Daniel F. Clark, one of the substantial citizens of Alexandria, Rapides Parish, has been a prominent figure in the developing of the lumber resources of this section of Louisiana, where his interests in this state have been of broad scope and importance, and he has concerned himself with other business enterprises.

Large success has attended his vigorous and progressive business operations in the period of his residence in this state, and he is a citizen who commands high place in popular esteem.

Mr. Clark was born at Beech Creek, Pennsylvania, in the year 1851, and is a son of William W., and Mahalia (Kunes) Clark, both likewise natives of the old Keystone State, where the former was born at Beech Creek and the latter at Eagleville. The parents passed their entire lives in Pennsylvania, where the father was a prosperous farmer and also identified long and actively with the lumber industry. Of the nine children in the family, all but one are living at the time of this writing, in 1924, and the subject of this review was the third child. William W. Clark was a stalwart republican, was a natural student and reader and became a man of broad information and mature judgment, the while he was the architect of his own fortunes as one of the world's Constructive workers. He and his wife were earnest members of the Presbyterian Church and both were representatives of families that gave patriotic soldiers to the War of the Revolution, the grandfather of Mrs. William W. Clark having made a record of special distinction in the conflict for national independence.

In the public schools of his native state Daniel F. Clark continued his studies until he had profited by the advantages in the high school, and thereafter he pursued a course in one of the normal schools of the state. By his own work he defrayed the expenses of his higher educational discipline. He worked in lumber camps during summer vacations, and he continued to be associated with his father's farming and lumbering operations until he was nineteen years of age. He eventually purchased the old homestead farm, which he gave to his brothers and sister and which still remains in the possession of the family. For three years, as a youth, he was employed as clerk in the office of a lumber company at Landis, Pennsylvania, and his salary was forty dollars a month. With the superintendent of this company he finally left Pennsylvania and went into the Northwest, and in 1885 he settled at St. Paul, Minnesota.

He became material agent for the Minnesota & Southern Railroad, and in this connection had supervision of all material used in construction and other work by the company. After being thus engaged three years, Mr. Clark established his headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, and assumed the position of chief tie inspector for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. He continued in this service six years, and in l894 he came to Alexandria, Louisiana, and engaged in the lumber business. He purchased lumber from many smaller mills, and through the co-operation given him by the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, he obtained substantial order for the products which he thus handled.

Finally he established the Union Lumber Company, which began operations on a modest scale, and with the expansion of the enterprise he finally incorporated the company, which, under his able management, built up a substantial and prosperous business. He retired from this company in 1909. In the period of his activities in this connection Mr. Clark built a mill at Tioga, a town named by him, and later he built a small mill at Clarks, a village that bears his name and that grew to be an important center of lumber industry. He was also one of the promoters of the Enterprise Lumber Company, but he has disposed of his interests in all of the lumber companies with which he was formerly identified. Mr. Clark is a director of the Guaranty Bank and Trust Company of Alexandria, is vice president of the Alexandria Ice and Coal Company, is a director of the Brown-Roberts Hardware and Supply Company, and has other local interests of important order.

Mr. Clark is a republican in national politics, but in his home state he supports men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment, without consideration of partisan lines. He is a life member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and his wife is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Mr. Clark is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution on both father's and mother's side.

The year 1895 recorded the marriage of Mr. Clark to Miss Alice Pendleton, who was born and reared in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, and who is a daughter of Major Pendleton, who was a gallant officer of the Confederate army in the Civil war, he having been a native of Virginia, and having been an honored citizen of Louisiana at the time of his death, in 1900. Mrs. Clark is a direct descendant of Patrick Henry and is a member of the Colonial Dames. Mr., and Mrs. Clark have two children: Frank Pendleton is successfully established in the gravel business at Alexandria, and Mildred is the wife of Edwin Hirschfeld, their home being in the State of Texas, where Mr. Hirschfeld is, in 1924, pursuing a course in a medical college. Frank was a sergeant in the Twentieth Engineers Corps and served for eighteen months in France and on his return went to Colorado to recuperate his health and then returned to Alexandria.