DR. WILLIAM D. CLARK, a prominent citizen and physician of Cottonwood, was born in the city of San Francisco, California, October 22, 1863. He is the son of T.P. Clark, a California pioneer, who came around the Horn in the ship Sarah and Eliza, and after a voyage of 213 days arrived in San Francisco September 1, 1849. He was one of the prominent members of the Vigilance Committee, which took such an active part in the early days of this State. He was a contractor and builder by trade, having built many of the fine buildings which now adorn the great and beautiful city of San Francisco. He has also been a prominent Mason, being a member of Occidental Lodge of San Francisco, F. & A.M., and has received the thirty-second degree in the order. He is a native of Fairfield, Monroe County, Connecticut, born August 31, 1823. After nearly five years’ residence in California he returned to the East, in 1852 via Panama, and in the same year brought his young wife to the Golden State. She was formerly Miss P. Dible, a native of Seymour, Connecticut, and the daughter of Lyman Dible, an early settler of that State. They were the parents of seven children, five girls and two boys.

Our subject, the youngest child, was educated in his native city, and in his fourteenth year was obliged on account of poor health to give up his studies and go to the country for a time. He remained on the ranch of his sister, Mrs. B.F. Davidson, of Capay Valley, until he recovered his health, and then returned to the city and resumed his studies. He spent a year at the high school, under the charge of Professor William T. Reid, when sickness again compelled him to give up study. In 1879 he took a course in the California Business College, and after receiving his diploma he went into the office of Dr. William F. Hale, one of San Francisco’s most prominent physicians. In 1881 he entered the Medical Department of the University of California, finished the course in 1884, and at once engaged in practice. In 1885 he removed to Cottonwood, Shasta County, where he built and stocked the first drug store in the town, which he conducted in connection with his general practice.

In 1888 Dr. Clark married Miss Lillie Simmons of San Francisco, a graduate of the Normal School. She and the Doctor, with other young business men of the place, are doing what they can to build up and improve their town. The Doctor has been an industrious student, and takes a deep interest in surgery. He has been very successful in his practice, and enjoys the confidence, respect and patronage of many of the best citizens of Cottonwood and the surrounding country. He is a bright, pleasing and talented gentleman, interested in his State and county, and always holds himself in readiness to help any enterprise that has for its object healthy growth and improvement. He is also Vice President of the Northern Medical Association.

Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed about Betty Wilson