Francis Devereux Clarke was an American educator. He served in the Confederate Navy from 1863-1865. He also worked as a teacher at the New York Institution for the Deaf and as a head of the Michigan School for the Deaf.
Background
Francis Devereux Clarke was born on January 31, 1849, in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. He was the eldest of the four children of William J. and Mary Bayard (Devereux) Clarke of Raleigh, North Carolina. His father, an eminent lawyer and judge of the state courts, was also distinguished for bravery as an officer in the Mexican War, and later became a colonel in the Confederate army. His mother was a brilliant writer of both prose and poetry. The family was descended on the father’s side from Scotch ancestry, and on the mother’s from Scotch and from French Huguenot strains. Both families appeared in the Carolinas in the seventeenth century, and were prominent in theology, teaching, and the law.
Education
Francis began his education in the primary schools of Raleigh, but moved with the family to San Antonio, Texas, when he was seven years old. Here he was under the instruction of Oliver D. Cooke, a former teacher in the American School for the Deaf. His mother’s failing health improved and the family returned to Raleigh at the opening of the Civil War. Francis entered Davidson College, but left it after two years of study. Later Clarke received the degree of Master of Arts in course from Columbia University in 1873 and the degree of Civil Engineer in 1875.
Career
At the age of thirteen Clarke joined the Confederate navy as a midshipman. He served with distinction on various ships, including the battleship Tennessee. At the close of the Civil War, though only sixteen years of age, he had risen to the rank of lieutenant. For three years he engaged in business in North Carolina with a brother, but felt a call to sea service, and went to New York City with the purpose of joining the merchant marine. His old tutor, Oliver D. Cooke, then a teacher in the New York Institution for the Deaf, persuaded Francis to call upon Dr. Isaac L. Pect, principal of the New York Institution, and to observe the work being done for the education of deaf children in this institution. Dr. Pect was so pleased with the young man’s intelligent questions that he offered him a place as instructor in his school, and Clarke accepted. He remained with Dr. Peet until 1885.
In 1870s he also worked for a brief time as a civil engineer in North Carolina and then accepted the superintendency of the Arkansas Institute for the Deaf at Little Rock. He found there a small school, not well provided with buildings or equipment. He revised the course of study, increased the pupilage, and rebuilt the plant in the seven years that he remained. In September 1892 he was invited to take charge of the State School for the Deaf at Flint, Michigan. Here again he showed his energy in rebuilding and enlarging an institution. He added a kindergarten department, a physical education department, a normal department, a farm 35° acres, and he introduced poultry raising, farming, and gardening for the students. He revised the course of study and made many additions to the buildings and equipment. One of his last acts was the laying of the corner-stone of the handsome new administration building for which he had obtained sufficient funds after a hard fight in the state legislature. He died a few weeks later from heart failure, leaving this excellent school, with its many successful graduates, as a monument to his energy and wisdom.
Clarke was honored by election to the Executive Committee of the Conference of Superintendents and Principals of American Schools for the Deaf in 1900. He was one of the incorporators of the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf and was a regular contributor of articles on the education of the deaf to the American Annals of the Deaf. Among these are ‘‘Courses of Study and Textbooks, ” “Foundation Work in Arithmetic, ” “Kindergarten for the Deaf, ” “The Training of Teachers. ”
Achievements
Francis Devereux Clarke was recognized as a great educator. Under his direction, Michigan School took the first rank among the state institutions for the education of the deaf in the United States. One of his most important works was a book entitled Michigan Methods, which was a valuable treatise on primary work for deaf children.
Connections
On September 24, 1873, Clarke was married to Celia Laura Ransom of Kalamazoo, Michigan, niece of the then chief justice of the state, who later became governor. Miss Ransom was a teacher of the deaf at the time of their marriage.
