BG Clark attended Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington and was a veteran of the Spanish-American War. He enlisted while still in his teens in 1888 as a private with Company B, Second Missouri Infantry Regiment in Butler, MO. He attained the rank of Brigadier General in 1899 and ushered in a major reorganization of the Missouri National Guard and was later appointed adjutant general of the Missouri National Guard in 1918. In 1908 the state established the State Rifle Range in Nevada, MO which then became Camp Clark as we know it today.