The Press., 1890-03-27
Issued Every Thursday Evening.
LOCAL rOPICs-PENN,D AND sCIss0REn.

The subject of the following sketch was the son of Milton and Anne Clark ,t South Coventry. His boyhood and earl, from whence he hied his push and vim t.. westward, and "got there" Some sev-, or eight summers ago MT. Clark made trip to his old home town, dropping ad vice and good wishes into the slot as h. swung around the circle of cousinship
 RUFUS CLARK.
 The west has one strongly marked char acteristic, and that is its large number of strong men. Each neighborhood has it. quota of characters, so to speak, men wh" will leave their impress on the Country and who have stood alone all their lives. working on the problem of development and keeping their state, county or town ir the very front of prosperity. They are the men who have fixed our present. high standard of agriculture, developed ou, mines, extended our commence, and built up our manufactories. These men have built monuments for themselves, and they will long be remembered as more than philanthropists. A fair illustration of the class of men we are speaking of is Rufus Clark of thls city. The story of his Tiff. would be instructive, not only to the young, but men of mature age would draw en couragement from it. Mir. Clark came to Denver in the year 1859 and took claim where Overland Park now is. There he made his home, retaining the land until |. few V ars ago, when he sold all but fort, acres to the Overland Park Association The forty acres he still owns, and on this he has beautiful residence. He was one of the first men to discover the rare fertil- ity of the soil of this section, and in spitt of the non-bellevers he demontrated that a well cultivated farm in Colorado was near. ly or quite as productive as a gold mine.
 From the year 1859 to 1864, MT. Clark carefully investigated the soil of this coun- try and made up his mind as to its pro ducing qualities. During the spring oi the great floods in this section, that Is ol the 17th of May, 1864, he took seven OK teams and swam them across the Platte river and broke 200 acres, 160 of thls h. put in potatoes and 40 in corn and feed for his teams. The seed Cost i'll this cast | twenty five cents per pound consequently This was the first high land planting. The croakers said you will see broken mer chant. 1t was bold experiment. and only partially succeeded, and yet the same sea. son aud same year he tired farming 0, high land fifty miles up Cherry Gre. k, a, d took for his share of the crop $14 OOO This made up his losses beyond the Platn and encouraged him to go forward, bu "xperience taught him that farming tbe high lands, without water, was just littl. uncertain, and consequently in the spr,ug of 1867 when he was offered land uud. the Denver ditch he took it without hes tation. He farmed the land that year now known as Grants subdivision, and raiset crop of potatoes on 160 acres which hs sold for $30, 900. This s1lenced the croak lers, and men went to work opening ut farms under irrigation.
 Mir. Clark Is still the proprietor of large number of farms, but several of then have been required and taken for city pur poses. They are now very valuable h, has sold off several hundred thousand do lars worth for building lots He has be come wealthy, and dates his success anc got his start through farming. His owl success he counts as nothing when cons,d cred along side of what he has been ablt to do for the mauy and for the country He has the proud distinction of being th, pioEeer Colorado farmer.-Ihe Mid West