Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 5 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 19

For forty-four years John M. Clarke has been a member of the Milwaukee bar, during which period he has been connected with some of the most important litigations tried in the state and federal courts, the records of which bear testimony to the many favorable verdicts which he has won. The history of his career, by reason of what he has achieved, is an enviable one. He was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, March 10, 1848, and is a son of George and Mary (Craine) Clarke, who in June, 1850, crossed the Atlantic to the new world and made their way to Milwaukee. They settled soon afterward in what is now New Butler, in the town of Menomonee, Waukesha county, and there the father purchased land, devoting his remaining days to the further development and improvement of his farm.

John M. Clarke acquired his education in the district school and in the Oshkosh Normal School and then took up the profession of teaching, which he followed through four terms of six months each. In 1875 he took up the study of law in the office of Jared Thompson, who was then district attorney. Mr. Clarke was examined for the bar before the late Judge Dickson, also Judges D. H. Johnson and James Hickox and was admitted to practice in 1878, since which time he has followed his profession in Milwaukee. His record stands in contradistinction to the old adage that a prophet is not without honor save in his own country, for in the city in which practically his entire life has been passed Mr. Clarke has won a place of professional prominence and distinction. In 1882 he was elected district attorney and filled the office for three years. Ten days after he was elected the ever memorable and disastrous Newhall fire occurred. Through the intervening years Mr. Clarke has been connected with many notable cases. While advancement at the bar is proverbially slow no dreary novitiate awaited him. Almost immediately he won prominence in his chosen profession and steadily advanced until it is long since he has left the ranks of mediocrity and stands among the successful few.

In 1882 Mr. Clarke was united in marriage to Miss Anna Fitzgerald, a daughter of Michael Fitzgerald of Stockbridge, Wisconsin, and they became parents of two sons, one of whom, George, died at the age of fourteen years. The surviving son, Thomas C, was a captain in the Medical Corps of the United States army during the World war and was with the Fourteenth Evacuation Hospital, serving for two years at the front. He married Miss Grace McKinley of Chicago, whose father is an own cousin of President McKinley. They have become parents of three children: Grace, seven years of age; Eleanor, aged five; and Florence, three years old.

Mr. Clarke and his wife are communicants of St. Rose's Catholic church and he belongs to the Catholic Knights of Wisconsin. In politics he has always taken a keen interest and has long been a stalwart supporter of the democratic party, his opinions carrying weight in its councils. He has never sought office, however, outside of the strict path of his profession, preferring always to concentrate his energies and attention upon the practice of law, in which he has made a notable name and place for himself.