Sacramento County
Biographies
JUDGE ROBERT C. CLARK
JUDGE ROBERT C.
CLARK, deceased. In the chapter of this work dedicated to the Bench and Bar
of Sacramento County, many names appear whose owners have achieved distinction
and even National reputation, but none more honored than that of the late Judge
Robert C. Clark, with whose name this sketch commences. He was a native of
Kentucky, born in 1821, and came of one of the most distinguished families in
the Blue Grass State. His father, John Clark, was among the most eminent men
the State of Kentucky has produced. He rose to the front rank at the bar of
that State, and as a member of the Supreme Court of Kentucky, rendered
decisions in some important cases, which were at variance with the sentiment of
a large proportion of the people of the State. He was right, however, and when
time proved the wisdom and the justice of his course, he was as freely
vindicated as he had been condemned, and the people of the great commonwealth
of Kentucky elected him as their Governor, the last position of public honor
and trust he ever held, as he died while in the chair. He had also represented
his district in the national Congress. His second wife was a member of the
Washington family, to which had belonged the “Father of his Country.” Of such stock
was Judge Clark, of Sacramento. He was educated in Ohio and in Kentucky, and in
the latter State was prepared for the profession of the law. He went to St.
Louis to commence practice, and there remained until coming to the Pacific
coast. In 1852 he came across the plains to California, and located in
Sacramento, where he soon took front rank as a lawyer. In the Lincoln-Douglas
campaign, he came out as a Douglas Democrat, and made the race against Bob
Robinson for judge. He received the favorable verdict of the people at the
ensuing election, and so strongly did he endear himself to the people of the
county by his legal learning, his strong sense of justice, and his high
character for integrity, that for twenty successive years he held the office of
judge against all comers, and at the time of his death had yet two years to
serve of the term to which he was elected. He was married in Kentucky to Miss
Mary Wilcox, a native of northern Ohio, and a sister of Mrs. General Sturgis,
of the United States army. She preceded him in death by several years. Three
children survive them, viz.: Lora, wife of Charles McCreary; W. C., of San
Francisco, now the head of the Electric Light Company, and Minnie C. Judge
Clark achieved a splendid reputation while on the bench, as well as making a
record which has hardly been equaled in the history of jurisprudence in this
country; i.e., in twenty years he has had only one case reversed on appeal to
the Supreme Court. He was the preceptor of many lawyers who afterward made
distinguished names; in fact, it was said that he would not take a young man
into his office who did not give promise of making a successful lawyer. Among
his pupils were the Hon. M. M. Estee and Henry McCreary, whose early death shut
out a career which gave every promise of a brilliant future.
Transcribed by Vicky
Walker, 11/29/07.
Source: Davis, Hon.
Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County,
California. Page 799. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Vicky Walker.