Primary Name: Clark, Walter Eli
Filed as: clark_walter_eli
Also known as: Walter E. Clark
Occupation / Association: Seventh Governor of Alaska (1909–1913); journalist; charter member, Juneau Men’s Igloo
Born: January 7, 1869, Ashford, Connecticut
Died: February 4, 1950, Charleston, West Virginia
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Associated places: Ashford, Connecticut; Juneau, Alaska; Nome, Alaska; Whitehorse, Yukon; Dawson, Yukon; Fairbanks, Alaska; Charleston, West Virginia
Keywords: Walter Eli Clark, Walter E Clark, Alaska territorial governor, Juneau Men’s Igloo charter member
Biography
Walter Eli Clark was a charter member of the Juneau Men’s Igloo and served as the seventh Governor of Alaska Territory from 1909 to 1913.
Clark, a Republican from Connecticut, was born in Ashford, Connecticut, on January 7, 1869. He graduated from the Connecticut State Normal School at New Britain in 1887 and, during the following year, served as principal of the grammar school in Manchester, Connecticut. He later attended Williston Seminary in East Hampton, Massachusetts, and Wesleyan University in Connecticut, from which he graduated with a Ph.D. degree in 1895.
Following graduation, he pursued a career in journalism, which he continued for most of his life, except for the time he spent in Alaska. His journalistic positions included reporter for the Hartford, Connecticut Post in 1895; telegraph editor for the Washington Times in 1895–1896; Washington correspondent for the New York Commercial Advertiser in 1897; assistant to the Washington correspondent for the New York Sun from 1897 to 1909; Washington correspondent for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from 1900 to 1909; and correspondent for the New York Commercial and the Toronto Globe from 1904 to 1909. Beginning in 1914, he served as editor and proprietor of the Charleston Daily Mail in Charleston, West Virginia.
Clark joined the stampede to Nome in 1900 and spent the season there engaged in mining. He made three visits to Alaska prior to his appointment as governor. During the summer of 1903, he visited southeastern Alaska, and in 1906, he undertook a four-month journey through Alaska by way of Whitehorse, Dawson, and the Yukon River. From Tanana, he traveled up the Tanana River to Fairbanks and returned again to the Yukon River, following it to its mouth and then on to Nome.
Clark was appointed Governor of Alaska by President William Howard Taft in May 1909 and took the oath of office at Juneau on October 1 of that year. He served until 1913, after which he returned to the United States and resumed his career as editor and proprietor of the Charleston Daily Mail.
Walter Eli Clark died in Charleston, West Virginia, on February 4, 1950.
Sources
Biographies of Alaska-Yukon Pioneers 1850-1950, Volume 3, pp. 62–63, by Ed Ferrell (May 1, 2009).
Tags: Walter Eli Clark, Walter E Clark, Alaska territorial governors, Juneau Men’s Igloo, Alaska pioneers