Polk Co. IAGenWeb

CLARKSON, HON. COKER F. — The agricultural editor of The Iowa State Register. Father Clarkson was born in the grand old State of Maine, in the year 1810. In the year 1819 his father made a visit to Indiana in search of a home in the then Far West, and in the year following moved his family. The subject of this sketch, then but ten years of age, drove the team all the way through the vast wilderness that then intervened between the old and new home, and remained upon his father's farm until his seventeenth year, when he entered the printing office of the Lawrenceburg Statesman as an apprentice, and before he reached his twentieth year lead the management of the office, as the proprietor had been elected to an office demanding the greater portion of his time. At the end of four years he purchased the paper, and soon afterward started the Brookville American, and continued the publication of the same until 1854. During this time and the year following he was more or less engaged in the building of railroads. In 1855 he removed to the then new but growing State of Iowa, and located in Grundy county. He selected a choice location, and from the wilds of the prairie succeeded in making the now famous "Melrose farm," and by the faithful co-operation of his sons, the exercise of sound judgment, the intelligent adaptation of means to ends, amassed considerable fortune. He was elected to the Iowa Senate from the 39th district in 1863, and served the State faithfully and well. Has been connected with the Iowa State Register since 1870-the first eighteen months as one of the proprietors, and since that time principally as the editor of the agricultural department, for which position he is peculiarly adapted, on account of his thorough knowledge of all the practical, branches of agriculture, and is preeminently the peer of all the agricultural writers of the West. He removed to Des Moines in 1878, and has since been identified with all the great movements for the public interests in general, and the conduct of his department of the Register, especially. He was married in 1832 to Miss Elizabeth Gowdy, a native of Uniontown, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, who died in 1848, leaving four children: Mrs. Pemela Coe, of Ft. Atkinson, Mrs. Frank E. Macey, of Marshalltown, Richard P. and Jas. S., of the Iowa State Register. In 1849 he married Miss Elizabeth Coldscott, of Brookville, Indiana. Mr. Clarkson is a man of positive character, and when his opinions are once formed they remain. He is a warm friend and a most vigorous opponent. His social qualities are admirable and his moral character is irreproachable.