The fourth of [Mary] Jane and Benjamin C. Dake's seven children was born in the town of Greenfield on May 9th 1852. And named Starks DeSevigne, after a Methodist minister, who was then the presiding elder of his mother's church.
Following Stark's recovery from chicken-pox the spring he was two, he played in puddles of water and brought on a relapse that nearly took his life. The following summer his sister Sarepta pointed out from an upstairs window of the old house where they lived, the new house their father was building. Grandma Dake said, "Don't show it to Starks for he'll want to get over there." No one knew how he got over there without being seen until he was climbing way up a long ladder. But startled workmen dared not speak lest he look down and fall before his rescuer reached him.. And that was why Sarepta was kept out of school to look after Starks. The following year, while a hissing gander was chasing Starks with flaying wings that got him down and kept beating until terrifying cries brought his brother Warren, who, after clubbing the vicious fowl away, found no serious injuries.
When Starks was growing up, it was customary for a preacher unable to make ends meet, to eke out a living for his family by visiting around. And whenever k parsonage family accepted his mother's invitation and came for a few days visit, it irked Starks, if it was his chore to take all the care of a pastor's horse. One of these offenders was the Reverand who, while sipping hard cider, after a hearty breakfast of pancakes and sausage said to his father, "Yes, I'll have another glass of cider with you, Brother Dake, its so good for the dyspepsia, so good for the dyspepsia." But worst of all was the Methodist minister, who had borrowed a horse to bring his family up from Rock City Falls. Then [he] walked to a back lot to call Starks from his blackberry picking to drive it back to its owner. Walking the long four miles back, being late for supper and finding they'd eaten all the berries he'd been picking for pies, built up Starks animosity toward all Methodists. But he had the satisfaction ofbesting the preacher's two Sons in a fistfight that they never reported.
Starks being a farm boy was brought up to work. But, not to the extent as to [be] kept out of school. He was quick to learn and while a member of the Baptist Church Sunday school he memorized more Bible verses than any one else in his class. Soon as he was able to assert himself he dropped his middle name by declaring when queried, "1 haven't any."
He attended Fort Edward's Collegiate Institute in 1869 and Cornell University in 1870 because he won its state scholarship. It was here he studied Civil Engineering. But having to leave college before completing his course, he was not a graduate.