Orson Clark Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1059-1060 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				ORSON CLARK. 

	Orson Clark, vice president of the First National Bank of 
Mobridge, has devoted practically his entire life to the banking 
business, starting out in a clerical capacity. He was born in Lawson, 
Ray county, Missouri, May 31, 1873, and is a son of Robert J. and 
Sallie A. (Moore) Clark, the former a native of Tennessee and the 
latter of Missouri. In young manhood Robert J. Clark toured the western 
country, covering many of the middle western and coast states looking 
for a permanent location. However, after his marriage, which was 
celebrated in Missouri, he settled in Lawson and for many years was 
prominently identified with its mercantile interests. Subsequently he 
became associated with the banking business and for twenty-six years 
was cashier of the Lawson Bank, becoming well known among the leading 
financiers of the state, remaining in active connection with the bank 
until he retired from business life, his home being now in Richmond, 
Missouri. He was formerly a prominent figure in democratic circles but 
while he had marked influence in party councils he was never an 
aspirant for public preferment although he served for some years as 
public administrator in Ray county, Missouri. He and his wife are 
consistent members of the Methodist Church, South, and he belongs to 
the Masonic lodge, of which he was secretary for thirty years. 

	After his graduation from the Lawson high school Mr. Clark 
entered the Presbyterian College of Upper Missouri but toward the close 
of his first year the college was destroyed by fire and his educational 
work was never resumed. He then entered a mercantile establishment in 
Lawson and for seven years gave his attention to clerical work in the 
different stores of the town. Still later he entered the Lawson Bank as 
assistant cashier of that institution, serving under his father for 
seven years. in July, 1907, he arrived in South Dakota, making his way 
to Lemmon, where he became assistant cashier of the Grand River State 
Bank. That bank was afterward nationalized and merged into the First 
National Bank, of which Mr. Clark became the vice president, continuing 
in that capacity until March, 1910, when he sold his interest and 
returned to Missouri. For two years thereafter he engaged in the 
hardware business in Maryville and in the spring of 1912 he returned to 
South Dakota, settling at Mobridge, where he acquired an interest in 
the Mobridge State Bank, which was later converted into a national bank 
and merged into the First National Bank, of which Mr. Clark is now the 
vice president. Thorough training along banking lines with broadening 
experiences throughout his entire business career has well qualified 
him for the discharge of the duties which devolve upon him and for the 
solution of the intricate problems connected with the banking business. 

	On the 19th of September, 1899, Mr. Clark was married to Miss 
Emma Campbell, or Lawson, Missouri, and to them have been born two 
children, Ernestine Frances and Dorothy Virginia. Mr. Clark votes with 
the democratic party and is active in public affairs, serving as police 
commissioner and as member of the school board of Mobridge, acting as 
treasurer of the board at the present time. His fraternal connections 
are with Mobridge Lodge, No. 164, A. F. & A. M., and Lemmon Chapter, R. 
A. M., while he and his wife are members of the Order of the Eastern 
Star at Mobridge. He is also identified with the Mobridge Lodge of the 
Knights of Pythias, the Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America and the 
Owls. He and his wife hold membership in the Congregational church and 
the varied phases of public life are to him matters of interest. He 
never neglects his obligations of citizenship nor his opportunities to 
aid in promoting public progress.