Aechmophorus clarkii (Lawrence, 1858) (1 Viewer)

[Taphrospilus]

Aechmophorus clarkii (Lawrence, 1858) OD v.9=pt.2 (1853-1858) - Reports of explorations and surveys - Biodiversity Heritage Library

Collected by J. H. Cark

The Eponym Dictionary of Birds

A comprehensive dictionary listing all the people whose names are commemorated in the English and scientific names of birds.Birdwatchers often come across bird names that include a person's name, either in the vernacular (English) name or latinised in the scientific nomenclature. Such names are...

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Clark's Grebe Aechmophorus clarkii G. N. Lawrence, 1858
John Henry Clark (1830–1885) was an American surveyor, naturalist and collector. He was a student of Baird (q.v.) at Dickinson College (c.1844). He was a zoologist on the US/Mexican Border Survey (1850–1855), during which period (1851) he collected the type specimen of a ground snake, which was one of about 100 new vertebrate species he collected with Schott (q.v.). Under the auspices of the USNM he conducted the Texas Boundary Survey (1860). Two reptiles and an amphibian are named after him.

The Key to Scientific Names - Birds of the World

Species accounts for all the birds of the world.

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Lt. John Henry Clark (1830-1885) US zoologist on US/Mexican Boundary Survey 1850-1855, mathematician, collector (Aechmophorus).

Pseudacris clarkii (Baird, 1854) OD v.7 (1854-1855) - Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia - Biodiversity Heritage Library
Sceloporus clarkii Baird & Girard, 1852 OD v.6 (1852-1853) - Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia - Biodiversity Heritage Library
Nerodia clarkii Baird & Girard, 1853 OD

Catalogue of North American reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian institution - Biodiversity Heritage Library

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No idea when and where he was born/died but different sources like Frogs of the United States and Canada , The Scientific Nomenclature of Birds in the Upper Midwest , Early Southwest Ornithologists, 1528-1900 or Audubon to Xántus: The Lives of Those Commemorated in North American Bird Names have him only as born ca 1830. Even some of the sources doubt the death year 1885.

 

[PScofield]

Quite a mystery. We know that John Henry Clark was in the Dickinson Class of 1851 and was recruited by Spencer Baird. Various sources state he was a native of Anne Arundel County, Maryland and there are 2-3 prominent Clark families in this county. There is no evidence that Clark was a Lt. - indeed the US/Mexican Boundary Survey had several civilian "surveyors". This report states categorically he was a civilian.

He is somewhat notorious for the terrible job he did surveying the Texas border.

"Clark's line actually lay west of the true 103rd meridian, giving Texas a significant strip of New Mexico Territory. Arthur D. Kidder, the U.S. examiner of surveys, retraced portions of Clark's survey and concluded that "the longitude is perhaps the most incorrect of any landline in the United States""

There is some speculation about whether he joined the Civil War but I was unable to find a certain record. We do know he survived the war as he was surveying in Wyoming in 1872-73. Baird corresponded with him until 1882 (the addresses would be interesting). Then the trail goes cold. An Anne Arundel County born John H. Clark (1829-1888) died in Indiana but census records in 1870 & 1880 show him to be a lumber dealer. He may have had to change his profession after what happened in Texas?

 

[l_raty]

This may be worth nothing, but, as a possible alternative trail : this page gives him as "(1832-1925) Born in Halifax, North Carolina".

 

[Taphrospilus]

Not possible The Todd family in America or the descendants of Christopher Todd, 1637-1919 : being an effort to give an account, as fully as possible of his descendants

John Henry Clark, who was born June 27, 1835, in Torrington, Conn., died Jam. 12, 1908, 1908, in Waterbury, Conn.

?

 

[PScofield]

This may be worth nothing, but, as a possible alternative trail : this page gives him as "(1832-1925) Born in Halifax, North Carolina".

Whilst intriguing this John Henry Clark was a farmer who died in Ohio. His obituary does not mention any role as a surveyor and he was raising a family in Indiana during the period our man was surveying.

"John Henry Clark, who was born June 27, 1835, in Torrington, Conn" was a machinist in a factory all his working life.