Charles H. Clarke (1832-1902) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He graduated from Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and thereafter worked as an engraver and rubber stamp manufacturer. He was also a musician, a composer, and a horticulturalist. A colonel, he served as a recruiting officer in the American Civil War and subsequently became a member of E. W. Kinsley Post No. 113 of the Grand Army of the Republic in Boston. In 1872 he married Jessie G. N. Clark (b. Nichols) in Berkley, Massachusetts. She was a schoolteacher. Around 1880 they relocated to Milwaukee. They both became interested in Christian Science in the mid-1880s. In 1884 Jessie studied with Mary Baker Eddy's students Silas J. Sawyer and Hannah A. Larminie and in 1888 took Eddy's Normal class. Charles studied Christian Science with Jessie and became a member of a Christian Science branch church in Milwaukee. He joined The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 6, 1895, and Jessie joined on April 1, 1893. They were both listed as practitioners in The Christian Science Journal, Charles from 1897 to 1902 and Jessie from 1891 to 1896. Charles is credited with introducing Japanese morning glories to Milwaukee and was also a member and president of the Wisconsin State Musical Association.

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