A Dusty Road and William Clark’s Pioneer Adobe Home in Lehi, Utah

Wayne E. Clark1 Lehi, Utah, 2016

I had a car in college. It was a 1947 Chevrolet. I bought it from my grandfather for $40.00. It smelled like insecticide or fertilizer of something. I had ridden in it many time before I bought it. I managed to get it past the safety inspection. I discovered that it was a good trap for horse flies. If I left it standing in the sun with the windows down the flies would start buzzing in there. Many years later in Alabama I wished many times that I still had that horse fly trap. One day I took the car to a service station in Provo to get the safety inspection. It didn't pass. I think my father sold it after that.

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corrections or additions welcome, [email protected]

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I’ve seen stories about the first cars in Lehi but I’m not going to look into that. I’m more interested in which tire tracks or maybe wagon tracks or buggy tracks are visible in an early picture of First West Street in Lehi. This is part of a 1914-1915 panoramic view of Main Street from a card that was evidently sold in the local drug store, I guess the one that was in the building that stands on the Northeast corner of the intersection of Main Street and First West Street today. That was and is the Merrihew building, which has a history as a drug store and as a bank. It’s the big building on the far right of the picture. Main Street extends eastward on the viewer’s right and First West Street extends north past the West side of the building center left. One could see the same view of First West Street from in front of my father’s house at 362 South, 100 West, in later Page 2 of 5

years. The street is visible to the point where it ends in a “T” at Sixth North Street, though resolution is low. There’s a hitching post beside of the Merrihew building, a reminder of a Lehi historian’s assertion that the photograph was taken during the period when automobiles first began to appear in Lehi. Tracks visible in the dirt on First West Street might have been made by motorized vehicles, but they’re more likely the tracks of horse-drawn conveyances. The roof of a commercial building called the Southworth Building is visible to the left of the Merrihew drug store/ bank building. Further up First West Street, the pioneer adobe home of my second great grandfather, William Clark (1825-1910) is visible, partly obscured by trees. A smoke stack for the heating building that serviced the Grammar School and the Primary School is visible in the distance between the back part of the Clark home and the Southworth Building. The 112-foot tower of the old Lehi Tabernacle isn't visible in the panorama. It must have been blocked by the Merrihew Building. Around the time of the panorama photograph, William Clark’s property on the Northwest quadrant was distributed to some of his children who subsequently sold it to the Alpine School district. The home and other buildings on the property removed and the Lehi High School/Junior High School athletic field was installed there. I walked along that path, past the athletic field, to First, Second and Page 3 of 5

Third grade in the Grammar School, then further up the street beginning in the Fourth Grade to the Lehi Elementary School that was built just beyond the point where First West Street ended. I doubt William Clark ever saw an automobile. His son, my great grandfather William Wheeler Clark (1855-1934) is said to have hauled freight from Lehi to Salt Lake City for his father with large ox teams so maybe there was a place for a wagon and some oxen on the premises in those days. If William and William Wheeler were to come back today they would see plenty of cars. The house and presumably the facilities occupied by those oxen and the

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wagon is now a large parking lot serving the Lehi Legacy Center. Note : This story is drawn from information in the following documents which contain the supporting references and documentation. The Old Fort Wall, a Herd of Cows, and a Near and Dear Neighbor in Lehi, Utah, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5wDxipAGQN2UG02ZnVLd2JRbVE/view? usp=sharing, 37 MB Melissa Lott Smith Bernhisel Willes and three Joseph Smiths, https:// drive.google.com/file/d/0B5wDxipAGQN2RFNmLW1sdTNSMlk/view?usp=sharing, 2 MB My "Aunt Melissa:” Melissa Lott Smith Bernhisel Willes, https:// drive.google.com/file/d/0B5wDxipAGQN2OTFNUUVSR0h4TTA/view?usp=sharing, 11 MB William Clark (1825-1910): His Pioneer Adobe Home in Lehi, Utah, and the Homes of his Neighbors and Descendants, https://drive.google.com/file/d/ 0B5wDxipAGQN2cmRUN0Z0NklMaTA/view?usp=sharing, 21 MB Pioneer Adobe Homes on the Memorial Building and Legacy Center Blocks in Lehi, Utah, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5wDxipAGQN2MWRJVk1GNlVPVWM/ view?usp=sharing, 16 MB These, and similar documents, as well as other stories by Wayne E. Clark, are posted at Lehi Historical Society and Archives: Historical Archive Indexes, https:// www.lehihistory.com

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