8
children were yet to come. In time, first wife Mary would bear two more children, and Father Ezra would marry Nancy Areta Porter Stevenson. The Clark manner of living the patriarchal order of the Church was esteemed in the community as a pillar of contemporary existence.
Historically, Wilford was born when Brigham Young was the all-powerful Prophet of Zion and the Governor of the Territory of Utah. That same year (1863), Abraham Lincoln began his third year in office, threatened by a disintegrating Union; however, the Civil War turned in favor of the Union forces by the victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg. Locally, the Pony Express had already realized its short-lived but celebrated sojourn, cut short by the transcontinental telegraph system.
"We remember the stagecoach, the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, and the Central Pacific Railroad in 1870 from Ogden to Salt Lake."
-Amasa L. Clark, tenth child of Ezra and Mary Stevenson Clark, 1961.
Of the many pleasant memories of their childhood at Farmington, Amasa also recalls that
"I was the baby boy, and I got more than my share of baby treatment. I remember one time when we wanted something from Mother, and Wilford whispered to me, 'Cry, and we will get it.' The advice was successful.
"Wilford and I were two years apart. We shared a bedroom and worked on the farm by day. Mother was a good disciplinarian and checked often about our work being done promptly and regularly. We used to cut peaches, dry them, and sell them at ten cents per pound, thereby helping to support the family." -Amasa, 1961.
The first year after Wilford was born, Father Ezra accompanied Brigham Young to Bear Lake Valley of Idaho, where Apostle Charles C. Rich's company had first settled. President Young desired to extend the colonization north of Paris. Seven years later (in 1871), Ezra T. Clark made a permanent settlement in Georgetown, erecting a log house in which Brigham Young was to dine before the home's completion, and in which Georgetown's worship services were to be conducted. The home remained in the Clark family for the next eighty years.
Young Wilford grew up in Farmington, Utah, and in Georgetown, Idaho, in the company of his parents and his brothers' families and in the home and family of his Aunt Susan.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - END OF PAGE 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - -
9
[NOTE: Add photo of Ezra T. Clark's log house HERE. It was included in a local news article that was sent to me by "Frankie" in the Montpelier Library via email on 2/10/25. I have re-typed the article here so as to make the text more adaptable. Does the log house still exist, and is there an address?]
In the fall of 1869, for two weeks, Ezra Thompson Clark and his son, Joseph Smith Clark, came to Twin Creeks (Georgetown), Idaho. Then, in the spring of 1870, they laid claim to 1200 acres in that area. In 1871, Ezra T. Clark, with the help of his son Joseph Smith Clark and David Hess, built the first house in Georgetown, Idaho (pictured above, showing Joseph S. Clark and his wife Lucy Robinson Clark on the front steps). From 1870 to 1901, the Clark cattle range was between Georgetown and Soda Springs, Idaho, in the summer, and in the winter at Farmington, Utah..." (The article continues, but the text stops: "Joseph Smith Clark with his wife, Lucy Maria Robinson, Chauncy Paine and Chauncy's mother-in-law, Sarah Woods Fretwell, drove a herd of cattle from Farmington, Utah, on May 17, 1875. Hyrum Thompson and Francis Bacon met them over the divide... ")