On NOVEMBER 23, 1823, 'BALDWIN' and 'MARY' CLARK welcomes the tenth of what woudl be 12 children into their already large family, situated in frontier Illinois. Polly "Mary' Keeler and Timonthy 'Baldwin' Clark were both six boys were roughly two years apart, ranging from age 20 to newborn. They were a farming family from connecticut who migrating westward through indian territory, seeking the choices farmland.
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At age 17, Ezra handed Joseph Smith all the money he had, to help build the Nauvoo Temple. In return, the prophet placed his arm over Ezra's shoulder and said, 'Brother Clark, you will always be blessed spirtually, financially and with the necessities of life and your children will be the nobility of the earth.'

A 19th-century daguerreotype of the original Nauvoo Temple

Nauvoo, Illinois, 1840's

Main Street, Salt Lake City

His family joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1835; he was baptized in 1836. The family moved to Missouri where he was a participant in the persecutions heaped upon the Saints during that time. Leaving Missouri, his family relocated to Iowa where he grew to manhood and eventually married Mary Stevenson.

He and his wife Mary had a baby, Ezra James, in Lee County, Iowa and then began the trek westward with the pioneers. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1848, after spending an extra year in Winter Quarters. They lived two winters in the North Canyon area of Bountiful before settling in Farmington where he lived the remainder of his life. He and Mary had 11 children, including two who lived to be over 100 years of age. Ezra Thompson Clark served five missions for The Church, including a mission to England where he became acquainted with the family of Susan Leggett, who would become his second wife and bear him 10 additional children. A noted financier, Ezra was heavily involved in Church, social, political, and family activities his entire life.
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