Champ Clark

Career Clark served as president of Marshall College (now Marshall University) from 1873 to 1874. In 1875, he was admitted to the bar, and the following year he moved to Bowling Green, Missouri, the county seat of Pike County, where he practiced law. He was city attorney from 1878 to 1881 and prosecuting attorney of Pike County from 1885 to 1889.

Politics

Clark was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives in 1889 and 1891.

Canadian reciprocity treaty

In 1911, Clark delivered a speech that helped to decide the election in Canada. On the floor of the House, Clark argued for the recent Canadian–American Reciprocity Treaty of 1911 and declared: "I look forward to the time when the American flag will fly over every square foot of British North America up to the North Pole."

Clark suggested in his speech that the treaty was the first step toward the end of Canada, a speech that was greeted with "prolonged applause" according to the Congressional Record. The Washington Post reported, "Evidently, then, the Democrats generally approved of Mr. Clark's annexation sentiments and voted for the reciprocity bill because, among other things, it improves the prospect of annexation."

A funeral was held for him in the House of Representatives on the morning of March 5, 1921. Bennett served as a United States senator from Missouri from 1933 to 1945. Genevieve was a suffragette and a candidate for the House of Representatives for Louisiana.

Clark's grandson, also nicknamed Champ, was a reporter, writer and editor who covered politics and crime for The Kansas City Star from 1947 to 1951 and later worked for Time magazine and Time-Life Books.

Clark was an adherent of the Disciples of Christ.

Legacy Champ Clark is the namesake of the small community of Champ, Audrain County, Missouri. The former Clark National Forest was also named after him.

A bridge bearing the name of Champ Clark was built in 1928 in Louisiana, Missouri to connect Missouri to neighboring Illinois. In late 2019, another bridge of the same name was constructed to replace the structurally deficient original bridge.

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