John Garvin Clark was born on July 31, 1825, in Morgan County, Illinois, to Thomas Pye Clark. He eventually moved to Marion County, Missouri, and he enrolled in Marion College in the early 1840s. In September 1845, he transferred to Illinois College in Jacksonville, and he graduated two years later. He spent the next few years working as a surveyor, travelling through Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri. He eventually settled in Wisconsin, and he married Minerva Ann Pepper on February 19, 1852. They had two surviving children: Alice, born around 1853; and William, born around 1856.

 

They lived in Lancaster, Wisconsin, and Clark worked as a surveyor. In 1853, he became deputy clerk of the Grant County Circuit Court, and he was elected clerk the following year. He helped organize Wisconsin’s Republican Party in the mid-1850s, and he was elected to the state legislature in 1860. That year, he owned $5,500 of real estate and $1,500 of personal property. He was a moderate Republican, and he later explained that he was "bitterly opposed to slavery & to catching slaves for any one," but he "would not have given [African Americans] the elective franchise. I would have given him the proceeds of his own labor & made him obey the law."

 

On June 19, 1861, he received a commission as a 1^st lieutenant in the 5^th Wisconsin Infantry. He served as a regimental quartermaster, and he resigned on May 14, 1863. He returned to the Union army on February 18, 1865, receiving a commission as a colonel in the 50^th Wisconsin Infantry. He mustered out on June 14, 1866.

 

Clark returned to Lancaster after leaving the army, and by 1870, he owned $6,000 of real estate and $2,000 of personal property. By 1880, he was working as a lawyer. He applied for a federal pension in August 1889 and eventually secured one. He died on November 2, 1917.

 

Image: John Garvin Clark (Lancaster Teller, 8 November 1917)

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