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File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project
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Source: The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fulton County
Munsell Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908

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The Biography of John CLARK 

Transcribed exactly according to the original complete text by Anne Marie Willis, a descendant of John Clark's brother George Wesley Clark. 

[Surnames: BRAGG, BUCEY, CLARK, DEERING, DERRY*, DUPEZ, GREEN*, KNOCK, NOCK*, RODGERS, QUILLEN, STERLING, TRANER, TRONE, WEST] 

[starting on page 830] 

    
CLARK, John.--Although the memory of the roar of cannon, of the glitter of bayonets and the pestilential surroundings of Southern prisons has been drowned somewhat in the later peace of agricultural pursuits, the three years' service of John Clark in the Civil War remains the paramount and most absorbing experience in the life of this honored soldier and farmer of Bernadotte Township. Mr. Clark is of early American ancestry, and his birth occurred in Belmont County, Ohio, May 29, 1837. His parents, George W.* [correction: William George Clark] and Rachel (Knock) Clark, were natives of Maryland* [incorrect], and were born March 19, 1812 and October 24, 1812, respectively. The marriage of this couple occurred November 20, 1834, and they soon after settled in Belmont County, Ohio, coming to Fulton County, this State, in 1840. Mr. Clark bought a farm two miles southwest of Bernadotte, and in 1842 purchased another tract of land in Vermont Township, from which he eventually retired to Astoria, where his death occurred at an advanced age. His wife died October 1, 1844*. Of their children, Minerva was born November 9, 1835, and died August 31, 1850; John Clark, born as above stated; Ann E., born in 1839, and became the wife of David Sterling, of Pittsburg, Kans.; Thomas Willis* and [George] Wesley* (twins), born May 6, 1841; Sarah E., born September 20, 1843, died October 1, 1844. For his second wife George W. Clark married Elizabeth Traner, and of their union there were the following children: Sarah E., born July 11, 1845, the wife of Joshua Bucey, of Astoria; Rachel, born March 20, 1847, wife of Jacob Deering* [correction: Derry], of Astoria; Zachariah T.*, born December 1, 1848; William*, born August 19, 1850, and died September 1, 1850; Abraham, born November 13, 1851, deceased*; Henry is a farmer of Pleasant Township; and James, who is a farmer of Missouri. 
    
John Clark was three years old when he came to Fulton County with his parents. The nearest neighbor of the family was half a mile distant, and the next nearest lived three miles away. The early subscription schools afforded opportunity to acquire the rudiments of education, and he remained at home until his marriage to Louise A. Trone, October 7, 1858. Mrs. Clark was born in York County, Pa., March 10, 1839, a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Dupez) Trone, Fulton County pioneers of 1853, the former of whom died in Woodland Township in 1857, and the latter in 1889. The children of John Clark and his wife are as follows: Mary E., born July 13, 1859, wife of W. H. West, of Iowa; Sarah E. and Minerva J. (twins), born September 16, 1861, died the day of their birth; Joseph W., born December 19, 1865, a resident of Frederick, Ill.; Louise A., born December 28, 1867, wife of Robert Quillen, of Indiana; Elressa May, born May 29, 1870, wife of Frank Rodgers, general merchant of Table Grove, Ill.; Rebecca C., born November 9, 1872, living at home; John H., born August 31, 1876; Simeon R., born November 22, 1879; Sylvester R., born May 23, 1882. 
    
After his marriage Mr. Clark settled on eighty acres of land in Woodland Township, where his home was a log cabin, and his opportunity the hitherto uncultivated soil. Timber and brush had held undisputed sway over this land for unknown years, and in clearing it his task extended from sunrise to sunset. However, when the Civil War broke out he had succeeded in bringing a sort of rude order into his surroundings, and a large part of his land was under cultivation. August 9, 1862, he enlisted at Quincy, Ill., in Company F., Eighty-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and from there was sent to Louisville, Ky., where the regiment assisted to drive the Confederate General Bragg to Wildcat, N.C. The regiment next participated in the battles of Stone River and Chickamauga, and on September 20, 1863, Mr. Clark was captured by the rebels, sent to Richmond, Va., and thrown into Libby Prison, afterward being taken to Danville, where his prison menu included mule meat, being otherwise subjected to inhuman treatment. On April 14, 1864, he was transferred to Andersonville Prison, and thus he made the rounds of the most noted rebel prisons of the Civil War period. The inhuman treatment of the Union prisoners was further illustrated when, at the time of an expected bombardment of the city of Charleston by the Union forces, Mr. Clark and a number of his comrades were taken to that city and placed within the range of the Union guns for the purpose of warding off the attack. The scheme proved a failure, however, for when the bombardment began it was welcomed by the cheers of the Union prisoners, and the guns were turned [page 831] upon the city, which was shelled to a finish. Afterward the prisoners were lined up and associated with yellow fever victims, that they might become inoculated and die, but this effort to get them out of the way also failed. A doctor finally was sent in to parole the sick, and for every ten sick one well man was paroled. Mr. Clark bought his release for five dollars, and then returned to Charleston, and took boat for neutral waters. He finally reached home January 1, 1865, and after a rest of thirty days rejoined his regiment at Nashville, at the end of its service. The Eighty-fourth was a gallant body of men, and its ranks contained many heroes. Of its original 1,000 members, but 333 returned to their homes. 
    
After the war Mr. Clark continued to live in Woodland Township until 1869, in which year he made a trip to Kansas, with the expectation of possible settlement there. In 1870 he settled in Bernadotte Township, purchasing 160 acres of land, eighty of which he subsequently disposed of. At the present time he has a comfortable home and a well equipped farm, the residence and buildings being of his own construction. The hard work of the farm has of necessity been left to others, as ever since the war the returned soldier has carried around with him a resultant weakness, a perpetual reminder of the grim and terrible tragedy of the war period. With his wife he has been an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years, and in politics is a stanch Republican. Mr. Clark is one of the most prominent members of the local Grand Army of the Republic, and it is useless to add that his are among the most interesting of the reminiscences of wartime which enliven the annual campfires. He is a man of sterling general worth, and his life has been tuned to industry, self-sacrifice and loyalty to his country and its interests. 

*Notes: This biography incorrectly states that John Clark's parents were natives of Maryland. His father William George Clark was born in Belmont Co., Ohio, died March 23, 1900 in Fulton Co. His mother Rachel Nock (Knock) was a Quaker born in Smyrna, Kent Co., Delaware. She may have died Oct. 10, 1843 rather than the 1844 date noted. William G. Clark's parents WERE born in Maryland; John Clark, born about 1773 in Allegheny Co., MD, died Sept. 1838 in Belmont Co., Ohio, and Elizabeth Green born about 1782 in Montgomery Co., MD, died April 21, 1852 in Belmont Co., Ohio. 
    Of his siblings, my ancestor George Wesley Clark is referred to in the biography as Wesley. I'm not sure where the "Wesley" reference came from, I have usually seen his name listed as "G.W." Thomas Willis, one of the twins, died March 17, 1851 in Fulton Co.. His half sister Rachel Clark was married to Jacob DERRY, rather than Deering. His half brother Zachariah died in 1850. William was born in 1854 and died in 1855, and Abraham died in 1852. There may have been another child, Scott Lincoln born March 5, 1860, died March 1, 1862. He is listed as being buried in Union Chapel with the rest of the Clarks. 
-- Anne Marie Willis, a descendant of John Clark's brother George Wesley Clark