OHN CLARK, farmer, Canisteo, is the eldest of a family of seven children, and was born in the town of Fort Ann, Washington county, New York, August 16, 1816. His parents were Smith and Parmelia (Plew) Clark, and their nativity is unknown.
Smith Clark was a farmer and lumberman, and becoming crippled by rheumatism, moved to New Hampshire, and subsequently to Vermont, where he engaged in basket-weaving. The eldest son was obliged to assist in all ways possible in order to keep the family from want, and had very limited opportunities for education. He became expert in the use of all kinds of wood-working tools, and when nineteen began carpenter work in New York, whither the family had now returned.
In 1840 he married Miss Lucy Woodard, a native of Pittsford, Vermont. Four years later he removed to Palmyra, Wisconsin, where he remained nearly twenty-one years, and where his helpmeet was taken away by death in September, 1854.
Mr. Clark built a large share of the buildings in that town, which was then just springing up. In 1866 he became a resident of Dodge county, arriving May 9, and settled on section 11, Canisteo, where he now lives in a large and handsome frame house. Since his residence here farming has been his sole occupation, but he can now make chairs, churns, or other articles of wood with ready facility.
In 1855 he married Abigail L. Safford, a native of Dansville, New York. Five daughters resulted from this union, and four sons from the first. Their names and residences are as follows: William H., Kasson; Albert Martin, Parker, Dakota; Myron John, Topeka, Kansas; James Erastus, Tracy, this state; Angie (Mrs. Cormel De Vogel), Hayfield, this county; Ella, Emma, Lucinda and Mary, with parents.
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SOURCE: HISTORY OF WINONA, OLMSTED & DODGE COUNTIES, MN, PUB 1884.