Omer O. Clark, a well known Kansas banker, is cashier of the Exchange State Bank of Nortonville.
The Exchange State Bank of Nortonville was organized in 1902 by Mr. C. C. McCarthy, and O. A. Simmons as cashier. The bank had been a medium for careful conservation of the funds of its depositors and of active service to its patrons in every way consistent with legitimate and conservative banking, It had a capital stock of $10,000, surplus and profits of $30,000, and the personnel of its stockholders and officers indicates great resources and strenght besides its nominal assets. The bank home is on Main Street in Nortonville. Its present officers are: C. C. McCarthy, president; E. K. Burdiek, vice president; Omer O. Clark, cashier; and C. F. McCarthy, assistant cashier.
Omer Oscar Olark was born at Winchester, Kansas, March 30, 1879. His grandfather, Lake Clark, was born in Ireland, came to this country when a young man, and for a number of years lived at Farmer City, Illinois, where in addition to his trade as a cobbler or shoemaker he followed farming. In 1867 he came to Kansas and located in Jefferson County. Lake Clark was a veteran of both the Mexican and Civil wars.
W. A. Clark, father of the Nortonville banker, was born at Farmer City, Illinois, in 1853, and died at Winchester, Kansas, in 1908. He was fourtcen years of age when his paronts removed to Jefferson County, where he grew up and married. For a number of years he was a well known merehant at Winchester. Politically he was a republican and for three terms served Jefferson County in the State Legislature. He was a member and active supportor of the Methodist Episcopal Church and belonged to the Masonie and Odd Fellows fraternities. W. A. Clark merried Melvina E. Wilhelm, who was born in Jefferson County, Kansas, in 1860, and is still living at Winchester. Omer O. is the oldest of her four children. Fred G. is a merchant at Denver, Colorado. Frank E. had his father’s old store at Winchester, still conducted under the name W. A. Clark & Company. Lee E. Ilves with his mother and is a member of the senior class of the Kansas State University at Lawrence.
Mr. O. O. Clark grew up at Winchester, attended public school there, and for one year was a student in Baker University. On account of his father’s ill health he left college at the age of eighteen and took active charge of the store at Winchester. In that way he had his early business training and remained with his father until 1906, in which year he came to Nortonville and accepted his present post as cashier of the Exchange State Bank.
Mr. Clark is a member of the Kansas State Bankers Association and the Kansas Bankers Association, and had served both organizations as glee president and as a member of the executive council. He is an associate of Mr. Walker Moxloy in the ownership of the Telephone Company and the Electric Lighting Plant at Valley Falls, Kansas. The telephone plant had recently been rebuilt, and all its main wires and cables have been put in underground conduits. The electric light plant is now in process of remodeling and construction with a view to making it a contral supply plant for the transmission of electric light and power throughout Jeffersou County.
Politically Mr. Clark is a republican. He had served as city treasurer of Nortonville, as a member of the school board, and for six years was a member of the City Council. He is affiliated with Mount Zion Lodge No. 266, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Nortonville, Nortonville Lodge No. 118, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Nortonville Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America, Nortonville Council No. 7 of the Knights and Ladies of Security, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1904, at Winchester, Kansas, he married Luella Hinchman, daughter of Cary and Mary (Simmons) Hinchman. Her father was a farmer and is now deceased, and her mother resided at Nortonville. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have three children: Ralph O., born February 12, 1906; Francis, born December 2, 1907; and Mary E., born April 2, 1910.