17
FARMING
Bishop Clark looked upon his farm as more than his source of income. It was the center of his family living; it was the means whereby his sons perpetuated the Patriarchal order in which he, too, had been reared. The farm was the means whereby his daughters learned to do those household, farm, and cultural tasks required of frontier women to become attractive and useful companions to their brothers, parents, and future husbands. The farm fulfilled the Bishop's desires for community recognition, for self-reliance in meeting its challenge not only to physically survive but to spiritually thrive. The Bishop's farm was his base of operations to sustain his travels and other interests. The farm, however, was both blessing and burden.
Initially, some static arose in his acquisition of the Springdale property:
About the time Wilford was married (1885), he secured a government title to several hundred acres of land between Georgetown and the Bear River. The Georgetown residents had previously used this land as a cattle range. When Wilford secured the title, of course, they felt crowded and gave him the cold shoulder for several years. But he cultivated the land and shared it with his relatives, and good feelings with the townspeople eventually were restored.
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At one time, the Clark family owned a ranch in Nounan Valley near Georgetown. This ranch adjoined the Church ranch, and some disputes arose regarding the boundary line between the properties. Wilford Woodruff was then the President of the Church and the matter was brought up in a meeting of the First Presidency. President Woodruff remarked that "where the Clark family said the line should be is the right place, and that settles it."2 (Two notes here: I added a page break for the 3rd paragraph, and let's add the following paragraph about the Woodruff-Clark relationship of loyalty):
Decades earlier, when Elder Wilford Woodruff was on his mission in England, it was Timothy Baldwin Clark who took care of Phoebe Woodruff and her child on the Clark farm at Montrose, Illinois. Thus, a high regard developed between the Clark and Woodruff families.