family. After the father’s death, the widow and her children remained on the home farm and tried to make a living, but with little success. The mother survived until 1876, and died at Cheyenne, W. T.
As a poor farmer boy, James T. Clark was not much of a success, and, as he told his mother, he was not cut out to be a farmer. To her query as to what he was cut out for, he replied he did not know; but when the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad was being built through Bureau County, the question was answered.
He began by driving a cart while they were on the grade east of the West Bureau. During the construction of the bridge over the main Bureau, an accident caused a vacancy which he was called on to fill and he began the selecting of bridge timbers. He did various kinds of work till the road was completed and then was given the position of section boss, at Buda.
In 1855 he was married near that place to Miss Mary Fry. From Buda he went to Galesburg as assistant roadmaster, and was afterward promoted to roadmaster. He resigned that position and became Assistant Superintendent of the Union Pacific Railroad, and removed to Cheyenne, and was afterward made General Superintendent of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, which position he still holds.
Mr. Clark had been connected with the railroad business in some capacity ever since he began working by the day during the construction of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad in Bureau County.
Source: History of Bureau County, Illinois, H. C. Bradsby, Editor. World Publishing Company Chicago 1885