Orson Clark-1/30/81 - Pg 7

Interviewer: What kind of dances were the most popular dances?

Orson Clark: Just the regular old kind of dances; the Virginia Reel, the Two-Step, and some of those.

Interviewer: Did they go in much for waltzing or fox-trotting?

Orson Clark: Yes waltzers were always quite common. There was a man we buried here a couple of weeks ago that when we had those dancing parties, he and his wife were our best supporters. After that, I don't think he ever went into the church.

Interviewer: That's too bad.

Orson Clark: Hales was his name.

Interviewer: What was the normal tenure of the bishop when you were living in Farmington at that time? How long would the church leave them in there?

Orson Clark: Oh, until you die. Bishop A.L. Clark was in sixteen years. John Walsh, who followed the bishop, was the one I was a counsellor with. He must have been ten, twelve, fifteen years.

Interviewer: How long did the Stake President serve, for life?

Orson Clark: Pretty near. I think Bishop Walsh was released after they remodeled the church up here. They made a major remodeling job. When he got that completed, I think then is when they released him. But he had been in for years.

Interviewer: I imagine if a Bishop were released and they had been in for ten or fifteen years, they sort of felt lost. How important were the Bishop's courts in those days when you were living in Farmington? Did they resolve disputes among the people?

Orson Clark: I don't know that I was ever in a Bishop's court. I was in the Stake Presidency. But I don't remember any in the Bishop's court.

Interviewer: I know in many areas, even until fairly recently, that the Bishop's court was the main court of the area. Not only did they settle religious problems but it settled everything.

Orson Clark: I've noticed that in some of our people and I've wondered about some of them. Of course I'm nothing to say, Bishops and Stake Presidents that is their duty to say. But if I was in, sometimes I think I would make a little more thorough investigation. I know we had to excommunicate two or three when I was in the presidency. There was one that was a regular stalwart leadership man, very prominent and all. But we had to excommunicate him. He believed in polygamy and he taught it. He