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Born in Flint, Indiana, ALONZO M. CLARK graduated from Nebraska State Teachers College in 1898 with a teacher's certificate, and served as Superintendent of Schools for Dawes County, Nebraska before moving to Wyoming in 1901. There, he homesteaded more than 300 acres in Campbell County and taught school in Gillette. He was elected to two terms as Secretary of State, and succeeded to the office of governor upon the death of Frank C. Emerson. Serving during the Great Depression, Clark supported President Hoover's position of state self-reliance. He also pressed for cooperative marketing of agricultural products and the repeal of prohibition, and fought unsuccessfully for termination of the sale of crude oil from federal lands in Wyoming. He was defeated in the Republican primary for renomination to the governorship in 1932 and resumed his term as Secretary of State, which ended in 1935. Although he won the Republican nomination for governor in 1934, he was defeated by his Democratic opponent. He also campaigned unsuccessfully for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. Clark died in Thermopolis, Wyoming and is buried in Carlton, Nebraska.

Sources:

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 42.  New York: James T. White & Company.

Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 4. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols.

Wyoming State Archives