Oliver Clark

Oliver Clark, farmer, section 30, Middle Branch Township, was born Aug. 28, 1848, in Tiffin, Seneca Co., Ohio. His parents, Thomas and Mary Clark, are natives of the Buckeye State and removed from Seneca County to Hardin County in the same State in 1851. They have been farmers all their lives and have reached advanced age.

Mr. Clark was three years old when his parents located in Hardin County. He obtained his education in the common schools, and worked on his father's farm until he was 17 years of age. His first independent action was his enrollment in the military service of the United States. He enlisted Aug. 23, 1864, in the 180th Ohio Vol. Inf., Co. A., Captain Howell, the regiment being commanded by Colonel Warner. After six months he was seized with illness, and was assigned to the hospital at Newbern, N.C. A month later he was transferred to the hospital on David's Island, New York Harbor, where he was discharged in June 1865. After his return to Ohio he remained a year with his parents, and afterwards was occupied at various points as a farm laborer, until he was married. In 1867, the year following that event, he made a homestead claim in Middle Branch Township, securing 140 acres of land. At that date this section of Osceola County was wholly unsettled; not a road had been built nor a tree cut. He had hardly settled in his new home when his house and its contents were burned. He again erected a log house, and with his wife and child managed to obtain the barest livlihood. there was no work to be had. Swamp hay was $40 per ton, and could not be afforded even for a bed, and they slept on hemlock boughs. The famous salt famine of Northern Michigan occurred at this time, and the family were destitute of that sanitary article for seven weeks. Many other necessities were equally scarce, and their only food for nearly a year was potatoes, eaten from a borrowed tin plate! A barrel of salt, the first brought in, by a man named David Shadley, was sold in the vicinity for $18. The wife worked during the winter of 1868, and earned the money to buy their first cow. Mr. Clark is still the owner of the first purchase of land he made in the township, and of 160 additional acres. He has 150 acres under excellent improvements and supplied with good and necessary farm buildings. He is a Republican of fixed and earnest principles, has been Township Clerk two years, and has held various other official positions.

He was first married Sept. 24, 1867, in Hardin Co., Ohio, to Lydia E. Connor. She was born in the same county and there grew to womanhood. She died in the hospital for the Insane at Kalamazoo, Mich., leaving three children, - JOhn W., Thosia B. and Byron L. Mr. Clark was again married Oct. 23, 1877, in MIddle Branch Township, to Agnes Mitchell. She ws born July 3, 1858, in Bruce Co., Ont., and is the daughter of Joseph and Mary A. (Kingshott) Mitchell. Her parents were born respectively in England and Ontario, and are both of English parentage. They reside on section 4, Middle Branch Township.

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