Born March 21, 1854 in Farmington in a little log cabin which was moved from North Canyon east of Bountiful where his father first settled in the fall of 1848. Moved to Farmington, spring of 1849 with Joseph Lee Robinson. They were among the first settlers there.
Joseph spent his youth herding cows, tending stock and driving teams for grading the Union Pacific Railroad. A considerable part of his early life was spent in the saddle or on foot herding cows.
He was made counselor in the Presidency of the first Young Mens' Mutual Improvement Association organized in Farmington. He was among the first to locate a claim in what was then called the "range," but now called Clearfield. He plowed around 160 acres, the first furrow plowed in that region.
He accompanied his father and others to Bear Lake, Idaho in 1870 pursuant to a call from Brigham Young. There he helped survey and locate the town of Georgetown and hauled the first load of logs into town.
He married Lucy Maria Robinson January 17, 1876, daughter of Oliver L. Robinson and Lucy Miller and granddaughter of Joseph Lee Robinson, first Bishop of Farmington which was then called North Cottonwood Ward, which embraced the territory from Bountiful to the Weber River. Nine children were born to them.
He moved to Georgetown in 1876 and spent 15 years there developing that Pioneer country. The "ranch," as the property there was called was a source of much help in providing beef cattle and dairy products to the Ezra T. Clark family in Farmington which was following the patriarchal order of family life of everything in common. Great herds of cattle under Joseph's direction driven back and forth between Georgetown and Farmington were familiar sights for many years.
Joseph was a missionary to Southern States 1882-84 and the first missionary from Georgetown. He was the first Superintendent of M. LA. organized in Georgetown. He was a member of the Bishopric most of his life in Georgetown. He moved back to Farmington in 1891 and was a member of the Stake Presidency under John W. Hess 1894-1904. He was called with his wife as workers in the Salt Lake Temple. He spent many years there, most of which time was in the sealing room.
He spent several terms as a member of the Farmington City Council during which a water system, electric lights and telephones were installed and an electric light plant built in Farmington Canyon.
He was President of North Cottonwood Irrigation Co. From 1894 to 1904, he was Commissioner for appraisal of inheritance taxes, Davis County, was appraiser of damages to farm lands for the Intermountain Smelter Co., and President of Davis County Bank for many years.
At a Clark family reunion held on March 26, 1944 in honor of Joseph's 90th birthday, he spoke to those in attendance:
Ours is one of the first families in the Church. Our progenitors were among those who laid the foundation for the building up of the Kingdom of God in these the last days--the dispensation of the fullness of tunes. They early preached the restored word. They went through the drivings and the mobbings. They gave of their means and their lives to help build up a Zion to the God of Israel who had revealed himself anew to the children of men ...
Being among the oldest of father's children, it was my good fortune to be associated with him for a long pedod of years. Ezra James, the eldest boy, was sent on a mission to Europe in 1865. Timothy, the next oldest, who was a member of the Militia, was called south with his company to protect the Saints from the Indians. Naturally then to me fell the responsibility of aiding father in his labors to build up an inheritance in Zion. With him I went through much of the pioneering in enlarging his fields, in driving his stakes in new lands, in building up his flocks and herds. I knew of his ambition to create an estate that would insure his children an inheritance in Zion. With my older brothers I sacrificed much to make more comfortable the lives of the younger children coming on. Father wanted them to have an education to be prepared to give worthy and efficient service to their Church and to the community in which they lived. Many of you younger ones do not knew much of the system under which we lived and labored, that of having nothing we could call our own but holding everything in common for the benefit of those who needed ...
I would caution you all to be charitable to one another, to be helpful where help is needed. Father would have it so. We who labored that you might have would wish it so.
Knowing of our father's desire and Maria's interest in genealogy, we were happy to accept a call in 1921 to labor as workers in the Salt Lake Temple. We labored there for many years. It was there in 1923 on the 100th anniversary of father's birth that the family gathered and did work for hundreds of our kin ...
I wish the family would give this matter of genealogy work special attention and also instill in your children faith in temple work and its ordinances, creating in their hearts a desire to make their marriage vows there and be sealed to one another for time and eternity.
And new in closing I bear you my testimony. In the ninety years I have lived I have seen the Church grew in strength and power. I knew of a surety that it is the Church of Christ. That the Priesthood of the Living God is held by its members, under whose administration the Kingdom of God will be established and the way made ready for the second coming of the Savior of the world. I admonish you and your children, and your children's children to live true to the faith of our parents. Serve the Church as they served it. Attend to your duties in the Priesthood and take advantage of the wonderful opportunities provided by its auxiliary organizations. Develop the gifts within you. If you do this I praise you you will be happy in your family and community life. That you will be blessed and prospered in basket and in store. That many of you will a::me into prominent leadership in the Church, recognized as true and valiant men and women, worthy of the honor and respect of all men and the gratitude of use whose name you bear. God bless you all.
