Biography - Buford & William Clark
WILLIAM B. CLARK and BUFORD CLARK, brothers, residing on adjoining farms in
Williamsport Township of Shawnee County, have occupied and developed land that
their father, a distinguished citizen of Illinois secured in Kansas soon after
the close of the Civil war. These brothers are among the most progressive men in
that community, have won much success in agriculture, and have always been alert
and public spirited in connection with movements for the public benefit.
Their father was Hon. Dennis Clark, who was born August 14, 1817, at Vincennes,
Indiana. His parents were Walter and Mary (Young) Clark, the former a native of
Virginia and the latter of New Jersey. Dennis Clark was a grandson of Dennis
Clark, after whom he was named. This Dennis was a native of Ireland and the
founder of his family in America. Walter Clark moved over the mountains into the
West in the very early days. In 1823 he settled in Illinois, and for a time
lived near Galena, where he was engaged in lead mining and subsequently was a
steam boatman on the Mississippi. He moved to Wisconsin in 1828, and was soon
afterward poisoned by drinking mineral water. At that time Dennis Clark was
eleven years of age, and the responsibilities of caring for the other members of
the household largely devolved upon his youthful shoulders. In 1829 the family
removed to St. Louis, then to Sangamon County, Illinois, where he was bound out
to a farmer. After accumulating a capital of $5 he left his employer and in 1833
settled near Abingdon in Knox County, Illinois. He came to Knox County with
Jonathan Lattimore. Settlers were just then beginning to come into that section
of Illinois and the Indians were still more numerous than the whites. Dennis
Clark worked as a farm hand for Mr. Lattimore. Ambitious for an education, he
had taken every opportunity to attend the local schools, and he finished his
education in the Cherry Grove Seminary near Abingdon in 1841-42. In 1837 he
began teaching school in the winter and farming in the Hummer, and that was his
routine for several years. He was the first teacher in Indian Point Township of
Knox County. In 1836 he served as captain of a company of militia. He also took
up the study of law, and with the savings from his work as teacher entered a law
school at Chicago, and was subsequently admitted to the bar. For many years he
practiced law, beginning in 1866, and filled a number of positions of trust
besides. He was township clerk, overseer of the poor, and in November, 1865, was
elected county judge of Knox County. He filled that position for twenty-one
years, finally declining to serve any longer. During the Civil war he recruited
a company, was elected its captain, but spent most of his time as an enrolling
officer and in providing for the relief of soldiers' families.
It was soon after the Civil war that Judge Clark came to Kansas having in mind
the possibility of making the state his home. He then bought two quarter
sections of land in Williamsport Township of Shawnee County, now occupied by his
two sons, though he never really became a resident of Kansas himself.
On April 10, 1845, Judge Clark married Martha Meadows. Her parents Henry and
Mary Meadows moved from Kentucky to Warren County, Illinois, in 1830. Henry
Meadows was a man of deep religious sentiment and his home in the early days was
the headquarters for many of the itinerant preachers in Illinois. Dennis Clark
and wife had ten children, five of whom reached maturity. Judge Dennis Clark
after a long and extremely useful life died May 17, 1900. His wife passed away
in July, 1906.
Of the two sons who continue his honorable record in the State of Kansas,
William B. was born in Knox County, Illinois, November 8, 1847. He received a
public school education, lived on an Illinois farm until he was nine years of
age, and after reaching manhood he identified himself with agriculture. After
spending some years as a farmer in Illinois he sold out and moved to Kansas in
the spring of 1878. The first year he lived on a rented farm near Lawrence, but
in the spring of 1879 moved to his present place of 160 acres which had some
years before been acquired by his father.
William B. Clark was married in Illinois to Miss Catherine A. Moore, daughter of
Paul Moore. Seven of their children are still living: Nora V., Mrs. Joseph
Sinel; Arda May Pearl; Lawrence C.; Lulu, Mrs. Vandever; Hazel, Mrs. Roy Kane;
Edna, Mrs. Jules Mansfield. Their three deceased children are Pauline, Dennis
and Walter Henry. Mrs. Clark, the mother of these children, died April 3, 1903.
Buford Clark, who has also been a resident of Kansas and Shawnee County since
1878, was born November 28, 1852, in Knox County, Illinois. His birth occurred
in one of the log cabin homes then 80 typical a feature of the Illinois
landscape. He received a good education at his father's home in Abingdon, and
practically his entire active career has been spent 1n farming. On coming to
Kansas in 1878 he remained only about sixteen months, and then returned to Knox
County, Illinois. He remained in that state until 1886, but since then has made
his permanent home in the Sunflower State.
On June 1, 1884, Buford Clark married Hannah Louise Anderson [the Illinois
Statewide Marriage Index lists a Buford Clark marrying a Hannah L. Anderson in
Knox County on June 1, 1884]. Five children were born to them: Dennis, Martha,
Minnie, Russell and Meddie. Buford Clark is a liberal republican in politics and
his religion is stated in the principle set forth in the Golden Rule.
Contributed by Todd Walter, extracted from the 1918 A Standard History of Kansas
and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Secretary of the
Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company.
