Written by Albert S, Clark,

Oldest child in James L. Clark and Sarah Isabell Smith Clark's Family.

James Laycock Clark was born July 19, 1870 in Cedar City, Utah to James Meritt Clark and Janet Coleman Clark. He was the oldest child in a family of nine children, they being; Mary Alice, who married William Moroni Thompson; Emma Elizabeth, who married David V. Eddards; Ada May, who married William Henry Eddards; George Coleman Clark, who died before he was one year old; William Henry, who married Mary Emma Bauer; Alfred, who married Aunt Mary, who married Uncle Will after Alfred died; Prime Sylvester, who never married; and John Coleman, who never married.

Grandfather worked in saw mills, on ranches and farms; so James spent much of his life outdoors. The family moved to Henrieville when James was young. As he grew up, he worked on ranches. He spent much time herding sheep on the East Fork up by Bryce Canyon. He worked on a saw mill at Swains Creek, East of Duck Creek. One time he and a friend were at a sheep camp and was playing around with a gun. It was decided that the first one to swear was to be shot. Father was the first one to swear and his friend shot him in the shoulder. It was just to be make believe, they didn't know the gun was loaded. It was a scary thing and it is said that father packed the slug in his shoulder all his life.

The family moved to St. Anthony, Idaho. In the winter their sleigh was a cow hide and they pulled it around by the tail.

In March 24, 1896 he married Lucinda Caroline Smith. They had six children, James Milton, John Freeman, Garfield Marriott, Vera Tracy, Ernest Thomas, and Almary Margaret. This family lived in Salt Lake where father worked on the Donahue Ranch. Vera tells of him getting the Swill for pigs from the prison.

Vera found a Silver Spoon in the Swill one time and she said they would argue over who would use the "Pig Spoon".

Then the family moved to Blue Valley up Shirtz Canyon, South of Cedar City, where father herded sheep. They lived at a place called the Popkus Place. Then they moved to Hamilton's Fort and lived at Dick Middleton's place. Aunt Caroline died in February of 1911 and Father married my Mother, Sarah Isabelle Smith, who was a sister to Aunt Caroline. Nine children were born to this family; Albert and a twin brother, who died at birth; Monroe, who died at birth; Caroline, Elsie Lareen, Harold Freeman, Georgia Bell, Daniel Wells and Ada Marie. As a youngster, I remember we moved to Culver's Farm in Parowan Valley, then to Bulloch's Farm, North of Cedar, then back to Cedar. I remember going to many jobs with father. I remember he had a job maintaining the road to Lund. It was a dirt road and an iron drag was used to make the road level. It was dragged by horses. Father always took great pride in having a good team of horses. He had to walk all the time on this job. Sometimes I would get way behind chasing rabbits or something. Then he would have to wait for me to catch up. We stayed in a sheep wagon, which had to be special built for him because he was so big. Lund was a good sized town in those days. They even had a baseball team and father played with them. Lund was the closest railroad town for all the towns around that area. Now it is just a name. One time many people, who had never seen a train before, were at Lund looking at one.

Suddenly the Engineer yelled out "Look out folks, I'm going to turn this engine around right here." People started to scatter all around, falling over each other. The Engineer roared with laughter. Some Indians were sitting around on their horses and thought they could pull the engine with their lasso ropes. They tied their ropes to the engine and the Engineer made the engine move so the Indians thought they were pulling it. They were going at a pretty good pace when suddenly the Engineer put the engine in reverse and Indians, horses, saddles and ropes were scattered all over the country. It was quite a site to see.

I went with him on the mountain many times building roads and log fences. When he was making log fences, a Quaking Aspen was cut down, all the limbs were cut off and the log had to measure six ax handles long. The log was put in place four or five poles laid above each other with the ends entwined together. The fence was put in a zig zag fashion. The fence had to be bull strong, horse high and sheep tight, so you see it took a lot of logs. I said to myself many times that I was going to cut down as many logs as father did. Before long he had about a hundred chopped and I had about 20.

Sometimes he would take on the job of opening the canyon road in the Springtime. Sometimes snow drifts had to be shoveled off. One day we came upon a big bear track. In those days bears did much damage to livestock and were feared a lot. That night it was getting late and bed time. All at once we heard a bear, we knew it was one, chewing on what sounded like bones. Father looked at me and me at him, then he picked up the lighted lantern and went out to see the bear and scare it away. I went with him shaking in my shoes. When we came upon the bear, it was an old porcupine eating tater peelings.

One time we were building fence over at Kolob. We stayed in an old log house without a roof and door. One night we were all settled down for the night when a skunk came wandering through the door and around under the beds. Boy we sure were getting out in a hurry.

I remember during the great Depression of the 30's we had some hard old times, even finding something to eat. We lived in this one roomed house about seven of us and sometimes more than that when someone came to visit. This one winter us kids slept outside in a tent. Father would come out early each morning and start a fire in the little old camp stove to warm it up a little. One morning my sister, Elsie, let out a scream and woke me up, as the tent had caught on fire around the stove pipe. I grabbed a blanket and tried to put the fire out when a bucket of water came flying through the hole and hit me in the face. Father had got a bucket of water to put the fire out. We didn't have indoor plumbing and we had to wrap sacks and such around the water tap to keep it from freezing up, but it usually froze anyway. We had to build a fire around it to thaw it out, so I don't know how father was able to get any water to put the fire out. Anyway it sure was cold when it hit me in the face.

As I said before, Father took great pride in having a good team of horses, as they were part of our lives. One time we were hauling hay and was coming up 1st West in an empty hay wagon by the freight depot. A circus was unloading and the elephants and camels were walking up the street then out across the road from the cemetery where the circus was to be set up. When the horses saw the camels, they got scared and started to run away, and we really took a fast ride before father got them stopped and settled down. After that, if the team ever saw a yellow cow, they would run away. In those days, the big excitement was a run-away team, a flood, and a fire.

He took the record in shearing sheep with the hand clippers. He sheared well over 100 sheep. He played the Accordion while everybody danced and he enjoyed this very much.

Father was a big man in every way. He was six feet, two or three inches tall and weighed well over 200 pounds. He was kind and gentle and loved his family. In his older years, when cars and trucks came along, and a holiday came in the Summer time, he would hire a truck so all the family could go on an outing. If anything extra special came to him, he wanted the whole family to share it. He died May 2, 1941 undergoing a goiter operation. This goiter growth which was in the throat seemed to be in many people in those earlier years.

I could never find the words to express my gratitude, honor and appreciation I had for him and all the memories I have for him are my greatest treasures. Thank you for being my father, James Laycock Clark.