Biographical Sketch of

Frank Alexander Clark

Transcribed by Joan Benner



Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties, Wisconsin, 
published 1890 by Acme Publishing Co., Chicago, Pages 416 and 419

Frank Alexander Clark, proprietor of the Woodworth House of Berlin, Green Lake County, was born near Niagara 
Falls, in Ontario, Canada, Sept. 26, 1850, and is a son of John and Kate (McDonald) Clark. His parents were 
born in Scotland, the father in Aberdeenshire, the mother in Perthshire. They were married in Edinburgh, and 
came to Canada in 1837, passing the balance of their lives here.

Our subject was educated at De Veaux College, at Niagara Falls. He also attended Byrant & Stratton's Business 
College at Buffalo, graduating from that institution in the class of 1872. He began life for himself as an 
insurance agent but soon accepted a clerkship in a dry-goods house of Buffalo, and subsequently was employed 
as a hotel clerk. In 1874, he went to Oshkosh, Wisc., where he was employed as a salesman in a mercantile 
establishment until 1878, when he embarked in business in the same line in Ripon, in company with his brother 
Robert. In 1879 they established a similar store in Berlin, dealing in dry goods, notions, cloaks, carpets, 
etc. In the fall of 1878, their store in Ripon was destroyed by fire and they then concentrated their business 
at Berlin. Later they re-opened their business in Ripon and together operated two stores until 1885, when the 
partnership was dissolved, Robert, becoming sole owner of the Ripon store while our subject was made proprietor 
of the Berlin establishment. In January 1886, Mr. Clark sold an interest in his business to W. W. Collins, and 
the house was known as F. A. Clark Co., until July of the same year when it was incorporated under the title if 
the Clark Company (limited), of which Mr. Clark was president and Mr. Collins secretary and treasurer. Under that 
arrangement an extensive business was carried on until July, 1888, when Mr. Clark withdrew, selling his interest 
to his partner, and retired from mercantile life. In the month of March previous, in company with Mr. Collins and 
Frank Rice, he had purchased the Woodworth House and incorporated the Woodworth House Company, of which he was 
made president. The hotel was conducted under that management until July, 1888, when on selling his dry goods 
business he purchased the interest of the other stockholders and became sole proprietor, since which time he has 
operated the house alone. The Woodworth is a first-class house in all its appointments, and under its present 
management has rapidly grown in popularity. It has a capacity for entertaining from sixty to seventy-five persons, 
and is well furnished and managed with a view to giving the best possible satisfaction to its guests. Mr. Clark is 
an energetic, active businessman, and whatever he undertakes is carried forward to a successful completion.  While 
in the dry goods trade, as everyone knows, he did the largest business ever carried on in Berlin, and in the best 
season employed as many as forty-five clerks, while his annual sales amounted to $90,000.

Mr. Clark was married in Berlin on the 16th of January 1882, to Miss Belle Perry, a daughter of Ambrose Perry. She 
was born in Madison, Branch Co., Michigan, and came to Berlin with her parents in 1866. By the union of Mr. And Mrs. 
Clark two children have been born, a son and daughter-Perry Alexander and Jennie Bernice, both born in Berlin. In 
politics, Mr. Clark is a Republican, and socially belongs to the A. O. U. W. and Modern Woodmen of America.
 





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