hand has fallen nerveless by his 
side, in the lives of those who have been made nobler and better by his 
influence.  Such is, we believe, the happy future of him whom we have 
known as "Jason," and whose eyes forever closed to earthly things last 
evening.
  It was as a newspaper correspondent, however, that Mr. Clarkson was 
best known to the people at large.  His versatility and his industry 
were a matter of constant surprise.  For a number of years he 
corresponded regularly with the TRIBUNE.  During the greater part of 
that time he lived in a small country town.  An average correspondent 
would have considered himself doing well had he found a half column a 
week.  But Jason sent the TRIBUNE several columns every week, some of 
it indeed upon social and political topics, but an astonishingly large 
part of it news items of timely interest.  Frequently, too, he sent 
elaborate and carefully prepared articles upon public questions which 
were published in our editorial department without credit.  When his 
letters came to hand, nearly always three a week, sometimes daily, it 
was a constant matter of surprise that the man could keep it up, as 
well as to how he managed to cover so wide a field.  At the same time 
he was contributing weekly articles to the Huntingdon papers as well as 
to some of the eastern dailies.
  His copy was a delight to the editorial eye and a prize to the 
compositors.  It required no editing.  It was never carelessly done.  
He never sent rough notes on the plea that he "didn't have time to 
write them out."  Save for forms' sake it would have been entirely 
unnecessary to read his articles before sending them to the composing 
room.  Orthography, punctuation, arrangement, construction, all were 
just as they should be.  The last work he did for the TRIBUNE was when 
he was teaching at Birmingham.  After his removal to Tyrone his 
articles were contributed to the Tyrone Herald.
  We record his death with genuine sorrow.  Its announcement by our 
Tyrone correspondent was a great shock to editors and compositors.  We 
deeply sympathize with his bereaved friends in their sorrow.  We can 
hardly realize that we shall look upon his face no more.  With supreme 
confidence in the wideness of that divine mercy which encompasses all 
the children of earth, we put this poor tribute upon the coffin of our 
departed correspondent, and invoke the healing touch of the divine hand 
upon the hearts that bleed from this sudden sorrow.

Morning Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Friday, April 3, 1891

TYRONE TOPICS.

  The funeral services over the remains of J. C. Clarkson were held at 
the residence of Dr. L. F. Crawford, on West Juniata street, at 1.30 
p.m. yesterday, and were conducted by Rev. B. B. Hamlin, D.D., 
presiding elder, and Rev. R. H. Gilbert.  Previous to the services an 
opportunity was afforded all who so desired to view the face for the 
last time of one whom many knew.  The school children of the East 
Tyrone public schools, of which the deceased was principal, were 
present in a body, in charge of Mr. Davis and Mr. Beck, directors, 
after which the remains were taken to the station and placed on mail 
train east at 2.35 and taken to Mapleton and from thence will be taken 
to Cassville for interment.

Morning Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Saturday, April 4, 1891