"The Biographical History of Clark and Jackson County, Wisconsin by Lewis Publishing Co., 1891, page 221-222:

JOHN B. CLARK, of section 9, Thorp Township, Clark County, was born in Cornwall, Canada West, March 1, 1852, the son of William and Sarah (Grant) Clark, the former a native of Edinburg, Scotland, who came to Canada when a young man, and the latter born on South Branch, Canada West she is now deceased. The parents had three children: Arabella (deceased), John B. and William. The latter still resides in Cornwall. John B. spent the first seventeen years of his life in his native country, where he received a common-school education. He came to the United States in 1869, and at once joined Dan Rice's circus, and remained with that company two years, traveling through Ohio, Indiana, New York and Pennsylvania. He left the show at Girard, Pennsylvania, and went to Waterford, same State, where he worked on a farm a few months for Chauncey Moore, who afterward employed him in his lumber woods at Benezett,
where he remained until the following spring. He next became second cook of the camp, and during the early part of 1870 came to Wisconsin, where he became cook for Cornelius Cook, of Steven's Point, on a raft down the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers. During the latter part of the same season he worked on the Wisconsin Valley Railroad, and also drove a team in the woods on South Fork. The next winter Mr. Clark went to Eau Claire, and toted up to the North Fork of Eau Claire River, for the Eau Claire Lumber Company. He has cooked several winters in the camps, and on the drives during the summers. He settled on his present farm of eighty acres in the early part of 1878, which was then inhabited by Indians and wild animals, but he has since succeeded in clearing thirty-eight acres. During the year 1890 he raised at the rate of 650 bushels of potatoes to the acre, paying $6.25 for the seed, and is now receiving 1 a bushel at his home. He raises several kinds of mangels, etc., having the largest and best varieties of each his Empire State potatoes weigh seventy pounds to the bushel. Mr. Clark is a first-class farmer, and believes in having the best of everything. He also raises Cotswold and Southdown sheep, crossed with Shropshire graded Holstein and shorthorn cattle, and his poultry are of speckled Hamburg, Partridge Cochins and Light Brahmas.

Mr. Clark was married in Thorp, March 6, 1882, to Ada A. Kelley, of Chippewa County, Wisconsin. They were early pioneers of this city, having lived among the bears and Indians, far from human habitation, but afterward removed to their present home. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have four children: Hattie M., Ada G., Margaret Myrtle and John W. Both he and his wife are Christians, but do not affiliate with any church at present.