Governor Edward Clark

Clark held the governorship for only a few months, and how it ended is the story. The Handbook of Texas says the secession convention declared the office vacant after Sam Houston refused the Confederate oath, and Clark, the lieutenant governor, took over. In the autumn election Francis Lubbock polled 21,854 votes to Clark's 21,730, a margin of 124, with Thomas Jefferson Chambers at 13,733. Rumors of fraud circulated widely, but Clark accepted the result. He then went back into the army as colonel of the Fourteenth Texas Infantry.

What the plaque says

Governor Edward Clark (1815-1880) Hometown Texas First Confederate Governor Son of a Georgia governor. Came here in 1842. Member Annexation Convention, 1st and 2nd Texas Legislatures. Participant Mexican War. Secretary of State 1853-7. Elected Lieutenant Governor 1859. Made Governor 1861 upon removal of Gov. Sam Houston, who opposed secession. Clark's major activity was mobilizing Texas in cause of Confederacy. Plans were made to prevent federal invasion, take over enemy property, organize resources to provide supplies and arms for defense, and to properly care for families of Texas soldiers battling at the front. Gov. Edward Clark's term from March to November 1861 also faced difficulties caused by mechanics of changing flags, seals, currency, postal and tax systems for membership in new nation. Camps of instruction were set-up over state to enroll, equip and train troops. Hardest job was to convince Texans, the best horsemen in world, that all could not ride in cavalry but some must be foot soldiers in infantry. The C.S.A. was supplied guns, powder, lead, cloth made in penitentiary, salt and 20,000 troops in his term. In late 1861 he raised and became colonel 14th Tex. Inf. Regt. Led units in Arkansas-Louisiana campaigns to prevent invasion of Texas. Wounded and commended Battle Pleasant Hill April 1864. Discharged 1865. Postwar lawyer, businessman. Buried in Marshall Cemetery. (1963)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Harrison County Historical Museum — steps away
  Galleries in Marshall's 1901 courthouse that run from the Caddo to the present, with Wiley College, Lady Bird Johnson's inaugural gown and a military gallery across the square in Memorial City Hall.
• Starr Family Home State Historic Site — 0.3 mi
  Maplecroft, the 1871 Greek Revival house Frank Starr built in Marshall, with Ruth Starr Blake's glass and china, an 1880s kitchen restored in 2019 and a retirement home built for a formerly enslaved person.
• Texas and Pacific Railway Depot and Museum — 0.5 mi
  The only surviving building of the Texas and Pacific shops at Marshall, a 1912 Mission Revival depot saved from demolition in the 1990s, still an Amtrak stop, with a railway museum and a Mikado locomotive.
• Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 14 mi
  Wetlands and woods on part of a former ammunition plant, now a refuge for wood ducks, prothonotary warblers and alligator snapping turtles, with four easy trails and a free visitor center on a Ramsar lake.

More markers nearby

• Home Town of Texas Confederate General Elkanah Greer — steps away
• James Harper Starr — steps away
• Marshall — steps away
• Harrison County — steps away