Jump to content

David W. Stark

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David W. Stark (c. 1879 - c. 1941) was a member of the Missouri Legislature in the early 20th century. He was a farmer in West Line, Missouri.[1][2][3]

Political life

[edit]

In November 1910, Stark was elected as a Democrat to the Cass County seat in the Missouri House of Representatives.[4]

On Monday, May 20, 1911, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat printed a story headed "Drunken Democrats Turn Assembly Into a Sunday Debauch; Liquor-Fired Mob Breaks Up Senate Session; Carouse Is in Celebration of Game Warden."[5] In it, the Globe said:[6]

The Sunday session of the House terminated late in the afternoon in a fist fight and near riot. Kirby J. Smith of Ava, Missouri, a clerk in the office of Game Commissioner Tolerton . . . was assaulted upon the floor of the House by Representative David W. Stark of Cass County.

The St. Joseph News-Press reported that Stark "struck at" Smith and then "grasped him by the throat and pushed him, scrambling and fighting, to the rear of the hall. . . At last someone tripped Stark, and the two sprawled on the floor, and the other representatives" pulled Stark off.[7]

Stark filed a suit against the Globe the next month, alleging libel and asking for $150,000 in damages.[8] The newspaper paid him $2,500 to withdraw the suit.[9]

Stark served two terms in Missouri's House of Representatives, and in 1916, he was elected to its Senate. He himself voted in Freeman, Missouri.[1][10]

Personal life

[edit]

Stark's family lived in Cass County, Missouri, since the early 1850s.[11]

A marriage license was issued to Stark and Martha Ingels of Jackson County on May 16, 1910.[12] In 1917, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported that Stark was one of nine senators who "have their wives on the pay roll of the General Assembly as clerks or stenographers at $3.50 a day."[13]

About 1921 or 1922, Stark became "mentally unbalanced" and was admitted as a private patient at the Nevada Hospital for the Insane. In 1928, his private funds having been exhausted, his expenses at the hospital were taken over by Cass County.[3][11]

In 1941, the Missouri Senate held a memorial service for eight former senators, including Stark, who had died "since the last session of the General Assembly."[14]

References

[edit]