INTERVIEW WITH ORSON CLARK

Interviewed by Clark S. and Ruth Knowlton

14 December 1981

Clark Knowlton: Orson, I wanted to ask you a question or two about Oregon before we come back to Utah. How many Mormon families were there from this Centerville and Farmington area when you moved up there?

Orson Clark: Oh, I would judge eight or ten.

Interviewer: Were they all related to each other?

Orson Clark: No, they came from two districts. One of them was from up in Weber and the other was from Davis County, that's out around Clinton and Syracuse and there. And there were two or three from Bountiful.

Interviewer: Were those your wives families?

Orson Clark: No, they were just farmers who decided they wanted something better. There is one thing about those fellows who we just mentioned, they went up there early along 1941.

Interviewer: During the war then?

Orson Clark: That was in the war wasn't it? Well, I think it was right after the war when they went up. The people up there had become quite discouraged in farming. In fact, they weren't what you would call real farmers.

Interviewer: Where were they from, the ones that moved in before the Mormons came out?

Orson Clark: They were some of the original settler. they come in and they didn't know how to raise what we call row crops. So some of these fellows, especially from Bountiful, they were real farmers. They had truck farmed here in Woodscross. They went up and into that land and the people who were the old settlers and the like had become quite discouraged, they hadn't made much. So these fellows bought their land for just about their own price. They got that land and then they went right to work on producing these row crops, onions, corn, sugar beets, and stuff like that. They really made a haul.

Interviewer: So the in a sense taught some of the older farmers how to farm up there?

Orson Clark: Yes, they really did a good job. I know there was a young man, Clarence Lee, who lived right across the street from where my wife was raised. He went up there and settled, he got some of that ground. These fellows that went up there picked the best ground. The poorer ground, they weren't after. Anyway, he bought quite a piece in there. He went up before the war and then