Charles W. Clarke, a popular young attorney of Washington, Kan., was born in the city where he now resides, April 4, 1888. He is a son of Samuel and Mary A. Williamson Clarke, the former a native of Virginia and the mother of Kansas. Samuel Clarke came to Kansas with his parents when a boy about eight years of age. This was in 1860. The Clarke family first settled in Atchison and in 1880 removed to Washington county and settled in the town of Washington, where the father has been engaged in the newspaper business ever since. He is now the editor and owner of the Washington "Palladium," one of the leading newspapers of northern Kansas.

Charles W. Clarke attended the public schools of Washington, and after two years in the high school entered the Washington Academy. He then clerked two years in a drug store in Washington, and in 1907 matriculated at the Kansas Universtity,[sic] where he graduated in the class of 1909 with the degree of Pharmaceutical Chemist, and the following year was employed as a pharmacist in St. Joseph, Mo. In the fall of 1910 he returned to the Kansas University and entered the law department, and was graduated in the class of 1913 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. During the time that he was studying law in the university he was also engaged as custodian of the pharmaceutical division, and in this manner paid his own way through the law school. Although a young man Mr. Clarke has made rapid and substantial progress, and his future bids fair to be that of a successful lawyer. He is now associated with Edgar Bennett, Esq., in the practice of law at Washington, Kan. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and of the Episcopal church. Politically he is a Democrat.