J. Reuben Clark - Childhood and Youth

Childhood and Youth

Clark was the first of ten children of Joshua R. and Mary Louisa Wooley Clark. He was born and raised in Grantsville, Utah. Grantsville is located thirty-three miles southwest of Salt Lake City in Tooele Valley, and at the time, it was a four-hour trip by buggy and train from Grantsville to Salt Lake. Large tracts of desert land provided winter grazing for cattle in the winter. South Mountain to the south, and the Stansbury Range to the west provided timber, water, berries, and summer grazing. The Latter-day Saints who settled the area were industrious, and community-oriented. Although hard work was mandatory for survival, the year was often punctuated by community events, parties, dances, celebrations, plays, lectures, and outdoor recreation. As a break from farm work, Clark participated in mounting dramatic productions from his youth, and acted in some. He manifested a propensity for public speaking, comedy, and humor at a young age. Clark also participated in the childhood diversions available on the frontier, sledding in the winter and swimming in the summer.

Clark's grandfather had been a minister in the Dunker Faith (Church of the Brethren). Clark's father, Joshua R. Clark, had worked his way west through Utah as a trapper and freighter and felt drawn to the LDS Church after attending his first Sunday service, being baptized a month afterward. Education and culture were important in the Mormon communities in Utah Territory and later the State of Utah. Clark's father Joshua, although accustomed to hard physical labor, was also reputed to be a knowledgeable, culturally-oriented man. He was hired soon after his baptism to teach school in Grantsville. Shortly after moving there from Salt Lake, he married Mary Louisa Wooley, who was born on the plains as her parents made their way west with Mormon Pioneers. Joshua was the sort of man who, while doing business in Salt Lake, would sleep in a hay loft in order to afford to see a Shakespearean play, and would make great sacrifices to afford to buy a good book. The small library in the Clark home was made up of history books, classics, and an encyclopedia, the Bible, plus the other religious works of the LDS Church. Although young Clark's education was spotty in his youth, due to the demands of farm life and meager family resources, he was able to take music lessons and to play with various bands. He played the piccolo and then the flute.

Clark's father became the clerk and then the superintendent of the Grantsville educational co-operative and was later elected the Tooele County Superintendent of Schools in 1878, became president of the Tooele County Education Association, and by 1879 was assessor and tax collector, with his two eldest sons helped with the accounting and record-keeping. When his father later taught at a local private school, Clark was able to be formally educated for the first time. He was ten years old, and in the past had been schooled by his mother. Clark was not at school every term. Sometimes, financial difficulties and farm work kept him at home. His father once related that Clark would “rather miss his meals than to miss a day from school.” After completing the eighth grade, the highest grade offered at the Grantsville school, Clark repeated it two more times.