Among the prominet citizens in Orion are a number who were born in that township and whose growth and progress through life have been closely identified with that of their native place. One of these is the subject of this sketch, who was born in a log house on Section 23, Orion Township, Dec 29, 1853. HIs father Elijah B. Clark, was a native of Connecticut, where he first saw the light Nov 23, 1792. He left home a boy of thirteen and became an apprentice to a ship carpenter. He afterward went to Wayne County, Pennsylvania, where he followed farming and carpentering for several years. The year 1830 saw him an emigrant to Michigan, and in June of that year, he located and entered land in Orion Township and received a deed signed by Gen. Jackson. He returned home that fall but the following spring he came on and erected a log cabin. He was thus one of the very first settlers in that part of what was then Territory of Michigan. The Indians were his most numerous and frequent callers, and an ox=team was his fastest span. He was a Whig in politic and served in the elegislature in 1846-47, the last session of Legislature that assembled in Detroit. He was well known throughout all that region and was highly respected. He served at one time as supervisor and also as treasurer of the township. He lived to a green old age and died in 1884 at the age of ninty-one years and seven months. His father, Josiah Clark, was a farmer in Connecticut.

The mother of our subject, Mary A> Yerkes, was born in Pennslavania, Jan 23, 1798. HEr death took place Jan 3, 1864. Of her ten children, eight are still living. Our subject was reared on the farm and had a distirct school education. When he was nineteen years old he and his four brothers bought the old homestead, which comprised of three hundred and twenty acres and farmed in partnership for four years. He then sold his interest and farmed for himself.

The wife whom our subject chose was Ellen, daughter of William and Chloe(Bugbee) Green, who came to Oakland COunty, Michigan in 1843, and were early settlers in Orion Township. The marriage took place in 1858, in Orion Township, Mrs. Green passed away from this earth in Oct 1870. Mr Green is still living in his eighty-fourth year.

Mr. Clark has been a Rebuplican from early manhood and cast his first vote for President Abraham Lincoln He is a member of the order of the Patrons of Husbandry. He owns a farm of one hundred and thirty-seven acres on Section 13 and 24 in Orion Township. and a pleasant home situated on seven and a half acres just outside the corporation of Orion. He is connected with the Orion Park Association, of which he is a director. Mr. Clark taught two terms of school in 1857-58 in this county.