John Clark's little bit of Benton Township heaven

John Clark and his fields of fruit and flowers were long gone --- by the time I came along --- from the Salem Church neighborhood of Lucas County, southeast of Chariton in Benton Township.

But my dad remembered him well and spoke often of him --- at least every Memorial Day, when we visited Salem --- the family cemetery --- overflowing with peonies, some of which had started life at the nearby Clark Nursery Farm, the site of which you could see in the distance off to the south.

Back in 1933, a reporter for The Herald-Patriot visited John --- and filed the following report, published on June 1. He (or she) did a fine job --- and I can almost smell the fresh flowers this morning.

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You drive south and east on the old Mormon Trace road until you come to an east turn that leads into Russell. Don't turn. Cross the railroad track and continue south (on the New York Road) to the first crossroad. Turn then to the left and when you come to a lane that leads to a house that can be scarcely seen peeking through the trees, follow the lane to a well-kept lawn and stop.

You are then in the center of one of the most beautiful and colorful spots in Lucas county.

It is the home of John Clark. Surrounding it are 22 acres of land covered with fruit trees and flowers. Today, the blooms of every color and variety everywhere, it seems mostly flowers.

A tall gaunt man in overalls and a slouch hat who walks with the aid of a cane will greet you. He is John Clark, the creator of it all, who doesn't quite know which he likes best, the flowers or the apples.

"Of course," he says, "the apples last longer. But then, the flowers are beautiful."

He will take you first to the north of the house where, upon turning a corner, you will involuntarily gasp at the sight of  almost two acres of peonies and iris in full bloom.

The field is a riot of color ranging from dark reds and purples to whites and yellows with intervening shades for harmony. There are, in this one plot, 25 varieties of peonies and 30 varieties of iris.

The name of each variety is written on a small sign at the head of each row. The names that you can pronounce, such as "Victor Hugo" and "Queen Victoria," won't mean much to you. Those that you can't master will make you wonder how the flowers stand up under them.

The titles are placed on the flowers, Mr. Clark said, so that visitors who desire to  purchase bulbs for their gardens may see how the blooms will look when fully developed.

Leaving the large plot, one finds more flowers on all sides of the house. The peonies and iris are the principal blooms now. Other varieties have died. Others have not yet bloomed.

Beginning in the spring with lilacs and apple blossoms, Mr. Clark has flowers until late fall.

Two varieties of peonies have won prizes for him at flower shows. They are "Clark's Red" and "Clark's White."

"I call them by those names," he said, "because at every show in which they have won prizes they were given a different name."

No Clark flowers have been exhibited at shows in recent years, however. Two years ago Mr. Clark suffered a severe attack of influenza.

"Since then I have been unable to crank the old car and can't go anywhere unless someone takes me," he said. He has put the car in storage.

Standing alone at one spot in the garden was a single growth of peonies. Mr. Clark said it was a seedling.

"It's a growth that results from a seed planted without advance knowledge of what variety it will become," he explained.

Clark's Nursery doesn't lack for visitors. Mr. Clark doesn't raise flowers merely to perfume the yard. He sells them. Oftentimes before Memorial Day, there have been 20 cars parked in his yard at one time.

And in the fall customers come from all parts of this section of Iowa to buy his apples and pears.

His fruit trees were sprayed recently for the first time. Approximately 1,400 gallons of liquid were used in the first bath. They will be given from two to three more.

"It looks like a good fruit year," Mr. Clark said. "That's what we thought last year, after completing the first job of spraying. The same night a frost ruined the crop and I didn't make expenses."

He lives alone, with a dog, three cats, two kittens and a flock of chickens for company.

As a youth, Mr. Clark learned the printing trade with a Chariton newspaper. Thirty years ago, he was called from his job with the old Des Moines Leader to care for his father, who was ill.

His father died, and he has been at the farm ever since.

"But if the apple crop fails me this year, I may go back to setting type," he said.

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John was 73 when that reporter visited and would have a few more years on the farm, but during December of 1935 his house and adjacent tool shed burned.

Neighbors and friends created a new home for him by partitioning part of a large fruit storage building and he lived there until the late winter of 1938-39, when he became ill and too weak to care for himself.

A long-time member of the I.O.O.F. Lodge, he found a new home at the Odd Fellows Home in Mason City, where he died on the 5th of April, 1939, age 78.

John and his father, George --- who died at 75 during 1896 --- share a tombstone at nearby Salem Cemetery within sight of their former home. Neither peonies nor iris grow in abundance on the site of Clark Nursery Farm these days, but Salem generally is filled with blooming peonies as Memorial Day approaches.