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PAST AND PRESENT OF THE CITY OF SPRINGFIELD AND SANGAMON COUNTY ILLINOIS
By Joseph Wallace, M. A.
of the Springfield Bar
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, IL
1904



Page 405

WILLIAM B. CLARK - One of the most prosperous farmers and highly esteemed citizens of Ball township is William B. Clark, whose home is on section 19. He is one of Sangamon county's native sons, his natal day being November 14, 1856. His father, John Clark, was born near Dayton, Ohio, in 1818, and on reaching manhood was there married to Miss Sarah Jane Barnheart, also a native of the Buckeye state. Before leaving Ohio one daughter was born to them. About 1850 Mr. Clark brought his little family to Illinois and settled in Sangamon county, where he engaged in farming throughout the remainder of his life. He died about 1870 and his wife, who survived him for a few years, married again. In his family were three sons and one daughter, one of whom died in early life and the daughter married a Mr. Smith and died soon after her marriage. Our subject still has one brother living, Charles E. Clark, now a resident of Indian Territory.

William B. Clark made his home with his stepfather until grown and aided in the work of the farm while not in school. His early education, acquired in the common schools, was supplemented by a high school course at Pawnee. After leaving home he worked on a farm by the month for three years. On the 26th of December, 1882, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary M. Lockridge, who was also born and reared in this county, her father, William A. Lockridge, being one of its early settlers from Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have three children: Bertha and Walter N., who are now students in the high school of Springfield; and Elsie, at home.

After his marriage Mr. Clark located on the farm where he now resides, having inherited a part of the property, and at once turned his attention to its further improvement and cultivation. He now has three hundred seventy-two and a half acres in the home place and eighty acres on another section, and also another tract of twenty acres and nineteen acres of the old Hall place. Upon his farm he has erected a large and comfortable residence and good outbuildings, has set out fruit and shade trees, has tiled and fenced the land, having over three miles of wire fencing upon the place. He is a progressive and painstaking farmer and a man of good business and executive ability.

Politically Mr. Clark is a stalwart Republican having affiliated with that party since casting his first presidential vote for James G. Blaine in 1880. His wife is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church and they stand high in the community where they have long made their home. Thoroughly reliable in all things, Mr. Clark has the confidence of all with whom he comes in contact and is regarded as one of the leading citizens of his section of the county.



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