CLARK-N.M. - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

N. M. Clark, manufacturer brick and tile, Covington, which is one of Covington's most important manufacturing industries, was established in 1869 by the present proprietor of the yards and kilns. The beginning was small, and made by a hand-machine, manufacturing about 50,000 tile per year. The business has gradually increased until, with the modern improved machinery now in use, he has a manufacturing capacity of 6,000 tile per week. A dry-shed, 250 feet long, and two kilns are required-one round and one square-the former with a capacity of 5,000 and the latter of 14,000. Mr. Clark has also the only nursery of any importance in Fountain county, which was established by his father, Chister Clark, a native of Vermont, a man of some local prominence in Fountain county, and one of the earlier settlers of the Wabash valley. He died in 1877. Vermillion county, Indiana, is the native place of the subject of this sketch; but he has been a resident of Fountain county since he was a child of three years, excepting the time spent in the army and in the west. In 1862 he enlisted in Co. E of the 63d Ind. Vol. Inf., Capt. F. Wilcox and Col. Jas. McMannomy commanding. Shortly after entering the service he was promoted to quartermaster-sergeant. He was in many of the hard-fought battles: Nashville, Frankfort, Columbia and others. Returning from the war, he became a member of the Monorach Mining Company, consisting of eight members. They left here in 1866, and spent three years in the west, principally in Idaho Territory. Mr. Clark returned in 1869, and began the business in which he is now engaged. Two years after returning from the west (1871) he married Miss Druzilla Hall, who is a native of Montgomery County, Indiana.