Anderson-Clark Farmstead

The Anderson-Clark Farmstead is significant under Criterion A for its association with the agricultural development of Grantsville, and two of its most important families. The property includes a 1941 house and twelve contributing outbuildings, dating from the 1880s to 1944. The property is eligible within the Multiple Property Submission: Historic and Architectural Resources of Grantsville, Utah, 1850-1955. The history of the property can be divided into two distinct periods: the original farmstead of Charles and Ellen Anderson (1870s1914) and the production farm operated by the J. Reuben Clark family (1914-1955). The development and significance of the property spans all three historic contexts in the MPS: the “Mormon Agricultural Village Period, 1867-1905,” the “Impact of Technology and Transportation Period, 1905-1930,” and the “Economic Diversification Period, 1930-1955.” All of the extant resources on the farmstead have excellent historic integrity with very few modifications. The Anderson-Clark Farmstead is a distinctive collection of agricultural outbuildings and as such contributes to the historic resources of Grantsville, Utah.

The Anderson-Clark Farmstead is located at 378  West Clark Street in Grantsville, Utah and was added to the National Register of Historic Places (#05001627) on February 3, 2006.

The community of Grantsville was settled on October 10, 1850, three years after the first settlement of the Salt Lake Valley by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church or Mormon Church). In 1852 a town site was surveyed. Most on the earliest and largest farmsteads were on the north side of town along the street which paralleled Main Street and would later be called Clark Street in honor of the Clark family who settled there. The evolution of the farmstead, as managed both by the Anderson and the Clark families, illustrates the transition of Grantsville from an agricultural village outpost to a diversified economic town on the main transportation route from Salt Lake City to western Nevada. The various outbuildings of the farmstead represent the beginning and the subsequent expansion of production agriculture in Grantsville, which occurred between the end of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century as improvements in farm technology and transportation emerged.

One of the early settlers of Grantsville was Charles LeRoy Anderson, who was born in northern Sweden on April 11, 1846. He immigrated to Utah in 1862. Charles L. Anderson homesteaded a large parcel near the west end of Clark Street in the mid-1860s, probably near the time of his marriage to Ellen Okelberry in 1866. Ellen was born on May 17, 1850 in Sweden, and immigrated to Utah with her family at the age of twelve. Charles and Ellen had eight children, two of whom died in infancy. Their life began humbly, but they eventually became among the most prosperous residents of Grantsville at the turn of the century. Their children were all well-educated and several were gifted musicians. A biographical sketch published in 1902 published described Charles Anderson’s rise to affluence:

He began as a sheep man in 1869, when he took one hundred and forty head of old sheep on shares. From this unpropitious beginning his interest have grown and his business expanded until to-day he is one of the most prominent and the wealthiest man in his county, owning vast herds of sheep, which he ranges in Wyoming principally, and being also a heavy land owner in Tooele County. He owns a farm of six hundred acres in the vicinity of Grantsville, on which he has erected a beautiful modern home, and has it well stocked, building large and commodious barns and outbuildings for his stock.

Charles L. Anderson also had numerous interests in the mining companies throughout Utah. Locally he served as director in the following organizations: Grantsville Co-operative Store, North Willow Irrigation Company and the Richville Milling Company. Beginning in 1876, Anderson served three terms as the mayor of Grantsville. Around 1904, the family moved to Los Angeles for Ellen’s health. Charles L. Anderson died there on December 10, 1908. Ellen Anderson sold the Grantsville property to J. Reuben Clark Jr. in 1914. She died in Los Angeles on June 6, 1918. Charles and Ellen Anderson were both returned to Utah for burial.

The 1914 deed to the property purchased by J. Reuben Clark included the following detailed inventory of improvements:

One slaughter house and pens with one complete hoisting outfit, including block and tackle, six hanging hooks and track in floor of building; two barns with hay carrier and tracks and pulleys for filling barns with hay; two Jackson hay forks; derrick with pulleys, one wagon and machine house; one have granary complete; one weigh scale; one feed chopper; one windmill and pump complete with large tank and pipelines to corrals and house; one adobe chicken coop and one root cellar and stack year; one ice house with one-half sawdust now in same; one small adobe house and gas plant; one coal house; one cellar adjacent to the big house; one summer shanty adjacent to big house with one large range contained therein; one outhouse; one large adobe dwelling house with all light, bath, and toilet fixtures; one small two room house with shanty east of big house and small chicken coop adjacent thereto.

Charles Andersen’s “modem home” was the large adobe dwelling house. The two-story house was unfortunately demolished by in 1917. Many of the outbuildings still exist, and while the usage evolved for many and others were razed, the above description combined with the extant buildings give a fairly complete picture of a prosperous turn-of-the-century farmstead.

J. Reuben Clark Jr. was the oldest child of early Grantsville settlers Joshua Reuben Clark (1840-1929) and Mary Louisa Woolley Clark (1848-1938). Joshua and Mary Clark had ten children, all born in Grantsville. They were among its most prominent and honored citizens. Joshua Reuben Jr. was born on September 1, 1871. By the time he purchased the farm from the Anderson family, who had been neighbors during his childhood years in Grantsville, J. Reuben Clark had already moved from Grantsville to pursue a career in law. He married Luacine Savage (1871-1944) in 1898. The family moved from Salt Lake City to Washington, DC, to New York City during the first half of the twentieth century. He received a law degree from Columbia University, and in 1910 was appointed a solicitor in the US State Department. Clark had a distinguished career in international law. In 1917, he became a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Reserve Corps. Clark served as undersecretary of state in 1927 and appointed ambassador to Mexico in 1930. In 1933, he resigned as ambassador to accept a call to the First Presidency of the LDS Church and returned to Salt Lake City. He served as the second counselor in the First Presidency for 26 years. In 1959, he was sustained as the first counselor to President David O. McKay making him the second highest official in the LDS Church.

J. Reuben Clark Jr. did not live in either the Anderson’s adobe house or the 1941 house built after his return to Salt Lake City. He had an office in the basement of the house and at times entertained there. Clark mainly used the house as a retreat where he could relax for a few days, visit relatives, and enjoy some work on the farm. This lifetime connection to Grantsville was important him. He maintained strong emotional ties to his boyhood in the neighborhood and referred to himself as a “Tooele County cowman.” J. Reuben Clark Jr. died on October 6, 1961. At his death, Grantsville’s most prominent native son was honored both by his peers and locally in Grantsville and Tooele.

The day-to-day working of the farm fell mainly to J. Reuben Clark Jr.’s younger brother Ted. Edwin Marcellus Clark was born on March 27, 1874 in Grantsville. He lived on Clark Street his entire life and devoted himself to working the family’s farm holdings. The farm produced hay and other grains for cattle and sheep. One of the barns was upgraded on the interior for dairy production in the 1930s or 1940s. Edwin Clark married Matilda Curtis Radcliffe on December 4,1895. It is possible Edwin and Matilda lived in the Anderson’s adobe house before it was destroyed by fire, but where they lived on Clark Street is not known. The couple had six children. Edwin M. Clark was the secretary for the Grantsville Grazing Association for more than 40 years. For the same amount of time, he served on the board of the North Willow Irrigation Company. Edwin Clark was a city councilman and the city recorder for 18 years. He was bishop of the Grantsville LDS Church’s 2nd Ward and was serving as the stake patriarch at the time of his death. Edwin “Ted” Marcellus Clark died on March 21, 1955. Matilda C. Clark served in the 2nd Ward primary (children’s) organization for 15 years. She was also the Relief Society organist. At the time of her death, she was living at 317 E. Clark Street. Matilda Clark died on October 5, 1962.

Other members of the extended family of Joshua and Mary Clark lived in the neighborhood and may have been involved in the operation of the farm, but their roles are not known. It is known that after Edwin and J. Reuben Clark’s deaths, the property was jointly owned by the heirs. J. Reuben Clark III and his sister Luacine Clark Fox held the largest interests. The farm continued its use as a family retreat. The farm was run by a number of caretakers, some living in the brick house. The farmstead was a working farm until the late 1990s. In 2004, the Clark family (Emily C. Clark, trustee, and the Clark Realty Co.) divided the property and deeded approximately 14 acres to Grantsville City. The parcels include the house, the outbuildings, and a large field to the north. The city has named the property the “J. Reuben Clark Historical Farm” and plans a complete rehabilitation of the site and its resources.