Born Clark William Fisk on March 17, 1910 he was named for his father's supervisor at the Binghamton Chair Factory, Clark Williams. Will Fisk, who had four children by a previous marriage was unable to care for the five children when, a few days later his 19 year old wife Lizzie died. The children were all separated and went to live with friends and relatives, Clark going to his mother's Aunt Della. Della was a Howell, the daughter of Edwin and married to Jim Howell of no relation.
Clark, being raised by the Howell's, began to be known by his friends and classmates as Clark Howell however, unable to adopt him, Jim and Della had to wait until Clark was 21 to change his name.
Clark was sort of a barnstormer in the late 20's and early 30's. It was common to see a dozen people lined up to get a ride in his open cockpit biplane. In addition to Lakeside, he used to fly from the field across the road at the Harford Fair charging $5 a ride to pay for gas and make a little money.
After going to Barber's School in Binghamton, Clark worked for a while in a Binghamton barber shop. Going into business with Walt Lewis they opened a barbershop in the Park View Hotel in New Milford and created what in later years became the Ted Adams Barbershop. Clark started another business, Plumbing and Hardware which he opened in partnership with Harry King. Soon after he built the sawmill on Johnson St. which became the second steam sawmill in town. Crosley's being the first where his dad Jim Howell worked for years. During the 40's and 50's they began to saw fewer and fewer logs and make more and more pallets. By 1960 it had become almost completly a successful pallet factory.Clark's hobby was work. He loved to work. As the owner and operator of the pallet business he continued to perform almost every job at the mill. I have seen him do bookwork when the bookeeper was not available, I've seen him nail pallets when someone was out sick and he had an order that had to get out. I've watched him run the chamfer machine, the cutoff saw, but mostly I remember him running the planer. It was this planer that in 1950 caught his hand and pulled him into the blades removing most of the skin from his left hand and forearm. Fortunately he had a loud voice and could "holler" to get help in shutting down the machine before it pulled him in. The accident left his hand partially paralyzed which changed his piano playing style but did not stop him.
Clark and Lu enjoyed fishing. In the 50's they built a cottage at Alexandria Bay, NY and would drive or fly up there just to spend some time fishing. Resurecting his old flying interest they often would fly a seaplane from Harford, Pa to Canada for a weekend. After an accident with the seaplane and the decline in the health of Don Tyler, their partner in the cottage, it was sold. Clark, after building 3 or 4 new homes, then began building the farm.
A 135 acre farm on the top of Watson Hill in Lakeside became the new place that Clark could work when he wasn't running the mill. He cleared most of the land himself using a Caterpiller bulldoser and we began part-time farming with about 30 head of Black Angus cattle.
After we kids moved out and my Mom passed away the farm was sold and Clark built a few more new houses. One, I think, just to get away from the farm, and the second and third to get smaller houses as his second family got smaller and also moved out.
He died one day very unexpectedly. I think, the way he would have wanted to. He had been in poor health for two or three years before that but had recovered well from earlier heart attacks. It was Sunday. He went to church, stopped for a chicken barbeque on the way home and then took a bath to warm up on that cold February day. Sixty seconds later he was gone.