Lewis Strong Clarke

Who was Lewis Strong Clarke?

Lewis Strong Clarke, Sr., was the owner of a sugar plantation in St. Mary Parish and a leader of the Republican Party in Louisiana in the latter part of the 19th century.

Clarke was born in Southampton in Hampshire County in west central Massachusetts, a son of Oliver Clarke and the former Elizabeth Strong. In infancy, he moved with his family to Springfield in Clark County in western Ohio, where he was subsequently educated in public schools. After working for a time as a produce dealer in Cincinnati, Ohio, Clarke and his friend, George Steele, purchased a sugar plantation on Bayou Teche near Patterson, Louisiana. This area is now part of Bayou Vista in St. Mary Parish in south Louisiana. Clarke and Steele named the plantation "Lagonda" after Lagonda Creek in Springfield, Ohio.

In 1878, George Steele and Oliver Clarke, Lewis Clarke's younger brother, died in a yellow-fever epidemic. With his partner gone, Lewis Clarke became sole owner and operator of Lagonda. In the late 1880s, as part of his sugar-refining operation, Clarke established one of the first effusion plants in Louisiana.