Background
Harvey Clark was born in Chester, Vermont, on October 7, 1807.
Harvey Clark was born in Chester, Vermont, on October 7, 1807.
A native of Vermont, he moved to Country where he participated at the Champoeg Meetings and helped to found Tualatin Academy that later became Pacific University. Clark also worked for the Methodist Mission and was a chaplain for the Provisional Legislature of in 1845. Clark traveled overland to the region, arriving in September 1840.
His party included mountain men, Alvin T. Smith, P. B. Littlejohn, and those two’s wives.
In, Clark first taught at the Methodist Mission’s first location at Mission Bottom on the French Prairie in the Willamette Valley. He then moved to West Tuality on the Tualatin Plains, and taught there for the Mission.
This location would later become the town of Forest Grove, and Clark would take a land claim at the location. In 1843, he was one of several participants from the Tualatin Valley that participated in the Champoeg Meetings.
At the May 2, 1843 meeting, Clark voted for the creation of the Provisional Government of, which passed by a 52 to 50 margin.
The following year he served as one of several chaplains to the Provisional Legislature of Clark made his land claim in 1846 for about 480 acres (19 km2). Pacific University A few years later Tabitha Brown arrived in Forest Grove and joined the Clarks in operating a home for orphans. In 1848, George H. Atkinson arrived and began working with Clark to create a college in, which was chartered by the Territorial Legislature in 1849 as Tualatin Academy.
Clark donated 20 acres (81,000 m2) to the school that year, and deeded another 200 acres (081 km2).
Tualatin Academy would grow with the addition of a college, Pacific University in 1854, while the academy would be closed in 1915. Marsh Hall at the school is situated where the three original land claims of the town’s founders met, including Clark’son
In 1849, he taught for a short time at the Clackamas County Female Seminary. Clark would also sell 150 acres (061 km2) of his land claim and donate the proceeds to the school he helped to foundation
The Reverend Clark died on March 24, 1858 at the age of 50 in Forest Grove.
He was an independent missionary, unaffiliated with any missionary organization such as the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.