©June 2003, Brigham Young University. All rights reserved.
The collection is a combination of gifts from several members of the Clark family.
Original diaries (boxes 1-10) restricted due to condition. Use photocopies, transcriptions, and/or electronic versions instead.
Copyright of The Joshua Reuben Clark, Sr. Papers is held by the Library of Brigham Young University.
Permission to publish material from The Joshua Reuben Clark, Sr. Papers must be obtained from the Supervisor of Reference Services and/or the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Board of Curators.
Joshua Reuben Clark Sr. was born near Canton, Stark County, Ohio, December 11, 1840. When the Civil war began, he enlisted in the Forty-eighth Indiana Infantry under General Halleck. After two years he was discharged because of illness. He began his diaries during his Civil War experience. In 1863 he went to Minnesota, and the next year drove a four-mule team from old Fort Bridger to Virginia City, Montana, where he tried his hand at mining. After four years he decided to go to Utah. That spring, 1867, he had gone as far as Farmington when he heard his first "Mormon" sermon. He arrived in Salt Lake City on March 10th, and on the 14th was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During the winter of 1867-68 he taught school in the Tenth Ward in Salt Lake City. The following summer, 1868, he went east, on assignment by the Church, to meet a group of Mormon emigrants from Europe and to guide them to Salt Lake City.
When he returned to Utah, he moved to Grantsville where he taught in the district schools for four years.
On the July 11, 1870, he married Mary Louisa Woolley, a daughter of Edwin Dilworth and Mary (Wickersham) Woolley, pioneers of 1848. She was born July 5, 1848, at Goose Creek, Black Hills, Wyoming, when her parents were on their way to Utah. The Clarks had eight children.
Clark bought a farm near Grantsville and, like his neighbors, engaged in farming for most of his life. However he was also very active in local political and church affairs:
Between 1870 and 1880 he was superintendent of schools of Tooele County, Utah, and did much to place the schools on a sound financial bases.
He served as postmaster at Grantsville from 1870 to 1878, and again from 1880 to 1895.
For six years, from 1872 to 1878, he was "superintendent" (manager) of Grantsville Cooperative Store.
He resigned from that position, in 1878, to turn his full attention to his farms. He remained a dedicated farmer for the next twenty-two years
Clark was active in politics, and was a stalwart Republican. He served as a member of the Grantsville City Council, and as county assessor and tax collector
Throughout his life he was active in his church. In addition to many local church callings, he was president of the Northern States Mission, and stake patriarch
For two years he conducted a private school. He then turned his attention to farming and concentrated efforts upon general agricultural pursuits until 1900, when he retired from active business life.
J. R. Clark died July 25, 1929, at Grantsville. He was eighty-nine years old.
Series I, Diaries, 56 volumes, 1862 1929
Series II, Notebooks, Account Books, Minute Books, and an Autograph Book.
Series III, Clark Family Historical Materials
Series IV, Correspondence
Series V, Writings of J. R. Clark and Orson Pratt
Series VI, Family History and Genealogical Records.
Series VII Newspaper Clippings, 1882-1924
Series VIII, Photocopies
Series IX, Transcriptions
Series X, Electronic Versions
Series XI, Photographs
Series I - VIII and XI are originals. Series VIII - X are photocopies, transcriptions, and electronic versions respectively. Diaries are arranged by date. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically. Other materials are arranged by subject.
Note: many of these items were originally in 8 ? x 15 genealogical record binders. The binders are gone, so is the original order of the pages.