Clark, Lincoln, 1800-1886

Lincoln Clark, jurist, abolitionist, and Democrat legislator. Native of Conway, Franklin County, Mass., he attended the district and private schools and was graduated from Amherst (Mass.) College in 1825. In 1831 he was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Pickensville, Pickens County, Ala., moving to Tuscaloosa in 1836. In 1836, he married Julia Annah Smith of Hadley, Mass. Lincoln Clark was member of the State house of representatives in 1834, 1835, and 1845. In 1839 he was elected attorney general by the legislature, and in 1846 appointed by Governor Fitzpatrick circuit judge. Clark's increasing opposition to slavery led him to free his family slaves and move to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1848. He was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-second Congress (March 4, 1851-March 3, 1853) and was unsuccessful candidate in 1852 and 1854 for reelection to the Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Congresses. After the depression of 1857 (in which Clark suffered serious losses), and the outbreak of the Civil War, the family moved to Chicago where he resumed the practice of law. In 1866 he was appointed United States register in bankruptcy. Lincoln Clark retired from active business and returned to Conway, Mass., in 1869. Judge Clark was member of the General Assembly of Presbyterian Church.

Julia Annah Smith Clark worked in the U.S. Sanitary Commission during the Civil War.

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