A record of the descendants of John Clark, of Farmington, Conn ...

JOSEPH WASHBURN. 63
exclianged liis mules for oxen nt Salt Lake ; unable to endure
tlie suspense of their slow pace, he left his team and walked
to Marysville, some sixty miles, walking all night, without
food or rest. It Avas after the terril)le exertion and anxiety
of this walk that the heart-disease first appeared which ended
his life.
" At Georgetown, fairly among the mines. Dr. Clark went
into trade with his brother-in-law, Elias Gill, and prospered.
In 1852 he went back and brought
his wife and children to
San Francisco ; a year or two later, his mother and a sister,
now Mrs. Sanford of Oakland, Cal., joined him ; in 1856, his
youngest sister, Mrs. Shinn, came to Niles, Cal. ; and a third
sister, Mrs. Holbrook, and his brother Dennis have both lived
for a short time in California ; so that even after iiis removal
to the western coast.
Dr. Clark remained the center of tlie
family group.
" The quarter century of his life in San Francisco was
occupied in mercantile pursuits
and fdled with tlic utmost
devotion to the public good, especially through the church
and like channels. His business life was blameless; he was
indispensable to his cliurch (the First Congregational, that of
Dr. A. L. Stone).
In 1862-3, he served in the legislature of
California ; his uncompromising standard of honor there,
though it must have stood sometimes in the way of party
schemes, is spoken of still with uniform admiration by all
who knew him in that capacity. In the autumn of 1878 a
neglected cold produced a congestion of the lungs that, joined
with the old heart disease, brought him to the grave. His
thought and care for others never failed through his long
sickness ; on the last day of his life, when his strength had
ilready ebbed so low that his friends expected the end almost
hourly, avhen his senses were failing and his mind wandering.