Husband Hon. Silas Moorhead Clark, LL.D. 1 2 3 4
Born: 1834 - Elderton, Plum Creek Twp, Armstrong Co, PA 1 2
Christened:
Died: 20 Nov 1891 5
Buried:
Father: James Clark, Esq. (1806-1891) 3 6 7 8 9
Mother: Ann Moorhead ( - ) 1
Marriage: 26 Apr 1859 10 11
• Residence: Hon. Silas M. Clark: Indiana, Indiana Co, PA.
Wife Clara Elizabeth Moorhead 1 10 11
Born:
Christened:
Died: 17 Jan 1887 10 11
Buried:
Father: William Moorhead ( - ) 1 10 11
Mother:
Children
General Notes: Husband - Hon. Silas Moorhead Clark, LL.D.
He obtained his rudimentary education in the public schools of Indiana, Pennsylvania, in which he continued as a pupil until he was sufficiently equipped with learning to enter the academy of the town. There he pursued the course of study that prepared him to enter the junior class of Jefferson College at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1852, standing fifth in a class of about sixty members. He was an adept in mathematics, a fluent and forceful speaker, and in literature excelled. In recognition of this the Philo Literary Society invited him to deliver the valedictory address on the occasion of the semi-centennial anniversary of the college.
After his graduation Judge Clark became an instructor in the academy in which he had been prepared for college and continued in this position for two years. He entered into the work with much spirit and earnestness, and aroused among the pupils the greatest enthusiasm. The sympathy with school work which was implanted during that period never abated. Soon after he was admitted to the bar, and while a young and struggling lawyer, he was elected director of the public schools of the town, and for twelve successive years served the people in that important capacity. Later on he became one of the projectors and founders of the Normal School at Indiana, of which he was from the first a member of the board of trustees and most of the time president of that body. In recognition of his long and faithful service in the interests of educational progress Lafayette College in 1886 conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, and the compliment was never bestowed upon a more deserving recipient, or the judicial ermine more appropriate for the person of anyone.
After two years of service as an educator Judge Clark abandoned the profession and entered the law office of William H. Stewart, a prominent lawyer of Indiana, and in 1857, at the age of twenty-three years, was admitted to practice at the bar of Indiana county. The bar of the county at that time embraced some of the strongest lawyers in the state, but the young aspirant for legal honors was not long in making a place for himself among the most successful, and it is a matter of record that during the ten years preceding his elevation to the Supreme bench not a single case of importance was tried in the county in which he did not appear as counsel. His fame was not limited to his own county, either, and during the period of his successful practice he received many tempting offers to conduct important cases tried elsewhere. But, as a rule, all such offers were declined, for unless the persons interested were personal friends or home clients he preferred to attend to his extensive and lucrative practice in his own district rather than go to other fields.
In his law practice Judge Clark was always a clear and profound thinker, a strong and logical reasoner, and an eloquent advocate of surpassing power. It was a hopeless case, indeed, where he failed to secure a favorable judgment or verdict. Whether arguing questions of law before a court, or questions of fact before a jury, the strong points of his case were so strongly and forcibly presented that the weak ones were likely to be lost sight of altogether. Nor was it in the trial of causes alone that he excelled. Contracts, wills and other legal papers prepared by him were so skillfully executed, contingencies so carefully provided for and guarded against, and their terms so clearly expressed, that they never gave rise to litigation by reason of their ambiguity.
Judge Clark inherited his political convictions, as his other characteristics, from his ancestry, and from boyhood was a Democrat. While he held it to be both the right and duty of every citizen to maintain his political convictions fearlessly, and share the labors and responsibilities of citizenship, he was never an office-seeker, and, with the exception of membership in the Constitutional Convention of 1873 he never held any office except that of Justice of the Supreme court. As a member of the Constitutional Convention he served on the following committees: Declaration of Rights, Private Corporations and Revision and Adjustment. Of that body of Pennsylvania's representative men he ranked as one of the ablest, and Mr. Buckalew, himself a member, in his very able work, "The Constitution of Pennsylvania," referring to the discussion of the judiciary article, makes special mention of some of Mr. Clark's speeches, remarking that they were among the ablest upon the subjects discussed. During his long career at the bar he was frequently invited to accept nominations for office, but invariably declined, with the exception named and one other. He was nominated for president judge of the judicial district composed of Indiana, Westmoreland and Armstrong counties, and was defeated by Hon. James A. Logan, the adverse majority in the district being too great for one of even his popularity to overcome. His election to the Supreme bench occurred in November, 1882, and he entered upon the duties of his office in January following, serving for a period of about eight years, when he died.
He took time in the midst of his large practice not only to cultivate a fine farm that he then owned, but to serve for several years as president of the Agricultural Society of his county, then one of the most flourishing in the state.
Perhaps the very best evidence of the esteem in which Judge Clark was held by his fellow citizens in his county is the fact that in the election to the Supreme bench they gave him a majority of one hundred and fifty-one votes over his Republican competitor, whilst the Republican candidate for governor at the same time had a majority of two thousand. His opinions, singularly short, were couched in the clearest and choicest language, and as readily understood by the layman as the lawyer. Many of them received favorable comment from the law critics in the leading periodicals in the country, and all of them were models of forceful and graceful rhetoric. Upon the death of the late Hon. Morrison R. Waite, chief justice of the United States Supreme court, the leading newspapers of the State, irrespective of party, pointed to Judge Clark as a man eminently qualified to fill the exalted position thus made vacant. In the support of their petition it was argued that he was in full vigor of intellect and physical strength, young enough to promise a protracted period of useful work, and old enough to bring to the position ripe experience, and an able and honorable record, both at the bar and on the bench. [HIC 1913, 677]