104. Hyrum Don Carlos CLARK. Son of Ezra Thompson and Mary (Stevenson) Clark, born in Farmington, Davis, Utah, 13 Feb. 1856; d. in Ogden, Weber, Utah, 2 July 1938, bur. Farmington Cem.; m.l) in Salt Lake City, S.L., Utah, 11 Nov. 1880, Ann Eliza Porter, dau. of Alma and Minerva Adeline (Duel) Porter, b. in Porterville, Morgan, Utah, 22 Oct. 1862, d. in Farmington, Utah, 12 June 1927 (1).

He m.2) in Idaho, 27 Dec. 1903, Mary Alice Robinson, dau. of Oliver Lee and Esther Alice (Jeffs) Robinson, b. in Farmington, Utah, 10 Apr. 1878, d. in Salt Lake City, Utah, 2 June 1942 (1).

At the time Hyrum was born the food supply in utah was limited, and the people were on rations. Hyrum was a weak child, but he grew to be nearly 6 feet tall, thin, and with black, curly hair and a red beard. He went on a mission to Tennessee with his uncle Edward Stevenson in 1877, but he contracted malaria and was released after 5 months.

Hyrum and his wife spent their first year on the Clark family's new ranch at Georgetown, Idaho. In 1882 they moved to Oakley, Idaho and settled on a sage-brush homestead on Birch Creek where they spent six pioneering years. He was unable to raise field crops for lack of water, and the land was better suited to sheep than to cattle. In late 1887 Hyrum bargained for a squatter's claim to 160 acres in Salt River Valley (later Star Valley) in Western Wyoming. He returned with his family the next May, and they started housekeeping in a two-room log cabin with a mud roof. The claim included 100 acres of meadow, 60 acres of light brush ground, and a living spring. With the hay he could grow on the meadow, however, he was able to feed the weaned calves he could buy at $5 per head, keep them two summers and one winter, and make a fair living. (1)

Star Valley is high country with long winters, cold, and lots of snow. Eliza, whose health had weakened, spent several winters in Farmington, Utah, while Hyrum stayed at the ranch to take care of the stock. Meanwhile, he remodeled the home--replaced the dirt roof with shingles and lined the rooms with limber. He kept increasing his cattle, bought out several neighbors to put together 1,000 acres of meadow and some hill land, and in 1901 he built a larger home. Also in 1901 he was elected county commissioner. (1,2)