History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 667

ifISTORY OF 1XAS. 667

time hlas been engaged in the livery business.
He still owns his farm of 300 acres, located
near Bastrop, and is also interested in a gin.
Mr. Reynolds was married in this city,
April 22, 1874, to Frances Ml. Green. They
have four children,-Allie G., Lulu L., Sidney
D. and Arthur J.
P ROF. J. W. CLARK.-"Thank God
there are no free schools in this
province, nor printing press; and I
hope we shall have none these hundred
years," wrote Berkeley, the royalist Governor
of Virginia in 1671, and his wish, unnatural
as it may seem now, was almost literally
fulfilled. But this sentiment never found
lodgement with the colonists, and was not
tolerated by them after they came to see
clearly their rights and privileges, the establishing
of newspapers and the founding of
schools being among the earliest objects of
their fostering care. Each of these forces
has grown to be a mighty factor in the
development of this country, and the story of
civilization in the western world is largely
the story of the evolution of the printing
press and the free school system. From the
public schools of the States men and women
have gone to fill all ranks, all spheres, in life.
The press has been gratefully called the
"Palladium of our Liberties;" the public
school is no less the nursery of public virtue
and public intelligence.
The subject of this sketch, Professor John
W. Clark, Principal of the public schools at
Rockdale, is one whose labors in behalf of
education entitle him to the grateful recognition
of all who have at heart the elevation of
the minds and morals of the young, and is
especially deserving of notice in connection

with the public schools of that place,confessedly
among tlhe best in the State,
their superiority being in a large measure
due to his untiring efforts.
lie is a native of Washington county,
Virginia, born September 13, 1851, and is a
son of Peter G. and Parmelia A. Clark,
natives of the same State. His father is a
planter, residing now in Washington county,
Virginia, where lie has passed most of his
life, and where he is extensively and favorably
known. IHe was a soldier in the
Confederate army during the late war, serving
with credit as Lieutenant of Comnpany F,
Twenty-first Virginia Cavalry, in which hl
fought under those distinguished generals,
Jubal A. Early and Fitzhugh Lee, taking
part in all the campaigns and engagements
in which the army of northern Virginia
participated from Manassas to Appomattox.
He has been a life-long member of the
Presbyterian Church, and faithful to every
duty as a citizen and member of the community
in which he resides. The mother,
who is also yet living, bore the maiden name
of Parmelia Ann Cunningham, being a
daughter of George and Martha Cunningham,
natives of Virginia, and descendants of
early settled families of that State, originally
of Scotch and Irish extraction. The two
children of the marriage of Peter G and
Parmelia A. Clark are Rev. Peter C. (Clark, a
regularly installed minister of the Presbyterian
Church, now filling a charge at Fincaster,
Virginia, and Prof. John W. Clark,
of this article.
The last named was reared in his native
county, and in the schools of that county
received his early education. He began
teaching at the age of sixteen, and in this
way earned the money with which to defray
his expenses through college. He attended

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