HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY 507
CHARLES CLARK
Attorney, San Jose
SURNAMES: NUTT, FOWLER,
An attorney whose profound knowledge of the law has been the means of
both drawing to, and holding for him a large and important clientele,
is Charles Clark, one of the most popular members of the California bar
at San Jose. He was born at Natchez, Miss., on November 20, 1849, the
son of John T. Clark, a distinguished lawyer of St. Joseph, Tensas
Parish, La. He died on March 30, 1855, when our subject was only five
years old, leaving a widow, who had been Miss Margaret Nutt in her
girlhood, and who was born at Laurel Hill, Miss. She came of an old
influential family of English descent, who settled in the northern neck
of Virginia at the same time the Washingtons and Lees settled there.
She was a woman of exceptional education, and was the first instructor
of her two boys; and when she died on November 29, 1874, she was
mourned and honored by a wide circle of friends.
Charles, the eldest son, was the only one to grow to manhood. Although
brought up during the Civil War, he had the advantages of a higher
education. He start-
ed with private tutors, read law in Louisiana, and quite qualified
himself for examination; but the evil effects of the reconstruction
period leaving that section in a chaotic condition, he decided to come
to California and on December 21, 1873, he arrived in San Francisco.
Then he entered the law for a year; and on January 8, 1875, he applied
to the Supreme Court for examination, and was admitted to practice in
all the courts of California.
In the beginning, Mr. Clark practiced in San Francisco and Alameda
county until 1884, and in that year he opened an office in the old
Martin Block, San Jose,
now the theater building, where he has ever since had his well-known
headquarters. Coming of a fighting family prominent in the days of the
Confederate army, he is known for his determination to contend for a
client until the last ditch and to safeguard every interest of those
confiding in the depending upon him. In politics he is a Democrat, of
the old, standpatter school.
At San Francisco on March 28, 1877, Mr. Clark was married to Miss Emma
Fowler, a gifted lady of New Orleans, Louisiana, by whom he has had
five children. David L., died in Mexico in 1904 at the age of
twenty-six; Charles Edgar is a cotton broker at Austin, Texas, and
Benjamin Palmer and Jefferson Davis are implement and tractor men at
Dallas, Texas, and the only daughter, Margaret Nutt, remains with her
parents, assisting in presiding over the house. Mr. Clark enjoyed his
home life, at Carmel-by-the-Sea, for some years, but since 1921 the
family have made their home at Palo Alto.
Transcribed by Marie Clayton, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California,
published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 507
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES
SANTA CLARA COUNTY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY