History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/James S. Clark
[J S Clark]
JAMES S. CLARK was born near Indianapolis, Indiana, October 17, 1841. After spending his early years on a farm, Mr. Clark came to Iowa and was a college student at Mount Pleasant when the Civil War began. In April, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company F, First Iowa Volunteers, participating in the Battle of Wilson's Creek. Later he was promoted to lieutenant and captain of Company C, in the Thirty-fifth Infantry, which was engaged in seventeen battles and sieges during its term of service. On the day that General Lee surrendered Captain Clark led his regiment in a desperate charge on the forts of Mobile, Alabama. He is the historian of that gallant regiment, having gathered the events of its career in the Civil War which have been published, adding to the valuable literature of the deeds of Iowa soldiers in the great Rebellion. He is president of the Regimental Association of the First Iowa Regiment of volunteer soldiers in the Civil War and has published a sketch of General Lyon and “The Fight for Missouri.” Captain Clark is a graduate of the Ohio Wesleyan University and also of the Iowa State University. He engaged in the practice of law in Des Moines from 1870 to 1890, when he retired to accept the position of secretary of the Des Moines Insurance Company, later becoming president of the Anchor Insurance Company, as well as president of the Iowa Alliance of Insurance Men.