Chase Clark

Clark was born on August 21, 1883, in Hadley, Indiana, the son of Eunice (Hadley) and Joseph Addison Clark.{{Cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/11365.html|title = The Political Graveyard: Clark family of Boise and Idaho Falls, Idaho}} He arrived in eastern Idaho Territory in 1884. His father engineered an early canal on the Snake River and later became the first Mayor of Idaho Falls, Idaho in 1900. Clark attended the public schools and left Idaho Falls High School at age 15 and then attended school in Terre Haute, Indiana.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YyFWAAAAIBAJ&pg=6643,1904297|newspaper=Spokesman-Review|location=Spokane, Washington|agency=Associated Press|title=Governor had humble start |date=January 7, 1941 |page=9 }}Merrill D. Beal, Merle W. Wells, History of Idaho (1959), p. 28. Clark returned to Idaho Falls working as a mercantile clerk, then moved to Mackay, Idaho shortly after its founding and saved money to attend the University of Michigan Law School, but did not graduate but instead read law to enter the bar in 1904.{{cite web|title=Chase A. Clark|url=http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetInfo?jid=440&cid=999&ctype=na&instate=na|publisher=Federal Judicial Center|access-date=23 September 2012}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vDMhAAAAIBAJ&pg=7268,3002485|newspaper=Deseret News|location=Salt Lake City, Utah|agency=UPI |last=Charnock|first=Richard|title=Judge recalls satisfaction in half century of service|date=March 16, 1964 |page=B11}} He entered private practice in Mackay from 1904 to 1930. He was a Judge Advocate General for the State of Idaho from 1914 to 1915. Clark left to fight in 1916 in the Border War and then World War I. He served in a machine gun unit and achieved the rank of lieutenant{{cite web|title=Chase A. Clark|url=http://www.nga.org/cms/home/governors/past-governors-bios/page_idaho/col2-content/main-content-list/title_clark_chase.html|publisher=National Governors Association|access-date=23 September 2012}} in the United States Army. He was a member of the Idaho House of Representatives from 1913 to 1916.{{FJC Bio|440|nid=1379156|name=Chase Addison Clark}} He returned to private practice in Idaho Falls from 1930 to 1940. He served in the Idaho Senate from 1933 to 1936.{{Citation needed|date=January 2019}} He was the Mayor of Idaho Falls from 1937 to 1938. He was the Governor of Idaho from 1941 to 1942.

Clark was elected Governor as a Democrat in 1940, defeating the Republican incumbent, C. A. Bottolfsen.

At an April 1942 War Relocation Administration conference at Salt Lake City to discuss using Japanese-American internees to help with the farm labor shortage, Governor Clark "went so far as to ask that both Issei and Nisei already residing freely in his state be rounded up and placed under supervision." These citizens of Idaho were not covered by the U.S. Government's order forcefully removing people of Japanese descent from the West Coast. Speaking of the internment of Japanese Americans in May 1942, months after the Pearl Harbor bombing, Clark spoke in a Lions Club meeting stated "Japs live like rats, breed like rats and act like rats. We don't want them ... permanently located in our state."{{Cite journal |title=Thinning, Topping, and Loading: Japanese Americans and Beet Sugar in World War II |author=Louis Fiset |journal=The Pacific Northwest Quarterly |date=Summer 1999 |volume=90 |issue=3 |pages=123–139 |access-date=16 August 2020 |url= http://www.jstor.com/stable/40492494}}

As the governorship was a two-year term, Bottolfsen then defeated Clark to regain the governorship in 1942; both elections had been very close.

Clark was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 18, 1943, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Idaho vacated by Judge Charles Cheatham Cavanah.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=i5NfAAAAIBAJ&pg=2521,4233689|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|location=Idaho|agency=Associated Press|title=Senate confirms Clark for bench|date=March 6, 1943|page=2}} He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 5, 1943, and received his commission on March 10, 1943.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8fpXAAAAIBAJ&pg=5922%2C3285413 |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |location=Washington |agency=Associated Press |title=Taylor approved as district judge |date=July 20, 1954 |page=a3}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pKNfAAAAIBAJ&pg=4572%2C1484757 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |agency=Associated Press |title=Fred M. Taylor is confirmed |date=July 21, 1954 |page=1 }} He served as Chief Judge from 1954 to 1964. He assumed senior status on April 30, 1964. His service terminated on December 30, 1966, due to his death.

Clark married Jean Elizabeth Burnett, the 18-year-old daughter of a Mackay merchant,{{cite web|url=http://mackayidaho1.blogspot.com/2011/07/remembering-alex-burnett-mackay-miner.html|publisher=Mackay, Idaho Blog |title=Remembering Alex Burnett, Mackay Miner April 22, 1954 and April 29, 1954|date=July 28, 2011 |access-date=March 11, 2013}} on January 10, 1906.{{cite web|title=Chase A. Clark|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/clark2.html|publisher=The Political Graveyard|access-date=23 September 2012}}

Clark was a member of a prominent Idaho political family.{{Citation needed|date=January 2019}} He was the younger brother of Barzilla W. Clark (1880–1943), who preceded him as governor (1937–1939), and was the father-in-law of Frank Church (1924–1984), a four-term United States Senator (1957–1981) and presidential candidate in 1976.{{Citation needed|date=January 2019}} A nephew, David Worth Clark (1902–1955), also represented Idaho in both houses of the United States Congress. Clark's daughter, Bethine Clark Church (1923–2013), remained active in Idaho Democratic politics until her death.{{Citation needed|date=January 2019}}

Clark suffered a stroke at age 83 in December 1966,{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=D7peAAAAIBAJ&pg=1753%2C3439219 |work=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |agency=Associated Press |title=Chase Clark seriously ill |date=December 16, 1966 |page=1}} and spent his final weeks at St. Luke's Hospital in Boise, Idaho. He died on December 30, and was interred at Rose Hill Cemetery in Idaho Falls.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5zhWAAAAIBAJ&pg=6255,1048060|newspaper=Spokesman-Review|location=Spokane, Washington|agency=Associated Press|title=Idaho Falls' Chase Clark laid to rest|date=January 4, 1967|page=6}}{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/clark2.html|title=The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Clark, C to D|website=politicalgraveyard.com}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HrpeAAAAIBAJ&pg=2429%2C6587207|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho|title=Chase A. Clark dies|agency=Associated Press|date=December 31, 1966|page=1}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_GpWAAAAIBAJ&pg=6752%2C4234927 |newspaper=Spokesman-Review |location=Spokane, Washington |agency=Associated Press |title=Governor, Judge Chase Clark dies |date=December 31, 1966 |page=6}}

• List of mayors of Idaho Falls

{{Reflist}}

{{Bioguide}}

• {{FJC Bio|440|nid=1379156|name=Chase Addison Clark}}
• [http://www.nga.org/cms/home/governors/past-governors-bios/page_idaho/col2-content/main-content-list/title_clark_chase.html National Governors Association]
• [https://issuu.com/uidahodigital/docs/gem1942/247 Gem of the Mountains, University of Idaho annual: 1942]
• {{Find a Grave|7886921}}
• [http://mackayidaho1.blogspot.com/2013/01/blast-from-past-chase-clark-law-office.html Mackay, Idaho blog] – Chase Clark law office, 1910

{{s-start}}

{{s-ppo}}

{{s-bef|before=John F. Nugent}}

{{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Democratic Party nominee, United States Senator (Class 3) from Idaho}}|years=1928 special (lost)}}

{{s-aft|after=James P. Pope}}

{{s-bef|before=C. Ben Ross}}

{{s-ttl|title=Democratic Party nominee, Governor of Idaho|years=1940 (won), 1942 (lost)}}

{{s-aft|after=Charles C. Gossett}}

{{s-off}}

{{s-bef|before=C. A. Bottolfsen}}

{{s-ttl|title=Governor of Idaho|years=1941–1943}}

{{s-aft|after=C. A. Bottolfsen}}

{{s-legal}}

{{s-bef|before=Charles Cheatham Cavanah}}

{{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho}}|years=1943–1964}}

{{s-aft|after=Raymond Clyne McNichols}}

{{s-bef|before=Office established}}

{{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho}}|years=1954–1964}}

{{s-aft|after=Fredrick Monroe Taylor}}

{{s-end}}

{{Governors of Idaho}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Chase Addison}}

Category:1883 births

Category:1966 deaths

Category:20th-century mayors of places in Idaho

Category:Democratic Party governors of Idaho

Category:Mayors of places in Idaho

Category:Democratic Party members of the Idaho House of Representatives

Category:Democratic Party Idaho state senators

Category:Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho

Category:United States district court judges appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt

Category:People from Idaho Falls, Idaho

Category:People from Custer County, Idaho

Category:Lawyers from Boise, Idaho

Category:People from Hendricks County, Indiana

Category:Military personnel from Idaho

Category:United States Army officers

Category:University of Michigan Law School alumni

Category:United States federal judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law

Category:20th-century members of the Idaho Legislature