Person:Katherine Clark (2)

History of Katherine Clark Barnes written by herself

I was born the daughter of William Henry Clark and Sarah Evans on 13 Jan. 1900 in Ogden, Weber Co. Utah, the eighth of ten children, eight girls and two boys.

Our house was built on a hill which was surrounded by eleven cherry, apple, pear, apricot and plum trees-also raspberry and black currant bushes. The remaining acres yielding grain and alfalfa. Then there was the incubator house dug into the north side of the hill and the setting coop on the south and several coops atop it for the growing chickens. We always had chicken for Sunday dinner. Unable to dig a satisfactory well atop the one was dug at the foot and the water pumped through pipes by a windmill. Then I must not forget the cow which furnished the milk for the family. How I remember making butter in the old wooden churn with the wooden dash.

My father also worked for Scocroft CO. SO we were all very comfortable in the “Old House on the Hill”. But things were soon to change.

On June 17, 1905 my father died leaving mother a widow with nine children (one child-Sarah-had died when a child) to rear. The youngest a baby of five months.

I began my schooling in January of 1906 at the Five Points grade school in Ogden and there completed the first six grades.

When eight years of age I had a memorable experience. My half brother Billy who was a rail worker procured a pass for mother and her four youngest children to go to Oregon to visit her mother and two sisters. This caused much excitement and a good deal of preparation during the ensuing week. We lived where woe could watch the trains go by each day but never thought the opportunity to ride on would be ours. It was a thrilling ride to Baker[,] Oregon where we spent the night in a hotel and slept in a folding be that pushed back into the wall when not in use. Our destination was Halfway Ore. And to get there we must ride most of the day on a real stage coach drawn my two teams of horses on narrow winding mountain roads-frightening on the curves but most enjoyable. It was a beautiful country.

When we arrived at our destination we found that Halfway consisted of [a] store, post office and a stage station all in one which was the front part of Uncle Freeman’s home. Across the road was a grist mill powered by a water wheel. This too belonged to Uncle Freeman. Dense forests grew behind the home and the mill- and that was Halfway. From here the forests began to recede further back form the road and fertile farm land emerged. We spent four wonderful weeks here with cousins of our own age.

It was during this year 1908 that I received my baptism and confirmation into the church. We had not always belonged to the L.D.S. church. I remember when very young going to the congregational church with my pennies to put in the collection plate. In 1906 five of my sisters and one brother were baptized. It was then that we began attending the Lynne ward (which is now the 15th ward) in Ogden.

Thanksgiving and Christmas times were always joyous occasions when half brothers and sisters would come with their families. Even waiting for the second table before we could eat didn’t seem so bad. It was the expected thing for children to do in those days.

After completing the first six grades at the Five Points school I took Jr. High work at the Dee School on 20th ST. Then began High School in January of 1914.

It was at this time that mother decided to sell our home and move to Idaho where on of my sisters was living. She sold to oldest son–my half brother, and bought a forty acre farm in Acequia. We moved in the spring to our new home. That was a discouraging spring-the winds blew hard, blowing out crops and drying the soil, sand blew into the houses, across the roads and into the irrigating [ditches]. But in spite of all [the] set backs some crops were produced.

My sister Mary and I enrolled the next Fall in the Rupert High School which was ten miles from our home. There were no school buses running then so we stayed in Rupert during the week and the folks would come and bring us home for week ends in our while topped buggy.

At this time our church was held in the old Acequia school house which was pulled down about 1955. In 1916 or there abouts the ward built a one roomed church house with a nice sized stage. Curtains were drawn one long one through the [lengthwise] of the hall and three crosswise to make class rooms. This is where I did my first Sunday School teaching and was S.S. secretary during my senior year in High School.

I [graduated] from High School in 1918 and that fall entered the Abion Normal School where I secured a three year teaching certificate and signed a contract to teach 1st and 2nd Grades in the Acequia School a position that my sister Florence had just resigned to be married. It was at this time we bought our first car– a Ford.

After teaching for three years I went back to Albion and finished work on a life teaching certificate. The school year of 1924-25 I taught at the Minidoka School and in 1925-26 taught again in Acequia. While teaching school I was also busy in church teaching in the Sunday School–a Beehive class in mutual–later as 2nd counselor in the mutual and working on the Sunday School Stake Board.

During this time I had met Herschel Barnes, a farmer and ditch rider in the Jackson, District Cassia Co. After nearly three years courtship we were married on 19 May 1926 in the Logan Temple. To us have been born three children: Herschel Blaine Barnes 4 July 1927; Marjorie Louise Barnes Carter 6 Aug. 1929; Katherine Barnes Cannon 21 February 1933.

After moving to Jackson which was an independent branch I again worked as a teacher in the Sunday School and for twelve years as Primary Pres. My husband was Branch pres. May 1928 to May 1946.

I was called to fill the position of 2nd councelor in the Relief Society in October of 1942, and in Oct. Of 1944 was made stake Relief Society Pres. Which position I held until Oct. Of 1954. This was a wonderful privilege to work and become acquainted with the sisters of the stake and to see the love and devotion they had for the Relief Society work. A great and humbling experience was given me of offering the opening prayer in the afternoon session of Relief Society general conference held in the S.L. Tabernacle in Sept. Of 1954. In 1946 Jackson Br. Was made a part of the Rupert 1st ward. Here again I taught a Sunday School class.

Herschel Blaine has filled a mission in the Central States and Katherine in the Southern States. Our three children have graduated form college. They are all married, and we noew have twelve grandchildren. AT this time 1970 our son, Herschel B. Barnes and one sone in-lay Ray Carter are bishops, the other son in-lay Alan M. Cannon is a scout master. Our daughters and daughter in-law are also active in church positions.

From 1954 until the spring of 1962 I again taught the first grade in Acequia I their new school building.

In 1961 many of the ward boundaries in the Minidoka Stake were changed and we moved into the Acequia ward. While there I taught two years as Theology teacher in the Relief Society.

In November of 1953 we attended exercises in Victoria Texas where our son received his “wings” and became an air force pilot. This was a wonderful experience for me and was the longest trip I had ever taken away from home.

While there I had the privilege of visiting their small but very active Relief Society. I was very much impressed with the faith of the sisters and the much work they had accomplished in their work meeting. We spent a day sight seeing, the highlight of which was the time we spent on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico and seeing the oil well off shore.

On the way home we stopped at Chico, New Mexico to visit with Ethel and Roe (my sister and husband) and their family on their cattle ranch. This was a most enjoyable visit. I was so thankful for this opportunity as it was the last time I saw Ethel in life. Her death occurred of cancer on the 31st of July 1957. We went back to New Mexico at that time to attend her funeral.

Christmas of 1959 Herschel B, Katherine, my husband and I spent in Los Angeles with Marjorie and Ray (daughter and son in law) and our four grandchildren. It was nice to have all the family together again for christmas. It was a beautiful sight to see the Pacific Ocean with shops assail on it.

In 1966 we sold our farm to our son and moved into Rupert-again in the Rupert 1st ward. Since living here I taught Social Science lessons for two years in Relief Society but due to health problems have had to be released. I am now a visiting teacher and enjoying this work. This year 1971 on May 19th we will celebrate our forty fifth wedding anniversary.

Katherine and Herschel's marriage certificate

1. ↑ Her siblings Sarah, Mabel, Florence, Chester, and Ethel were sealed to their mother Sarah Evans and her first husband, Richard H. Wilson, on 12 Dec 1969. Sarah Evans was sealed to her first husband on 13 Aug 1956. I don't know if this child, Pearl Clark's, sealing was to Sarah's first or second husband.