Charles Clark: From Rags to Riches

[lively string music] – Narrator: What does success look like?

Is it caring for a forest?

Is it inventing something?

Is it marching for people’s rights?

Success looks different in each of these people’s lives, but they all worked to overcome obstacles and achieve something they believed in: their goals.

Charles Clark spent his life cooking up his recipe for success with ingredients that might be a bit surprising.

From a young age, Charles Clark– or C.B.

Clark, as some knew him– learned the importance of these not-so-secret ingredients from his parents.

They taught him about working hard and working smart.

This forward-looking attitude would help him get through life’s challenges.

When times became sorrowful, he chose to be strong, not only for himself, but for his mother.

Charles did what he could to help support her as they moved to Neenah, Wisconsin.

He found that “helping others” added flavor to his recipe for success.

In fact, the day the Clarks arrived, Charles went to a furniture factory looking for a job.

When the owner told Charles none were available, Charles argued there must be some way he could help in the shop.

Impressed by Charles’ determination, the owner said he could begin the next morning.

Charles did not want to wait.

He started that day.

Charles earned $7 per month working in the factory.

He gave his earnings to his mother.

The work wasn’t easy, [Charles yelps] but knowing the importance of his contribution to his family drove him.

[coins clinking] Charles also managed to go to school at the same time, building on his bright ideas.

Both he and his mother worked hard and were also very frugal, saving their money.

Charles then took helping others to the next level, when he added the ingredient of “serving country” to his success stew.

The Civil War broke out in 1861.

President Abraham Lincoln asked for 300,000 more volunteers to assist the North, and young Charles answered the call.

While serving and becoming a great leader, he sent money back to his mother.

And so the ingredients of saving and investing helped thicken the mixture.

But while he made sure his mother’s expenses were covered, this meant that Charles sometimes went without much food.

His sacrifice and saving would pay off.

When he arrived back in Wisconsin, Charles was surprised to learn his mother had saved all his earnings for him!

He used this money to become a partner in H.P.

Leavens’ Hardware Store.

While investing in his business, C.B.

Clark was also investing in his family, marrying his sweetheart, Caroline.

Together, they had three children: Theda, Caroline, and Charles.

Sadly, the kids’ grandmother died shortly after Theda was born in 1871.

Charles’ mother had a great influence in his life, passing along her family’s recipe for success like the ideas of saving and serving others.

Taking the values his mother had instilled, C.B.

Clark added the sweet ingredient of “teamwork” to the pot when he met John Kimberly, Havilah Babcock, and Frank Shattuck.

The team was known as “The Big Four.”

Charles sold his portion of the hardware store and combined his money with the Big Four’s, investing it in an old flour mill.

The men tore it down and built the Globe Paper Mill.

The Big Four took modest salaries so they could reinvest the business’s profit back into the company to help it grow.

They identified the skills they were good at and taught each other these talents so that they each could help manage the new paper mills.

Kimberly, Clark, and Company became a paper powerhouse!

The Big Four explored the latest and greatest technology for their mills and shifted from using shredded rags to ground wood for pulp.

C.B.

Clark kept very busy; however, “serving the community” was an important step in his recipe for success.

He was a volunteer firefighter in Neenah, and served as the community’s mayor from 1880 until 1882.

Later, Charles was a representative in the Wisconsin State Legislature and then in the U.S. House of Representatives.

C.B.

Clark fought to protect Oneida land from the land grabs.

Charles also backed Belle and Bob La Follette in their support of voting rights for women.

He stood for what served the community best.

Charles died in 1891 while visiting his hometown.

His philanthropic traditions did not die with him, as he passed on his giving ways and serving attitude to his children.

Theda, Caroline, and Charles continued to support their community, including the libraries and opera house.

After Theda died, she left her fortune to building a hospital called Theda Clark Hospital.

C.B.

Clark truly believed that “The best happiness we get in this world is in making someone other than ourselves most happy.”

Today, Charles’ values have contributed to cooking up Kimberly-Clark as one of the largest consumer products corporations in the United States.

His success wasn’t wrapped up in how much money he made.

Rather, Charles’ success was in how he could serve others, his community, and country.

Now that’s one way to cook up success!

[gentle folk music]