Introduction

Biography

George was the son of Dr. Hen­ry Clarke and Lu­cy Clarke, and hus­band of Sar­ah Dunn (mar­ried 1873).

He moved to Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, with his fa­mi­ly in 1838, and to Wal­worth, Wis­con­sin, in 1840.

In 1848, George en­rolled at Bel­oit Col­lege in Bel­oit, Wis­con­sin. He left Bel­oit in his jun­ior year to be­come prin­ci­pal of the Mon­roe Se­mi­na­ry in Wis­con­sin, a post he held 18 months.

Afterward, he taught at the Mil­ton Aca­de­my in Mil­ton, Wis­con­sin. He was lat­er elect­ed su­per­in­tend­ent of the pub­lic schools in Ba­ra­boo, Wis­con­sin, and for a year and a half ed­it­ed the Sauk Coun­ty Stan­dard, a Free Soil news­pa­per.

Clarke stu­died law, and, re­turn­ing to Chi­ca­go in 1853, was ad­mit­ted to the bar and be­gan to prac­tice. The next year, he moved in­to the real es­tate bu­si­ness, con­tin­uing un­til 1860, when he went to Co­lo­ra­do to spend two years min­ing.

In 1862, Clarke re­turned to Chi­ca­go, where he or­gan­ized Com­pa­ny A, 113th Il­li­nois Vol­un­teers, of which he was made cap­tain. He was lat­er pro­mot­ed to ma­jor, then lieu­ten­ant co­lo­nel. He fought in the siege of Vicks­burg, Mis­sis­sip­pi, and a number of oth­er bat­tles in the Fif­teenth Ar­my Corps un­der Ge­ne­ral Will­iam T. Sher­man. He al­so com­mand­ed Camp But­ler, near Spring­field, Il­li­nois, for eight months.

After the war, Clarke re­turned to Chi­ca­go and re­sumed work in the real es­tate bu­si­ness. He man­aged the Blue Is­land Land and Build­ing Com­pa­ny’s real es­tate mat­ters, and in 1869, laid out the Chi­ca­go sub­urb of Mor­gan Park.

After their mar­riage, he and Sar­ah be­came co-work­ers with evan­gel­ist Dwight Moo­dy. In 1877, the Clarkes opened the Pa­ci­fic Gar­den Mis­sion on South Clark Street in Chi­ca­go, in a sect­ion of town known as the Le­vee. The mis­sion was quite suc­cess­ful, and still op­erates in the 21st Cen­tu­ry.