History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Charles A. Clark
[Chas. A. Clark]
CHARLES A. CLARK, one of the great lawyers of the State, was born at Sangerville, in the State of Maine, January 26, 1841. He at tended the common schools of his native town, with three terms at Foxcroft Academy. Later, while working on a farm, he walked three miles to Guilford several times each week to procure instruction in Greek and Latin. At the age of fifteen he began to teach school and in April, 1861, enlisted as a private in Company A, Sixth Maine Volunteers and as a soldier of great courage he received rapid promotion to corporal, sergeant, lieutenant and adjutant of the regiment, serving until he was severely wounded and discharged. As soon as he recovered he reëntered the army with a commission as captain and assistant Adjutant-General, serving in General Burnside's Brigade until in November, 1864, failing health compelled him to resign. He received a special Congressional medal for gallantry and meritorious services in saving the regiment from capture at Brook's Ford, Virginia, on the night of May 4, 1863. Upon the personal recommendation of General Hancock he was brevetted major for gallantry at Marye's Heights, Fredericksburg, May 3, 1863, and lieutenant-colonel for conspicuous bravery at Rappahannock Station, November 7, 1863. Colonel Clark participated in the following engagements: Siege of Yorktown, battles at Williamsburg, Gaines Mills, Malvern Hill, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, both at the first and second engagements, Salem Church, Gettysburg, Rappahannock Station, Cold Harbor, Petersburg and numerous others. Colonel Clark cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, later became a liberal Republican, serving as a delegate to the Cincinnati National Convention of 1872, affiliating with the Democrats until 1896. In 1888 he was president of the Democratic State Convention and a delegate to the National Convention the same year. He nominated Horace Boies for Governor at the Ottumwa Convention in 1891. Colonel Clark returned to the Republican party in 1896, assisting in the canvass for McKinley. He came to Iowa in 1866, becoming a resident of Webster City, where he practiced law for ten years, then removing to Cedar Rapids. For ten years he was a law partner with Judge Hubbard, practicing in the Supreme Court of many States and in the Supreme Court of the United States.