History of Michigan, / by Charles Moore. [Vol. 3]

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HISTORY OF MICHIGAN

integrity and unfaltering effort and in this lies the secret of his rise to
prosperity and prominence in commercial circles. Mr. Jellis' private
life has been one of strict probity, and at no time has he touched liquor
or tobacco. In.political matters a Republican, he has never cared for
public office, although frequently urged by his friends to become a candidate. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum and of the Board of Commerce, and his religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church. He
owns his own modern home, located at No. 712 Ann Arbor street.
Mr. Jellis was married at Flint, Michigan, October 5, I880, to Miss
Susan Gage, who was born in Michigan, a daughter of John L. Gage,
and a member of a pioneer family that came to this state in I830. To
this union has come one son, J. Leon Jellis, born in Flint, March 31,
1882. He was educated in the public schools of this city and early entered
his father's mill, where he thoroughly learned every detail of the business. He is now his father's partner, and is known as one of the progressive and energetic young business men of Flint. Like his father, he
has abstained from tobacco and intoxicants of all kinds. J. Leon Jellis
was married to Miss Frances E. Boomer, a native of Flint, and daughter
of Horace B. Boomer, a pioneer settler of this state. One son has been
born to this union: Joseph Horace, born February 2, I909. Mr. and
Mrs. Jellis live in their pleasant home at No. II8 Grace street.
ERNEST CHAUNCEY CLARK. Michigan as one of the leading states in
manufacturers has naturally attracted within her borders men of foremost inventive genius as well as executive ability. Within the past decade
the rising prominence of Michigan as a center for the automobile industry
has produced some of the ablest workers in the mechanical field in the
entire country, and in this group perhaps none is better entitled to mention than Mr. E. C. Clark, the inventor of the Clark motor, one of the
best types in its adaptability to automobile construction now in successful
use. Mr. Clark until recently was president of the E. C. Clark Motor
Company of Jackson, a large industry which still bears his name, and of
which he was one of the founders.
Ernest Chauncey Clark was born in Quebec, Canada, November 3,
I865. His father, Chauncey R. Clark, who was a blacksmith and wagon
and carriage maker, no doubt contributed by inheritance some of the
mechanical genius which characterize the career of his son. The elder
Clark died in Jackson, Michigan, in 1910, at the age of sixty-nine. The
maiden name of the mother was Elizabeth Miller, who died at Wayne,
Michigan, in I909, aged sixty-eight. Mr. E. C. Clark has a brother, Oscar
L. Clark, of Northampton, Massachusetts, and a sister, Miss Amy Clark,
who is a graduate nurse and now located at Seattle, Washington. The
oldest of the children, Ernest C. Clark, was reared in Quebec, where he
attended school, and during vacation time learned the trade of blacksmith
and carriage maker in his father's shop. His mechanical genius was
demonstrated early in life. One time he constructed in his father's shop
an old style high-wheeled bicycle, and was constantly at work in designing
some new form of mechanical equipment or machinery. When he was
nineteen he left home and at St. Johnsbury, Vermont, found employment
for a few months in the blacksmith department of the Fairbanks Scale
Company, one of the largest industries of its kind in America. Following
this for six or seven months he worked as a brakeman on a Vermont railroad, and then returned to Quebec and for two years was in a machine
shop at Coaticooke. His preliminary experience was fortified by work in
various machine shops in Canada and in the eastern states.
The first accomplishment which took Mr. Clark out of the ranks as a
machinist and put him on the highway to success, came in 1891, during his