Marion was the first of seven children born to Charles Rich Clark and Mary Emma Woolley. At that time, the village of Georgetown, Idaho was being established, and the Ezra T. Clark family had land holdings there. Georgetown and the surrounding grazing land was the summering place for the Clark herds. The native grasses were cut for hay and land was developed for irrigation. Dry farm land was also developed. In the fall, cheese and the cattle were taken back to Farmington, Utah. Some of the families remained in Georgetown for the winter.

In the year of 1884, Charles and Emma, recently married, were asked by the Ezra T. Clark family to go to Georgetown to take the place of an older brother, Joseph Smith Clark, who had been called on a mission. Even though Charles had previously taught school, he accepted the responsibility and with the help of some other brothers helped care for the Georgetown property. It was there, on April 4, 1884, in the family home one block east of Main Street (later Edward and Alice R. Clark’s home) that Marion was born.

After the Georgetown experience, the young family returned to Farmington and was then assigned the responsibility of the Clark family property located in the Morgan, Utah area. There was a grist mill built and operated, a farm to care for, cows to milk, and cattle to herd. Charles also taught school there. He met Annie Waldron there, married her as a second wife and started a second family. The two families grew up together in the same area but not in the same homes.

Morgan, Utah, was the town that Marion knew best in his earliest years. They lived in Salt Lake City for two or three years, and Marion at about 10 years of age had the experience of selling papers on the street in Salt Lake City. He attended the old Washington School on the west side. Louisa Shepherd, older sister of Ella, remembered him as a student there. All of Charles’ and Emma’s children, with the exception of Marion and Julia, lived most of their early lives in Morgan.

Vernon reports that Marion, while living in Salt Lake City, caught frogs and sold their legs to a leading hotel. He also became a champion marble player in a tournament held in the city.

As a youth in Morgan he spent time helping at home and playing the usual boyhood games of marbles, baseball, and running games. He became an expert swimmer and skater. He took first place in foot races held at holiday times.

Vernon, his four year younger brother, reports that Marion and his friend, Charlie Smith, would go out to gather sunflower seeds and “disappear” in the nearby hills. He knew these hills well as he cared for the stock much of the time and would gather them in at the proper times such as milking time. He was an expert horseman.

Marion often told of how he would find rattlesnakes and with the use of a forked stick and silk handkerchief get the snake to strike and then yank the fangs from the snakes head.

The mill pond was a favorite place to swim and cool off. Father, Charles, had a rule – “no more than three times a day”. After Vernon had a fourth swim one day a green willow switch was used on him by his father. Vernon relates that Marion said, “Never mind. The switching wasn’t so bad. You can feel lucky that he didn’t give you a ‘talking to’”. Once Marion and some of his friends pushed Marvin, his younger brother, off the diving board into the water. Marvin was fearful and crying, but it was the only way he could be accepted into the “club”. He was told that Marion would save him if he couldn’t swim and would dive in when he came up for air the second time and before the fateful third time down. Marion related that Marvin learned to swim.

Father, Charles, served a mission to the Southern States when Marion was between five and seven years of age and remembers going with his mother, Emma, on a selling trip for an encyclopedia company. They used their horse, “Bill”, and a one horse buggy, traveled eastward through the Uinta Mountain area then northward toward Evanston, Wyoming and back toward Woodruff, Utah, and home. The money received for subscriptions for the books by the farmer and ranchers helped supplement the money from the farm and mill operations in Morgan. Emma sent the money to her missionary husband.

Marion did well in school and especially liked arithmetic. He was the big brother to Vernon, Marvin, Marie, and later Newell and Julia. He helped his parents with the farm and mill work, milking cows, cutting and stacking hay, and gardening which were common-place jobs. The young people in the area looked to Marion for leadership in their various activities. He was active in the church and a responsible boy in his family and in his school. He learned to sing well and developed a fine bass voice as he grew older.

In 1901 when his grandfather, Ezra, divided the family holdings among his many boys, Charles received the property in Morgan and ranch land in Georgetown. He took his first wife, Emma, and their five children to Georgetown and left his second wife, Annie, and her children in Morgan on the property there. Thus at seventeen years of age, Marion with brother Vernon, Marvin, Newell, and little sister Marie left their friends and faced new challenges in the Bear Lake country of Idaho.

The farm in Georgetown was a large one and approximately one third of the original Clark holdings. Wilford W. had one third and Edward B’s second wife, Alice, and family had the other third. It consisted of meadowland suitable for raising timothy and wild hay, some good irrigated farmland, and some dry farm and grazing land. All the land between Bear River and the hills on the north and south of Georgetown belonged to the Clark Brothers.

Marion soon made new friends and busied himself with good hard farm work. He had his cousins, Woodruff, William, Walter, and others to go around with. They exchanged work on the farms especially at haying time. There were cows to milk, horses to ride, cattle to care for, fences to mend, and wood to get out of the canyons.

At eighteen and a half years of age he enrolled in the missionary course at Fielding High School in Paris, Idaho. On his trip from Georgetown to Paris, he visited with his cousins, William and Woodruff, in Montpelier. They introduced him to Ed Shepherd and his younger sister, Ella. He caught a ride to Paris with them. After a choir practice date with Ella they dated steadily until the time he left for his mission. On October 4,1904, at age 19, he took the Union Pacific train to Chicago where he served in the northern States Mission for two and a half years. (1) Letters were exchanged between the pair and although there was no formal engagement, there was an understanding that they would continue their courtship when he returned home.

His missionary labors were eventful. He became a leader and spent several months as mission secretary under his mission president, German E. Ellsworth. He so liked President Ellsworth that he promised to name a son after him when he had a family of his own.

His missionary journals show that they had many successful conversions. There was also a very sad experience (2) that took place when three of the Elders were swimming in the Mississippi River. A companion, Elder Jackson, became tired as he swam and called for help. A companion, elder Secrist, swam to him and in attempting to help him was pulled under. Strangling, Elder Secrist swam toward the pier to save himself and Marion swam to the struggling Elder Jackson to save him. Just as he arrived, Elder Jackson went under and could not be located. Saints, friends, and companions mourned grievously. After a funeral, President Ellsworth traveled to Ogden, Utah, with the body.

Street meetings, preaching services, and visiting members took a good deal of the time. Marion had occasions to sing solos, duets, and take part in group singing.

Upon the completion of his mission, Marion returned to his farm work in Georgetown. He made sure that he had a fine team of horses which he used when hiring out to work and especially when he made trips to Paris to see Ella. On one of these trips he popped the question and plans were made for their marriage.

An eventful trip by horse and buggy to Paris, and then a train ride from Montpelier to Salt Lake City was made. They arrived in Salt Lake June 13th, stayed with Ella’s oldest brother, Joseph, and then on June 14, 1907, were sealed in marriage in the Salt Lake Temple. The young couple visited with the Clark relatives, the Ezra Clark families in Farmington, the John W. Woolley family in Centerville, and then up Weber Canyon to Morgan Utah, to visit half brothers and sisters there and see again many friends of years gone by. Later they traveled to Salt Lake and then went on to Paris where parties were held. A good week’s visit at the Shepherd home, parties and visits in Montpelier and then they went to Georgetown where they stayed two weeks with the Clark parents while a small unpainted, three room house on Clark property near Georgetown creek was prepared for a first home.

Marion continued doing custom work with his team and also helped his father on the farm. In the back of his mind, however, he was planning a more promising life as a merchant. The next year, he and Vernon started getting logs out of the nearby canyons which were taken to sawmills and cut into lumber.

The fall of 1907 was interesting as he and Ella were looking forward to the birth of their first child. On a winter visit to Paris Marion made too much of a grand entrance in front of the Shepherd home and the “shine” the bobsled made tipped the box, including Ella on the snow. That night she started labor, even though the child was not expected for six or eight weeks. Early January 25th, a baby boy weighing just over three pounds was born. Good care by a local doctor and Ella’s mother, Sarah, made possible a good recovery for Ella and normal growth for the baby. According to the promise made to his mission president, he was named Ellsworth.

The next year there was farming, logging, and formulations of plans to build a mercantile store. An old account book (3) shows that on Feb. 8, 1909, he purchased a building lot for $100.00. On March 15th, he shows that five days work on the ground by him and his team was completed and valued at $12.00. Lumber that he did not have already, hardware, cement, etc. was listed. The total cost of the store was $377.15. On February 1st, 1910, interest was paid at the rate of ten percent.

The business started well and increased in volume. Marion not only managed the store but became a buyer and seller of farm produce such as hay and grain which he shipped by rail to Wyoming coal fields and other points East. He often shipped in carloads of coal and fruit by rail and distributed them from the Georgetown spur which was about a mile and a half west of town. By about 1912 other people in town had dreams of competing with Marion in the store business. B. K. Farnsworth started a sore in an old two story school house situated not quite a block south on Main St. This business didn’t flourish and about 1914 Marion purchased the building and goods in the store. He moved the goods and show cases to his own store and rented the building as a dwelling. The Nels Larsen family lived there for a time while Nels built a new home just across from the new school on the Lane road. The Nels home was later sold to Marvin Clark, and he still lives in this home. The old B. K. Farnsworth building later caught fire and was destroyed.

Land was being distributed to people about 1912 - 1914 under the Homestead Act which allowed people to file for land and then “prove up” on the ground by fencing, clearing the ground, bringing it into cultivation and living for a prescribed time on the property in a simple cabin or dwelling of prescribed size. Marvin, Vernon, and Marion all filed on dry land ground. Marvin and Vernon filed on ground located about 8 miles north of Georgetown, and Marion filed on ground in the Nounan area just west of the Bear River. Marion later sold his land and building. Marvin purchased Vernon’s land adjoining his on the north that had been “proved on”.

Along with long hours spent in the store or on buying trips to Montpelier or Salt Lake City, Marion had other interests. Between 1914 and the early 1920’s, he helped sponsor a town band in which he played the tuba. He also helped sponsor a town baseball team and was a participant, usually playing first base. He was a good hitter. He saw that a grand-stand was built and furnished the lumber for it. He and Ella sang in duets, and often sang solo parts some of which he had learned earlier while on his mission. The town had a group which put on plays, and he portrayed one role so well that he received a nick-name that was with him for many years. S-o-c-k-e-r-y (?), a Jewish business man, and the people in town thought it fit Marion as a merchant well. Even Ellsworth inherited the nickname “Socks” a spin-off of it. I (Ellsworth) hated it.

Richard “Dick” Payne was a good friend who often stopped by at the store, and he and Marion would revel in some good stories. Dick was an excellent mimic and kept the group that might be gathered there laughing. Marion could also tell and appreciate a good story. Lucile Larsen who worked at the store as a clerk relates that she could hear Marion and her Uncle Dick laughing and would wonder what the story was about. She would let them know when a customer approached or came into the store.

The store was the place in town where news and gossip was relayed to others. Many people came, either to buy goods, pick up their mail, or just visit. Marion had the U. S. Post Office in a part of his store for several years. Farmers, cattle ranchers, and sheepmen would come to Marion to have special goods ordered for them. What the church was on Sunday, the Clark store was on week days, a bartering place, or if space was available on the side-walk in front of the store, a place for a few of them to loaf. The store had a surprisingly varied inventory. Harnesses, cream separators, fishing equipment, hardware, groceries, men’s and ladies’ clothing, shoes, cloth yardage, a soda fountain all had their place. Whatever a farmer, a builder, or a housewife needed, it was usually available.

In church activity, Marion was Sunday School Superintendent for almost twenty years. He was also choir leader for Sacrament meetings and always had a good choir which met usually on Thursday evenings weekly. Choir practice gave many of the young couples and singles a chance to meet, sing together, and plan choir parties (5). Marion dabbled in a few ventures that did not “pay off”. He grubstaked a miner for an interest in a gold mine near Soda Springs, bought stock certificates in phosphate mines and some few other eventually worthless ventures.

In the fall of 1918, Spanish influenza struck the world’s population. The whole country was ill, it seemed, and school and church gatherings were cancelled. People stayed home; funerals were not held when people died. Marion, luckily remained well, cared for the store, and aided his sick family.

In the 1920’s long hours were spent either in the store or loading and shipping hay and rain at the sidings at Novene or Woolley’s Spur. After an arduous day at the siding, he would walk home, often in the cold and snow, sometimes as far as eight miles away between Soda Springs and Georgetown. When he arrived home, there was a good hot meal awaiting him as Ella had fried chicken and hot bread just out of the oven. One summer remembered by Ellsworth was a trip to rodeos near Blackfoot where ice cream, candy mints, etc. were sold to the people attending. We once were washed out by a rain storm and lost our ice cream and perishable items.

Some of the people remembered as working at the store were Inez, Jennie, and Pauline Hoff, Ardith Bacon, Oliver Shepherd (Ella’s younger brother), Marie Clark (Marion’s younger sister), Lucile Larsen, and a few others for shorter periods of time, and of course, Ella often took her turn. In the later years of ownership both Hazel and Helen helped keep the store open. This was especially true while father was away on selling trips. He sold made-to-measure suites by Hamilton Brothers, and tailor made shoes and shirts. Hazel missed a year of high school so as to help.

Times were hard. Ranchers and sheepmen who had “pay once a year” accounts couldn’t pay their bills so Marion had difficulty paying his. In 1928 Marion sold his store to Wilbur Bacon. He then went on the road selling his men’s clothing lines.

Marion liked to fish, hunt sage hens and ducks. He owned some good guns. Sage hens were plentiful. A nearby trip to the “Dell” two miles east of town or to Marvin’s dry farm usually were productive, and he usually obtained the limit of six or seven birds. Dick Payne, Newell, or Ellsworth often went along. Ella had a nice new 410 gauge shotgun and often went along, if not to shoot, then to help carry the chickens. Ella had special riding pants and high top leather shoes. A favorite trip was a two or three day hunt in Dry Valley, a cattle grazing area up the left hand fork of Georgetown Canyon, down Slug Creek turning eastward to the favorite valley. Its lower end was near Blackfoot River. The old yellow, 1914, Ford Delivery truck was loaded with sleeping bags, quilts, and a few groceries for the outing. Vernon usually drove his own car to the spot. A typical group might be Marion and Ella, Dick Payne, Newell and Meta, Ellsworth, Vernon and Bessie, and sometimes a half-brother, Carlos, from Morgan. Excellent meals of sage hens fried in butter, mushrooms found in the area, bread, and melons cooled by a nearby spring, were prepared by the wives. With the feast came stories of the excellent shots made by the hunters, competition as to who could get a bird or more with each shot were told. Dick was probably the best, but Vernon or Marion wouldn’t admit to it.

In the spring and summers of ’24, ’25, ’26, and ’27, Marion, Vernon and Newell took over the operation of the Clark farm which later was sold to Marvin.

After the sale of the store, Marion spent most of his time selling on the road. Ellsworth had graduated from high school in Paris in 1927, and that fall baled hay for Gene Hayes in the Soda Springs and Grace area. Hazel and Helen moved to Salt Lake to find work in 1929. Ella stayed with the family in Georgetown. In the summer and winter of 1928 and part of 1929, Marion, Ellsworth, and sometimes Ella spent time in Nevada selling clothes and woollen goods. Ellsworth entered the University of Utah in the fall of 1929. In ’30, ’31 and part of 1932, Ella spent much of her time in Paris caring for her sick father and helping her mother. After her father’s death, due to a stroke, she helped her mother for a time and then came to Salt Lake for an operation. Iris and Gordon then went down. June lived with Grandmother Shepherd for a year and went down in the spring of 1934. They made their home in the Bodell Apartments (later named Geneva) with Helen and Hazel and Ellsworth. Father would stay there when he was in town.

The Great Depression was in full effect and earnings from sales work was curtailed. Marion and his cousin, William, spent months at a time in Idaho and Washington selling clothes and other things. Brief periods were spent in Salt Lake when time was spent doing rather menial tasks such as helping custodians in some of the businesses down town.

Soon after World War II started, Marion obtained a job in the supply department at Hill Field. When Marion [Turley] and June were married, they kept the downstairs apartment and father and mother rented one upstairs in the same building (Geneva). They continued to live there until 1944 when June, Marion, and baby, Douglas, moved into a house on 11th and 9th South. A short time later they moved into the basement of June’s home.

Grandmother Shepherd needed nursing care and came to live with June and Marion and father and mother. Grandmother left in 1945 to live with her daughter, Alice, in California. She died there a short time later.

Father and mother could now go to June and Marion’s LDS Ward together. Father was a Seventy and did some local missionary work. They were also able to go on a few short trips together. As World War II ended, father’s work at Hill Field also ended. He obtained work with the Union Tailors and cleaning company. He did sales work and also picked up and delivered materials for the company. He also did some sales work on his own account.

The winter of 1948 and 1949 was a severe one with snow piling up in the streets. The roads were difficult for travel. While making a delivery at an apartment house near 13th East and South Temple the truck became stuck in the snow. With a shovel and an extra effort, he was able to free himself and started towards town. At Ninth East a severe pain in his chest and arm caused him to stop, crawl from the cab and go to a service station nearby. Just before then he had stopped home for lunch. He had eaten some of mother’s mince turnovers. He thought he had eaten too much and had severe indigestion. However, Dr. Winget was called and it was found that he had suffered a massive heart attack. The doctor had told him to sit upright and stay as immobile as possible. The children were called, and we visited with him and mother for the evening. Mother propped him up with a pillow and about midnight went to sleep. She checked him around 3:00 A. M. and he seemed to be feeling all right, so she went back to bed and sleep. She checked him at 7:00 A. M. and found he had passed away with another apparent attack. However, Dr. Winget said because of his very relaxed position that he apparently hadn’t suffered much pain, but passed quietly in his sleep. This was February 6, 1949. He was 63 years old, nearing his 64th birthday.

Larkin Brothers cared for the funeral and due to the extremely hard winter his relatives and friends in Bear Lake were unable to attend. Many friends and relatives in the Salt Lake area attended and gave courage and solace to mother. He was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. As we look back on father’s life, we are amazed at the great capabilities he had for leadership. He had an excellent sense of humor. He was a gifted salesman who had the misfortune to live during a time when jobs were scarce and business failures common. He loved little children and was loved by his children and numerous grandchildren.

(Written by Ellsworth Marion Clark)

(1) See Diary

(2) See Journal

(3) See pages from account book

(4) See pages from account book

(5) See attendance records of 1923, 24, and 25