Ezra Thompson Clark

This account was found among the papers of Norma Jean Clark Rosa. It is similar to other accounts already submitted. I am adding it because it has a bit more detail and may have been the source for later accounts. I deleted from this submission the story of the last reunion where the parting instructions and last testimony were given, as they are already available as separate memories. But they were found on Norma Jean's record at the end of what has been written here.

Son of Timothy Baldwin and Mary (Keeler) Clark, born in Lawrenceville, Lawrence, Illinois on 23 November 1823. He died in Farmington, Davis County, Utah on 17 October 1901 and was buried in the Farmington Cemetery. He married in Montrose, Lee County, Iowa on 18 May 1845 to Mary Stevenson, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Stevens) Stevenson. She was born at Gibralter, Spain, on 29 August 1825 and died in Farmington, Davis County Utah on 24 November 1911.

He also married in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah on 8 November 1861 to Susan Leggett, daughter of William and Sarah (Howe) Leggett. She was born in Galston, Norfolk, England on 24 August 1838. She died in Farmington, Davis County, Utah on 4 November 1902.

He also married on 11 July 1870 to Nancy Areta Porter. She had previously married on 7 April 1845 to Edward Stevenson, son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Stevens) Stevenson. They divorced on 3 July 1869.

As a young boy Ezra Thompson Clark took part in the Mormon migrations to Missouri and back to Iowa and Illinois. He and Mary Stevenson were married at her home by his brother, William 0. Clark. They lived for a year near Montrose, Iowa in a log cabin rented from his brother-in-law John Cooper. This was across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo, the Mormon city that was at that time the largest in the state. He was in the first encampment which left the Mississippi River in June of 1846 and spent two winters at Winter Quarters, now Florence, Nebraska. He was in the second company under Heber C. Kimball for the second migration to Utah, leaving in June 1848; he arrived in Salt Lake City with his family 12 October and with others went north of the city to a canyon southeast of Bountiful, where he built a log cabin. He took a farm in Farmington in 1849 and rented it to a tenant who built a cabin on it. The tenant vacated the next year, and Ezra moved his family to the cabin in April 1850, giving up plans to live in Salt Lake City where he had bought a lot.

Ezra T. Clark served many missions as a preacher and as a colonizer. In late 1850 he was called to help settle Iron County, 250 miles south of Salt Lake City; he returned in 1851. Before leaving on a mission to England in 1856 he built an adobe house for his family to replace the log cabin with its dirt roof. He returned in 1858 when all missionaries were released to go home because of the Utah War. In 1860 Ezra was among those called to help settle the "Muddy," a district 100 miles west of St. George in Nevada.

By furnishing a team and supplies he was privileged to allow another person to go in his place; he chose his sister's son, Ezra Daugherty.

In 1861 Ezra T. Clark entered the principle of plural marriage when Susan Leggett came, alone, to Utah. He had enjoyed the hospitality of her family's home when he was in England. In 1867 President Brigham Young asked Ezra T. Clark to build a flour mill in Weber Valley. He bought an old sawmill at Morgan, and since this was before the railroad came to Utah he sent seven yoke of oxen to the Missouri River for equipment.

In 1870 Ezra took his third wife, Nancy Areta Porter Stevenson, former wife of Edward Stevenson, brother of Ezra's first wife. She had gone to President Young with her domestic problems, and President Young had asked Ezra Clark to marry her, following her divorce. His acquaintance with Nancy Porter dated back to the days of his early manhood in Missouri when he and Edward Stevenson were rivals for her hand. There were no children from this third marriage. Also in 1870 Ezra was called to help colonize Bear Lake County, Idaho. His son Joseph Smith Clark went in his place to establish a ranch there where several of Ezra's sons and their families settled. Ezra filled missions to the East in 1871, to Canada in 1874-5, and to Oregon in 1876. In 1886 he was arrested on a charge of polygamy under the Edmunds Law; in 1887 he and ten others were fined $300 each and sentenced to six months imprisonment. He served five months and was discharged from the penitentiary in July 1887. In 1894 he was ordained a patriarch of the LDS Church.

Ezra T. Clark was a farmer of consummate skill and experience. Soon after arriving in Cache Valley he had large peach and apple orchards; he raised sugar cane and many kinds of produce. Cattle, hay, and grain were the chief sources of his income. By the time of his death he owned 700 acres in Farmington. He founded Davis County Bank and was elected its first president in 1891. He assisted in organizing the Commercial Store and was elected chairman of its board of directors. He was Davis County treasurer and kept the county funds in a safe in his room in Mary (Stevenson) Clark's house. Susan (Leggett) Clark's house was across the street.

Among his last acts was donation of $1000 to the Latter-day Saints University, Salt Lake City, for founding of the Clark Library of Natural Sciences. Before he died he had divided all of his property among his children. Each son and daughter was given a homestead, a farm and several head of cattle, bank and store stock, and portions of miscellaneous property. In July 1901 he organized the Ezra T. Clark Family Organization for the purpose of keeping family records.