LAURA
PENELOPE CLARK GRIFFITHS
"Dollie"
1870-1958
LAURA
PENELOPE CLARK GRIFFITHS
Laura
Penelope Clark (sometimes spelled Clarke) was born May 1, 1870 at Helena,
Montana. She was the youngest child and the only daughter who lived to
maturity. Her father was Michael Joseph Clark, straight Irish descent,
and her mother was Susannah Thompson Clark, English with a tiny bit of
Spanish descent.
While living in Montana Laura remembered the big fire that burned a great
part of Helena, as well as the family home. She recalled, "The fire started
in the Chinese section and the wind spread the flames to my father's business
which was a dance hall and a theater adjoining one of the town's taverns.
The fire destroyed his two businesses and my father's beautiful piano which
was valued at $700.00 in those days. My parents were discouraged." In the
meantime, Susannah's father, Joseph Lewis Thompson, (who had joined the
Mormon church in Birmingham, England) had come out west to a town called
Clarkston, Utah. When he heard of the ill fate of his daughter and son-in-law
he wrote and asked "Sue" and "Mike" to come to Clarkston. "This is a pretty
spot -- make this your home. I'm getting old and I want to see you again,"
he said. So Mike and Sue decided they would.
Joseph arrived in Clarkston fifteen months
before Sue and the children. He proceeded to secure land and prepare a
place for the family to live. When Sue arrived with her three boys and
little daughter, her home was to have been a "dug-out" on the lot in town
where Johnny Clark's (her son) house now stands. Sue would not move in!!
This was the year 1874. Laura was four years old; her brother Alfred was
14; her brother John was 12 and her brother James was 9. Because Mike and
Sue had given four cows and some household items to her father prior to
the time they had to leave Montana, Joseph decided to give her a log house
on the lot adjoining the "dug-out." This became the family home.
Sue had helped her husband produce shows for their theater in Montana and
had also entertained with her dancing of various dances characteristic
of England and the British Isles. Because of this she had many beautiful
clothes. This proved useful for various entertainment in Clarkston and
for trades with neighboring people. Laura remembered that her "mother had
a black satin dress which she was offered five acres of land for. She also
had a beautiful salmon pink silk dress trimmed in ribbon velvet that she
sold to Aunt Katie Griffiths."
When Sue finally assembled her home, she had a piece of linoleum under
her stove; theater scenery lined and formed partitions in her log home.
She had no place for her parlor stove so she sold it to Theo and Caroline
Griffiths. (Theo Griffiths later became Laura's mother- in-law.)
Soon Laura
was old enough to start school. Students were not graded; instead they
progressed by completing readers. There were five readers to finish in
this little school. The name of the set was "The Independent Reader" not
the MacGuffy Reader which today has become such a famous collector's item.
Laura completed all five Readers.
The family later
moved to the "head of Birch Creek." She never went to day school after
that. She took writing lessons at night from a man named Alfred White.
"I wanted to take the class because I knew how handicapped my mother was,"
Laura said. Susannah could read but she could not write. The method Mr.
White taught was called "The Capital Stem." You made it with a good muscular
action. Children today don't write with such muscular action. If you mastered
the "Capital Stem Stroke" and a few more curves and lines, you could make
any letter in the alphabet. Meticulous, graceful repetition followed in
her practicing the art of writing. "I won the prize for addressing the
most perfect envelope," she said. "I was nine years old when I wrote a
letter for my mother to my father and my brother who were then working
on the railroad in Butte, Montana. This would be in the years of 1879/1880."
"Mountain streams gushing over rocks so that the sound was a roar, wind
whistling ‘ooh' though native trees, willows and tall bunch grass -- this
was Birch Creek in those days. In the hills and partly into the mountains,
I could hear owls and magpies. Now and then a coyote barked and whined.
These were the sounds that lulled me to sleep each night and, oh, how I
liked it," said Laura.
The house was two rooms with a slant. Patrick Clark, Laura's paternal grandfather,
had come and was living with the family. He slept in the slant. One time
a neighbor was stampeding some horses past their house. Laura was alone
with her grandfather and she was afraid that the house was going to fall
down. The air was thick with dust and she felt it was hard to breath for
several hours afterward.
Lucy Ann Jensen taught Laura (Dollie was her nickname) to knit lace and
do fancy work with a needle. She enjoyed doing this handiwork, and later
in life she often knitted or crocheted lacy items for her house or new
baby. At age 87, Laura took blue, red and white ribbons at Cache County
and Utah State fairs. She did many beautiful patchwork quilts. Her grandchildren
always received a doll-sized one for a Christmas gift each year.
Her mother taught Laura and her friend Katie Heggie to dance and sing.
They performed in theater shows for special events. The girls, with Sue's
help, made native costumes and ballet slippers. The ballet slippers were
black board cloth with soles made of cardboard. These were tied on the
foot with bright colored tape which laced up the leg. Laura also enjoyed
singing. She sang at a meeting held for Bishop John Jardine when he moved
to Clarkston to serve as Bishop. She was only four years old. She continued
to sing publicly until she was 40 yrs old.
Each Friday night from 8:00 until 12:00 midnight, folks in the area, both
young and old, had a dance. The numbers were mostly "Squares" and"Reels"
and "Quadrilles." Laura especially remembered "The Waltz" or "Round Dancing"
as it was called. These were new dances. The dance was very popular among
the young folks, so after careful scrutinizing, the authorities permitted
one dance, maybe two, to be danced in an evening.
She remembered coming to Logan with her mother for the laying of the cornerstone
of the Logan temple. Brigham Young removed the first spadeful of dirt and
was the main speaker for the day. She also remembered her mother taking
her to see Martin Harris as he laid in state before his funeral. She was
a little girl but remembered him looking like an old man with a white beard.
He laid in a black home-made coffin. In his hand was a Book of Mormon.
As Sue lifted her daughter up to get a good look she said, "Now Laura,
I want you to always remember what you see here." Laura never forgot.
James,
her brother, had a friend named Frank Griffiths. He lived next door and
was in and out of the Clark home almost as often as he was in his own.
He was good looking, Laura thought-- very neat in appearance, seemed ambitious
and "toed the mark" for his widowed mother Theo and his Aunt Caroline.
Frank just seemed to be the right beau for Laura. At the age of sixteen
"Dollie" was married to "Frank" on September 19, 1886. The ceremony was
performed in Theo's new home by Bishop John Jardine, Frank's brother-in-law
to his sister Elizabeth. The marriage was later solemnized in the Logan
Temple on December 23, 1891. They had seven children--two girls and five
boys. Two boys died in infancy--James was born 19 December 1886 and died
the same day; Joseph Lewis was born 24 January 1891 and died 15 February
1891. Their living children were LaVon (born 19 October 1887), John Francis
(born 24 June 1889), Jesse William (born 15 April 1892),Laura
Susannah (born 28 May 1899), and Dell Clark (born 1 Feb 1918). Dell
was born almost 19 years after the next youngest child.
"Frank" and "Dollie" purchased their first home from old Brother Carbine.
This home had four rooms. The bedroom and living room were carpeted with
rag carpeting made on Theo and Caroline's looms. It took 30-40 lbs of rags
for an average-sized room. Underneath was padded with fresh straw. These
floors were warm and springy. Dollie had a tick bed filled with straw and
a feather-filled mattress covered the top. The bed curtains were made of
cheesecloth material extravagantly covered with hand-knitted lace. She
had fine linsey sheets woven and Caroline, as a wedding gift, gave her
beautiful sheets.
Every year the men in town would get mahogany wood from Steel's Canyon,
Cold Water Canyon and the Meadows. It took about seven loads to last the
winter. This wood was stacked around three sides of the house to help keep
the winter cold out. Each night Frank would bring in a load of wood and
fill the woodbox so Dollie had dry wood in the morning.
Later they moved to a house on the homestead north and west of town. It
was comprised of 160 acres. "Folks had to live on the land to prove-up,"
explained Laura. "So we moved to the ranch. This home was not as nice as
the one I had in town but Frank helped make the work easier. For washday
he would hook his big team to the front of an old bob-sleigh section and
put a 30-gallon barrel on it. He'd drive over to Birch Creek which was
a mile away, fill it up, and bring the barrel back and place it right on
the wood platform just outside my kitchen door. This was handy for water.
We lived at the ranch for three years."
Three years later, when their son Jess was three years old (1895), they
moved down on what is the county and state road. This was their final home.
Their neighbors were Hans and Caroline Dahle and they were very good friends,
always able to borrow from each other as needed. Even in later years, very
few days would go by without them visiting each other. This home was a
framed home built by her brother Alfred. It had three rooms downstairs
and two bedrooms up.
Frank and Dollie's service in the community was largely musical expression.
Frank sang tenor and Laura sang soprano. Both enjoyed the nights the choir
practiced. Frank played in an orchestra for dances. Dollie loved to go
with him. Always Dollie's home was filled with singing. As her children
began to grow up, they brought their cousins and friends home to sing,
not necessarily to practice for anything, but just to sing. Dollie said
Frank always joined. They had an organ and later a piano. If no one in
particular could play, Frank or Laura could at least "strike the pitch."
They enjoyed serving in the church and community services. They served
on the Old Folks Committee and enjoyed the social events as well as July
4th and 24th celebrations.
Frank died May 12, 1933 at Clarkston, Utah, of an artery that ruptured
in his head. He was 67 years old. Laura died June 23, 1958 at her home
in Clarkston, Utah at the age of 88. She was remembered as a person of
even temper and a nice sense of humor. She loved parties and games and
was a very social person. She enjoyed having company. She always kept a
tidy home with lots of handiwork displayed in her home. She enjoyed trips
to the hills, to the ranch, to the canyon and rides to new places. She
was very spry in her life, even in her later years. She enjoyed reading,
especially novels written at the turn of the century.
Laura Penelope Clark Griffiths (early years)
Frank Thomas Griffiths (Laura's husband)
Francis Thomas Griffiths and Laura Penelope
with two kids (probably LaVon and John)
Frank and Laura's home in Clarkson (built
by Uncle Alfred)
Laura Penelope Clark Griffiths (middle
years)
LaVon Griffiths (Laura's oldest daughter)
LaVon Griffiths (age 2)
LaVon Griffiths (as a young woman)
LaVon Griffiths (head pose)
LaVon Griffiths Smith and her family
Laura and Frank's four oldest children (Jesse,
John, LaVon, and Laura Susannah)
Laura's son John Francis Griffiths
(military
uniform)
Laura's son John Francis Griffiths family(Ardella,
Gloria, Gertrude, Frank, and Robert Osmond (Buddy))
Dell Griffiths (Laura's youngest son)
Osmond (Buddy), Ardella Griffiths, Laura
P. Clark Griffiths, Gloria
Laura Penelope Clark Griffiths (head pose,
later years)
Laura Penelope Clark
Griffiths (later years)
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