Martin Harris Monument In Clarkston Cemetery 
PLACES AND VOYAGES 
Clarkston, Cache County, Utah was an ideal location for a new community. It is located within one valley of the Wasatch Mountain range. The highest peak of the mountains above Clarkston was named "Gunsight." All of Cache V alley can be seen to the east and Box Elder V alley to the west from this spectacular view. The abundance of springs and cold mountain streams would provide water for culinary use as well as for irrigation. There were bear, rabbits, deer, and numerous game birds that inhabited the mountains and lush grasslands. The trees were plentiful too that could be used for firewood, fence posts, and lumber for building homes and other buildings. Apostle Ezra T. Benson (1811-1869), Presiding Elder, directed Israel J. Clark to take a group of families and start the settlement of Clarkston (It was named after Clark). It was established in 1864. 
The first settlers began to build east of where Clarkston is now located. It remains unclear as to whether the first year they planted more than garden areas as most of their efforts were in constructing places to live, cutting the high grass for hay for their animals and digging ditches to direct the water to their garden plots. Most of the first homes were dugouts with wooden or canvas entrances and homemade furniture pieces. Approximately twelve families remained in Clarkston for the first severe winter. 
          The spring of 1865 brought new settlers. 
John Godfrey (1825-1893) plowed the first ground. Others planted crops by broadcasting the grain into cultivated ground and dragging tree limbs to cover the planting. Gardens and wheat crops were planted that year. In the fall of 1865 a combined log schoolhouse and church building measuring 40 X 24 feet was constructed. Henry Stokes taught school for the winter quarter, and people paid three dollars per student. 
The Shoshone Indians claimed all of the land west of Bear River. In 1865 they caused serious trouble in Clarkston, the only settlement west of Bear River. The Indians often pitched their tents near the homes and demanded food as rent from the settlers. All of the settlers, including the Godfreys, moved in 1866 to other locations across the valley that were not so isolated. When the settlers expressed a desire to return to their homes in Clarkston in the spring of 1867, Brigham Young advised them that they might do so if they built a fort and a public corral for protection of the livestock. This was done. Houses were built in the form of a fort extending along both sides of the present Main Street, and a public corral was provided. 
The existence of the Clarkston settlement was threatened in 1869 when a majority of the settlers, due mainly to discouragement because of the severe winters and heavy drifting snow, decided to move to the present site of Newton. But a few people decided to stay in Clarkston and some who had left returned, and the settlement became a permanent one. 
Clarkston carries special historical distinction as the burial place of Martin Harris, one of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has erected a suitable monument at the grave of Martin Harris. He lived with his son Martin Harris, Jr. in Clarkston until he died on July 10, 1875. 
City lots were laid out. Israel J. Clark, first bishop of the community, assigned the lots and the farming land to the settlers. 
Originally ten acres of farm ground was allotted to a 
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PLACES AND VOYAGES 
family and five acres to a single man. In 1869 the amount was raised to twenty-five acres. The more stalwart farmers returned to plant crops in the spring of 1867. They built homes on both sides of the main street and they had guard duty to patrol the streets at night. 
At the time dry farming was not thought of, but early histories report that Brigham Young predicted, as he stood in the bowery and spoke to the people of Clarkston, that the hills to the north, west and south of Clarkston would be productive and would grow good crops of wheat. Among his other comments were, "You harvest with the scythe and sickle, but the time will come when you will raise big crops of grain, and you will sit under a parasol to harvest it" (which caused many to laugh.) A few years later the settlers began experimenting with different types of wheat and ultimately a seed type was found which would mature on the dry land. In time Clarkston became the best dry farming area in the county and one 
	of the best in the entire state. One of the 	Rock Meeting House in Clarkston, Dedicated 1877 
pioneer dry land farmers in Clarkston was John Godfrey. 
The crops were nearly destroyed by grasshoppers in 1869-70. They devoured every thing that was green. All concerted efforts to drive them off or kill them failed until seagulls came. 
The Central and Union Pacific railroads were being built at this time and provided employment for many of the men. The money helped sustain the families and improve their homes and farms. In May 1869, the railroads from the east and west were joined at Promontory Point near Corinne. Thus Corinne became the center of commerce for Northern Utah for a period oftime. 
Because of the geographical isolation of Clarkston, the people became self-sufficient. The pioneers built a schoolhouse and a meetinghouse of native rock. In the schoolhouse they learned to read and write, and could worship God or enjoy recreation in the little chapel. 
There were three women (midwives) who brought the babies: Aunt Caroline (Griffm Thompson), tall and stem and commanding, Aunt Marthy (Martha Gover Griffin),a prim little English woman with her hair in a little bob on top of her head, and Aunt Agnes (Jardine Shumway), always immaculate in a fresh white apron with knitted lace along the bottom. Birth was a natural process that worried no one, and if complications ever set in, it was not known. These women were on call night and day for the sum of $8 (or less if you could not afford it). Thomas Godfrey pulled teeth while his wife retired to the cellar so as not to hear. Uncle Jack (Thompson) with his long curled white mustache set the broken bones and always told jokes during the painful process. Uncle Jim (Thompson), the carpenter, made the caskets of native lumber and 
	The First Schoolhouse in Clarkston 	lined them with white outing flannel. 
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PLACES AND VOYAGES 
Sometimes he covered them with black or white velvet depending on what was available, but the dead never wanted for a neat, substantial coffin. The townspeople's needs were complete with short, stocky Uncle Joe (Myler) who led the choir and fiddled for the dances. Of course the father of the ward was the bishop who was both lawgiver and interpreter of the will of the Lord, and whose word was supreme. He frowned upon undertakers and doctors and so everybody did. Both interfered with the natural processes of God, and were an uncalled for expense and luxury. We could take care of the dead and the sick ourselves. The store stocked castor oil, senna leaves, Epsom salts, "asafetida," and "vermifuge" for worms in children, and that took care of our medical needs. 
The town was laid out in 
blocks: three north and south and three east and west, with houses on both sides of the road. The architecture of the homes was very similar. People built first a tworoom house and as their family and [mances increased they added a kitchen and dining room and connected them with a large Lshaped porch. In every back yard was a well with a bucket tied to a rope and fastened to the curb. There was a chopping block sprinkled with chicken blood; among the chips lay rooster heads with glazed, half-open eyes, mute evidence of many a fine dinner. In a comer stood a whitewashed privy stocked 
	with a can of ashes and a Sears Roe- 	Arial View of Clarkston 
buck catalog, and sometimes some old newspapers. Here one could retire with impunity and rest or read. Every lot had a row of plum trees. Under them sat a few farm implements profusely sprinkled with droppings of chickens and birds. Close by, the straw-covered stable provided shelter for a team and a scrub cow or two. Nearby stood a log hen house without windows. Five or six sleek porkers peeked up over a crude pen, and these, with the dog, a few cats, and the roosters, completed each barnyard orchestra. Neighbors shared freely. Starts of yeast went from house to house, along with bread and fresh honey, followed at butchering time with fresh meat. 
In 1871 a post office, the tithing granary and a bridge across Bear River were built. In 1873 a site for the Logan Temple was dedicated. The people pledged $10,000 to the Logan Temple. In 1874 the United Order was introduced in Clarkston. It is not known how long it functioned. In 1877 Apostle Moses Thatcher dedicated the new rock meetinghouse. In 1890 Wilford Woodruff issued the manifesto, which outlawed further plural marriages in the Church. 

Brick Schoolhouse 

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Schoolhouse After New Addition 

Ennlotes: 
Ben J. & Eunice P. Ravsten, History of Clarkston: The Granary of Cache Valley, 1864-1964, 1966 The Herald Journal, Pioneer Centennial Edition, 1947 
Clarkston Ward Historical Record Book "A" (In the LDS Archives Salt Lake City, Utah), pp 25-62 William F. Rigby, "Excerpts from the Diary of William F. Rigby," Our Pioneer Heritage IV, pp 255-256 Joel E. Rick's, Forms and Methods of Early Mormon Settlement in Utah and the Surrounding 
Regions 1847-1877. 
Who's Who Among the Loosli Families in America, Publishers Press 
Ann Godfrey, Hansen, Wood Stoves and Woolen Stockings, Covenant Communications, Inc., 1991 
Ancestors and Descendants of Lydia Gover and John Ezekiel Godfrey  Compiled by Lydia G. Benson and Theo G. Buttars 
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