This Day in Georgia History
March 24, 1824
Richard H. Clark Born
Jurist Richard H. Clark was born in Springfield, Georgia. Clark was admitted to the Georgia bar at age twenty and immediately began practicing law in Albany, Ga. He spent one term in the Georgia Senate, then served in the Democratic party convention of 1857, which was deadlocked in its choice for governor. Clark helped win the nomination Joseph E. Brown, who subsequently served as Georgia’s governor throughout the Civil War. During the war, Clark became a superior court judge in Georgia’s southwestern circuit. So impressive was his legal knowledge that he, Jared Irwin, and T.R.R. Cobb were given the task of codifying Georgia’s body of statutory law. This comprehensive work, the Georgia Code of 1863, was praised by Clark’s contemporaries and reportedly was the first such work of its kind produced in this country. After the war Clark moved to Atlanta, where he became city court judge and then a superior court judge in the Stone Mountain circuit.
