MEMORIAL OF FRANK NELSON CLARK 



N THE nineteenth day of December, 1910, there 

 passed from this Hfe one of the most prominent 

 I and useful members of this Society. Attend- 

 ing to his usual activities until the very day he was called, 

 the end came with a suddenness that startles and shocks. 

 With no note of warning there was struck from our rolls 

 the name of one who for many years labored earnestly 

 and conscientiously to build up this Society, one who was 

 ever solicitous for its welfare, one who in every way 

 was a credit and honor to its membership. As a lifelong 

 and intimate friend and associate it is to me a sacred privi- 

 lege to be permitted to pay tribute to his memory. 



Frank Nelson Clark was born in Clarkston, Mich., a 

 village that perpetuates the name of his immediate ancestry 

 and relatives, who were its earliest pioneers and its foun- 

 ders. Surrounded by lakes and nestling in the very heart 

 of a noted lake region, it was most fitting that this beautiful 

 village should be the birthplace of fish culture in Michigan, 

 Moreover the pioneer fish-cultural enterprise was among 

 the earliest of its kind on the American continent. 



The first man to propagate fish on a practical basis in 

 this country was Seth Green, of New York. This was in 

 the early sixties. He was soon followed by Samuel Wil- 

 mot, of Ontario, and Nelson W. Clark, of Michigan, father 

 of Frank N., who was identified with his father's fish- 

 cultural efforts almost from their earliest inception in the 

 winter of 1866-67. Necessarily this pioneer work was car- 

 ried on as a private business, for fish culture as a public 

 enterprise was also in its infancy. .A. board of fish com- 

 missioners had been established in three or four of the 

 eastern states, but there were nt) state or public hatcheries; 

 and the federal government did not take up this work until 

 1871, 



