Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/658

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
624
CLARK
CLARK

act to regulate practice in the courts of law in that colony became known as " Clark's law," and a strong spirit of enmity was manifested by the members of the bar against the supposed framer of it. Although opposed to the emission of debased money, he was styled the " Father of the Paper Currency " on account of his presumed influence being given toward the introduction of such a measure. He was a delegate to the convention that framed the Federal constitution in 1787, and in 1789 was appointed a commissioner to settle the accounts of New Jersey with the United States. Later he became a member of congress, serving from 24 Oct., 1791, till his death. During his con- gressional career he participated in the debates concerning the relations of England with the United States, and moved a resolution to prohibit all intercourse with Great Britain until full com- pensation was made to our citizens for the injuries sustained by them from British armed vessels, and until the western posts should be delivered up. A bill conforming to Mr. Clark's resolution was car- ried by a considerable majority in the house, but was lost in the senate by the casting vote of John Adams, the vice-president. His death was the re- sult of a sunstroke, which proved fatal in two hours.


CLARK, Alexander, clergyman, b. in Jefferson county, Ohio, 10 March, 1834 ; d. in Georgia, 6 July, 1879. In early life he was a teacher and an editor. In 1861 he was ordained in the Methodist Episco- pal church, and in 1870 became editor of " The Methodist Recorder." He was the author of numerous works, including " Old Log School- House " (Philadelphia, 18o9) ; " The Red Sea Freedman " (1864) ; " School - Dav Dialogues " (1867) ; " Gospel in the Trees " (1868) ; " Worka- day Christianity " (1870); "Rambles in Europe"; and a volume of poems, " Ripples on the River."


CLARK, Alonzo, physician, b. in Chester, IMass., 1 March, 1807 ; d. in New York city, 13 Sept.. 1887. He was graduated at Williams in 1828, and at the College of physicians and surgeons. New York, in 1835. Afterward he settled in New York city, "where he became an eminent practitioner. He held the chair of pathology and materia medica in Vermont medical college, of physiology and pathol- ogy in the College of physicians and surgeons in 1848-'55, and of pathology and practical medicine at the same institution in 1855-"85, where he was also dean and president of the faculty in 1875-'85. Dr. Clark was also visiting physician to Bellevue hospital, president of the medical board, and con- sulting jjhysician to St. Luke's hospital and to the Roosevelt hospital. He was a member of the New York academy of medicine, and of the American medical association, and was president of tiie State medical association in 1853. He was a frequent contriljutor to tlie medical press.


CLARK, Alonzo Howard, naturalist, b. in Boston, Mass., 13 April, 1850. He was educated in the public schools of Boston, Claveraek college. Centenary collegiate institute, and at Wesleyan university, leaving the latter at the close of his sophomore year to become assistant in charge of the U. S. fish commission station at Gloucester, Mass., during 1879-'80. In 1880 he was appointed special agent of the 10th census, and in 1883 on the executive staff to represent the United States at the International fisheries exhibition. London, England. He became in 1884 assistant in the de- partment of arts and industries at the U. S. nation- al museum, Washington. His writings, which have appeared principally as government publica- eions, include " Statistics of Fisheries of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut" (1882); " Statistics of Fisheries of Massachusetts" (1882); "History of the Mackerel Fishery," in parts (1883) ; " The Fisheries and Fishery Indus- tries of the United States " (1884 et seq.), a series of quarto volumes, in the editorship of which Mr. Clark has been associated, and to which he has contributed special chapters on " The Whale Fish- ery," " The Antarctic Seal Fishery," " The Men- haden Fishery," and " The Preparation of Fishery Products " ; " Report of the Exhibit of the Fish- eries and Fish-Culture of the United States, made at London," and " Catalogue of Fishery Products and of Apparatus used in the Preparation," form- ing together Bulletin 27 of the National museum (1884). He is the associate author and editor of " History and Present Condition of the Fisheries and Fisli Industries of the United States " (1886).


CLARK, Alvan, optician, b. in Ashfield, Mass., 8 March, 1804; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 19 Aug., 1887. He was tlie son of a farmer, and became, when young, an engraver for calico print-works in Lowell. This pursuit he followed at various places from 1827 till 1836, when he settled in Boston and became a successful portrait-painter. About 1844 he was intei'ested in the manufacture of telescopes, and associated his sons with him. He was the first person in the United States to make achromatic lenses, and the most important modern telescopes have been constructed at his factory in Cambridge- port. Mr. Clark invented numerous improve- ments in telescopes and their manufacture, includ- ing the double eye-piece, an ingenious method of measuring small celestial arcs. A list of discov- eries made by him with telescopes of his own manufacture is given in the " Proceedings of the Royal Astronomical Society" (London, vol. 17, No. 9). — His son, Alvan (i}raham, astronomer, b. in Fall River, Mass.. 10 July, 1832; d. in Cam- bridge, Mass., 9 June. 1897. lie became associated with his father in the firm of Alvan Clark & Sons, and in that capacity successfully completed many famous lenses, among which are the Chicago re- fractor, the 26-inch lens in the Naval observatory at Washington, and the 30-inch refractor for the Imperial observatory at St. Petersburg, for which the honorary medal of Russia was awarded — the only one ever conferred upon an American. Dur- ing 1886 the 36-inch refractor, the largest in the world, was made for the Lick observatory on Mount Hamilton, near San Francisco, C'al. Mr. Clark ac- companied the total-eclipse expedition to Jerez, Spain, in 1870, and also the similar expedition to Wyoming in 1878. As an indei^endent observer he has discovered fourteen intricate double stars, including the companion to Sirius, for which the Lalande gold medal was awarded him by the French academy of sciences in 1862. He also made numer- ous inventions connected with the manufacture of refracting telescopes.


CLARK, Billy James, reformer, b. in North- ampton, Mass., 4 Jan., 1778; d. in Glenn's Falls, N. Y., 20 March, 1867. He was educated at North- ampton academy, and studied medicine with Dr. Hicker, of Easton, N. Y. He organized what is claimed to have been the first temperance society in the world, at Moreau, Saratoga co., N. Y., in 1808. Dr. Clark was a member of the legislature from Saratoga county in 1821, and was a member of the electoral college in 1848.


CLARK, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, author, b. in Tinmouth, Vt., 20 March, 1822. He was graduated at Middlebury in 1843, and at the College of physicians and surgeons, New York, in 1847. After practising in Middlebury, Vt., four years, he removed to Oswego, N. Y., where he was