“Climate is what we expect.  Weather is what we get.”  Mark Twain

Born in 1857 Frederick H. Clarke was one of three children born to Ephraim and Mariam Clarke of Fairfax County, Virginia.  Educated in the schools of Washington D.C., by the age of 14 Clarke worked in the Washington insurance office of Taylor, Smith, and Thomas.  

In 1879 at the age of 22, fair-haired, brown-eyed Clarke enlisted in the United States Army and was assigned to the Signal Corp.  This assignment sent Clarke to Fort St. Michael in Sitka, Alaska, where his duties were to monitor the weather. 

Since Clarke’s time in Alaska was before the Klondike Gold Rush that generated an increase in population from the mainland United States, Clarke was one of the few non-indigenous people living in the region.  He remained with the Signal Corp for the next 12 years.

In 1889, Clarke assumed charge of the weather bureau office in Little Rock, Arkansas, and he remained in that position until 1898.  He was then transferred to the weather office in Binghamton, New York.  

During his time in Binghamton, Clarke befriended a local Domestic Science teacher, Caroline T. Brown who taught at Binghamton’s Barlow Institute.  Evidence suggests that the relationship between Clarke and Brown may have been romantic in nature but for reasons known only to them, the relationship ended. In 1901 Clarke transferred to Scranton. 

Once in Scranton, Clarke resided at 306 Wyoming Avenue. He observed, forecasted, and chronicled weather from his office in the Connell Building until the end of May, 1904. At that time Clarke was stricken with Bright’s Disease and suffered from cardiac problems. He died in his apartment on June 8, 1904.  In his will filed in Binghamton, New York, in October 1900, Clarke left all his personal effects, including a typewriter, bicycle, and a small cash sum to Caroline T. Brown. 

At the time of his death The Tribune noted that “Clarke was simply untiring.  He would work 18 out of 24 hours a day and could be seen at almost any hour of the night standing in his window watching the heavens.”  Clarke now rests peacefully, under the heavens, in Section Seven of the Dunmore Cemetery. 

Following Clarke’s death his position was filled by William McMillan Dudley. Dudley had ties to Scranton, having married Green Ridge resident Emma Burr in July 1909. At the time of his transfer from Mobile, Alabama, to Scranton, Dudley had been in the employ of the Department of Agriculture monitoring the weather for 14 years. He remained in the position as head of the weather bureau in Scranton for 21 years.

Like his predecessor, Dudley succumbed to kidney ailments on June 1, 1925. He was 53 years old.  Dudley was laid to rest in the Burr mausoleum on Block Twenty in the Dunmore Cemetery.