Sacramento County
Biographies
PALMER CLARK
PALMER CLARK was born in the State of New
York. At the age of twelve he was one year on
the Erie Canal, between Schenectady and Albany.
In 1840 his Father, who was a farmer, sold out and the family migrated to Elgin,
Illinois, where our subject found
employment on the farm owned by his father until he was twenty-four years
old. On the 10th of May, 1852, a party composed of our
subject, his cousin Oliver Plummer, and many others, started overland by horse
train for California. They
crossed the Missouri River at Council Bluffs and saw no
habitation until they reached the Mormon settlement in the Carson
Valley. They went to the
north of Salt Lake,
via Sublette’s cut-off; George Masters, a friend, fell in with them on Platte
River, Nebraska, and together they arrived
safely at Soda Springs, Idaho.
Masters went to Oregon about the 7th of
October, and Clark got to Hangtown
on the 8th of October, 1852. Our subject was a young man of resources and quite ready to take advantage of
circumstances. He “had not come for his health,” and when one morning a
man offered him $2.50 per day to catch fish with hook and line in the softly
flowing Sacramento, he closed the
bargain forthwith, and is proud to state that success attended his efforts and
his wages increased to $3.00 after the first day. Shortly after he began
teaming and for the succeeding seven months was hauling goods to the
mines. Then for a time he drove a stage. Subsequently he kept the Eureka
stables on K street
for a year, and later on the Fountain House on the road to Grass
Valley, sixty-five miles from the
capital. Then went to Tehama County
and engaged in teaming, and after two years once more returned to Sacramento
and engaged in stock dealing at the Horse Market on K street. He left California
for his old home in the winter of 1859, going via New
York. His father died in March following.
He purchased a band of horses and drove them across the plains; his mother, two
sisters, two brothers, two cousins and Mr. J. Soverign,
now of Woodland, being of the
party. By this enterprise he made money; horses which cost $56 readily
brought $300 in the Sacramento
markets. Having disposed of his stock he again returned to Illinois;
crossed the plains in 1861, 1862 and 1864. On the last trip, when
sixty-five miles from Fort Laramie, the Indians succeeded in getting away with
his horses; he returned to the fort for assistance, and six mounted men started
in pursuit, but after going some thirty miles, became frightened and
returned. Clark then continued on his way on foot,
a journey of about 300 miles, during which he was obliged to swim rivers and
resort to all sorts of expedients to avoid the Indians. Arriving at Salt
Lake he met N. C. Alexander, of whom he borrowed $1,300; he spent six weeks in
trading, after which Alexander employed him to come to California and bring
seventeen mules and three trotting horses, and to conduct all the ladies of the
party to Clear Creek; thirty-five days later they met again at
Sacramento. In 1865 he brought another train for Alexander from Atchison,
Kansas, to Salt
Lake, and had exciting times with
the Indians. During the following year he made two trips, making eight in
all. In August of the following year he started for Chicago
with a medicine company, and was with them for eighteen years, traveling during
that time over the greater portion of the United
States. In 1871 Dr. William A.
Johnson, of Chicago, compounded a
medicinal remedy under the name of “Vigor of Life,” purely vegetable and
possessing wonderful curative qualities. Our subject came into possession
of the copy-right a few years later, and, removing to the Capital
City, established his headquarters
here in August, 1887, making this the distributing point for an extensive
trade, extending over the entire coast. He sells direct to the trade both
here and in the Eastern cities, where the Vigor of Life has already an
established reputation. Besides employing many men to travel through
different sections, selling and advertising extensively, Mr. Clark gives his
personal attention to the business, making extended trips and necessarily being
absent from his office a considerable portion of the time. During these
trips the office remains in charge of his wife, an estimable lady of great
business ability. To any one who has the happiness to meet Mr. and Mrs.
Clark under their own roof-tree will be opened up to a most delightful view of
genuine California hospitality.
Transcribed
by Karen Pratt.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An
Illustrated History of Sacramento County,
California. Pages 548-549. Lewis Publishing
Company. 1890.
© 2006 Karen Pratt.