Thomas T. Clark

Thomas Talbot Clark was born in Billerica on December 16, 1886, the son of Frederic S. Clark, head of the Talbot Mills in North Billerica, and Isabella W. (Talbot) Clark, a daughter of Governor Thomas Talbot. He followed his father into the family mills; a school catalogue of 1926 gives his address as the Talbot Mills, and by 1949 he was treasurer of the Talbot Mills corporation. He lived on Mount Pleasant Street, and on October 14, 1916, he married Eugenia Meigs. He was also a director of the Billerica Trust Company.

His first large public task was the new Howe High School. Appointed to the building committee by the town meeting of March 1915, with Charles H. Eames as chairman and Clark as secretary, the committee hired the Boston architects Brainerd and Leeds, bought from Fred W. Fisher the land just south of Bennett Hall on Main Street, and laid the corner stone on November 22, 1915; its report, signed by Clark, expected the building to be ready "before Sept. 1, 1916." He was elected to the Board of Selectmen in 1917 and served as its secretary through 1921, with Prescott L. Pasho, Thomas F. Sheridan and, in 1918, Forrest F. Collier, and he returned to the board in 1925 and 1926. He was also a Sinking Fund Commissioner from 1916 to 1922 and, like all the selectmen, a fence viewer.

As chairman of the committee on dangerous highways appointed in 1922, he reported the roads in most urgent need of attention and recommended warning signals at crossings such as Smith's Corner and McElligott's Corner, and brush cutting by the Tree Warden. For most of the 1920s he was chairman of the Finance Committee, which reviewed every money article in the town warrant.

In 1931 the town meeting named Clark, Lucy B. Collier, Orland S. Marshall, George R. Dyer and Patrick J. Mahoney to serve as a Planning Board until the election of 1932, and he was its first chairman, with Mrs. Collier as secretary. The board drew up zoning by-laws, but "at the annual meeting in 1932 the Town elected a Planning Board but declined to provide it with zoning by-laws"; the board revised them after a hearing and "earnestly recommended" their adoption, which did not come until 1945. At the town meeting of 1934 Clark announced "that it was the wish of the heirs of Thomas Talbot that Thomas Talbot Hall should be deeded to Billerica Post 116 American Legion."

Thomas Talbot Clark died in Lowell on October 1, 1966, and was buried in the Lowell Cemetery.

References

1. Thomas Talbot Clark (1886-1966), Find a Grave (birth, death, burial, parents, marriage)
2. Report of the Howe High School Building Committee, January 1916 (signed Thomas T. Clark, Secretary)
3. Marriages, 1916 (Thomas T. Clark of North Billerica and Eugenia Meigs, Oct. 14)
4. Town officers, 1919 (Selectmen: Thomas F. Sheridan, Chairman; Thomas Talbot Clark, Secretary)
5. Report of the Committee on Dangerous Highways, 1922 (signed Thomas Talbot Clark, Chairman)
6. Town officers, 1924 (Finance Committee: Thomas Talbot Clark, Chairman)
7. Committees appointed, 1931 (committee to serve as Planning Board until 1932)
8. Report of the Planning Board, 1932 (zoning by-laws; signed Thomas Talbot Clark, Chairman)
9. Town meeting, 1934 (Thomas Talbot Hall to be deeded to Billerica Post 116, American Legion)