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

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN

1443

subsequently he secured a charter and founded the town of Colerain,
Massachusetts, which he named in honor of his native place in Ireland.
Subsequently the family moved into Vermont, where Seth Clark, son
of George, was born. Seth Clark served as a soldier in the war of the
Revolution, enlisting when a boy of fifteen years, and several times
re-enlisting until the colonies had finally won their independence. Noah
Clark, son of Seth, and grandfather of the Detroit business man, was
born in Vermont, and fought as a soldier on the American side during
the war of I812. Hlis business was that of contractor and builder, and
towards the close of his life he was awarded several building contracts in
the Province of Ontario, Canada, and took up his temporary residence in
that country. While there he met an accidental death.
George Washington Clark, son of Noah, was born at Bangor, Maine,
July 5, 1812. When his father moved to Canada he went along and at
Woodstock in Ontario was married. He was living in Canada at the
time of the rebellion of 1837, and was arrested on the ground of being
a rebel sympathizer. He was thrown into jail by the Canadian authorities, but managed to effect his escape, and fled from the Dominion and
located at Ann Arbor, Michigan. In Ann Arbor George W. Clark soon
rose to prominence. He first gained attention by establishing the pioneer
temperance newspaper in the state. Later he moved to Jackson, and
while living there assisted in the founding of the Republican party at the
famous meeting "under the oaks." From Jackson he moved to Rochester,
New York, but in 1877 returned to Michigan and settled in Detroit,
where he lived until his death in I893. George W. Clark married Louise
Elliott, who was born in Hayes, Middlesex, England, in I817. Her
family came to Canada in I829, and she died at Detroit in I904, when
eighty-seven years of age.
Mr. Clark was always an active and prominent worker in the temperance and anti-slavery cause before and during the war. He was an associate worker with Garrison, Phillips, Gerrit Smith, Fred Douglas and all
other anti-slavery agitators. He was known from one end of the United
States and Canada to the other as the "silver-voiced (singer) abolitionist" and as the author of several well known and popular song books of
the day, including the Liberty Minstrel, Harp of Freedom, and others.
Charles L. Clark was reared in Rochester, New York, attended the
public schools of that city, and was also a student in the Walworth
Academy near Rochester. In I868, when seventeen years of age, he came
to Detroit and found his first employment as clerk in the jewelry house
of M. S. Smith and Company. In I871 he entered a jewelry establishment in Chicago, but returned to Detroit in I873 and got his first experience in the insurance and real estate business in the firm of Clark
and Crawford, the senior member of which was his older brother. A
few years later he engaged in the same business independently, and he has
been in close touch with the general realty situation in Detroit for over
forty years. At the present time he is regarded as one of the best informed judges of property values, and has had a very successful career
in his particular line.
Mr. Clark is a member of the Detroit Board of Commerce, the Detroit
Real Estate Board, the Detroit Boat Club, and belonged to the old
Detroit Light Guards. He has been a member of the Board of Estimates
for the city from the Fourth Ward during the last six years. He has
always taken great interest in art and was the organizer of Hopkin Club
and also a member of New York Society, State of Michigan.
Mr. Clark married Georgiana Frazer, daughter of Thomas Frazer,
and a member of the old and honored Frazer family of Detroit. They
are the parents of three children: Cecilia Louise, Georgiana M. and
Charles Elliot Frazer.