California Biographies Mendocino and Lake Counties, California Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Source: History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California With Biographical Sketches History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry Illustrated, Complete In One Volume Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914 JOSEPH HENRY CLARKE.� A native of Fillmore City, Millard county, Utah, Mr. Clarke was born June 16, 1853. His father, Thomas Clarke, was born in Herefordshire, England, and came of an old English family. He was a gardener in his native heath and there married Eliza Carpenter, who was born at Bushey, England. In 1850 they started for the United States, but the vessel was wrecked and they were returned to England. Determined to come to the land of the Stars and Stripes they started again in 1851. and this time made the voyage without accident. For one year they lived at St. Louis, Mo., then starting across the plains with horses in a big train. Arriv- ing at Fillmore, Utah, it being late in the year, they thought best to winter there. It was while the family lived at Fillmore that Joseph Henry was born, and when he was but a few weeks old they started, in July, for California. Arriving at Bidwells Bar, Thomas Clarke there followed mining with such success that he continued at it for seven years. He then began vegetable gardening, farming and fruit raising, owning a farm near Bidwells Bar. In the spring of 1870 he located near Cahto, where his son William, who had preceded him a year, had entered one thousand acres of land, and the family engaged in farming. The father built a residence on the Westport road and with his wife resided there until his death. Of their six children five grew to maturity: William died in Ukiah in 1912. Alfred resides in Butte county. Frank died just before graduation at Heald's Business College in San Fran- cisco in 1875. Joseph H. is mentioned below. Eliza. Mrs. Black, died at San Jose in 1903. Joseph H. Clarke's boyhood was spent in Butte county. His school ad- vantages were very limited, but having a desire for knowledge and being a close reader of good literature, he has become a well-informed and well-posted man in most all of the sciences. In November, 1869, he came to Cahto, Mendocino county, and with the rest of his family engaged in farming and stock-raising. In 1872 Mr. Clarke started a dairy at the old home place, continuing the business until 1881, when he began raising sheep, in which he has been unusually successful. He experimented with Merinos, then Shrop- shire, but in 1902 he began breeding Rambouilette sheep, having purchased some splendid specimens from Seeley & Hansen in Utah. He is now breeding thoroughbred Rambouilette sheep, and has raised and sold hun- dreds of fine specimens ; his whole flock is now full-blooded and a source of great pride to him. He is said to be the largest breeder of thoroughbred Ram- bouilette sheep in Mendocino county. Mr. Clarke now owns over forty-seven hundred acres ; the ranch is known as the Canyon, lying about six miles southwest of Laytonville, on the Westport road, between Jackson and Sherwood valleys. It is located on the headwaters of Ten Mile river and is only a little over ten miles to the coast, so that they get a sea breeze. The Canyon, as it is called, is a stretch of country almost en- tirely free from frost, and they have very little frost, if any, before Christmas. On the ranch is about two hundred acres of redwood and several hundred acres of tan oak, with lots of spruce and fir. The ranch is abundantly watered by streams and numerous large springs. Mr. Clarke has piped the water in from three springs to the orchard, a distance of half a mile, giving an abundance of water for irrigation. In 1913 he built a comfortable and commodious resi- dence at the Canyon and with the many improvements he has made on it it is a very beautiful country place. He has gone to much expense in fencing the entire ranch with a fence that keeps the coyotes out, otherwise success in the sheep industry in these parts would be impossible. In Ukiah, February 7, 1884, occurred the marriage of Mr. Clarke, uniting him with Annie R. Fowzer, a native daughter of San Francisco. She is the daughter of James and Eliza (Lovejoy) Fowzer, born in Pitts- burg, Pa., and London. England, respectively. The latter were married in Ohio. In 1849 Mr. Fowzer came around Cape Horn to San Francisco, while his wife joined him in 1852. coming via Panama. In 1864 they came from San Francisco to Sanel valley, Mendocino county, where he purchased a twelve hundred acre ranch. In 1867 he located in Ukiah having been elected county clerk in the fall of 1866, and during his term he studied law and was admitted to the bar. After completing his term he engaged in practicing law. He was soon afterward elected county treasurer and was re-elected to the office several terms, serving until his death in 1887. His widow survived him many years, her death occurring in Ukiah in 1911. The following of their children grew up : Elizabeth, Mrs. Stockwell, died in Snohomish, Wash. Jacob is a prominent photographer in San Francisco. Annie R. is Mrs. Clarke. Jackson died in San Francisco in 1897. Mrs. Clarke graduated at the San Jose state normal in 1878 and then followed teaching until her marriage. To Mr. and Mrs. Clarke have been born six children : Cecile, a graduate of the University of California, is the head of the history department in the Eureka high school : Frank Cuthbert is a graduate of the University of Cali- fornia and now managing his father's ranch ; Belle, a graduate of the Uni- versity of California, is the wife of Asa C. Chandler, of Corvallis, Ore. ; Annie, a graduate of the Ukiah high school, is vice principal of the Greenwood schools ; William V. is attending the Oregon Agricultural College at Cor- vallis ; Alay, the youngest, is still under the parental roof. Mr. Clarke is a member of the National Wool Growers Association. He has been a student of natural history, as well as the sciences and is well in- formed. He is a fine conversationalist and it is indeed enjoyable to be num- bered among the friends of Mr. and Mrs. Clarke and partake of their un- bounded hospitality.