Some Notes on Pop (Ellsworth M. Clark) from August 1976 visit by Mary Anne C. Koski [Daughter]
Pop was named after German E. Ellsworth, the mission president of his father. Pop’s father said he’d name his first son after him.
Pop said of John Wooley [ John Wickersham Woolley ] who was excommunicated from the church, that when he was 94 years old told Pop, “I’m an old man. Even though I felt I was right in what I did, I want you to follow the leaders of the church.” Pop wrote a letter to John A Widstoe [ John A. Widtsoe ] about this.
I will now mention some things he did as a youth. (We, the Koski’s) talked about these a[ t ] family night when they were here.) He and his friends would swim in the Bear riverg [ Bear River ] (with or without suits.) When the train would come by, they would jump up and down. The Union Pacific trainmaster told them they would have to stop it. He spent a lot of time playing marbles, wearing holes in his pants and getting chapped hands from playing on the damp ground. He would go fishing and catch them with his hands. He rode horses. He helped his father in the store especially at the candy counter. Even at age 7 he could weigh candy and sell it. He would sweep the floor and cut the cheeze [cheese]. He would start a fire in the stove to get the store warm.
He was often called penney’s worth or nickel’s worth by his friends.
At home he would get up every morning and start a fire in the wood stove. The rest of the family got up thirty minutes later. He would often read the paper while starting
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the fire. They would all get dressed in the kitchen by the stove.
As a boy he was dragged by a horse while in the stirrip. He was going to take a cow up to her calf. He put his foot in the stirrip, to wing over when something startled the horse. It took off and, "thats all I remembered." He was found about a half mile away down the road by a passerby. He had bruises on his shoulder and a large cut on the side of his head. It was believed that the horse may have stepped on his shoulder and pulled him out of the stirrip. His life may have been saved because of it. He was unconscious for two or ther [three] hours.
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CONTEXTUAL HISTORY related to the Mary Anne's mention of John Wickersham Woolley below. This was written by Kimball Hyrum Clark and Andrew Ellsworth Clark, Ellsworth Clark’s grandchildren.
John Wickersham Woolley (JWW) was excommunicated in his 83rd year, in 1914—ten years after the second manifesto. According to David Clark, Ellsworth’s son, JWW had acted contrary to President Joseph F. Smith’s warning in April of 1904 that “If any officer or member of the Church shall assume to solemnize or enter into any such marriage he will be deemed in transgression against the Church and will be liable to be dealt with according to the rules and regulations thereof and excommunicated therefrom”. Despite this clear warning, JWW had been sealing people into plural marriages.
This 1914 excommunication of Ellsworth’s great-grandfather bothered Ellsworth. At some point between 1925, when JWW was 94, and when John A. Widtsoe (JAW) died in 1952, Ellsworth corresponded with Brother Widtsoe desiring the Church reinstate JWW. Whether Ellsworth’s correspondence was sent while JWW was living, or after JWW’s death, is unknown. Not all of Ellsworth’s children were aware of or remember their father’s correspondence with JAW on this matter.
David stated that when the Church considered JWW’s readmission, perhaps due to Ellsworth’s correspondence, JWW requested the Church readmit him publicly because his original excommunication was widely publicized. This response by JWW was likely what brought JWW’s readmission to a standstill. To what degree JWW was excommunicated publicly is not yet known. Given the Church’s precarious religious, legal, and political ramifications at the time, it was likely to be widely-publicized.
Excommunication is a common authority exercised by religious organizations, and is nothing new to the Church. Its leaders have been excommunicating and readmitting members since its Restoration in the 1830s. Surely JWW’s request to be readmitted publicly was also nothing new. Perhaps the lack of initiative on the part of the Church to respond to JWW’s demand was due to the Church’s requirements of humility as a precedent for a member’s readmission? Kimball’s belief that overt public exoneration by Church leadership of excommunicated members, whether or not excommunicated publicly, would set an odd and unfair precedent in favor of the excommunicate, and diminish the loyalty of members who had remained faithful to Church policies or doctrines. Compare JWW’s request for readmission to Oliver Cowdery’s request to be readmitted. Cowdery’s request was immediately granted.
TIMELINES:
1830: Establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
1831: JWW is born
1837: JWW's parents, Mary Wickersham and Edwin D. Woolley, are baptized (those who taught them were likely Lorenzo Barnes, Joseph Smith Sr., and Erastus Snow).
1840: JWW is baptized
1862: Mary Emma Woolley, Ellsworth’s grandmother, is born to JWW and his first wife, Julia Searle Ensign (JWW has no children from any subsequent wife)
1886: Married to a second wife, Ann Reed Everington
1890: “First Manifesto” given by Wilford Woodruff, officially calling an end to the practice of plural marriage by church members throughout the country
1892: Death of Julia Searle Ensign
1904: “Second Manifesto” given by President Joseph F. Smith
1908: JWW, at 77, gains another great-grandson, Ellsworth Marion Clark, grandson of Mary Emma Woolley
1910: Death of Ann Reed Everington
1913: JWW set apart as Patriarch
1914: JWW excommunicated in his 83rd year
1921: Widtsoe was called as an apostle in 1921, 7 years after JWWoolley’s excommunication
1924 (estimated): JWW states, in his 94th year to Ellsworth (who would have been about 17) “…I want you to follow the leaders of the church”. This is the same year JWW's son, Lorin C. Woolley is excommunicated.
1928: JWW dies Dec 13, 1928, only two weeks shy of his 97th birthday (Dec 30), when Ellsworth was 20. JWW outlived all of his 6 children, except for Lorin Calvin Woolley, who died six years later.
2006: Ellsworth Dies at 98 years old
David Clark, Ellsworth’s son, additionally relayed that Ellsworth, and his father Marion Charles Clark, at some point were propositioned by a member/members of a fundamentalist group at some point in their lives to take on plural marriage and join their group. Ellsworth and Marion, father and son, declined. It is not known when this proposition was made, or from which group.
PUPROSE:
The reason this record has been included now (9-11-24) is because of a call Kimball Clark received from Cyrus Simper, who asked to know more about what our family had from our personal family records in relation to the Woolleys. There is undoubtedly more to come, likely in the form of an entire Woolley Archive GFO (Grandparent Family Organization) hopefully focused on JWWoolley and his wife Julia Searle Ensign, focused on three generations thereafter. This is assuming there is enough family participation, whether descendants are participating members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or not.
Kimball believes uniting as families to conduct family history matters is one of the best ways to responsibly and properly carry out the “turning” of hearts (in Malachi), and the “Gathering of Israel”. Uniting may include sharing stories, records, and artifacts, or taking advantage of the exciting technological advances being made possibly by those within the family history industry.
The prophecy to turn hearts began by the arrival of Elijah to the Kirtland Temple. The capstone of familial events can be temple work in behalf of living or deceased family members to receive the necessary ordinances for salvation and exaltation in this or the next life, and to improve family relations on either side of the veil.