Fresno County, California Biographies

Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of 
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with 
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)

History By Paul E. Vandor 
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
 
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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


JOHN T. S. CLARK. � A successful business man who has done much 
to advance the technical standards of plumbing in Central California, and 
who very worthily represents that large body of English pioneers who have 
done so much for the development of California, is John T. S. Clark, a mem- 
ber of the Sanger Plumbing Company, now recognized as one of the com- 
mercial and industrial enterprises of that town. He was born at Burton-on- 
Trent, England, on June 15, 1883, the son of John Clark, a detective who was 
one of the ablest of the famous Scotland Yard secret police of the United 
Kingdom. He used to make trips to the United States in pursuit of criminals, 
and one of the trips brought him to California in pioneer days. 

John T. S. Clark was educated in the schools in the vicinity of his birth- 
place, and at the early age of sixteen came to the United States. He located 
in San Jose, but after two years of labor on Santa Clara County ranches, he 
went, in the spring of 1902, to Converse Basin and secured work with the 
Sanger Lumber Company. He proved apt and willing, and advanced rapidly 
through different stages of the work, and from loading cars he became chief 
engineer of the plant, and finally he was appointed to the superintendencey of 
the mill, the highest post at the disposition of the concern. He never asked 
for promotion, but was always advanced as a recognition of his unquestioned 
and marked ability. 

On December 17, 1914. in partnership with William F. Jones, Mr. Clark- 
established the Sanger Plumbing Company at Sanger, an enterprise now 
rated among the most important of the town. The main business of the 
company is installing pumping and irrigating plants on near-by ranches and 
such has been the extent of their operations that in the past four years they 
have installed over 400 such outfits. Among the most important of these 
may be mentioned that of Dillon Bros., G. R. Hawk, August Schmidt, Pugh 
Bros., and J. R. Boyer. The company employs seven men and uses three 
automobiles. 

Mr. Clark is eminently fitted for his work, as he has had many years of 
very valuable experience in the mechanical line. He was one of the organizers 
and president of the Kings River-Hume Auto Service Company, and man- 
aged very ably a chain of freight trucks carrying goods into and out of the 
mountains. 

Recognized as a leader and as one whose experience makes his coopera- 
tion valuable, Mr. Clark has been welcomed in the work of the Sanger Cham- 
ber of Commerce. He belongs to Sanger Lodge, No. 316, F. & A. M., and 
Perfection Lodge No. 6 of Fresno, Scottish Rite Masons. One of his business 
transactions was the purchase of a fine ranch at Tracy, which he improved 
and then sold at a handsome profit. 

In 1906, Mr. Clark was married at San Jose to May Bryant, a native 
daughter and the child of one of the early pioneers who twice crossed the 
plains with ox-teams. They have two attractive children, Jack Bryant and 
Ashley Oliver. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bryant are interested in all movements for 
the betterment of society.