Clarke, James C.

Born: 1824-03-09 Montgomery County, Maryland

Died: 1902-12-03 Chicago, Illinois

Flourished: 1855 to 1859 Illinois

James C. Clarke, railroad executive, began his career with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company in the 1840s, starting as a track worker and working his way through a number of positions to become a conductor and trainmaster. He relocated to Amboy, Illinois in 1855 to be superintendent for the northern division of the Illinois Central Railroad. A year later, he was promoted to general superintendent and master of transportation and remained employed with the Illinois Central until 1859. He then served for three years as general superintendent of the Northern Central Railroad in Pennsylvania and Maryland, during which he assisted with the portion of Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural train trip from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Washington, DC. He would later return to Illinois as president of the Illinois Central Railroad. Clarke married Susanna (Susan) Shafer in 1852 and was survived by five children.

John F. Stover, History of the Illinois Central Railroad (New York: Macmillan, 1975), 83-84, 161; Maryland, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1667-1899, 21 December 1852, Frederick (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2000); U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 4, Baltimore, Baltimore County, MD, 93; The Sun (Baltimore, MD), 10 December 1902, 12:4-5; Gravestone, Mount Olivet Cemetery, Frederick, MD.