126 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



I 



MASTER OF MEADOWLAWN 



45. The founder of the purebred livestock industry in Minne- 

 sota was Nehemiah Parker Clarke. His birthplace was Hub- 

 bardstown, Mass., April 8, 1836, and a part of his boyhood was 

 spent in Kentucky, but in 1853 he set his face to the west, and 

 for three years lived in Fond-du-lac, Wis., learning the methods 

 of western business and acquiring a small cash surplus to per- 

 mit him to make the beginnings for himself. At twenty years 

 of age he established at St. Cloud, Minn., the retail hardware 

 business, which grew into a general store and then a general 

 business predominantly devoted to lumbering. 



He was fortunate in securing a number of very profitable 

 contracts from the government, and based on these he developed 

 a string of stores and outfitting plants, a series of real estate 

 centers and a wealth of minor enterprises. Mr. Clarke was 

 one of the ''star routers," that coterie of men who secured the 

 contract to carry the government mails by stage. He himself 

 was the first man to drive a coach out of St. Cloud, with an 

 ultimate destination west of the Missouri River. For a term 

 of years he operated large ox trains to handle freight from St. 

 Paul to the Black Hills district of the Dakotas. Furthermore 

 he was one of the first men ever to drive beef on the hoof from 

 the southwest ranges to the government lands of the northwest. 

 Through these various activities and by unerring selection in 

 the choice of lieutenants, Mr. Clarke developed a very large 

 business. In the late 80's his annual lumber sales ran above 

 $150,000,000 a year, greater than that of any rival. 



Meanwhile his agricultural interests were developing. In the 

 vicinity of St. Cloud he took advantage of every opportunity 

 to secure parcels of land, and he equipped his principal hold- 

 ing, Meadow Lawn Farm, with a splendid stud of Clydesdales, 

 a champion herd of Shorthorns, and, later an unexcelled herd 

 of Galloways. He became the greatest breeder of his period 



