126 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 
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 
