Bio: Clark William Albert (1914)

Contact: crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Clark, Tompson, Munsel, Selover, Parker, Risem

----Source: History of Eau Claire County Wisconsin (1914) pages 675-676

William Albert Clark, for nine years principal of the Eau Claire County Training School, is another native son of Wisconsin, born in the town of Lucas, Dunn county, June 29, 1871. His father, Charles Tompson Clark, who was descended from Pennsylvania Dutch stock, was born in Starkey, Yates county, New York, April 23, 1826. He was a carpenter by trade and a soldier in the Civil War, having served in the 194th New York Infantry. After the close of the war in 1865, he came to Wisconsin where he lived until his death, April 8, 1904. He was married in 1855 to Amelia Lavinia Munsel, who was born in Watertown, New York, and was descended from the Puritans of New England, and on both maternal and paternal sides, the ancestors fought in the army of freedom in the Revolutionary War. She was the mother of six children, as follows: Frank M., Charles A., Peleg B., Fred L., William A. and Edith A., now Mrs. Will Selover. The mother died at Lucas, Dunn county, Wisconsin, March 1, 1910.

William Albert received his early schooling in a log schoolhouse, where he attended until sixteen years of age; he then had one term in the village high school at Knapp, Wisconsin, and later entered the River Falls Normal School, from which he graduated in 1897. He earned money between times at teaching, with which he paid his tuition and eventually entered the University of Wisconsin at Madison, from which he was graduated in 1901. He specialized in philosophy and education and received from the University the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in Pedagogy. He taught school two years in the county of Dunn and three years in the grades at Menomonie, and was for, two years principal of the 10th Ward School, of Eau Claire, and for four years was supervising principal of the schools of Edgerton, Wisconsin, and for the past nine years has been principal of the Eau Claire county training school for teachers. As the first principal of the last named institution, it devolved upon him to organize the school, plan a building for the same, and as he has from the start to this time (1914) been continuously connected with it, has had a great deal to do with its subsequent growth and development.

Mr. Clark served four years in Company H, 3rd Regiment Wisconsin National Guards, and attained to the rank of First Sergeant. He has been president of the Rock county, Wisconsin Teachers' Association, and also president of the Northwestern Wisconsin Teachers' Association. He is a member of Eau Claire Lodge, No. 112, A. F. and A. M., Eau Claire Chapter, No. 36, R. A. M., Michael Griffin Camp Sons of Veterans, Beaver's Reserve Fund Fraternity, National Fraternal League, Northwestern Wisconsin Teachers' Association, Wisconsin State Teachers' Association, the Y. M. C. A., the Eau Claire Order Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Association and the National Geographical Society.

On June 26, 1901, Mr. Clark married Miss Anna Parker, daughter of Ole and Thora (Risem) Parker, of Eau Claire. Mrs. Clark was born and raised in Eau Claire, graduated from the high school in 1894, and for a number of years was a teacher in the public school of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Clark are the parents of two children, viz.: Warren Parker, born January 5, 1903, and Annabel Edith, born October 31, 1904.

In February, 1914, Mr. Clark resigned the principalship of the Eau Claire County Training School to accept the principalship of the Lincoln County Normal School, at Merrill, Wis., which position he still holds.