Residence: 1853 New Jersery
Note: Mercantile business
Residence: 1856 Milton, Rock Co., Wisconsin
Census: 1880 Milton, Rock Co., Wisconsin: age 62

He settled at Unadilla Forks, N. Y., and became a mechanic. In1856 he removed to Milton, Wis., where he has been a Justice of the Peace.

Erastus Patterson Clarke 1817-1905
Milton Newspaper Obituary, Portrait and Biographical Album of Rock County, Wis., 1889, Rev. Edwin B. Shaw Officiating
"Portrait and Biographical Album of Rock County, Wisconsin", 1889, p 738-739.
ERASTUS P. CLARKE, a Justice of the Peace at Milton, Wis., was born on the 30th day of June, 1817, in Otsego County, N.Y. His father was Oliver P. CLARKE, and his grandfather, Henry CLARKE, both of whom were natives of Rhode Island, and were ministers of the Seventh Day Baptist Church. The family is of English descent, the ancestry being traced back to John CLARKE, who emigrated from England to America in the early days of this country. The family of which our subject was a member numbered ten children, five sons and five daughters, but only two are now living. Eveline, the eldest, who became the wife of Willis SHERWOOD, died in Utica, N.Y., in 1869; Cornelia, born in 1800, married P. H. BASSETT, and resided in Otsego County, N.Y., until her death in 1883, leaving four children, George, Lewis, Dwight and John; Catherine died March, 1889, at Utica, N.Y.; Eliza resides at Unadilla Forks, N.Y.; Phoebe wedded Ransom LEWIS, and to them were born six children, two of whom are living; Morris, residing in Jefferson County, N.Y., has one child, a daughter; Reuben, who was married and had seven children, five of whom are living, died in Sandy Lake, Pa.; Erastus P., of this sketch, is the next in order of birth; Edwin D. was killed at the battle of Petersburg during the late war, leaving one daughter who is yet living; James Ray, the youngest of the family, died in 1844.
Our subject was reared to manhood in his native State, where he received his education, and in 1853 left New York, removing to New Jersey, where he engaged in the mercantile business. After three years spent in that line, he resolved to try his fortune in the West, and in 1856 came to Wisconsin, settling in Milton, where he has since resided. He has taken an active part in the growth of the town, and as a builder has assisted to erect about half the buildings therein. Before leaving his native State, he married Miss Mary Jane PECK, a native of Cumberland County, N.J., their wedding being celebrated on the 7th day of April, 1841. Two children have been born of their union - Willis P. and W. Wallace CLARKE, whose sketches appear elsewhere.
Mr. CLARKE has always taken a deep interest in political affairs. He cast his first Presidential vote for William Henry Harrison in 1840, and also voted for Benjamin Harrison in 1888. During the campaign of 1856, when Fremont was the first Republican candidate for the Presidency, he was the first man to organize a Fremont Club in the part of New Jersey where he then lived, and was one of the local leaders in his party. He made several political speeches, earnestly advocating organization upon Republican principles, and has remained a faithful adherent to the party since that time. He was first elected to public office in 1870, when he was the people's choice for Justice of the Peace, since which time he has been elected to that office at each succeeding election. He has been connected with the Home and Northwestern Insurance Companies since 1882, and has served as Trustee and Clerk of the Seventh Day Baptist Church for several years. He is highly respected by all who know him, and has many warm friends throughout the community.
Though always practically a temperance man, our subject has been a total abstainer since about 1845, when he became a member of the Sons of Temperance, and has during all the years since that time been identified with some organization having for its object the suppression of the liquor traffic and the many evils growing out of intemperance. In his official capacity he metes out to violators of the law regulating the sale of intoxicants, the full measure of punishment provided by law, and is somewhat of a terror to evildoers who engage in the illicit sale of whisky. He is not a member of the Prohibition party, from the fact that in his opinion that movement is not strictly in the interests of temperance.

"The Milton Journal", Milton Wisconsin, Thursday, Mar. 30, 1905, p 1.
Erastus P. Clarke, one of the oldest and most respected citizens died suddenly about 9:30 Friday night at the home of his son, W. P. Clarke, where he has made his home for many years. He has been feeble for some time but still attended to duties in his insurance office. He ascended to his office twice Friday and also climbed the stairs to the Journal office. He retired as usual that evening and shortly after nine he was observed to breath unnaturally. The doctor was called at once by telephone but Mr. Clarke passed away before the doctor arrived.
The funeral was held at the S. D. B. church Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock conducted by Prof. Edwin Shaw in the absence of the pastor, Dr. Platts. The following obituary was prepared by Prof. Albert Whitford:
Erastus Patterson Clarke was born in Edmeston, N. Y., June 30, 1817, and died suddenly the evening of March 24, 1905, in the eight-eighth year of his age. He was the last survivor of a family of eleven children born to Oliver Pendleton and Nancy Patterson Clarke, and was of the sixth generation from Joseph Clarke of Newport and Westerly, R. I. He was also a grandson of Rev. Henry Clarke, pastor of the First Seventh-day church of Brookfield, whose father and grandfather also were clergymen and pastors of a Seventh-day Baptist church in Rhode Island. He married April 7, 1841, at Unadilla Forks, N. Y., Mary Jane, the daughter of Enos and Hannah West Peck, all three of whom now lie buried in Milton Cemetery. To this marriage were born two children, Willis Peck and Wm. Wallace, who now survive, and with the eldest of whom, the father has found a home since he was bereft by the death of his wife.
Mr. Clarke was a mechanic by trade and for several years in company with two of his brothers was a manufacturer of farming implements at Unadilla Forks. In 1853 he removed to Plainfield, N. J., and for three years was the proprietor of a hardware store in that city. Since 1856 he has been a citizen of Milton working at his trade for many years and busy in civic and other duties in the interests of his friends and neighbors. For nearly a half of a century he has been one of our foremost citizens, active in all enterprises for the public good. He was an ardent supporter of the government for the maintaining of the Federal Union during the Civil War and an unflinching opponent of the liquor traffic in our town. For nearly all this time he has been a teacher in the Sabbath School of the church of which he was a member and a prompt and habitual attendant upon all of its services. And for nearly a half of a century he has been a justice of the peace in our town, for the duties of which his more than ordinary intelligence and judicial mind especially fitted him. In the discharge of the duties of this office and also that of local insurance agent, it is safe to say that he has more than any other one been in closer touch with the life and business of his neighbors. His good judgment was everywhere respected, and no one, I dare say, ever questioned his integrity.
Erastus P. Clarke was by birth and conviction a Puritan of the New England kind, the land of his forefathers. He believed in God and that the Bible was his only infallible guide in faith and practice. So strong were his convictions, he was intolerant even of liberal interpretations of the Sacred Scriptures. Their literal statements to him were the end of all controversy. He had no use for "The New Theology" or Higher Criticism. In early life he became a member of the church of which his grandfather had been pastor for a quarter of a century, and later transferred his membership to the Seventh-day Baptist church at Plainfield, N. J., then under the pastoral care of Rev. James Bailey and after his removal to Milton he became a member of the church of like faith in this town. He leaves behind him but a few of those who were associated with him in church relationship in 1856, but he has left to them and to a much larger number the memory of a godly life and a sincere devotion to his highest ideals of duty.