White County INGenWeb

COUNTIES OF WHITE AND PULASKI, INDIANA, HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, Published by F.A. Battey & Co, Chicago, 1883, pg 216

ROBERT J. CLARK, M. D., was born in La Fayette, Ind,., May 24, 1844, and is one of nine children, six yet living, born to Dr. Othiriiel L. and Charille (Durkee) Clark, natives of Virginia and New York. Dr. R. L. Clark came e to La Fayette when a young man in about 1825, entered upon the practice of his profession, and acted as agent for the county in the sale of town lots for the county seat. He was active in politics, was elected to the State Legislature, and then to the Senate, and served in both many years; he was also a member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1852, as was also his brother, Dr. H. W. Clark, of Hamilton County. Dr. 0. L. Clark was well known to the people of the State outside of his county, and his name was on a par with those of Oliver P. Morton, Schuyler Colfax, Caleb Smith, Albert L. White and others. He was an Old-Line Whig and then a Republican until Johnson's administration, when he became an advocate of the reconstruction acts, and remained a Democrat until his , death, December 29, 1866, at La Fayette, where his widow still survives him. He was Indian Agent in Miami County for many years, and was also appointed Postmaster at La Fayette by President Lincoln, but declined the office. Dr. Robert J. Clark received his literary education at the schools of La Fayette and at Notre Dame University. In March, 1863, he enlisted in the Twenty-second Indiana Light Artillery; he was in the Atlanta campaign, and afterward with Gen. Thomas in Hood's campaign in Tennessee. He was then transferred to North Carolina, where he remained till Johnston's surrender, and was finally discharged at Indianapolis, July 7, 1865. He began the study of medicine in 1867, in the office of Dr. W. S. Hararnond, at Monticello ; attended two terms of the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, and was one of the six graduates who were examined and selected from about thirty to serve as resident physicians of Cincinnati Hospital from 1870 to 1871. He then returned to Monticello, and became a partner of his preceptor, but since 1872 he has been alone. He was married in July, 1871, to Miss Mary E. Reynolds, who has borne him two children-Cornelia R. and Frederick G. Dr. Clark is a Democrat and a member of the G. A. R., and his wife is a member of the Presbyterian Church.

Back to the White County Biographies Main Page