D. E. Clark, 1827-1923: Conneaut cattle driver becomes an educator

Teachers that take the time to get to know their students and offer encouragement are the ones we remember years later, especially if they made a difference in our life.
A man who had a humble beginning and a close brush with death lived his life to the fullest when he chose to make a difference in the education of not only Ashtabula County students, but any student who used his educational materials.
The well-known writer and photographer Walter Jack, who wrote a history column for several local newspapers for years, uncovered the story of D.E. Clark. Clark grew at Clark’s Corners on Furnace Road in Conneaut. When he was a teenager, his parents moved to North Richmond near Pierpont in an area known at the time as Brower’s Corners.
Young Clark was a man of tremendous strength. He had a reputation as being an expert at teaming, cutting logs for ship masts, timber and boards. After cutting, he would load the wood into a horse-drawn wagon and deliver it. His reputation was so widely known that when he was just twenty years of age, he got the contract to build the plank road between North Richmond and Pierpont. In Ohio, a wooden plank road helped farmers transport goods and with plenty of timber in our area, wood was a good choice. The road was made of parallel lines of wooden planks with perpendicular planks on top. It prevented wagons from sinking in the mud. Today this road is Route 6.
Clark was a man of many trades. Before the days of railroads, he would drive livestock to markets as far as Lancaster and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He operated a farm machinery store in North Richmond and owned a large dairy farm in the same area.
But life was not all roses for the young entrepreneur. It was a common practice for men to use knitting needles to clean out their pipe. While using this method, Clark accidentally ran the needle under his fingernail. It is painful to think about. Without the aid of antibiotics, sterile healing environment or home cures, Clark developed blood poisoning.
He went into a coma and was near death. His neighbors came over to say their final goodbyes as they surrounded his bed. It was a sober scene. These folks had come to say goodbye to a good man.
Suddenly, Clark opened his eyes, looked around at his neighbors and declared he was going to live and told them all to go home! He lived but had a crippled arm the rest of his life. In spite of his impairment, he managed a team of horses, a brood of chickens, a cow and a large garden! Clark would load up his vegetables and chickens and take them to market in Petroleum Center, Pennsylvania. The town was staked out in 1864 and was a ghost town by 1876, so we can pinpoint about how old Clark was when he made the market trip. Between the ages of 37–42, he made the trip near Oil Creek. If you go to Oil Creek State Park today, you can see remnants of the ghost town once known as Petroleum Center.
But what happened at Petroleum Center would change the course of Clark’s life and head him into a new direction and career. He met many businessmen in the oil industry and while talking to them, he learned of a complaint and need they had.
Always an expert in detail and records, Clark was appalled to learn of the ineptness of the clerks keeping the books and records for the oil men. Hearing of the complaints, he chose to start a business college to teach good record keeping and other clerical work. Clark was 50 years of age when he began his new venture.
His first move was to send one of his sons to the Spencerian Business College in Cleveland to take a crash course. Next, he rented out several rooms for classes in Titusville, Pennsylvania. After purchasing some tables and hiring a teacher, Clark decided he needed to improve his image to look like a respectable and legitimate educator. Perhaps his connection to oil tycoons influenced him.
He may have taken things a little far, but after buying a Prince Albert stovepipe hat and coat, he added to his image by buying a new carriage and a team of horses. Rather than being turned off by his “new look,” he had doors and opportunities open up for him. His confidence and belief in what he was doing rubbed off on others.
He went into any home that would have him encouraging young people to come to his business college. He offered a complete business course, including shorthand and penmanship for $125. From that humble beginning, Clark went on to establish a string of business colleges across the United States.
The man who had only three years of schooling was now wearing diamond shirt studs and rings, but he was respected wherever he went because he was a hard worker and had earned his way honestly through dedication and determination. His sons continued the schools and eventually 125 schools were established under the Clark name.
Charles and Irus Bliss were supporters and friends of Clark’s. They were also born on Furnace Road in Conneaut. They both attended Clark’s business college and after graduation, went on to establish a chain of commercial colleges including the Bliss Commercial College in Columbus, (established in 1899, closed in 1993) and in Charleston and Wheeling, West Virginia.
All my attempts to locate a picture of D.E. Clark, a gravesite, photos of the colleges or any printed material related to Clark proved futile. The only evidence of the existence of D. E. Clark comes through the history printed by Walter Jack and reprinted in the Jefferson Gazette of March 29, 1960, and early school history files of Conneaut found at the Ashtabula County Historical Society in the Walter Jack Research Library. I originally wrote of D.E. Clark in my book, “Where Have All the Schoolhouses Gone?” written 21 years ago in 2004. The book is still available at the Jefferson Historical Society.
I can only assume that since D.E. Clark’s schools had no buildings or permanent staff since he used mobile sites as he went town to town, there are not records of them. The Bliss brothers came later and established school buildings and staff leaving behind a visible and written record.