ISAAC CLINTON CLARK. It gives us no little pleasure to be able to present our readers with a short biography of a Carter County boy. When starting in life it is a serious question if it is not better for a young man to begin at the bottom and depend entirely upon his own efforts to get along in the world. Isaac Clinton Clark, who is one of the successful farmers and stockraisers of Carter County, has accumulated all his property by his own efforts, thanks to a sturdy, honest and industrious ancestry from whom he inherited those characteristics. He first saw the light in Carter County, Missouri, in 1857, and he is the son of Washington and Susan (Baker) Clark, natives, respectively, of Indiana and Missouri.
The senior Clark was probably born about the year 1824, and about 1846 he came with his parents to Missouri, they having started for the Lone Star State. When near the Current River in Carter County they learned that the river was impassable, and they stopped at the farm house of Nathaniel Baker, who also carried on a store. While there the son, Washington Clark, became attached to Miss Susan, one of Mr. Baker’s daughters and soon after married her. After this Mr. and Mrs. Clark abandoned the Texas trip, but moved around in different counties for some time, and finally settled in Carter County, where they remained for twenty years. Later Mr. Clark went to Shannon County, where his death occurred in 1890. He was an honest, industrious man, and for many years was a consistent member of the Methodist Church. His father, John Clark, came from Indiana about 1846, and located in Carter County, where he was killed a number of years after. He was on his way home from Ironton with goods, and stopped off at a farm house for something to eat. While in the house he was struck on the head with a shovel, robbed, and soon after died. Nathaniel Baker, the great-grandfather of our subject, was a native of Maryland and came to Missouri when a boy with some emigrants, and there married and reared his family. He became a wealthy farmer as well as an influential citizen, and passed his last days in Carter County. The mother of our subject died in 1886. She had born to her marriage eight children, as follows: Mary Jane, wife of John Vermillion, of Carter County; Noah, of the same county; James N.; John, deceased; George W., deceased; Isaac C., of Carter County; Henry, deceased; and William Thompson, deceased.
In his native county our subject was reared and received his education in the common schools. When twenty-two years of age he left the parental roof and subsequently married Miss Zilla Coleman, a native of Tennessee and the daughter of William Coleman who resided near Van Buren, and who died in 1875. One child, Mary E., was born to Mr. and Mrs. Clark. Our subject is an ardent supporter of Democratic principles, but has never had ambition to fill public office, giving his whole attention to agricultural pursuits and stockraising. He has met with unusual success, and is the owner of 220 acres of land, with 160 acres under cultivation. Aside from his farming and stockraising industry, he is a contractor for the Current River Railroad, and is successful in that business also.