Silas Henry Harrison Clark (1837-1900)

He was born on a farm at Morristown, New Jersey. Having started his career as a conductor on the New Jersey Central Railroad, a promotion to the Union Pacific Railroad in 1867 took him to the Omaha, Nebraska. He rose through the ranks and was quickly noticed by its President, Jay Gould, who made him General Manager. In 1886, Gould made him Vice-President and General Manager of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and the same for the Union Pacific Railroad in 1890. Clark now became Gould's main operational assistant in the Western U.S. during the expansion of the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroads. In 1892, Clark was appointed President of the Union Pacific Railroad which he resigned the following year in favor of the Presidency of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. When the Union Pacific was placed under receivership, Clark resigned from the Missouri and resumed management of the Union. On moving from Omaha, in 1880 he built 3501 Pine Street, St. Louis, and kept a summer home at Asheville, North Carolina, where he died. He was justifiably proud of being "a self-made man". He married Annie, daughter of Eliphalet Drake, and they had one son, S. Hoxie Clark, of Belvidere.