Mr. and Mrs. Clarke are shown at dining 



room table mode from walnut flooring 



of their old carriage house. 



TREKKING westward in 1839, a 

 shrewd 27-year-old Yankee pioneer 

 decided he had gone far enough when 

 he reached the rich prairie lands just 

 west of Springfield in central Illinois. 



He settled in Morgan county but 

 subsequently backtracked to Cartwright 

 township in Sangamon county where 

 he started farming. He was Dan L. 

 Clarke of Rhode Island, descendant of 

 John Clarke, who came from England 

 on the historic Mayflower in 1620. 



Dan L. Clarke was one of those rest- 

 less individualists who brought the 

 homely New England virtues of rever- 

 ence, thrift, sobriety and independence 

 to the Illinois prairies. 



From these roots his grandson and 

 namesake, Dan L. Clarke, today carries 

 on and emulates the canny farming 

 practices started by his grandfather. 

 Going further, the grandson has taken 

 an active interest in farm organization 

 and has added his bit to the efforts of 

 those who have made the Sangamon 

 County Farm Bureau one of the best 

 in the state. 



Clarke has been a member of his 

 county Farm Bureau for nearly a quar- 

 ter of a century, serving for several 

 years as a director, then two years as 

 vice president and finally four years as 



-y^'^iS!!}^' 



Groin Farming 



. lA gaa 



Director Ciorice's 



QrdtshsAi 



• By JIM THOMSON 



Ass't Editor, lAA RECORD 



president before being elected as an 

 lAA director from the 21st congres- 

 sional district, representing Sangamon, 

 Christian, Montgomery, and Macoupin 

 counties. 



He succeeded Floyd E. Morris of 

 Buffalo when Morris became vice presi- 

 dent of the lAA in November, 1945. 



Principally a grain and hog farmer, 

 Clarke grows a preponderant amount 

 of corn and soybeans with a moderate 

 crop of oats. 



The lAA director from the Lincoln 

 country was born June 9, 1888 about 

 midway between Pleasant Plains, New 

 Berlin and Ashland adjoining the farm 

 he operates today, part of the lands 

 settled by his grandfather in 1839. 



He was educated in the grade school 

 and at Whipple academy in Jackson- 

 ville and following two years at the 

 University of Illinois, he returned in 

 1911 to the home farm which he has 

 operated since that time. He owns 



Editor's Note: This is the fourth of a 

 series of articles to acquaint you with the 

 men who represent you on the Illinois 

 Agricultural Association hoard of direc- 

 tors. 



Combine operators are questioned about yields by lAA Director Clarke as they sweep 

 across his extensive soybean field*. 



Director Clarke looks over some fine 

 specimens of his com as he walks through 

 - .—.- a ripening field. 



330 acres and farms an additional 100 

 acres owned by his sister. 



Aptly named, the Pleasant Plains area 

 was visited a number of times by 

 Abraham Lincoln. The land is flat and 

 fertile and is a virtual Garden of Eden 

 for the raising of corn and soybeans. 



Taking advantage of this fact, espe- 

 cially during the war years, Clarke has 

 planted heavily in cash grain crops. In 

 recent years he has had about 170 acres 

 in corn, 140 in soybeans, 90 in oats and 

 25 in alfalfa and clover. Off and on he 

 plants some winter wheat. 



More than 100 years old, the Clarke 

 home stands in a grove of trees set in 

 some distance from the road at the end 

 of a crushed-rock lane flanked by a row 

 of walnut trees from which the place 

 gets its name — Walnut Row Farm. 



The present structure replaced a log 

 cabin and was built of timbers hauled 

 in by oxen from Meredosia on the Illi- 

 nois river some 50 miles away. Mr. and 

 Mrs. Clarke take a great deal of pride 

 in the heirlooms which have been 

 passed on to them and have done much 

 to preserve an atmosphere of serene 

 leisurely living with late eighteenth and 

 early nineteenth century furnishings. 



This is particularly true of the parlor 

 and living room, which are completely 

 furnished in early period design, and 

 in the master bedroom with its ornately- 

 carved rosewood bed. 



This theme is carried through to the 

 dining room where stands a handsomely 

 hand-finished, large drop-leaf table and 

 old sideboard and corner cupboard 

 made by a cabinet-maker from walnut 

 flooring taken from a dismantled carri- 

 age house which was built on the farm 

 about a century ago. 



Grandfather Clarke also left behind 

 an interesting farm account book cover- 

 ing the farm's day-by-day operations 

 during the middle years of the nine- 

 teenth century. Froril it you gain a 



12 



L A. A. RECORD 



