Sketch of
Amos Clarke and Ann Johnston
Amos Clarke was born 8 June 1833 at Ponkey, Rhosllanerchrugog, Denbighshire, North Wales. He
was the oldest in a family of eight children of Edward Clarke and Ann Jarvis.
Early in life he learned to be a blacksmith and do iron work. Not much is known
of Amos until he was a young man when he became so interested in music. He was
a good singer and spent his evenings with friends who were able to instruct him
in the rudiments of music. His family were members of
the Church of Christ sometimes called Campbellite Baptists.
Ann Johnston was born 7 January 1832 at Rhosllanerchrugog, Denbighshire, North Wales. She
was the oldest child in the family of three children of Richard Johnston and
Ann Thomas. Her mother died when Ann was very young (about four years old). Her
mother's sister Sarah Thomas came to live with them to take care of these small
children. This Aunt Sarah later married Ann's father. When her father died Ann
went to live with her uncle Robert Thomas. Not much is known of her childhood
nor schooling.
Ann's folks on her mother's side were quite well
to do; they owned a store in which Ann clerked. It has been told that this is
where Amos met her. The Thomases were members of the Church
of Christ sometimes called Campbellite Baptists. They were very active,
earnest members of this organization.
Amos Clarke and Ann Johnston were married 13 November 1853 in Ruabon Parish, Denbighshire, North Wales. Early
in their married life they became interested in the Mormon missionaries and
were earnest investigators. The elders were always welcome at their home where
they held cottage meetings. Amos was baptized 28 February 1855. He was a good singer and joined with the elders in
singing and doing missionary work, very zealously defending and expounding the
gospel wherever possible. This brought a lot of opposition from their families.
The spirit of gathering came upon them and they
began making preparations to join with the Saints in the Valleys of the
Mountains. This, however, brought a storm of opposition from both sides of
their families.
Ann's folks were in business, and before her
marriage she had worked in the store. They said to her, "If he wants to go
to Salt Lake City, let him go--we will take care of the children and you can
come back and work in the store," but she had a desire also to join with
the Saints. They continued quietly making preparations for their departure
which took place in April 1866.
They sent their things on to Liverpool,
but when they were ready to start their folks had hidden two of the children
and they could not be found. This information was sent to Liverpool,
and the boat was held over until the next day. The neighborhood was all excited
over the affair, and a cousin named John Moses saw the unpleasant situation
they were in, and he came to the rescue and found the children and helped them
to Liverpool. Amos and Ann and five children embarked on the sailing
vessel John Bright. Ann was
very sick on the ship, in fact so low that it seemed she would not recover.
With the administration of the elders, one of whom was Jonas Beck (who also
settled in Newton), and the faith and prayers of the Saints, she got well
and lived to bear her testimony to the blessings of the Lord in her behalf.
As was necessary they had to provide and prepare
their own food, and after a hard fought voyage of six weeks, they landed in New York. They remained a short time in Castle Gardens, making preparations to continue the journey. They went by
train to St. Louis, Missouri. From there they went on a small steam boat up the Missouri River
to St. Joseph, Missouri. While on this boat Amos received a testimony to the
"promptings of the Spirit." He was reaching over the edge of the boat
for a bucket of water with a bucket on a rope, and the force of the current
caused him to lose his balance. The voice said, "Let go of the rope,"
which he did, saving himself from a plunge, and possibly drowning in the muddy
water. They had all the hardships and trials incident
to travel at that time.
After crossing the Missouri River,
they had to wait in Wyoming for two weeks for the teams to come to meet them and to
prepare for the journey. Some of the people slept in tents, but Amos and his
family had the opportunity of staying in an old building something like a big
barn, for which they were very thankful, as they had heavy rain storms. After this two weeks they started on their journey westward. There
was a large company, 700 in all, crossing the plains. There were thirty wagons
in each company, being drawn by oxen, but their wagon was drawn by horses. They
had to cross the Platte River which was very wide and took a whole day for the companies
to cross it. They stopped to camp each night, in a circle fashion, made fires
and had supper, then had a short meeting of song, prayer and some speaking,
after which the young people enjoyed dancing.
It was a long and tedious journey, and they were
very glad when they reached Salt Lake City
the
11th of September 1866,
after traveling eight weeks. They crossed the plains in the Captain Samuel D.
White company, with Orange Warner as their teamster.
The following is a transcript of a letter written
by Edward Clarke to his daughter, Dinah, in reference to his son Amos.
[Sephorah and Trevor Clarke interpreted this letter and made the following
comment: "Great-grandfather evidenced a quiet disregard for the rules of
punctuation and seemed to have a particular talent for placing Capital Letters
almost anywhere but at the beginning of a sentence. With Mother's knowledge of
the old Welsh vernacular--and the aid of a good reading glass, we have come up
with what seems a logical interpretation. Some words are almost impossible to
make out. The doubtful ones we have placed in parentheses." Trevor Clarke]
Dear Dinah,
We have sent a letter to Amos today and the News
Paper. Mary nor Edward had not a sheet of thin paper.
We put in your letter, but it was too heavy and your mother was short of a
thrupence or a shilling to get one. We will have to send your letter and the
tie for Moses. John Davies, clockcleaner, is dead and Thomas Williams,
"blue-bell," is dead and buried. Sali Johnson wants Amos to come home
very much and will pay all their expenses.
Amos did not say nothing
about the Sundays where does he and the whole of them go on the Lord's Day. he has missed the strict Priest in his religion. I would
judge that he had (seen) some little of it before. Now, Dinah, (there) was so
much in the way it was of no use to say nothing to them. He has gone to the far
end now. He can go no further. He has gone to the (wife) leaders. What to do
anymore I don't know. He is not by himself. He has a many more gone the unwise
way. if he had a harkened to the Head Master and his
true Apostles he would not gone off--so many miles. To be a well bilt Christian
is worth more than this world, Dinah. The money and the clothes is well in this world, but (they) will not do for the next.
I was telling Amos if his (tune) had been so nice in his religion as the
portrait of him and Ann and the children it would have been worth while to look
at it for a while, but is not so with them. (They) have made a great misstack
(mistake) in their Religion for them to go so many miles from their home. The
road to the heaven is from the rhos (Rhosllanerchrugog) as well from the Salt Lack City or any other place on earth. We have no need to go there
or any other place to go to heaven. We go through Jesus Christ to heaven from
all parts of the world and not through anyone else. Mary is a little better.
William has not come home. We all of 'hus' do send our best love to you,
father, mother, brothers and sisters and send soon by return of post if you
can. Give our best respects to all with you and don't trouble to come home this
wet weather. We would like to see you but it will cost so much money and so
(ends) your father and mother, Edward and Ann Clark to Dinah."
This letter makes us realize the torment that
Amos's parents, Edward and Ann Clarke went through when Amos joined the Mormon
Church.
After arriving in Salt Lake City, they first occupied a large unfinished house with no
windows or no floor. This served as the place of shelter and rest after the
long journey, but not very inviting to spend the winter on dirt floor. However,
before the winter set in a better house was found, and they moved into the 19th
Ward near the home of his half-sister Miriam Clarke, who had arrived in Salt Lake City a year before.
Their joy over the birth of a baby boy, Amos, on December 12, 1868, soon turned to sorrow over the death of the eldest son,
Moses, who died December 29, 1868. Ann said that many times she washed the baby with her tears.
As blacksmiths were in great demand Amos went to
work at once at his trade, any place where there was an opening. Among other
things, he did the iron work on a homemade threshing machine which was built in
the shop of Naylor Brothers, Salt Lake City.
About this time Amos got word that a blacksmith
was needed in Newton, so he came up and worked at his trade, bringing Annie and
Sarah to cook for him. He got some of the early settlers to build a long house
for them on the south corner of block twelve. They built a blacksmith shop next
to the sidewalk and a little farther north of this log home.
In the fall of 1869 when John Godfrey and Franklin
D. Young went by team to October Conference they brought the rest of the Clarke
family back with them, and so they began their life in newton, enduring all the
hardships incident to pioneering a new settlement.
Since there were no older sons, Amos's daughters
Annie Elizabeth, Sarah and Mary helped him in all his work, milking cows,
helping in the hay, going to the creek to help get willows to burn, and any
other work he had for them to do.
In the blacksmith shop he was very busy for some
time, ,but soon found out that the farmers were very poor and had very little
pay for their work, so he went to work for the Oregon Short Line Railroad
Company in the Railroad shops in Logan and lived with the family of William
Knowles. While in Logan he sang with Evan Stephens in a choir in one of the wards
under Alexander Lewis as choir leader.
After working there for several years, the shop
burned down and he was transferred to work in the shops in Battle Creek,
Idaho. He did not stay there long, but came back home and worked
some in his own blacksmith shop.
Later a rock house was built north of the
blacksmith shop. The picture of this home was recently entered in the Utah Historical Quarterly. The authors
in commenting on this home said the following: "The mud brown softness of
its masonry lent warmth and security to the first generation of Anglo-American
reared in Cache Valley. The proudly forged A's on the front of the building are
the monogram of the settler for whom it was built--a blacksmith who, not quite
trustful of the rigidity of stone, installed metal tie-rods through the upper
floor from wall to wall to keep them secure. This home is still standing, but
has not been lived in for many years.
Amos traveled from town to town
to teach the children the songs of Zion in preparation for the Sunday School
Jubilees which were sometimes held in Logan and alternating in Newton, Clarkston and Weston. He usually took his daughters, who had beautiful voices,
to help teach the part singing.
Amos spent the summer of 1894 in North Wales
where he went to visit relatives and gather genealogy. Ann had no desire to
return to Wales, as she hadn't forgotten the length of the trip and the
sickness she had endured on her first voyage. Amos's son-in-law, George C.
Rigby, was in the Manchester Conference at the time, and he went to North Wales
to visit the folks with him.
Another tragedy hit the family on 21 September 1899 when their son Samuel died while on a mission in Cardiff, South Wales. He had never seen his son Cyril, who was born after his
departure for the mission field.
Amos held the office of school trustee, precinct
justice of the peace and acting bishop in the time of the crusade, and was an
ardent temple worker.
He served nearly forty years as chorister in the
Newton Sunday School and Ward choir. He was a splendid penman and spent much of
his time at night copying songs for the choir. When he found a song he wanted
to use instead of asking the choir to buy books so they could have one to sing from , he copies both words and music for them in a book.
Ann was always kind and gentle, always neat and
clean. She was an immaculate housekeeper, a splendid cook, and boarded the
school teachers. She was a very good manager.
Her older granddaughters who helped her, remember
how she had such a sweet way of making them feel important to her--she was the
same with all the granddaughters who helped. She would tell them how she liked
them to scrub as they had such good, strong arms. She would say, "Scrub
hard--no one will ever ask how long it took to do it, but if it isn't done well
they'll ask 'ho did it.'" All of her floors and porches were scrubbed
white as snow. The granddaughters could use all the soft soap they wanted--this
soft soap was kept in a jar; it was her homemade soap that didn't harden.
Ann would also have the granddaughters scour the
knives and forks with brick dust or ashes. Her cupboard was full of pretty
dishes, and her table was set very beautifully--she was a charming hostess to
her boarders.
Ann had such an outstanding cellar--the walls were
white washed and the floor was covered with rocks laid smooth (and they would
scour these rocks with another special rock that grandpa Amos had ready for
them to use). In this cellar they churned butter with an old-fashioned dash
churn. They would make 6 or 8 pounds at a time. Ann had a butter mold that made
a very pretty design on each pound.
Amos Clarke and Ann Johnston were the parents of
ten children. Moses, Annie, Elizaabeth, Sarah, Mary, Amos,
George, Josephine, Samuel, and David.
Amos Clarke died 27 February 1918 at Newton, Cache
County, Utah, and was buried in the Newton Cemetery. The granddaughters took turns staying with Ann until her
death on 16 December 1918.
She died in Newton and was also buried in the Newton Cemetery.
This information was taken from the sketch George
Clarke wrote of his parents. The pictures and remembrances were from family
members.
