Alexander Clark

Alexander Clark of Muscatine, Iowa

Alexander G. Clark
"Colored Orator of the West"

Alexander G. Clark
Journalist & Diplomat

Alexander Clark Links
Clark's Neighborhood 1855
Clark's Neighborhood 2005
Clark's House 2005
Demolition
Iowa Great Places
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Webmaster's Note:

I've collected these links and snippets over the course of about two years of Web searches for Muscatine's famous resident. I intend to organize this page better and add to it, but tonight I am posting it in great haste, in hopes it may do some good in the very near term.

I won't dwell on my own ideas of what it means to "do some good" in this instance. As Kent Sissel says, "History reveals itself over time." And he insists, "Connect the dots!"

Sissel restored and resides in the1878 brick house Clark built at the northeast corner of West Third and Chestnut streets on the site of his (Clark's) 1839 wooden house that had burned. In the1970s a city-owned senior apartment complex, called The Clark House, was constructed on the original site, and the house was moved a half block to 205-207 West Third. There it was "an eyesore" threatened with demolition when Sissel acquired it. CLICK HERE to read news and opinion about preservation/demolition issues in "the neighborhood," as Sissel describes parts of three blocks adjoining the original Clark home site. He advocates creation of a state or national historic district, and to that end has launched this website. May it do some good!

Dan Clark
April 20, 2005

Links and information about Alexander Clark (Senior & Junior)

http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamuscat/semicent/chronological.htm
June 30, [1878] --Fire destroyed one of the oldest houses in town, a frame, corner of Third and Chestnut streets. It was built {in 1839,} by Wm. Brownell, who brought most of the lumber from Cincinnati, Ohio.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/mdbquery.html
Lookup site for American Memory Collections (including Alexander Clark houses nomination)

http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamuscat/biographies1911/africanmethodist.htm
Among its prominent members were Hon. Alexander Clark, who died in Africa in 1891, and Ben Matthews. A man by the name of P. Anderson preached for them. They continued to hold their meetings, and although the way sometimes looked dark and discouraging, the little band clung together. After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, the little band took on new life and as there was an inflow of people from the south, that strengthened the membership.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamusca2/business.htm
From a list of Muscatine businesses extracted from the Andreas' Atlas of Iowa published in 1875:
"Clark & Appleton Barbers and Hairdressers"

http://www.chipublib.org/002branches/woodson/harshdocs/iwpfindingaid.html
10. Notes on " prominent characters" in African American journalism in Illinois. Information is included on Florencia Grier, Archibald James Carey, Lincoln C. Valle, John Edward Bruce, Hiawatha W. Rhea, Alexander Clark, J.H. Magee. [L. Harper. 10/1/41] (13)

http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/waymancyc/wayman.html
MUSCATINE, Iowa. The A. M. E. Church has existed in this town for years, and has a membership of about one hundred. Alexander Clark, a layman, has been a great support to the Church, and he was also a lay delegate to the Ecumenical Conference which met in London, September, 1881.

http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/handy/handy.html
The Bishop's Council appointed the following delegates to attend the Ecumenical Conference, held in London, England, from September 7th to September 20th [1881]:

Bishops D. A. Payne, D. D., LL. D., Wilberforce, Ohio; J. A. Shorter, Wilberforce, Ohio; J. M. Brown, D. D., D. C. L., Washington, D. C.; W. F. Dickerson, Columbia, S. C.; Revs. James M. Townsend, D. D., Richmond, Ind.; A. T. Carr, Georgetown, S. C.; James C. Embry, Leavenworth, Kan.; Benjamin F. Lee, Wilberforce, Ohio.

Laymen--Alexander Clark, Muscatine, Iowa; Prof. Joseph P. Shorter, A. M., Wilberforce, Ohio; Prof. Joseph H. Morris, A. M., Columbia, S. C.; N. T. Gant, Zanesville, O.

http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/cssmith/smith.html
As to world-wide Methodism, the outstanding feature was the initiation of a movement the object of which was the calling of an Ecumenical Methodist Conference, in London, England, September 7-20, 1881. The delegates to represent the African Methodist Episcopal Church were Bishops Daniel A. Payne, J. M. Brown, James A. Shorter, William F. Dickerson; Revs. James M. Townsend, Augustus T. Carr, James C. Embry; Mr. Alexander Clark, Professor Joseph P. Shorter, Mr. Nelson T. Gantt, and Mr. Joseph W. Morris. Bishop Payne presided September 17, and on the 12th read an essay on "The Relation of Methodism to the Temperance Movement." Professor J. P. Shorter read a paper on "The Catholicity of Methodism."

http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamuscat/biographies1911/muscatiners.htm
Diplomacy is a field in which Muscatine has had many representatives. In 1861 G. W. Van Horne was appointed as consul at Marseilles, France, and in 1890 Alexander Clark was sent as minister to Liberia. Samuel McNutt was American representative at Maracaibo, Venezuela, and in 1893 Frank Mahin, an old time Muscatiner, was dispatched to Reichenberg, Austria. Of these men, Samuel McNutt was the most talked about.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/po/com/10906.htm
Name: Alexander Clark
State of Residency: Iowa
Title: Minister Resident/Consul General
Appointment: Aug 16, 1890
Presentation of Credentials: Nov 25, 1890
Termination of Mission: Died at post, May 31, 1891

http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/ejab/1/liberia.html
# United States. Consulate (Monrovia). Despatches from U.S. Consuls in Monrovia, 1852-1906. Washington, DC: National Archives, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1949. <7 reels of microfilm> NORTHWESTERN

# United States. Legation. Liberia. Despatches from the United States Ministers to Liberia, 1863- 1906. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Service, 1962-1964. <14 reels of microfilm> Four African-Americans served as Minister Resident and Consul General to Liberia: J. Milton Turner, 1871-78; Henry Highland Garnet, 1881-82; O.L.W. Smith, 1898-1902; Ernest Lyon, 1903-10. MICHIGAN STATE, NORTHWESTERN, NYPL

http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/images/serial/aa_se01/Vol08/Num04/txt/P490.TXT
I visited also the graves of Hon. M. A. Hopkins, Hon. and Dr. Henry Highland Garnett, Hon. Alexander Clark, and Mrs. Mary Garnett Barboza, the distinguished daughter of Dr. Garnett. Hopkins, Garnett and Clark were the three American Ministers of State, who have died here.

http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/images/serial/aa_se01/Vol08/Num04/txt/P491.TXT
They say Hon. Alexander Clarke, who died here, had passed through the acclimating fever and would have lived easilyenough had he not refused to eat food that would strengthen him; he confined himself to American hog soup, when the doctor and all begged him to eat other things. The people here say stinginess killed him. The report, however, that strong drink killed him is pronounced a base falsehood. People here say he was purely temperate.

http://www.stewart-familyvisual.com/_wsn/page3.html
During President Benjamin Harrison's administration, Mr. Smith was favorably considered to be United States Consul to Liberia, Africa. He was endorsed by the NY State Republican Party and received the endorsement of the Hannibal Legion (Colored Republican Voters of the City and State of New York). He declined to accept the position, his preference being to remain with his Family in the United States.

http://www.liberianforum.com/liberianfacts.htm
U.S. Ministers to Liberia (1866-1949)

John Seys (Minister 1866-70)
J. Milton Turner (Minister 1871-78)
John H. Smyth (Minister 1878-81)
Henry Highland Garnet (Minister 1881-82)
John H. Smyth (Minister 1882-85)
Moses A. Hopkins (Minister 1885-86)
Charles Henry James Taylor (Minister 1887)
Ezekiel Ezra Smith (Minister 1888-90)
Alexander Clark (Minister 1890-91)
William D. McCoy (Minister 1892-93)
William H. Heard (Minister 1895-98)
Owen Lun West Smith (Minister 1898-1902)
John R. A. Crossland (Minister 1902-03)
Ernest Lyon (Minister 1903-10)
William D. Crum (Minister 1910-12)
George W. Buckner (Minister 1913-15)
James L. Curtis (Minister 1915-17)
Joseph L. Johnson (Minister 1918-22)
Solomon Porter Hood (Minister 1922-26)
William T. Francis (Minister 1927-29)
Charles E. Mitchell (Minister 1930-33)
Lester Aglar Walton (Minister 1935-46)
Raphael O'Hara Lanier (Minister 1946-48)
Edward Richard Dudley (Minister 1948-49)

http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/bowen/ill9.html
John H. Smyth, editor of The Reformer, Richmond, Va. for Nine Years Minister to Liberia

http://www.uiowa.edu/~blsa/
The Alexander G. Clark Sr. and Jr. Chapter of the Black Law Students Association focuses on the relationship of the black attorney to the American legal structure and works to foster an attitude of professional competence.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~afriam/ac.html

http://www.uiowa.edu/~afriam/Bib.html
Alexander Clark, Jr. and Sr.

Newspapers:
"AG Clark Had Compiled a History of Negro Masonry " and "AG Clark is Laid to Rest" Iowa Bystander. Issues from 1893-1939. ( Microfilm). State Historical Society of Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa. July 6, 1939 and July 13, 1939.

Secondary Sources:
Bergmann, Leola Nelson. The Negro in Iowa. Iowa City, State Historical Society of Iowa, 1969.

"Clark's Admission to the Iowa Bar " Annals of Iowa: Origin of the Department of Public Instruction. Des Moines, IA: Iowa StateDepartment of History and Archives.p. 89.

Hubbard, Philip. New Dawns: A 150-Year Look at Human Rights at the University of Iowa. The Sequicentennial Committee. 1996.

Jackson, Marilyn. "Alexander Clark: A Rediscovered Black Leader." The Iowan Vol. 23 no. 3 Spring 1975. pp. 43-52.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamusca2/bio_abc.htm
CLARK, ALEXANDER, retired (more popularly known as the colored orator of the West); is a native of Washington Co, Penn., and was born Feb. 25, 1826; he received but a limited education in the common schools of his native village; but he was a bright, intelligent lad and seemed to learn by intuition. At the age of 13, he removed to Cincinatti, Ohio, where he learned the barbering business with his uncle, who also sent him to school for about a year, where he made considerable proficiency in grammar, arithmetic, geography and natural philosophy. In May, 1842, he came to Iowa, and located in Muscatine, which has since been his home; he conducted a barber shop until about 1868, when his health compelled him to seek a more active business; having by industry and economy accumulated some capital, he invested in real estate; bought some timber land; obtained contracts for the furnishing of wood to steamboats; did some speculating which proved to be successful, and the result is the accumulation of a competence on which he lives in ease and retirement. In 1851, he became a member of the Masonic Order by joining Prince Hall Lodge, No. 1, of St. Louis; in 1868, he was Arched, Knighted and elected Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge; H. McGee Alexander, then Grand Master, died April 20, 1868, and Mr. Clark became Grand Master in his stead, and fulfilled his unexpired term; the jurisdiction then extended over Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi; he organized all the subordinate lodges in the last three States and assisted in organizing their Grand Lodges; at the next annual meeting of the Grand Lodge of Missouri, he was elected Grand Treasurer, and appointed a delegate to the Most Worshipful National Grand Compact of Masons (colored) for the United States, held at Wilmington, Del., Oct. 9, 1869; in June, 1869, he was again elected Grand Master, and held that office for three years; in 1872, he was elected Grand Secretary, and, in 1874, he was again elected to the position of Grand Master, and annually re-elected to the same position, his jurisdiction extending over the States of Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and Colorado, embracing 87 Lodges and 2,700 members; he is said to be one of the most accomplished ritualists, and among the most able and successful executive officers that the Order, in any branch of it, has ever possessed. In 1863, he enlisted in the 1st I. (colored) V.I., and was appointed Sergeant-Major, but was refused on account of physical disability. In 1869, he was appointed by the Colored State Convention of Iowa a delegate to the Colored National Convention, which met at Washington, D.C.; he was also a member of the Committee from the same Convention to wait upon President Grant and Vice President Colfax to tender them the congratulations of the colored people of the United States upon their election; in 1869, he was a member and Vice President of the Iowa Republican State Convention; in the following year, he was also a delegate to the State Convention and a member of the Committee on Resolutions; he has stumped the State of Iowa as well as most of the Southern States at every election held since the rebellion, and is recognized as a very eloquent and powerful speaker; in 1872, he was appointed by the Republican State Convention of Iowa a delegate at large to the National Republican Convention in Philadelphia, an, in 1873, was appointed by President Grant Counsel to Aux Cayes, Hayti, but refused the position owing to the meagerness of the salary; in 1876, he was appointed by a colored convention of Iowa delegate to the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, for the purpose of preparing useful statistics for the colored race; and later the same year, he was appointed alternate delegate by the Iowa State Republican Convention to the National Republican Convention held in Cincinnati. Mr. Clark became a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1850; continues in fellowship, and is Superintendent of the Sabbath school of that church in Muscatine; he is also Trustee, Steward, and the largest contributor to the support of the Church. On the 9th of October, 1848, at Iowa City, he married Miss Catherine Griffin; they have had five children, two of whom, John and Ellen, died in infancy; the survivors, Rebecca J., Susan V., and Alexander G., all inherit their father's intellectual endowments; all graduates of the High School of Muscatine; Alexander is studying law; Rebecca is the wife of G.W. Appleton, of Muscatine; Susan is the wife of Rev. Richard Holley, a minister at the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Source: THE HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY IOWA Containing A History of the County, its Cities, Towns, & etc.
Western Historical Company Chicago Illinois 1879

CLARK, Alexander, journalist, was born in Washington county, Pa.. in February. 1826, of colored parents. He received a good district school training, learned the trade of barber, removed to Muscatine, Iowa, in 1843, and there pursued his vocation. He was a delegate to the national convention of colored men at Rochester, N. Y.; in 1853, identified himself with the Republican party and became a prominent political orator. He was a delegate to all the county and state conventions of his party, and in 1869 represented his race in Iowa in the national convention at Washington D. C. In 1882 he purchased the Chicago Conservator and conducted it with success until 1889. In 1883 he was graduated at the Iowa state law school and was admitted to the Chicago bar. In August, 1890, President Harrison appointed him U.S. minister to Liberia, and he died at Monrovia, Liberia, June 3, 1891.

Source: The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume II

http://www.irishgenealogy.com/us/pa/washington/queries/queries5.htm
Subject: Clark
Submitter: Joel Wuthnow
Date: Sat Mar 29 12:06:42 1997

Looking for info. on John CLARK, Jr. b. York Co. PA 1757 d. 1819, particularly his wife and children. Thanks -Joel Wuthnow, Princeton, NJ-

http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamusca2/bio_abc.htm
CLARK, Alexander, journalist, was born in Washington county, Pa.. in February. 1826, of colored parents. He received a good district school training, learned the trade of barber, removed to Muscatine, Iowa, in 1843, and there pursued his vocation. He was a delegate to the national convention of colored men at Rochester, N. Y.; in 1853, identified himself with the Republican party and became a prominent political orator. He was a delegate to all the county and state conventions of his party, and in 1869 represented his race in Iowa in the national convention at Washington D. C. In 1882 he purchased the Chicago Conservator and conducted it with success until 1889. In 1883 he was graduated at the Iowa state law school and was admitted to the Chicago bar. In August, 1890, President Harrison appointed him U.S. minister to Liberia, and he died at Monrovia, Liberia, June 3, 1891.

Source: The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume II

http://www.chipublib.org/002branches/woodson/harshdocs/iwpfindingaid.html
10. Notes on " prominent characters" in African American journalism in Illinois. Information is included on Florencia Grier, Archibald James Carey, Lincoln C. Valle, John Edward Bruce, Hiawatha W. Rhea, Alexander Clark, J.H. Magee. [L. Harper. 10/1/41] (13)

http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/defender.html
The Chicago Defender's local circulation soon surpassed that of the three rival papers that existed in the Chicago area at that time: The Broad Ax, The Illinois Idea, and The Conservator.

http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-genforum/email.cgi?570481616
[posts by Deborah Brownfield-Stanley]
# Alexander Clark Jr. ~ First Negro To Enter University of Iowa 1/21/04
# Re: Alexander Clark ~ born 1826 ~ Pennsylvania 9/17/03
# Alexander Clark ~ born 1826 ~ Pennsylvania 9/11/03

'STUDIES IN IOWA HISTORY'
The Negro In Iowa
by
Leola Nelson Bergmann
----------------------------------------------------------
[...]
So far as education was concerned it took a few court cases to establish the constitutional right of Negro children to attend common schools. Some districts in the State provided separate schools for colored children and expected the Negroes to observe this color line. Such was true in Muscatine, for example. But in l868, the year when the amendments granting various rights to Negroes were finally adopted, Alexander Clark, a barber in that city, brought a suit against the school board on the ground that his twelve-year-old daughter Susan was refused admission into the grammar school attended by the white children solely because of her race. The court ruled that the board of directors had no right to require children to attend a separate school because of race, religion, or economic status.

In l874, two colored boys, Geroid Smith and Charles Dove, residents of Keokuk, another town that provided separate educational facilities for colored children, were denied admission into the schools there. The Iowa Supreme Court again decided that Negro children could not be excluded from the public schools, nor could they be compelled to attend a separate school.

Two of the children concerned in these cases came from families who left their names on the pages of Iowa history.

Susan Clark's father, Alexander Clark, was the most prominent Negro in Iowa from Civil War days almost to the close of the century. he was born in Pennsylvania in l826; his father, a manumitted slave, was half Irish, his mother a full-blooded Negress. When he was thirteen years old he left Pennsylvania -- with little formal education, but a fair amount of knowledge -- to live in Cincinnati with an uncle, who taught him the trade of barbering. In the spring of l842 he came to Muscatine, Iowa, where he decided to settle and open a barber shop. For over a quarter of a century he ran a successful business, and enjoyed the respect and affection of Muscatine citizens.

Shrewd in business matters, he invested his money in timberland and contracted to furnish wood for steamboats on the Mississippi. Other business ventures were likewise successful and when he retired from the barbering business in l868 he was able to live a life of comfort and security. Three of the children born to Alexander Clark and his wife, a woman of Negro and Indian blood, grew to maturity and were well educated, his son, Alexander, Jr., receiving his degree from the Law Department at the State University of Iowa in l879. The father, undoubtedly stimulated by the legal atmosphere brought home by his son, matriculated in the Law Department in l883 and received his LL.B. degree in the spring of l884 at the age of fifty-eight.
[...]
Clark was energetic in the fight for Negroes' rights, speaking so eloquently in his tours throughout Iowa and several of the southern States that he became known popularly as "the colored orator of the West". When the amendment to enfranchise the Negroes was up for decision in Iowa he was one of the guiding spirits in the colored convention that was called in Des Moines in l868 to promote their cause.

In January, l869, an Iowa City paper recorded a meeting in which Clark played a major role:

The people of color held a State Convention at Muscatine, Dec. 3lst, to appoint a delegate to the National Convention, to be held in Washington, D.C., today. Delegates were present from Tipton, Iowa City, Washington, Davenport, Burlington, Des Moines, and Muscatine. Alexander Clark, of Muscatine, was appointed to attend the National Convention. . . . .

The following resolution was offered by A. Clark, and adopted:

"Resolved: That this Convention, in behalf of the colored citizens of Iowa, tender their sincere thanks to the Republican Party for their noble and manly effort in behalf of manhood suffrage at the November election, by which our enfranchisement was achieved by 25,000 majority."

At the national convention, which he subsequently attended, Clark was a member of the committee that called upon President Grant and Vice President Colfax to extend to them the congratulations of the colored people of the United States upon their election. As a matter of fact, Clark made the speech on that occasion. A few months after his return from that convention he attended the Republican State Convention where he served as one of the vice presidents.

Clark continued to participate actively in the State conventions of the Republican Party. In l872 he served as a delegate at large to the national convention and in l876 he was appointed alternate delegate. Also in l876 he represented an Iowa convention of colored people at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, being sent for the purpose of preparing statistics for the colored race. In l873 President U.S. Grant appointed him consul at Aux-Cayes, Haiti, a position he refused because of the meager stipend. In l890 when President Harrison appointed him minister resident and consul general to Liberia, he accepted, taking over his office on November 25, l890. His services there were short; a telegram to the State Department the following June announced his death.
[...]
As far as can be ascertained from the records, Alexander Clark, Jr., was the first Negro to enter the University of Iowa and the first to be awarded a degree, the LL. B. in l879.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamusca2/usct.htm
United States Colored Troops
with residence listed as Muscatine County
extracted from "Roster & Record of Iowa Soldiers in the War of Rebellion" (published 1910)

http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamusca2/gw_cl.htm
LASTNAME FIRST MIDDLE AGE SEX DEATHDATE CITY COUNTY STATE UNDERTAKER BURIAL LOT GRAVE BLOCK ADDITION LOT OWNER NOTES
CLARK ALEXANDER . 65 M . MUSCATINE MUSCATINE IA . . 17 . 2 FLETCHER 1st . .

http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamusca2/gw_ar.htm
LASTNAME FIRST MIDDLE AGE SEX DEATHDATE CITY COUNTY STATE UNDERTAKER BURIAL LOT GRAVE BLOCK ADDITION LOT OWNER NOTES
APPLETON GEO W 51 M MUSCATINE MUSCATINE IA 18 2 FLETCHER 1ST ALEXANDER CLARK
APPLETON REBECCA 52 F MUSCATINE MUSCATINE IA 8/24/06 18 2 FLETCHER 1ST ALEXANDER CLARK

http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamusca2/gw_hoh.htm
LASTNAME FIRST MIDDLE AGE SEX DEATHDATE CITY COUNTY STATE UNDERTAKER BURIAL LOT GRAVE BLOCK ADDITION LOT OWNER NOTES
HOLLEY EDITH 1 F MUSCATINE MUSCATINE IA FLETCHER 1ST INFANT
HOLLEY SUSAN V 70 F MUSCATINE MUSCATINE IA 04 Jun 1925 17 2 FLETCHER 1ST ALEXANDER CLARK

http://www.yorkriteil.org/MAPHGC/hist.html
The degrees first came into possession of the Negro sometime between 1850 and 1855. Jake Pritchard, a Negro who was a steward on a Mississippi steamer was a Mason who was well versed in Masonry. he came in contact with a passenger on the boat who struck up an acquaintance with him, and being impressed with Pritchard and his knowledge of Masonry, he gave him a little book and told him to make what he could out of it. This book contained the work of the Heroines Degrees.

Bro. Pritchard went into conference with Bro. Moses Dickson and Alexander Clark, and together they developed it and arranged the degrees as we have them today. In 1872, Bro. Dickson published the ritual and after this the work progressed more rapidly and spread throughout the country.

http://www.phglmn.net/History%20of%20MN.htm
Confusion, strife and bitter feelings reigned during the struggle for Masonic supremacy by the to rival Grand bodies, African, under Grand Master George H. Clagget, and Hiram, under Grand Master Alexander Clark; they finally met in Des Moines in 1887 in convention and consolidated as the "Most Worshipful United Grand Lodge of Iowa, AF & AM", Brother George H. Clagget was the first Grand Master. This consolidation, therefore, brought peace, harmony and love to the troubled Masonic waters of this great state.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamuscat/biographies1879/clark.htm
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Biographical Section, 1879, page 597

ALEXANDER CLARK, retired (more popularly known as the colored orator of the West); is a native of Washington Co, Penn., and was born Feb. 25, 1826; he received but a limited education in the common schools of his native village; but he was a bright, intelligent lad and seemed to learn by intuition. At the age of 13, he removed to Cincinatti, Ohio, where he learned the barbering business with his uncle, who also sent him to school for about a year, where he made considerable proficiency in grammar, arithmetic, geography and natural philosophy. In May, 1842, he came to Iowa, and located in Muscatine, which has since been his home; he conducted a barber shop until about 1868, when his health compelled him to seek a more active business; having by industry and economy accumulated some capital, he invested in real estate; bought some timber land; obtained contracts for the furnishing of wood to steamboats; did some speculating which proved to be successful, and the result is the accumulation of a competence on which he lives in ease and retirement. In 1851, he became a member of the Masonic Order by joining Prince Hall Lodge, No. 1, of St. Louis; in 1868, he was Arched, Knighted and elected Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge; H. McGee Alexander, then Grand Master, died April 20, 1868, and Mr. Clark became Grand Master in his stead, and fulfilled his unexpired term; the jurisdiction then extended over Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi; he organized all the subordinate Lodges in the last three States and assisted in organizing their Grand Lodges; at the next annual meeting of the Grand Lodge of Missouri, he was elected Grand Treasurer, and appointed a delegate to the Most Worshipful National Grand Compact of Masons (colored) for the United States, held at Wilmington, Del., Oct. 9, 1869; in June, 1869, he was again elected Grand Master, and held that office for three years; in 1872, he was elected Grand Secretary, and in 1873, was appointed Chairman of the Commitee on Foreign Correspondence; in 1874, he was again elected to the position of Grand Master, and annually re-elected to the same position, his jurisdiction extending over the States of Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and Colorado, embracing 87 Lodges and 2,700 members; he is said to be one of the most accomplished ritualists, and among the most able and successful executive officers that the Order, in any branch of it, has ever possessed. In 1863, he enlisted in the 1st I. (colored) V.I., and was appointed Sergeant-Major, but was refused on account of physical disability. In 1869, he was appointed by the Colored State Convention of Iowa a delegate to the Colored National Convention, which met at Washington, D.C.; he was also a member of the Committee from the same Convention to wait upon President Grant and Vice President Colfax to tender them the congratulations of the colored people of the United States upon their election; in 1869, he was a member and Vice President of the Iowa Republican State Convention; in the following year, he was also a delegate to the State Convention and a member of the Committee on Resolutions; he has stumped the State of Iowa as well as most of the Southern States at every election held since the rebellion, and is recognized as a very eloquent and powerful speaker; in 1872, he was appointed by the Republican State Convention of Iowa a delegate at large to the National Republican Convention at Philadelphia, and, in 1873, was appointed by President Grant Counsel to Aux Cayes, Hayti, but refused the position owing to the meagerness of the salary; in 1876, he was appointed by a colored convention of Iowa delegate to the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, for the purpose of preparing useful statistics for the colored race; and later the same year, he was appointed alternate delegate by the Iowa State Republican Convention to the National Republican Convention held in Cincinnati. Mr. Clark became a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1850; continues in fellowship, and is Superintendent of the Sabbath school of that Church in Muscatine; he is also Trustee, Steward ,and the largest contributor to the support of the Church. On the 9th of October, 1848, at Iowa City, he married Miss Catherine Griffin; they have had five children, two of whom, John and Ellen, died in infancy; the survivors, Rebecca J., Susan V., and Alexander G., all inherit their father's intellectual endowments; all graduates of the High School of Muscatine; Alexander is studying law; Rebecca is the wife of G.W. Appleton, of Muscatine; Susan is the wife of Rev. Richard Holley, a minister at the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

http://www.muscatinejournal.com/articles/2004/02/23/news/news3.txt
Seminar takes audience on a journey through Iowa's black history
By Stephen Byrd of the Muscatine Journal

MUSCATINE, Iowa - Although the population of Iowa's African-American community has always been small, black Iowans, past and present, have made valuable contributions to the economic, political and cultural life of the state, according to historian David Brodnax.

Brodnax, a 1999 University of Iowa law school graduate and current Northwestern University doctoral student and adjunct lecturer in history, spoke to about 30 people Saturday, Feb. 21, at the Musser Public Library. The event was a seminar titled "Black Hawkeyes: African-Americans in the Making of Iowa, 1803-1900."

The seminar was sponsored by the library as part of its Black History Month activities.

Pamela Nosek, research curator for the African American Historical Museum & Cultural Center in Cedar Rapids, also spoke about the history of Muscatine's black community and its most prominent citizen, Alexander Clark Sr.

Clark, born in Pennsylvania in 1826, became a farmer, businessman, civil rights activist and lawyer, and was ultimately appointed U.S. ambassador to the nation of Liberia during the almost 50 years he called Muscatine home.

During the early decades of the 19th century, most of Iowa's black men and women originally came from eastern states and were already free, although there was a growing number of former and fugitive slaves who migrated north to Iowa along the Mississippi River from Missouri and other southern states.

The city of Muscatine, originally known as Bloomington, began as a Native American trading post in 1833. By the 1850 U.S. Census, there were already 69 black settlers living in Muscatine and other areas of Muscatine County.

"Muscatine has one of the earliest black settlements in the state," Brodnax said. "The Mississippi River made it easier for free blacks to travel and settle down in cities like Dubuque, Clinton, Burlington and Keokuk."

Although the people in the new black communities were generally left alone or ignored by white Iowans, Brodnax said that several reported murders of black men by white mobs as well as state legislation passed during the pre-Civil War-era told black Iowans that they were not welcome in the region.

"There were several state laws enacted that barred black people from voting or serving on a jury and forced black men to put up a $500 bond before they were allowed to settle in the state," Brodnax said. "Five hundred dollars was half a year's wages for a laborer at that time."

In the midst of this tense racial climate, Alexander Clark migrated to Muscatine in 1842.

An ambitious and hard-working man, Clark bought acres of river bottom land, cleared trees and sold the wood to passing riverboats. He then farmed vegetables on the cleared acreage.

By 1847, Clark had a net worth of at least $1,000, according to Muscatine County tax records of that era. He married, started a family and quickly became influential in Iowa's black community, organizing a Union regiment of 1,100 black soldiers from Iowa and Missouri during the Civil War.

After the war, black Iowans continued to face economic and political setbacks. However, the community was helped by gaining the right to vote in 1868 and by several Iowa Supreme Court decisions that reversed some of the state's discriminatory laws toward blacks.

"Clark and other local black men and women helped make Muscatine a center of the Iowa black community," Nosek said. "They raised large families and established businesses, churches and schools."

Both Brodnax and Nosek agreed that Clark played an integral role in improving race relations in Iowa. By the time of his death in Liberia in 1891, Clark served as a symbol of a growing, prosperous and more assertive black community, not only in the state, but nationwide.

"Clark was determined to improve the quality of life for all of Iowa's black people," Brodnax said. "He was a part of a state supreme court decision that ended segregation in Iowa schools almost 90 years before the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954."

Stephen Byrd can be reached at 563-263-2331 (ext. 320) or stephen.byrd@muscatinejournal.com

http://www.democraticgovernors.org/sos2003/iowa_ina.html
Alexander Clark Jr. [sic] was a loving father who thought his twelve-year-old daughter should attend the neighborhood school in Muscatine. The school board didn't think so. It said it had a special school for children like her-a separate school for "colored" children. This was in 1868, and Mr. Clark sued on behalf of his daughter. The Supreme Court said of course Susan Clark could go to the neighborhood school, whether we are African, German, Irish, French, or English, it said, we are "one harmonious people" and we all should be treated alike. He took risks. He wrought change. We were then, and we are today "one harmonious people."

http://www.garretson.us/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=6
At the time of the Kansas border war, John Brown crossed Iowa several times on his way to Kansas or to the East. His object in going to Kansas was to assist the antislavery forces, not to establish a home, and as he passed through Iowa he established a line of travel for his fugitive slaves. Beginning in the west at Tabor, the line ran north and east to Madison and Dallas counties. This line passed through Earlham-a Quaker settlement-Des Moines, Grinnell, Washington, Crawfordsville, and Muscatine. [...] In addition to the route laid out by John Brown through Tabor, Des Moines, Grinnell, and Muscatine, there was another through Fairfield, Richland, Clay, and Washington, which joined the other road at Crawfordsville, a small town in the southeastern part of Washington County. The road through Fairfield and Richland was in reality an extension of the work of Salem and Denmark. [...] As Salem was the gateway of Quakerism, so Denmark was the Mecca of Congregationalism. [...] The influence of Salem and Denmark abided with these communities, and Congregationalists and Quakers were found working in harmony in this humanitarian cause. Fugitives who reached Fairfield were taken in charge by friends who would conduct them to Richland or Pleasant Plain, and then to Clay; from whence, they would be moved to Washington and on to Crawfordsville and Muscatine. [...] On account of the convergence of these two roads, the traffic from Crawfordsville to Muscatine was very heavy. When John Kilgore and Martin C. Kilgore brought their fugitives from Washington, Colonel Rankin would receive them and conceal them in the loft of the "House of all Nations ". On the following night Colonel Rankin would take them out at the back door, to the barn, where he would place them in a covered wagon and drive them to Colonel Baily's house in Columbus City. On the following night Colonel Baily would go through a similar performance and land them safely at Muscatine. As many as thirteen fugitives were concealed in the "House of all Nations" at one time. Very few, if any, were ever captured.