Joseph Bond Clark, son of Samuel and Betsey (Clement) Clark, was born at Gilford, N. H., June 21, 1823. He had four brothers and four sisters, of whom two survive,—Samuel C., a lawyer at Lake Village, and Hannah B., widow of the late William G. Hoyt, of Moultonborough. At the age of seventeen he began a preparatory course of study at New Hampton Literary Institution, and, after three years, entered Brown University at Providence, R. I., in 1844, and graduated in 1848. He then spent six years teaching in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, meanwhile qualifying himself for the profession of law, some time with the Hon. Asa Fowler, of Concord, N. H., and with Stephen C. Lyford, of Laconia, from whose office he was admitted to the Belknap-county bar in 1853. He however continued for two years longer principal of the Wolfeborough Academy, and then removed to Manchester, N. H.

Mr. Clark was soon recognized as a moving force among men, was made city solicitor in 1858-59, representative in the legislature from ward one in 1859-60, and was appointed solicitor for Hillsborough county in 1861 and again in 1866, holding the office ten years in all. In the midst of his varied activities the war broke out; he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Eleventh Regiment, Col. Walter Harriman, and went to the front to assist in putting down the rebellion. In March of the succeeding year he was promoted to the rank of captain, and was wounded in the battle of the Wilderness, May 6, 1864. He remained with his regiment until the close of the war, and was mustered out of service in June, 1865. In 1867 he was mayor of the city of Manchester. He has been a director in the Merrimack River Bank (now First National) and trustee of the Merrimack River Savings Bank, since their organization, and is a director of the Nashua, Acton, & Boston Railroad and of the Manchester Horse-Railroad. He was for several years a director of the First Baptist society of Manchester, and chairman of the building committee, which erected probably the finest church of that denomination in the state.

In 1878-79 he represented ward three in the legislature, and was chairman of the finance committee; and was a member and clerk of the committee for the erection of the soldiers' monument in Manchester, in 1879. He married, September 12, 1862, Mrs. Mary Jane (Peabody) Smith, daughter of James H. and Roxana Peabody, of Manchester. She died August 15, 1873, leaving two children,—Mary P. and Joseph M.

This record, so brief and yet so full, will suggest better than any words the general estimation of Mr. Clark among those who know him. Undemonstrative and quiet in his manner, cautious and prudent in action, simple and temperate in habit, he is, above all, a thoughtful and patriotic citizen, whose vote is given for the best measures, and whose example lends force to his words. Conservative by nature, he is yet not slow to place himself on the side of equal justice and truth.