Yolo County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


 
Hon. Ephraim CLARK
 
An interesting career is that of the Hon. Ephraim Clark, of Woodland, Yolo 
county, Cal, own cousin of the Hon. Champ Clark of Missouri, speaker of the 
national House of Representatives, Washington, D. C., now one of the most 
prominent men in the Democratic party and certain if he lives to go forward to 
still greater distinction.  Ephraim Clark, who came to California in 1854, was 
born near Jefferson City, Mo., April 25, 1832, a son of Michael D. and Dorcas 
Tabitha (Fowler) Clark.  Michael, born at Hopkinsville, Ky., in 1799, was the 
first white child born in that town.  His father, Capt. Benjamin Clark, a 
soldier of the Revolutionary war, early emigrated from Tennessee to Kentucky.  
Michael Clark, when he was seventeen years old, went from his native state to 
Missouri and settled near Jefferson City, where he had success as a farmer and 
lived out the days of his natural life.  His wife, Dorcas Tabitha Fowler, was 
born in Virginia and died in Missouri.  They had six sons and a daughter, and of 
those children the Hon. Ephraim Clark is the only survivor.  He was reared on a 
farm in the days when farming was hard work, and attended subscription schools 
in log houses that had puncheon floors and slab benches and were in charge of 
teachers some of whom were as primitive as the surroundings.  
 
Under his parents� roof Mr. Clark remained till 1854, when he was about 
twenty-two years old.  Then he came to California, accompanied by his uncle, 
William B. Ragsdale.  They came across plains and mountains, and young Clark 
drove an ox-team, walking all of the way.  After some preliminary skirmishes 
with Fortune he settled down to lumber manufacturing with such poor mills as the 
time and place afforded.  Eventually he built a mill which he operated till in 
1862, then, attracted by the Florence City (Idaho) mining excitement, he 
precipitately packed in to Florence.  Eight months� experience there sent him 
less enthusiastically back to California.  In 1864 he located in Nevada, where 
he built the first toll road east of Virginia City, Nev., to Austin on the east. 
 He located at Cottonwood, where, in addition to collecting tolls he engaged in 
raising cattle.  In 1868 he was elected a member of the legislature, being the 
second Democrat sent from his county, and served with ability and credit one 
term.  Later he was county commissioner of Churchill county, Nev., for two terms 
and served one term as county assessor.  During all of this time he was 
extensively engaged in raising cattle, having a wide range for his cattle, which 
were branded with the figure 2.  In 1880 he sold out there and came to Yolo 
county, Cal., and bought a farm a mile and a half from Woodland, upon which he 
began to raise grapes and almonds.  In 1908 he sold that property and bought his 
residence at No. 150 Second street, Woodland.  
 
At Northampton, Mass., August 25, 1875, Mr. Clark married Miss Lucy Severance, 
the ceremony having been performed by the Rev. Clark Seeley, president of Smith 
College.  Miss Severance was born in Heath, Mass., a daughter of Horace and Mary 
(Fisk) Severance.  They had one child, James Henry, who died at the age of three 
months.  Educated in the pay schools, Mr. Clark has always been a friend of 
education and of every other source of enlightenment.  He is, as has been 
suggested, a Democrat, and as such has frequently been chosen a delegate to 
state and county conventions.  Mrs. Clark is a member of the Congregational 
Church, helpful to all its direct and auxiliary interests.  She is a woman of 
exalted character, who stands high in the esteem of the best people of the 
county.  Mr. Clark is greatly respected by all who know him, as a man of much 
worth, whose integrity is never questioned.  He is always listed, too, among the 
honored pioneers of California and Nevada.
 
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source:  �History of Yolo County, California� by Tom Gregory.  Published by the 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 695 � 696.
 


EPHRAIM CLARK
 
Ephraim Clark, a resident of the vicinity of Woodland, was born April 25, 1832, 
in Jefferson City, Missouri, a son of M. D. and D. T. (Fowler) Clark.  The 
father was a farmer by occupation, and a brother, J. F., is now the occupant of 
the homestead in Missouri, which was settled by M. D. Clark in 1829.  He died in 
1862, at the age of sixty-three years.  The subject of this sketch still owns a 
third interest in 525 acres in that State, a portion of which is the old 
homestead place.  He of course was reared on a farm, and when twenty-two years 
of age, in 1854, he came to California, driving an ox team across the plains to 
pay his way, and arrived in Placer County, where he remained until February, 
1862.  He then visited British Columbia, Idaho and Montana, being one of the 
first to enter Montana that year.  The same year he returned to Placer County 
and followed mining one year.  In 1863 he went to Churchill County, Nevada, 
where he engaged in making toll-roads, and was the first Democrat elected to 
represent the county in the Legislature.  He was elected four years as 
Supervisor and two years as Assessor, -- all this while the county generally 
gave a Republican majority.  Remaining there until the last of November, 1880, 
he sold out his stock and road, returning to California; finally settled near 
Woodland, a mile and a half from the city, upon a tract of ten acres, of which 
six are vineyard and four in clover.  Mr. Clark has traveled over all the United 
States and can relate many interesting incidents.  He thinks an American should 
see his native country before going to Europe.
 
He was married in 1875 to Miss L. W. Severance, a native of Massachusetts.  They 
had one son, who died at the age of three months.
 
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing 
Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler