History Of Old Vincennes And Knox County Indiana  
Volume I & II
1911
Typed By Lora Radiches

Surnames in the biography below are: Clarke, Buck, Chapman, Judah, Kelly, Purcell

Franklin Clarke was one of the pioneer representatives of industrial activity in Vincennes and through long years was the promoter of various business enterprises, which contributed, in large and substantial measure to the growth and up building of this city. Thus he left the indelible impress of his individuality upon Vincennes where his name is yet honored and his memory cherished. He was born in Sodus Center, Wayne County, New York, January 9, 1832, and was descended from an old New England family, which settled in Massachusetts in the early part of the seventeenth century. New England, perhaps, more than any other section of the country, early had high regard for the value of education, and Mr. Clarke, like other youths of that district, was carefully trained in the elementary branches of learning. He was seventeen years of age when he was regularly apprenticed to the machinist’s trade, serving a four years’ term of indenture in the town of Lyons, Wayne County, New York. He became quite proficient during that period and for several years thereafter was employed as a machinist in Richmond, Virginia, where he assisted in building the engines for some of the vessels afterward used in the Civil War. He left the Old Dominion to become a resident of Indiana in April, 1857, which month witnessed his arrival in Vincennes. Here he resided continuously until his death, with the exception of two or three years passed in the south during the war between the two sections of the country. He was employed as a machinist by the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad Company until about 1862. Mr. Clarke became a pioneer in industrial operations in Vincennes when, in 1864, he joined Mr. H. A. Buck and a Mr. Chapman in building the Wabash Valley Foundry and Machine Shop. His was the first home establishment of the kind in this city and was a valuable addition to the enterprises of the town and to southern Indiana. The new undertaking was successfully conducted, becoming an important feature in promoting the commercial progress

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