Beverly Leonidas Clarke

submitted by Trish Foshee ______________________________________________________________
The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans:

Volume II C -Clarke, Dorus

CLARKE, Beverly Leonidas, representative, was born in Old Winterfield,
Chesterfield county, Va., Feb. 11, 1809; son of William and Pauline
(Hopkins) Clarke; grandson of Charles and Nancy (Martin) Clarke; and
great-grandson of Charles and Elisabeth (Salle) Clarke, and of William
and Jane (Holman) Martin. His great-grandfather, Charles Clarke, came
from Surry, England, and settled in Chesterfield or Powhatan county, Va.
Beverly was educated in the common schools and in 1823 removed with his
father to Kentucky from Virginia. Through his own exertion he acquired a
good English education, and studied Latin. He studied law in Franklin,
Ky., and after ward attended the law school in Lexington, Ky., where he
was graduated in 1831. He was admitted to the bar in 1833 and practised
his profession in Franklin, Ky., with success, especially as a criminal
lawyer for defendants. At the age of twenty-two he was elected to the
state legislature, and was several times re-elected. He was elected to
the 30th congress as a representative in 1846, overcoming a large Whig
majority in his district. He was a prominent member of the state
convention that formed a new constitution in 1849. He was the Democratic
nominee for governor in 1855 and canvassed the state denouncing the
"Know-nothing" party, but was defeated by a very small majority. He was
minister-resident to Guatemala and Honduras, 1858-60, and was baptized
and received into the Roman Catholic church in 1859. He was married in
1836 to Mariah Louise Clarke, who died when Mr. Clarke was in congress,
leaving him four children: Pauline, who married Col. John S. Mosby of
Confederate fame; Mrs. Bettie E. Hatfield; Mrs. Delia Apling, and George
W. Clarke, a member of General Morgan's staff, who was killed in battle
at Cynthiana, Ky. By a second marriage to Zenobia Turner he had one son,
Thomas H. Clarke, who became connected with the Nashville (Tenn.) Banner.
Beverly L. Clarke died at Guatemala, C. A., March 17, 1860, and was
buried at Frankfort, Ky.