Written by John Thompson
(1852 - 1922)

Submitted by Ann G. Hansen

An English Convert Encounters
Martin Harris

I, John Thompson lived in London a little over two years. My father being an expert gold and silver smith was immigrated by Goram and Company of London, England, to look after their shops in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A. My father brought the rest of the family late in the fall of the same year.

We crossed the ocean in a sailing vessel, and were nine weeks on the water. While crossing the ocean our ship was caught in dense fog. It was only possible to see a short distance ahead. Suddenly there came into sight another ship sailing crosswise to us and directly ahead in our path. Our ship couldn’t stop and we crushed in to the side of the other ship and it sank. Every one on board the other ship were drowned. Our ship was so badly damaged our Captain had to put to port for repairs. Quickstep was the name of our ship.

My father worked for Goram & Company at Providence until the spring of 1862. My parents had joined the Mormon Church in the year 1848. They wanted to come to Zion; so in the year of 1862 we left Providence to come to Utah. We came by road and steamboat to Florence, stayed there a few days and then we loaded into a wagon that was drawn by four yoke of oxen. The names of the four yoke of cattle were as follows: Duke and Dim, Lion and Bay, Speck and Buck, Balley and Brand. Our Captain’s name was Murdock, and teamster’s name was John Middleston.

We arrived in Salt Lake City that fall. We went to Logan and stayed in Logan until summer of 1864 and when Israel J. Clark heard of the place which is now known as Clarkston, he and my father came here to see the place and brought me to take care of the oxen. They looked around to see about timber and a place to make a settlement. They thought there was enought water for about twenty-five families, and said they thought it was the prettiest place they had seen. They yoked up their oxen and went back to Logan and scattered the news of the things they had seen. Lots of timber and meadows with hay up to your arm-pits. Alot of people wanted to come to Clarkston. Brother Myler, Jessie Pearson, Gideon Harminson, Andrew Heggie, Simon Smith, and others came over and cut hay and stacked it on the north-west corner of what is now known as the lower five acres.

We lived in Logan that winter and moved to Clarkston in the spring. My father had charge of the cow herd and a sheep herd and I helped them for two or three years. In December of 1865 my mother died. She was the first person to be buried in the Clarkston Cemetery. The next one buried was Ole A. Jensen’s wife.

After the death of my mother we had a very hard time. The winter was very hard. We could not get out to get flour and things we needed to eat. We lived for months on boiled wheat, milk and turnips. We got the itch and had it bad. We got body lice and head lice, and we were covered with sores and boils from our heads to our feet. We were in this condition until my father got married to Caroline Griffin in October of 1867. After that we got rid of our itch and lice.

In the spring before my father married Caroline Griffin we were advised to leave Clarkston on account of the Indians. Some people went to Smithfield and some were sent to other towns. We took our sheep over the Mendon range and herded there that summer. The people came back to Clarkston in the fall and built a Fort, and every one lived in the Fort for two yeas, then they moved out on their City lots.

I herded cattle out on the promontory for two years for William V. Corbine and Robert Curley. Some of our own cattle were in the herd.

On March 10, 1872, I married Hannah Jensen. I was twenty years old. If we live to March 10, 1922, we will have been married fifty years. We have had a family of twelve children, seven sons and five daughters. While we were living in the Fort, Brother Martin Harris (Witness to the Book of Mormon,) came here and lived with his son and son’s wife, Martin and Mary Harris. They lived in a house in the Fort owned by Andrew Quigley. After the people moved out of the Fort on their City lots, the Harrises moved into a house owned by William V. O. Corbine.

At one time I took a couple apostates, Henry and John Serman, to see Martin Harris, and one of them asked Mr. Harris if he believed the Book of Mormon to be true. “No,” he said. Then they told him they had heard that he never denied the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. He told them that, he knew the Book of Mormon is true, and he said, “That goes past believing”. He then bore his testimony of seeing an angel bearing witness to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. There was a chopping block there by the house and he pointed to it and said, “Before I would deny the Book of Mormon I would lay my head on this block and let it be chopped off.” John Sermin went to Salt Lake City, joined the Church and married a Bishop’s daughter. The last I heard of him he was living a good life.

While living in the Corbine House Martin Harris died July 10, 1875. He was buried in the Clarkston Cemetery. The Book of Mormon was put in his right hand and the Doctrine and Covenants was placed in his left hand. I was called to wash and dress him and get him ready for burial.

I am glad to have had the privilege of hearing Martin Harris bear his testimony, and getting him ready for burial. Since that time I was called to wash and dress and lay out the dead in Clarkston. In those days the people of Clarkston didn’t have doctors and dentists. I used to extract teeth, set broken bones and helped to take care of the sick. I also doctored sick animals in the town.

I bought a farm and home. I owned a drygoods and grocery store. I also had the Post Office for a few years. I held many offices in town. I helped to build the first railroad that came into Cache Valley, and the first railroad leading out to Montana.