Edgar Erastus Clark
| Edgar Erastus Clark | |
|---|---|
Clark in 1915
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| Commissioner of the Interstate Commerce Commission | |
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In office 1906–1921 |
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| Grand Chief Conductor of the Order of Railway Conductors | |
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In office 1890–1906 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
October 20, 1911 Lima, New York |
| Died | December 1, 1930 (aged 74) Monrovia, California |
| Education |
Genessee Wesleyan Seminary Williams College |
chief executive of the Order of Railway Conductors
Edgar Erastus Clark (February 18, 1856 – December 1, 1930) was an American attorney, railway union official, and government employee. The chief executive of the Order of Railway Conductors for more than 15 years, Clark served on the Interstate Commerce Commission from 1906 to 1921, and was its chairman from 1913 to 1914 and 1918 to 1921.
Edgar E. Clark was born in Lima, New York on February 18, 1856. His father died when he was six, leaving him to be raised by his mother.
Clark attended school at the Genessee Wesleyan Seminary, remaining there until 1872. After leaving school, Clark headed west in search of work and adventure, landing in Austin, Minnesota, where he found a job as a brakeman on the Burlington, Cedar Rapids, and Northern Railway.
Clark attended Williams College. He would later receive a law degree.
In 1876 he moved along to points still further west, settling in Ogden, Utah, which would become his hometown.
Clark married the former Lavinia Jenkins, of Ogden, Utah, in September 1880. The couple would have four children during their first ten years of marriage, two girls and two boys. Clark took a position on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, winning promotion from brakeman to railroad conductor in 1884.
Clark became active in the Order of Railway Conductors (ORC), the fraternal benefit society of conductors, and was elected Grand Senior Conductor of the ORC at its annual convention in Denver in 1888. In 1890 became Grand Chief Conductor, the chief executive of the Order. Clark would hold that position until 1906.
He was succeeded as president on September 1, 1906, by Austin B. Garretson.
Clark involved himself in lobbying, and received credit for the 1898 enactment of a Mediation and Arbitration Act, which provided for a permanent board to settle disputes between railways and their employees. In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt, apparently impressed by a speech he had given to a railwaymen's convention which Roosevelt had attended, named Clark (a Republican in politics) to the Coal Arbitration Commission to settle an ongoing strike, an appointment which excited considerable comment.
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