Fonds Add. MSS. 157 - Clarke family fonds

James Anthony Clarke (1834-1914) was born in St. Andrew's, New Brunswick. By 1855 he was a master mariner. He went to San Francisco in 1860 and by 1864 was in Victoria, where in 1866 he married Katie Magowan. From 1864 to 1869, Clarke was in charge of Governor Seymour's private yacht, the Leviathan. In 1872 he bought a farm in Langley Prairie, and in 1875 moved to New Westminster. When the CPR decided that Port Moody would be its western terminal, Clarke cleared and subdivided the property he had held since 1868, moving to Port Moody. Later the family returned to New Westminster, and Clarke went back to sea on the Dominion government boat Samson. He invented and patented a compound tandem steam engine to drive twin propellors, and built the Gemini to demonstrate it. In 1898 he retired, in 1902 moving to Vancouver's West End; in 1911 he returned to Port Moody to establish a real estate business, and in 1913 he became an alderman.