James Wallace Clarke

Who was James Wallace Clarke?

James Wallace Clarke served as the sixteenth mayor of the Village of Elkhorn after serving many years as a councillor for both the village and the surrounding Rural Municipality of Wallace. Born near Fleming, Saskatchewan in what was then the Northwest Territories, Clarke moved to Manitoba and began farming in the Mossgiel District west of Elkhorn shortly after his marriage to Edith Marie McDonald in June, 1910. He was elected as councillor to Ward 6 in the R.M. of Wallace in 1922 and served in that position until 1940. Retiring from the farm in 1949, the Clarkes took up residence in Elkhorn and he was elected as a village councillor in 1950. He succeeded John W.M. Thompson as mayor in 1954 serving three years before retiring from public life.