Enoch White Clark

Enoch White Clark (1802 – August 4, 1856) was the founder of E. W. Clark & Co.,[1] a prominent financial firm based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that helped the U.S. government finance the Mexican–American War. In 1857, Clark was listed as one of Philadelphia's 25 millionaires.[2]

Biography

Portrait of Enoch White Clark (1802-1856), banker, founder of E.W. Clark & Co., and one of the richest men in Philadelphia at his death.

Clark was born in 1802 in Easthampton, Massachusetts, a descendant of Captain William Clark (1609–1690), who emigrated from England aboard the ship Mary and John and landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1630, and moved to the town of Easthampton in 1639.[3] Enoch traced his descent from William as follows: John (1651-1704), John (1679-1768), Eliakim (1707-1781), Lt. Asahel (1737-1822), to his father, Bohan (1772-1846), a merchant and miller who married Mary White (1777-?) on February 11, 1802.[4][5]

On February 1, 1826,[6] he married Sarah Crawford Dodge (1806-1878), daughter of Nehemiah Dodge. (After she died, her son Edward White Clark commissioned a stained-glass window in her memory in the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia.[7])

Clark was at the time a broker for Allen & Co.[6]

In 1837, Enoch founded E. W. Clark & Co.[1]

Clark died on August 4, 1856, of nicotine poisoning.[8][9]

Family

Clark was the patriarch of a family that gained much prominence in Philadelphia and national affairs. He married Sarah Crawford Dodge.[10] Together they had at least four sons and three daughters:

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "E. W. Clark & Co. Observing 100th Anniversary Today". Wall Street Journal. February 15, 1937. Retrieved 2010-12-08. E. W. Clark & Co., investment banking and brokerage house, is observing its 100th anniversary today. Founded in Philadelphia as a private bank on February 15, 1837, the firm has been continuously under the direction of its founder, Enoch White Clark, and his descendants. Of the present eight partners, three are grandsons and four great grandsons. One of the early partners of the firm was Jay Cooke.
  2. Vitiello, Dominic; George E. Thomas (2010). The Philadelphia Stock Exchange and the City It Made. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 93. Retrieved December 8, 2010. There is obviously some confusion by the source; Clark died in 1856. But the passage was directly about fellow financier Francis Drexel.
  3. Andrew Wallace Barnes (1911). History of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. The founder of the firm was Enoch W. Clark, who was born in 1802 in East Hampton, Mass., and received his business ... Enoch W. Clark died in 1856. The present partners are Edward Walter Clark, Clarence M. Clark, Herbert L. Clark, ...
  4. Memorials of Elder John White, One of the First Settlers of Hartford, Conn., and of His Descendants, 1860
  5. Proceedings of the New England Historic Genealogical Society
  6. 6.0 6.1 "Married". Providence, Rhode Island. Christian Telescope. February 4, 1826. p. 108. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  7. Census of Stained Glass Windows in America Window: First Unitarian Church - Window L1
  8. "Death of a Banker". Baltimore Sun. August 5, 1856. Retrieved 2010-12-08. Mr. Enoch W. Clark, of the firm of E W. Clark & Co, bankers and exchange brokers, Third street, died yesterday morning after a long and painful illness, caused by cancer of the tongue Mr Clark is extensively known over the whole Union, being connected with the house of Clark, Dodge & Co., New York, and also with houses in the West, St Louis, ...
  9. "Enoch W. Clark". The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Retrieved 2010-12-08. Clark, Enoch W., banker, was born in East Hampton, Mass., Nov. 16, 1802, a descendant of Capt. William Clark, who came from England in 1630, and removed to the town of East Hampton in 1639. At the age of sixteen our subject removed to Philadelphia, and entered the office of S.tfc M. Allen, one of the leading financial houses, with main offices in Philadelphia and New York, and branches in Charleston, Louisville, Albany, and other cities. ...
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 "CLARK AND MADEIRA FAMILY" (PDF). ARCHIVAL COLLECTIONS; Clark and Madeira Family Papers, 1820 - 1942 (bulk 1850 - 1925). University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center. Retrieved December 8, 2010.
  11. 11.0 11.1 Memorial history of the city of Philadelphia, from its first settlement to year 1895
  12. "Clark and Madeira Family Papers, 1820 - 1942 (bulk 1850 - 1925)". Archival Collections. University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center. Retrieved December 8, 2010.
  13. Taylor, Charles William (1949). Eminent judges and lawyers of the American Bar, past and present. C.W. Taylor. p. 75. Retrieved December 8, 2010.
  14. 14.0 14.1 O'Keefe, Adm. J. (April 4, 2002). "In Re: Trust, Estate of KATE R. AVERY CLARK, Settlor" (PDF). Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia, Orphans' Court Division. Retrieved December 8, 2010.
  15. Grubel, Matthew (2008). "The Building of West Philadelphia: An Historical Survey of Suburban Architecture: Who's Who". West Philadelphia Community History Center. University Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 2010-09-23.
  16. Current Biography. H.W. Wilson Company. 1953. p. 107. Retrieved December 8, 2010.
  17. "Prohibition: A. A. P. A". Time. June 11, 1928.
  18. http://www.jscornell.com/earlyyears18.htm
  19. "Mrs. Louis Madeira, Welfare Leader, 70; Coal Operator's Widow Aided Many Philadelphia Charities". New York Times. December 14, 1938. Retrieved 2010-12-09. Mrs. Marion Clark Madeira, a leader in social welfare work, died at her home in Germantown today after an illness of six months. She was 70 years old.
  20. The Pennsylvania Gazette, January 25, 1918.
  21. 21.0 21.1 Obituary of the younger Crawford Clark Madeira
  22. 22.0 22.1 Hutto, Richard Jay; June Hall McCash; Stillman Rockefeller (2005). Their Gilded Cage: The Jekyll Island Club Members. Macon, Georgia: Henchard Press. p. 36. Retrieved December 8, 2010.
  23. "Sarah Crawford Clark". Find A Grave. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  24. "E.W. Clark & Co.". United States Investor 25 (27-52): 2013–14 (43–44). 1914.
  25. A committee of the Society of the alumni (1894). "University of Pennsylvania. Biographical catalogue of the matriculates of the college, together with lists of the members of the college faculty and the trustees, officers and recipients of honorary degrees. 1749-1893.". University of Pennsylvania. p. 212. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  26. Son's NYT marriage announcement, 1911
  27. Lineage Book; National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Daughters of the American Revolution. 1910. p. 173.
  28. 28.0 28.1 Johnston, Elizabeth Bryant (1898). Lineage Book; National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Volume 6 (1894). Washington, D.C.: Daughters of the American Revolution. p. 171.

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