MILLINOCKET – With all the power invested in him as Town Council chairman, Wallace Paul swears that Ben Clark is not and never has been a polygamist.

Paul doesn’t usually probe other people’s marital habits, but this was an indirect response to a request from the mayor of Bandjoun, Cameroon – and it was official business.

Paul reported during a council meeting Thursday that Clark, a young Peace Corps worker stationed in Cameroon, was about to marry and, according to Cameroonian law, needed to declare beforehand whether he was a monogamist or polygamist and offer documented proof from his place of birth.

“Apparently in Cameroon, it’s legal to be a polygamist, but you have to say so,” Paul said.

Clark was quite stymied, given that his family is from Medway, where he grew up, and he was born at Millinocket Regional Hospital, several thousand miles from Cameroon. So about three weeks ago Clark wrote to his parents and, eventually, to the town looking for help.

Paul and Town Clerk Roxanne Johnson were happy to oblige, even if they at first were puzzled as to how they could.

“All the documents from the mayor were in French,” Paul said. “Cameroon is, after all, a former French colony.”

A country of nearly 18 million, the Republic of Cameroon is in central and western Africa adjacent to Chad, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo.

Johnson and Paul searched town and state records and eventually verified in a letter to the mayor, whom Paul called “my distinguished colleague,” that Clark had never been married before, especially not to several people, and was of good character.

In Paul’s words, “We could find no objection” to the marriage.

The letter was mailed two or three days ago. The elder Clarks, whom Paul described as Quinn and Bonnie of Medway, could not be immediately contacted on Thursday.

“It was a pleasure,” Paul said of the experience. “I know the family. Ben I haven’t seen since he was a little kid, but I know his parents and they’re very nice people.”

And although the wedding will be several thousand miles away, Paul and other councilors will see some of the fruits of the marriage, he said.

“They promised they would send us pictures,” Paul said.

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