much worse than people realized. Feed was very scarce and expensive. Some hay was actually sent to Star Valley by parcel post. Large debts were incurred to acquire feed and to ship stock to Nebraska to feed. This was a very severe winter, and most of the livestock died. Then the bottom dropped out of the cattle market.

Father had been endorsing notes at the bank for some of the boys to acquire property and livestock. They lost it all, and with Father’s own debt, which he had incurred to carry himself over the crisis, he was in a bad financial bind. Then the value of land dropped severely. Father was now past sixty-five. Life had been strenuous for him; he did not have the vigor to recoup--always hoping the boys would pay their interest. Thus things drifted, with interest compounding the debt, until his property was all swallowed up, save only his brick home in Farmington.

This photo of Ann Eliza and Hyrum Don Carlos Clark was taken from an old tin and is undated. The use of tin would suggest a photo of 1870-1880 vintage.

Father was on a mission in 1927 when Mother died. He returned home, then in 1934-35, he filled another full-term mission in California; there he observed his 80th birthday.

In his younger days, Father had gone on a mission to Tennessee. After about six months, he was released and sent home because of poor health. His having to return home before filling a full-term mission worried Father; he would mention it on occasion all through his life. This mission to California in his later years seemed to compensate for his earlier lack of fulfillment. I have often heard him observe, “When the church calls you to do something, no matter what, it is better you do it and get it done, then you can always feel easy about it.”

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