S. Wesley Clark Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1744-1745 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	A photo of S. Wesley Clark faces 1744.


	S. WESLEY CLARK, a representative and successful member of the bar 
of Spink county, was born at Platteville, Grant county, Wisconsin, on 
the 28th of December, 1873, and is a son of Samuel P. and Elizabeth 
(Huntington) Clark, who now maintain their home in San Jose, California. 
Samuel P. Clark was born on a farm near the city of Rutland, Vermont, in 
the year 1838, and in 1847 he accompanied his parents on their removal 
thence to Wisconsin. His father, Pliny Clark, was one of the early 
pioneers of the Badger state, where he reclaimed a good farm, being 
compelled in the early epoch to haul his produce by wagon to Milwaukee, 
eighty miles distant. The Clark genealogy is traced back to pure English 
extraction and family tradition indicates that the original 
representatives in America were Puritans who came over on the historic 
Mayflower, either on its first or second voyage. Abraham Clark, one of 
the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was of this family. The 
father of the subject was reared in Dane county, Wisconsin, where he was 
educated in the common schools of the pioneer era and the state 
university, at Madison, where he completed a partial course, withdrawing 
from that institution in order to assist his parents, by teaching. In 
1862 he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Huntington, who was 
born in Liverpool, England, in 1842. In 1849 her father, Thomas 
Huntington, came with his family to the United States and settled in 
Dane county, Wisconsin, becoming one of the prominent farmers near the 
town of Mazomanie, where the mother of the subject received her early 
education in the common schools, supplementing this discipline by a 
course of study in a seminary at Evansville, that state. She and her 
husband are communicants of the Episcopal church. Thomas Huntington was 
a prominent architect and builder in Liverpool, after coming to America 
abandoned his profession and lived quietly on his farm in Wisconsin 
until summoned to his reward. 

	In July, 1882, the parents of the subject came to South Dakota and 
located in Faulk county, within whose confines the father took up a 
considerable tract of government land and engaged in farming and stock 
growing, while in ~883 he established the postoffice of Wesley, named in 
honor of the subject of this sketch, who was the youngest white boy in 
the county, having been eight years of age when the family located in 
Faulk county. During the early years he watched his father's cattle on 
the prairies and assisted in trapping many wolves and foxes during the 
winter months, while in August, 1882, he espied a single buffalo, not 
far distant from the primitive home, and wished to take his father's 
rifle and shoot the animal, but was forbidden to do so by his anxious 
mother, her husband being absent at the time. Mr. Clark stated to the 
writer that he had ever retained a sincere regret that he had failed to 
shoot at that buffalo. He early manifested a distinctive predilection 
for the reading of good books and while still a boy expressed a wish to 
become a lawyer. When but thirteen years of age he began to read with 
absorbing interest such books as he could obtain as touching both 
ancient and modern history, as well as scientific works, and the while 
secured such educational advantages as were offered in the pioneer 
common schools of Faulk and Spink counties. When but nine years of age 
he met on his father's farm near Athol, Spink county, Thomas Sterling, 
now dean of law at the state university, and through a conversation with 
him determined to take up the study of law as soon as he could secure 
the necessary books, while it may be said that in the passing years he 
has not abated in the least his enthusiasm in the study of the science 
of jurisprudence in its various branches. He herded cattle for fifteen 
dollars a month and thus secured the money which enabled him to begin 
his collegiate work. He studied out on the prairies while keeping watch 
and ward over the cattle, and at times became so immured in his reading 
that his charges took unkind advantage of his abstraction and wandered 
away from their prescribed province. After completing the curriculum of 
the public schools Mr. Clark entered Redfield College, in which he was 
graduated as a member of the class of 1894, having taught school to aid 
in defraying his college expenses and having held a first-grade 
teacher's certificate when but eighteen years of age. Immediately after 
his graduation he entered the law office of Sterling & Morris, at 
Redfield, and devoted himself assiduously to his legal duties until 
February, 1897, when he was admitted to the bar of the state, upon 
examination before the supreme court. He then remained with his 
preceptors for two years, on salary, and at the expiration of this 
interval, in 1899, entered into a professional partnership with E. B. 
Korns, at Doland, Spink county, this alliance continuing until the 
removal of Mr. Korns to Tracy, Minnesota. In 1900, upon his election to 
the office of state's attorney of Spink county, Mr. Clark returned to 
Redfield and here entered into partnership with his honored preceptor 
and friend, Thomas Sterling, and they have since continued to be 
associated in practice, under the firm name of Sterling & Clark, while 
they control the leading law business in Spink and adjoining counties. 
At the time of his election to the office of state's attorney Mr. Clark 
was but twenty-seven years of age, being at the time the youngest 
incumbent of such office in the state. At the expiration of his two 
years' term, in 1902, he was re-elected, receiving the largest majority 
ever accorded a candidate for public office in the county. His second 
term will expire in January, 1905, while it should be stated, that he 
has made a most admirable record as a public prosecutor. In politics he 
gives an uncompromising allegiance to the Republican party; his 
religious faith is that of the Congregational church, with which he 
united while attending college; and fraternally he is identified with 
the Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias, the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, and the Modern Woodmen of America, being at the time of this 
writing chancellor commander of Ivy Lodge, No. 23, Knights of Pythias. 
He has ever taken an interest in military affairs, and has been a member 
of the National Guard since he was sixteen years of age. He enlisted at 
the time of the Spanish-American war, at Sioux Falls, but was in poor 
health at the time and thus unable to pass the required physical 
examination and was not accepted as a volunteer. He is at the present 
time captain of Company G, Second Regiment, South Dakota National Guard, 
at Redfield. Mr. Clark is of sanguine temperament and genial 
personality, and has a host of loyal friends, his only enemies being 
malefactors whom he has hard pressed in his various prosecutions. He 
went to California in 1890, with the intention of permanently locating, 
but became homesick for the prairies and the invigorating climate of 
South Dakota, to which state he returned after six months, convinced 
that this is the ideal place for young men. 

	On the 7th of February, 1900, at Doland, this county, was 
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Clark to Miss Daisy Gertrude Labrie, who 
was born in the state of Illinois but who has resided in South Dakota 
since infancy, being here reared and educated. She is a daughter of 
Joseph E. Labrie, who came to this county in 1879, becoming a member of 
the first board of county commissioners and being vie of the most 
prominent pioneers and influential citizens of Spink county; he is now 
postmaster at Doland. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have twin sons, Sterling and 
Stanton, who were born at the home of his parents, in San Jose, 
California, on the 1st of June, 1902, and when they were but six weeks 
of age the two lively youngsters were brought to their South Dakota home 
snugly ensconced in a basket.