Grass-roots Garrisonians in central Massachusetts: The case of Hubbardston's Jonas and Susan Clark

Historical Journal of Massachusetts, Winter 2003 by Koelsch, William A

During the turbulent years of the 1850's Jonas Clark rode the waves of the San Francisco economy, reestablished his business and his credit, paid his old debts, and in 1856 established himself in a new business, the manufacture as well as the importation of fine furniture. In 1860-61, however, he sold his business, reinvesting his capital in land around San Francisco Bay, in railroads, in California's first public insurance firm, and in one of the private water companies serving San Francisco.26

The Clarks' Unitarian affiliations had brought them into almost daily contact with San Francisco's rising entrepreneurial and professional elite, including the Leland Stanfords and, after 1860, with Rev. Thomas Starr King, who in his four brief years in San Francisco as minister of the First Unitarian Church was to become an articulate leader in the struggle to keep California in the Union. Like many Garrisonian abolitionists, once the Civil War broke out Clark became a staunch supporter of the Union cause. Early in the war Clark had invested heavily in U.S. government bonds and urged other businessmen to do so, at a time when Union victory was problematical, the degree of risk being reflected in an interest rate of two and a half per cent per month.27

During the last years in San Francisco Clark directed the moral energies of his abolitionist days into two aspects of the war over what he described to his father as the twin evils of "rebellion and slavery." One was the Soldiers' Relief Fund (later the California Branch of the United States Sanitary Commission). In November, 1863 Clark was elected to the newly enlarged Executive Committee of the Fund, signed an "Appeal for the Relief of Wounded Soldiers," and devoted much time that winter canvassing for funds in the business district. Jonas Clark also became one of the founders, and the first Grand Treasurer, of the Union League of California. Numerous local units of the League were established, and since meetings of the officers were held every Saturday evening, the activity of the Union League must have demanded much of the time of this now middle-aged former abolitionist activist. He continued to serve until April 30, 1864, when he resigned while preparing for a second trip to Europe.28

In the concluding section of his pioneering study of the anti-slavery rank and file, Edward Magdol raised a number of questions for future abolitionist research. The last of them was this: "is the legacy of abolitionism discernable in post-emancipation institutions and communities?"29 The final section of this article considers that question in relation to the founding of Clark University.

From 1866 to 1878 Jonas and Susan Clark lived variously in Boston, New York, and Europe. They also began talking to American college graduates about their educations, and to European scholars and educators, and also visited a number of European universities, collecting materials on new developments in higher education. The Clarks' move to Worcester in the late 1870's was their first step in bringing to fruition plans for a modern university. Probably stimulated by the plans for Stanford University announced in the fall of 1886, Clark organized a Board of Trustees. On January 17, 1887 (by curious coincidence, the day of the funeral in Worcester of his old abolitionist friend Abby Kelley Foster), he submitted a petition to the Massachusetts legislature for a university charter, which was granted in March.