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1907 Past and Present Biographies

Burr O. Clark

Burr O. Clark, who is serving for the second term as county attorney of Greene county, was born in Johnsville, Kentucky, in 1867, being the eighth in order of birth in a family of nine children. His parents were William and Harriet (Wills) Clark. The father, a native of Kentucky, was of Scotch ancestry and for many years successfully carried on farming. He was always a republican in politics from the organization of the party and, being a strong abolitionist, his sympathy was with the Union during the dark days of the Civil war. His birth occurred August 22, 1822, and he died in 1897 at tht age of seventy-three years. His wife, who was born near Maysville, Kentucky, died in 1888 at the age of fifty-nine years. She was of Irish lineage with a Scotch strain in her veins. Her religious faith was that of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Burr O. Clark was reared on a farm until eighteen years of age and attended the country schools. Later he was a student in the preparatory institute at Maysville, Kentucky, and subsequently in the state college at Lexington, Kentucky. He taught one term of school in Muscatine county, Iowa, and in 1890 entered the law department of the Iowa State University at Iowa City, where he was graduated in the class of 1892. He was then admitted into the federal court and in 1894 admitted to practice in the United States circuit court of appeals at St. Paul, while the year 1904 brought him admission to the United States supreme court. He entered upon the active practice of his profession in Scranton, Iowa, in 1892, and there remained until 1904, when he was elected county attorney, entering upon the duties of the oflice the following year. He came to Jefferson in 1906 and in that year was re-elected county attorney, which position he is now most creditably and acceptably filling, discharging his duties without fear or favor. He has, moreover, enjoyed a large and growing private practice and is a valued member of the State and Greene County Bar Associations.

On the 7th of January, 1905, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Clark and Miss Laura M. Bolan, who was born in Scranton, Iowa, in 1883, and is a daughter of John and Rose Bolan. Her father is now with the Northwestern Railroad Company. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have two children: John W., born November 12, 1905; and Charles R., born February 16, 1907.

The parents are members of the Catholic church and Mr. Clark is connected with the Modern Woodmen of America and is also a Homesteader. His political allegiance is given the republican party, in the work of which he takes an active and.helpful interest, in fact giving his attention to all the duties of citizenship, wherein are involved the welfare and up-building of his community. In addition to his practice he owns one hundred acres of land in Hardin township, from which he derives a fair income.

Transcribed from "Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa Together With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent and Leading Citizens and Illustrious Dead,"
by E. B. Stillman assisted by an Advisory Board consisting of Paul E. Stillman, Gillum S. Toliver,
Benjamin F. Osborn, Mahlon Head, P. A. Smith and Lee B. Kinsey, Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907.

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