Name Richard Clarke Role U.S. representative | Died September 26, 1906 | |
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Richard Henry Clarke (February 9, 1843 – September 26, 1906) was a U.S. Representative from Alabama.
Born in Dayton, Alabama, Clarke attended Green Springs Academy and was graduated from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in July 1861. During the Civil War served in the Confederate States Army as a lieutenant in the First Battalion of Alabama Artillery. He studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1867 and commenced practice in Dayton, Alabama. He moved to Demopolis, Alabama, and continued the practice of law. State solicitor for Marengo County 1872-1876. He served as prosecuting attorney of the seventh judicial circuit in 1876 and 1877. He resumed the practice of law in Mobile, Alabama.
He married Helen Gaines Foot, a native of Mobile, Alabama. Her father, C. K. Foot, was a native of Vermont, and a descendant of Nathaniel Foot, one of the early settlers of Wethersfield, Connecticut. Her mother was Sarah Lyons, of Mobile, Alabama, of the distinguished Pendleton and Gaines families. Mrs. Clarke's early life was spent in Mobile. She attended school in New York City, and in 1877 she married Mr. Richard H. Clarke. Her daughters, Helen Gaines and Mary Morris, resembled her in face and manner.
Clarke was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-first and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1889 – March 3, 1897). He was not a candidate for renomination, but was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor in 1896. He resumed the practice of law. He served as member of the State house of representatives in 1900 and 1901. He died in St. Louis, Missouri, September 26, 1906. He was interred in Magnolia Cemetery, Mobile, Alabama.