Bringing The Body Home
Ezra Thompson Clark wasted no time in bringing his eldest son home to be buried in his beloved Farmington.
If there was any doubt about his anxiety to have closure to his son's tragedy, it was quickly erased early in the spring of 1869 when ET and Edward Stevenson headed East to bring Ezra James' remains home.
The Farmington patriarch didn't even wait long enough for the completion of the transcontinental railroad, which would come the next month, before he had made arrangements to complete his task. It is obvious that the railroad's near completion, however, made it a much easier task to complete.
Ezra Thompson and his wife's brother left Salt Lake City on April 17 and headed to Chicago via rail and then made their way back to the Empire State. They made the complete round trip from Utah to New York and back in a matter of six days, bringing the casket of his son with them.
Once in New York, Ezra Thompson asked village officials to open the casket believed to house his son so he could identify the remains, before certifying the tragic result of the train ride through the community nine months previous.
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| This small headstone, located behind that of his father, shows the final resting place for Ezra James Clark in the Farmington Cemetery. |
E.T. was able to identify the decaying remains by the front teeth, according to an account recorded by Heber Clark.
Once identified, Bros. Clark and Stevenson wasted no time in heading west and back to Zion.
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