George A. Clarke Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1405-1406 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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	GEORGE A. CLARKE, of Keystone, Pennington county, was born April 
3, 1849, at the bustling little city of Newcastle, Pennsylvania, and he 
is the son of Frederick J. and Maria L. (Sayward) Clarke, descendants of 
old New England families, the former being a native of Connecticut and 
the latter of Massachusetts. In 1856 the family moved to Mount Pleasant, 
Iowa, where George grew to manhood and was educated. After leaving 
school he engaged in the grain business at that place until 1874. He 
then went to Atchison, Kansas, and after a residence of two years there, 
came to the Black Hills, arriving at Custer on May 4, 1876. He was in 
business at various places in the Black Hills until 1878, then moved to 
Rapid City, where for awhile he was occupied in the lumber industry and 
later followed merchandising, remaining there until 1893. In that year 
he closed out his interests at Custer and located at Keystone, which was 
a new camp at that time. Here he opened an assay office, and being an 
experienced and well-qualified assayer, he soon built up a lucrative 
business, which he is still conducting. He is well known throughout the 
Hills as one of the progressive and representative men of Keystone, and 
having been studious and observant in his profession, has made valuable 
contributions to the scientific and technical knowledge of his section. 
He has a rare and valuable collections of fossils taken from the Bad 
Lands, which show the sort of animal life prevalent in that part of the 
country during the prehistoric ages. In addition to his work as an 
assayer he is extensively interested in mining, being president of the 
Red Canyon Stucco Company, which he helped to organize and which has one 
of the largest and most valuable deposits of gypsum in the United 
States. He is also secretary of the Mt. Aetna Mining and Milling 
Company. 

	On October 4, 1874, Mr. Clarke was married, at Washington, Kansas, 
to Miss Susan Seidenbender, a native of Iowa. They have two children, 
Charles A. and Grace C. The son is an engineer by occupation and resides 
most of the time at Keystone. The daughter is the wife of a Mr. Graham.