One of Janesville's oldest residents, John Milton (Mitt) Clarke, 98, a retired banker and stock buyer, died Wednesday night in Mercy hospital after a long illness. He was the last of a family of nine brothers and sisters.
Mr. Clarke was born in Walworth June 10, 1846, the son of pioneers, who at one time owned the land which became the site of Northwestern Military and Naval academy at Lake Geneva. He spent his early life on the farm there, then attended Milton college and took a position as a bookkeeper with a large Chicago firm.
Returning to Milton Junction, he engaged in stock buying, a business he followed in Whitewater and Milton Junction, and after some years in Janesville. At one time he was president of the State Bank of Milton Junction.
As a young man he married Mary O'Connor, who died in 1904 at Milton Junction, and in September, 1906, married Mrs. Mary Taylor, Janesville. They lived on the Taylor farm north of Janesville for 20 years.
After her heath in 1926, he went to Walworth, where he lived for six years, but for the last twelve years had made his home with Mr. and Mrs. John M. Decker, 232 N. Terrace street.
Survivors are five nieces, Mrs. Gertrude Axelson, Milton Junction, Mrs. L. E. Brown, Minneapolis, Mrs. Edna Dangerfield in northern Wisconsin, Mrs. Charles Inman, Tucson, Ariz., who is in Janesville on a visit at present, and Miss Mary Taylor, Janesville, and five nephews, Harry Hoag, Minneapolis, M. J. Clarke, Walworth, Paul E. Taylor, Janesville, William Taylor Inman, who is in the armed forces in Ireland, and Robert Taylor, U. S. Marines, in California.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Overton funeral home, the Rev. Ira Schlagenhauf, Cargill Methodist church, officiating. Burial will be in the Walworth cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home Friday evening.
