1868, 1869, 1871, 1872, 1873
Author: Ed Blair (1915)
Capt. Emanuel Clark, a Civil war veteran who has been prominently identified
with the development of Johnson county for fifty years, is a native of
Pennsylvania. He was born on the banks of the Juniata river in Huntington
county, March 13, 1830, and is a son of Thomas and Mary E. (Knoblach) Clark, the
former a native of Huntington county, Pennsylvania, and the latter of Bedford
county, and both descendants of old Maryland stock, the former oii English and
the latter of German descent. George Knoblach, grandfather of Mr. Clark, was a
soldier in the Revolutionary war. The Clark family removed from Pennsylvania to
Union county, Ohio, in 1840. The father followed farming there until 1866 when
he came to Kansas, locating near Gardner and was successfully engaged in farming
for a number of years. He died in 1894, aged ninety years and six months. The
mother passed away in 1886, aged eighty-nine. They were the parents of four
children: Emmanuel, the subject of this sketch, and three sisters, who are now
deceased. Emanuel Clark received his education in the public schools and at
Mechanicsburg Academy, Mechanicsburg, Ohio, where he was graduated in the class
of 1852. He followed teaching for eight years in Logan, Champaign and Union
counties, Ohio, and when the Civil war broke out he enlisted at Raymond, Ohio,
July 20, 1861, and became a sergeant in Company F, Thirty-first regiment, Ohio
infantry. His first service was a detail assignment as brigade sergeant,
sometimes called master mechanic. He had charge of all the transportation,
including wagon making and all marching equipment, horse-shoeing, etc. He had
charge of from 100 to 400 workmen in his department. At one time he had 1,700
wagons. He remained in the position of master mechanic one year, during which
time he was in Kentucky and Tennessee. Promotion did not come fast enough in
that line and he returned to his regiment and was appointed orderly sergeant. He
participated in the battles of Pittsburgh Landing, Murfreesboro, Tullahoma,
Chickamauga, where he received a bayonet wound in his left side, Missionary
Ridge, Kingston, Buzzard’s Roost and Resaca. He was also severely wounded at
Resaca, receiving a gunshot wound through the heavy muscle of the left arm, also
a gunshot wound in the left knee and was also struck by fragments from an
exploding shell on the right knee, also shot in the left side over the heart,
the ball following a downward course for about fourteen inches and was cut out
in the field hospital. After having recovered from his wounds sufficiently he
was detailed on a recruiting expedition for a time. He was promoted to sergeant
major of the regiment on the field of Chickamauga for valorous conduct in action
and on December 19, 1863, was commissioned second lieutenant and ten days later
was promoted to first lieutenant. As second lieutenant he served in Company D,
and as first liutenant in Company K, Thirty-first regiment, Ohio infantry. After
fully recovering from his wounds received at Resaca, he rejoined his regiment
August 17, 1864, on the Chattahoochee river, near Atlanta, and was appointed
regimental quartermaster, ranking as first lieutenant. After a month he resigned
this position to become adjutant of the regiment and served in that capacity
until January 1, 1865, when he was commissioned captain of Company A,
Thirty-first regiment, Ohio infantry. His regiment then left Atlanta and marched
north and participated in the battle of Ringgold, N. C. Captain Clark then
became a member of General Hunter’s staff as topographical engineer and also
adjutant general, serving in that capacity on the long march to Washington,
after Lee’s surrender. After the grand review at Washington he was examined and
passed, the examination being the same as that required at West Point. He was
offered an appointment as captain in the Forty-second regiment, United States
infantry, regular army, but refused to accept it, as his mother requested him,
to abandon military life. He then returned to his Ohio home and resumed teaching
in the same school which he had so abruptly left to join the colors four years
previously. He first came to Kansas, however, and bought 240 acres of land near
Gardner and returned to Ohio and after teaching school four months returned to
Johnson county and engaged in farming. He has bought additional land from time
to time and now owns about 400 acres of well improved land in Johnson county.
Captain Clark resides in Olathe but supervises all his farming operations,
usually renting for grain rent. He raises considerable stock and frequently has
as many as 100 head of cattle and 200 head of hogs. Captain Clark was married
April 25, 1875, to Miss Jennie Wood, a native of Union county, Ohio, and a pupil
of his when he taught school there. Mrs. Clark died March 6, 1877, and on
November 23, 1880, he was united in marriage to Mary Elizabeth Brown, of Olathe,
a native of Hartland, Me. Captain Clark is a Republican and has been actively
identified with that party since casting his first ballot. He has served as
trustee of Olathe township and was a member of the legislature during the
session of 1876-7. He is a charter member of Franklin Post, No. 68, Grand Army
of the Republic, and was its first commander. He organized the relief corps in
Olathe and is a member of the Grange and was instrumental in organizing the
Grange lodge at Gardner, of which he is a charter member. He is the first man in
Johnson county who paid his dues and became a full-fledged Granger. He is a
member of the Masonic lodge and the Methodist Episcopal church and has been a
trustee- in that church for over forty years. He is a stockholder in the Grange
store, the Denver Life Insurance Company, the Western States Portland Cement
Company and the Sonoma Gold Mining Company. Mr. Clark has resided in the city of
Olathe since 1880 and has a beautiful residence on East Park Street. He has
always taken a deep interest in educational matters. While a resident of Union
county, Ohio, he was president of the county school convention and was elected
one of a committee to go to Columbus and aid the legislature in forming better
school laws. He was elected secretary of that committee which met with the Ohio
legislature and it became his important duty to write many of the school laws of
Ohio which are still on the statute books of that State. He was the author of,
the first county normal school law in the United States, as well as various
other progressive school laws.
Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
HISTORY OF Johnson County Kansas
BY
ED BLAIR
AUTHOR OF
Kansas Zephyrs, Sunflower Sittings and Other Poems and Sketches
IN ONE VOLUME
ILLUSTRATED
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
1915
