Freeman Clarke Explained

Freeman Clarke
Office:Member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
from New York
Constituency: (1871–73)
(1873–75)
Term Start:March 4, 1871
Term End:March 3, 1875
Predecessor:Charles H. Holmes
Succeeded:Charles C. B. Walker
Term Start1:March 4, 1863
Term End1:March 3, 1865
Predecessor1:Robert B. Van Valkenburgh
Successor1:Roswell Hart
Order3:2nd
Title3:Comptroller of the Currency
Term Start3:March 9, 1865
Term End3:July 24, 1866
President3:Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Predecessor3:Hugh McCulloch
Succeeded3:Hiland R. Hulburd
Birth Date:22 March 1809
Birth Place:Troy, New York
Death Place:Rochester, New York
Party:Republican

Freeman Clarke (March 22, 1809 – June 24, 1887) was a U.S. Representative from New York during the American Civil War.

Born in Troy, New York, Clarke went into business for himself at the age of fifteen. He began his financial career as cashier of the Bank of Orleans, Albion, New York. He moved to Rochester, New York, in 1845.

He became director and president of banks, railroads, and telegraph and trust companies of Rochester and New York City, and later served as delegate to the Whig National Convention at Baltimore in 1852 and as vice president of the first Republican State convention of New York in 1854.

He served as delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1867.

Clarke was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-eighth Congress (March 4, 1863 – March 3, 1865).He was Comptroller of the Currency from March 9, 1865, to February 6, 1867.

Clarke was again elected to the Forty-second and Forty-third Congresses (March 4, 1871 – March 3, 1875).

He died in Rochester, New York, on June 24, 1887, and was interred at Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, NY.