Only a man
of pluck, push and perseverance, of courage, sagacity and industry,
could have done this; and he who has accomplished it need point to no
other achievement to establish his title to a place among the strong men
of his time.
Mr. Clarke is a native of Atkinson, where he was born January 30, 1820.
His parents were intelligent and successful farmers, and from them he
inherited the robust constitution, the genial disposition, and the
capacity for brain-work, which have carried him to the head of his
profession in New Hampshire. They also furnished him with the small
amount of money necessary to give a boy an education in those days, and
in due course he graduated with high honors at Dartmouth College in the
class of 1843. Then he became principal of the Meredith Bridge Academy,
which position he held three years, reading law meanwhile in an office
near by. In 1848 he was admitted to the Hillsborough county bar from the
office of his brother, at Manchester, the late Honorable William C.
Clarke, Attorney General of New Hampshire, and the next year went to
California. From 1849 until 1851 he was practicing his profession,
roughing it in the mines, and prospecting for a permanent business and
location in California, Central America, and Mexico.
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