Information: The first column shows data points from Clarke, Marian W. (Marian Williams), 1880-1953 in red. The third column shows data points from Clarke, Marian G. M in blue. Any data they share in common is displayed as purple boxes in the middle "Shared" column.
Marian Williams Clarke (July 29, 1880 – April 8, 1953) was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, she was elected to the United States House of Representatives from New York, serving from December 1933 to January 1935. She was the second woman elected to Congress from New York, after Ruth Baker Pratt.
Born Marian K. Williams in Standing Stone, Pennsylvania, her family moved west to Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1891. Marian Williams attended art school at the University of Nebraska and graduated with a BA from Colorado College in 1902. As an undergraduate at Colorado College, she enrolled in a public speaking class taught by John Clarke. With her strength as a writer, she worked three years as a reporter for a Colorado Springs newspaper following graduation. Marian Williams married Clarke in 1905, and the couple moved to New York City, where John worked for several mining companies before graduating from Brooklyn Law School in 1911. After earning his law degree, John Clarke worked in the mining department of the Carnegie Steel Corporation and for several other mining interests. In 1915 they moved to John Clarke’s native Delaware County, in upstate New York. He pursued a newfound interest in agriculture and forestry, operating “Arbor Hill,” a farm near Delhi, New York.
In 1920 John Clarke easily won election as a U.S. Representative from a conservative New York district covering the city of Binghamton and surrounding counties, serving from 1921 to 1925 and from 1927 to 1933. Marian Clarke played an active role in her husband’s congressional career in Washington, DC. She recalled that her political experience also included her work as a “general factotum” in her husband’s office. On November 5, 1933, while returning home from a wedding along snowy back roads, John Clarke died in a head-on auto wreck. Less than a month after her husband’s death, Marian Clarke was selected at a meeting of district Republican leaders in Sidney, New York, as the GOP nominee to fill out her husband’s vacant term. Marian Clarke was comfortably elected at the end of December.
During her short stint as a Representative, Clarke exhibited limited legislative effectiveness due to her relative political inexperience and because Democrats greatly outnumbered Republicans in the House. In 1934 she declined to run for the GOP renomination. The eventual Republican nominee, Bert Lord, a lumber businessman from Afton, New York, and former state commissioner of motor vehicles, won handily that fall. Upon her retirement from the House, Clarke returned to Arbor Hill. She remained active in GOP politics and served as an alternate to the 1936 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Tragedy struck Marian Clarke again when her only son died in an auto wreck in 1939. She lived most of the remainder of her life in relative seclusion at Arbor Hill. Clarke died in Cooperstown, New York, on April 8, 1953.
History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, Marian Williams Clarke, accessed June 15, 2021.
<p>Marian Williams Clarke won election to the U.S. House of Representatives less than two months after the death of her husband, Representative John Davenport Clarke, in an automobile crash. Shortly after being sworn into office, Congresswoman Clarke confided to the Washington Post: “I wanted dreadfully to come, of course. I felt the need of some absorbing work.” While coping with her own loss, Clarke attended to the needs of individuals and industry in her local district struggling with the effects of the Great Depression.</p>
<p>Marian K. Williams was born on July 29, 1880, in Standing Stone, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Rhys and Florence K. Williams. Her parents moved her and her older brother, William Kingsley, to Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1891, and the Williamses spent their childhood in various states. Marian Williams attended art school at the University of Nebraska and graduated with a BA from Colorado College in 1902. As an undergraduate at Colorado College, she enrolled in a public speaking class taught by John Clarke. “At the end of the course he called me to him and said he hated to discourage me but he felt duty bound to tell me I never would be an orator,” Marian recalled. “In fact, he explained that he really shouldn’t pass me in the course but he would stretch a point and let me by on my written work.” Years later she would deliver campaign speeches on his behalf. With her strength as a writer, she worked three years as a reporter for a Colorado Springs newspaper. Marian Williams married Clarke in 1905, and the couple moved to New York City, where John worked for several mining companies before graduating from Brooklyn Law School in 1911. After earning his law degree, John Clarke worked in the mining department of the Carnegie Steel Corporation and for several other mining interests. The Clarkes raised one son, John Duncan. In 1915 they moved to John Clarke’s native Delaware County, in upstate New York. He pursued a newfound interest in agriculture and forestry, operating “Arbor Hill,” a farm near Dehli, New York. He became president of the New York State Forestry Association and vice president of the New York Conservation Association.</p>
<p>In 1920 John Clarke easily won election as a U.S. Representative from a conservative New York district covering the city of Binghamton and surrounding counties. Except for the 69th Congress (1925–1927), for which he was an unsuccessful candidate, he represented this district from 1921 to 1933. A strong believer in environmental conservation, he cosponsored the Clarke–McNary Reforestation Bill with Oregon Senator Charles Linza McNary in 1924, creating a comprehensive national reforestation policy. The bill authorized the President to set aside national forests on military and other federal lands and established a federally funded seedling planting program to assist “the owners of farms in establishing, improving, and in growing and renewing useful timber crops.” Marian Clarke played an active role in her husband’s congressional career in Washington, DC. “You see I was always interested in my husband’s work and followed his activities very closely,” Clarke told the Washington Post. “It was a rare day that didn’t find me in the gallery all eyes and ears for what was going on.” She recalled that her political experience also included her work as a “general factotum” in her husband’s office.</p>
Wikipedia article, Marian W. Clarke, accessed June 15, 2021.
<p>Marian Williams Clarke (July 29, 1880 – April 8, 1953) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New York. She was the second woman elected to Congress from New York, after Ruth Baker Pratt.</p>
<p>Clarke was born in Standing Stone, Pennsylvania. She attended the University of Nebraska at Lincoln art school for a year, before she graduated from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1902. She was elected to Congress in 1933 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of her husband John Davenport Clarke who had died in a car crash on November 5, 1933. She served from December 28, 1933 until January 3, 1935, withdrawing her nomination for reelection prior to the primary of 1934. She died in Cooperstown, New York. She is interred at the Locust Hill Cemetery in Hobart, NY.</p>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_W._Clarke
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Clarke, Marian W. (Marian Williams), 1880-1953
referencedIn
Bert Lord papers, 1902-1939.
Bert Lord papers, 1902-1939.
Title:
Bert Lord papers, 1902-1939.
Political business, and personal papers consisting mainly of correspondence, but also including scrapbooks, loose newspaper clippings, pamphlets and other printed or mimeographed material, copies of speeches, legal documents, and accounts.
Political and personal papers of John Davenport Clarke include mostly correspondence,
scrapbooks, and photographs, along with publications, speeches, financial records, and estate
papers, 1889-1949. Also contains some papers of Clarke's sister, Eleanor Clarke Slagle, who
was known for her work in occupational therapy.
Clarke, Marian W., 1880-1953. Marian W. Clarke papers, 1925-1952.
Title:
Marian W. Clarke papers, 1925-1952.
Includes correspondence, speeches and writings, and family photographs. The writings include "Memories of a Congressman's Widow," which describes Clarke's entry into politics.
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