1861 - 1884

‍[1861] [1874] [1875] [1876] [1877] [1878] [1879] [1880] [1881] [1882] [1883] [1884]

‍1885
[1885]

1886 - 1905
[1886] [1887] [1888] [1889] [1890] [1891] 1892 1893 [1894] 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 [1904] [1905]

1906 - 1910
[1906] [1907] [1908] [1909] [1910 ]

1911
[1911]

1912
[1912]

1913 - 1915
[1913] [1914] [1915]

1916 - 1921
[1916] 1917 1918 [1919] [1920] [1921]

1922 - 1929
[1922] [1923] [1924] 1925 [1926] [1927] [1928] [1929]

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Dear Reader, It has been very difficult in some ways to transcribe this journal of Charles Rich Clark. Many of the pages were blurred when they were copied, therefore leaving many parts that were not readable. Also, sometimes the copy was too faint to see some of the words. The author made many of his letters in an old type of script, therefore hard to translate. He also wrote in half thoughts and part sentences, which often made it hard to get the whole thought of what he meant to say. He seldom finished his sentences with periods and had his own spelling for many names and things. Yet in some ways I had an advantage over a younger person because I recognized some of the "old ways" and names of things around a farm, which made it easier to decipher his writings.

I got the sense that he was being careful about what he wrote for fear of the wrong people reading it. For instance, he only mentioned marrying his first wife. By reading his story, you would never know that he had two wives. He talked of Annie (his second wife) and her children now and then, but never said she was his wife or that they were his children. He always called them "her children." He never told about meeting her or what her maiden name was or when any of the children were born. In fact, he only mentioned the birth of one child, his very first one with Emma, his first wife. He had several children which he mentioned and talked about but never called them his sons or his daughters. He mentioned polygamy and the fear of the Edmunds-Tucker law (and the Marshals) a few times, and that is probably why he didn't put more of his personal life into his journal. I'm sure he would have written a much more personal journal if he had not had that fear. (I did enjoy learning a lot about his life, but it is too bad that he did not keep a second "set of plates"!)

Wanda Clark Limb (Daughter of Alma Porter Clark)
March 1, 2002

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