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always enjoyed it.
One day Father was over to see us. I was about four or five years years old. I was sitting on his knee, as I often did, and he told me that knew the Prophet Joseph Smith and associated with him in Nauvoo, Illinois. He said, "You must always know that the Prophet Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God. " This made an indelible impression on my mind, and I have always known that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, that the vision he saw in the Sacred Grove of seeing God, the Father and His Son Jesus Christ was really true. Many times I have borne my testimony to this.
My father heard the Prophet Joseph Smith give many sermons. At one meeting the Prophet asked the Saints to give what money they could and their time to further the work and finish the Nauvoo Temple. As the time was short, he felt anxious for the temple to be finished. After the meeting my father walked up to the Prophet and gave him all the money that he had. The Prophet put his arm over his shoulder and said, "Brother Clark, you will always be blessed spiritually, financially and with the necessities of life and your children will be the nobility of the earth." Father left this testimony to his children and to all his posterity.
My father witnessed the cornerstone of the Nauvoo Temple being laid at a conference in 1841. He and his first wife, Mary Stevenson, were one of the couples married in the Nauvoo Temple. Brigham Young was the officiator. They left Nauvoo with Brigham Young and the first company in 1846 to cross the plains to Winter Qaurters, Nebraska. My father was asked by Brigham Young to stay there one year to help emigrating saints have food and shelter. He and Mary arrived in Salt Lake Valley, the first part of October 1848.
Ezra, my father, had blue eyes and sandy brown hair. He was six feet tall and always looked distinguished. He was good looking and very straight. I remember that he always wore a clean white shirt and tie.
Father was out fixing up a gate one day and all of the hired men and all of my brothers were down in the field working. When Father was fixing up this gate that was kind of hanging, I said. "Father, let me hold the nails for you. I'm going to help you do this." So he said, "Oh, yes." I helped to fix that gate up. I always liked to be around him and help him.
When Father was fixing up the gate and I was laying out the nails, he said to me, "I'll give you some money and I'm going to take you down town to buy you a new coat." So