CLARENCE LEROY NELSON son of Swanty Nelson and Charlotte Josephine Johnson was born 25 Oct. 1884 in Oakley, Cassia County, Idaho. He was the 6th child. He was blessed 5 February 1885 by H.D. Clark. He was baptized 3 August 1893 by Joseph Y. Haight and confirmed 3 August 1893 by George Bunn. He was a typical boy, very full of mischief and energy. He rightfully earned the nick name “Swanty’s Angel.” Some of his childhood activities were making beautiful designs in his father’s new saddle with shoe tacks; picking the small unripe gooseberries in which he received spankings with a rope. One time he talked his sister May into flying off the barn because he knew she could fly. He would watch his Aunt Sophia’s garden and when it would be at the most beautiful stage he would lift the board head gate and flood the garden. Cyrus Hunter and Clarence rode into the dance hall on horses and shot the lights out of the chandeliers.
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| Clarence LeRoy Nelson's Birth Place in Oakley Idaho |
He attended school in Oakley, which was a one room log school house. One Halloween he took the wheels, bumper and other parts off an old buggy and then reassembled it on top of the ‘Old Academy’. He took a belt and put it around a cow and then hooked it onto a derrick and hoisted the cow into the air. At a gathering he hid an egg under a ladies hat without her knowing it. He looked for the egg and stated as he hit the top of the ladies hat, “I’ll be damned if I can find that egg.” You can imagine what happened after that!
Clarence always told the time by the sun. He loved to ride at night so he traveled mostly by moonlight.
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| Clarence Nelson and George Poulton |
Set apart as a missionary:
Blessing pronounced upon the head of Elder Clarence LeRoy Nelson at the Salt Lake Temple, by Elder George Reynolds of the First Council of Seventy on Sept. 28, 1906.
"Brother Clarence LeRoy Nelson, as servants of God, and your brothern, we bless you at this time and set you apart as a missionary to New Zealand, to labor in that land as directed by those who may preside over you. And we say unto you, make the kingdom of God and His righteousness be your every consideration, let nothing stand between you and the fullfillment of your duty.
You are to go forth as a messenger of Heaven, bearing the glad tidings and bearing them in the name of the Lord. You shall have great joy in your labors, and bring many to an understanding of the truth.
We bless you that your soul may magnify the Lord your creator, and this by your faithfulness and devotion, and that you may, while you are on this mission and in your after life, exercise great patience and humility, and all the graces and gifts of God that pertain to this calling, and that God has promised unto you, shall be yours. Be fervent in spirit, wise in counsel, diligent in well doing, faithful in the performance of your duty, and God will bear you up, and no evil shall have power to destroy your usefulness, but you shall be blessed of the Lord wherever you go, and His spirit shall guide you in all your labors, and success shall attend our efforts, and your work shall be attended by the grace of God. We pray the Lord in your behalf that He will preserve you from evil, from temptation and from every power of darkness and bring you home again in safety and peace to your family and loved ones here in Zion. These blessings we seal upon your head in the name of Jesus our Redeemer. Amen"
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| Clarence Mission Call |
He received his endowments on 1 Oct. 1906 prior to serving a mission in New Zealand.
The night before he was to leave on his mission, he got drunk and rode a bucking horse through the town yelling, “I’m Swanty’s Angel and I’m going on a mission for the church. He got quite sea sick on the boat traveling to New Zealand. He was the first one to plant wheat in New Zealand and he taught the people many things. He also taught school. He loved the people and especially the children. Although he was lonely for the loved one’s at home, he really hated to leave those people.
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| Clarence & Missionary companions (far left middle row) |
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| Clarence, Ila Vera marriage certificate |
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| Clarence LeRoy Nelson - Wedding Picture |
He married Ila Vera Poulton on 8 April 1914 in the Salt Lake Temple. They made their home in Oakley Idaho where they had a ranch. Clarence helped build up the community, building roads, the Oakley Dam, and digging a well to find warm water up Trapper Creek. Husband and wife shared the burdens alike. Clarence helped Ila in the house and she helped him with the outside chores.
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| Ila Vera Poulton - Wedding Picture |
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| Clarence Ila Family Home in Oakley |
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| Winter view of home |
As you entered the front door you entered the living room with a wood burning stove. The kitchen was straight back, the porch was on the left with an outside door. The two bedrooms were on the left and were cold.
When Ila was 'Jawing" Clarence he would take a jar of cream and strap on the back of his horse and leave instead of arguing with her. When he returned from riding the cream had been made into butter from the nove
He was once accused of killing a man. He rode on horseback to Nevada and found Ollie Bates at the Tipperary Saloon. He brought him back to Oakley to prove his innocence.
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| Ila and Clarence at the Bostetter Ranger Station where he worked |
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| Clarence riding in the mountains |
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| Clarence on his horse |
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| Clarence in middle |
He could discipline with very few words and you knew he meant it. He was proud of his family and was always interested in anything they took part in. He was an excellent speller and spent many hours drilling his children on spelling. Their home was full of love and religion played a great part of their lives. Clarence was very agile and they family spent lots of winter evenings seeing how high they could kick, going through the broom handle and picking a match up off the floor and touching the floor with their hands while keeping knees held firm.
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| Clarence LeRoy Nelson and daughter Carol on horse |
To this happy couple 8 children was born. Merna Adelaide, 9 Jan 1915; Bernice 28 Nov. 1916; Wanda 7 Dec. 1918; LaRae 24 Jan. 1922; Wilma 4 March 1925; Robert Clarence 2 March 1928; Betty Louise 11 March 1930; Alice Carol 11 Dec 1932. He was an excellent father.
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| Robert, Wanda, LaRae, Clarence, Ila Vera, Wilma, Bernice, Merna Betty, Carol |
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| Keith, Kay, Jan, Ila Vera, Clarence, Russell Pauline, Jimmy, Allen, Roy, Ilene, Cheryle |
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| Family in wagon in front of home in Oakley |
One time Gene Emery had appendicitis and his hay needed cut so Clarence got a crew together and put up all of his hay. Gene was very grateful and paid him with a beautiful pair of Indian beaded buckskin gloves. He was very broad minded and had friends in every walk of life. He had a good sense of humor.
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| Merna Nelson pulling the harrow; Clarence LeRoy Nelson plowing |
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| Clarence LeRoy Nelson worked at the Ranger Station in Bostetter |
The family experienced many hardships. One Christmas during the depression there wasn’t any money and each of the girls received a doll and Robert received a pocketknife in the bottom of their stockings. Robert cried because he recognized his father’s old knife and he thought Santa had forgotten him. This must have been hard for Clarence to see his only son so disappointed.
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| Family Home in Oakley |
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| Clarence LeRoy Nelson received these gloves from the Indians who came to Oakley each summer to hunt and fish. Clarence would give them apples from his orchard. |
They always had a house full of company and everyone that entered the house was fed. The children remember their father rising early to start the fire in the coal stove. The water had to be hauled from the canal and heated on the stove. They raised a big orchard next to their home and during apple season they gave apples away to everyone who came along, net receiving a penny.
Clarence use to say, “Sugar and cream makes anything good” and he put sugar and cream on nearly everything he ate. He took a thick slice of white homemade bread and he would spread it with a thick layer of homemade butter and then he would sprinkle it with sugar and then spread really thick cream over the top.
He was known by everyone for his firm hand shake and his strength. Even 26 years after his death, if his name is mentioned among people that knew him, they will say, “he was one of the best men I ever knew.”
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| Clarence Brothers & Sisters in front of their home they grew up in |
Some of his favorite dishes were rice and raisins, sour dough, baked squash, fried venison, bread and milk. He sang a lot and was very affectionate. They always had their prayers night and morning. One time he bought every granddaughter a pair of boots that looked like white drum majorette boots with a tassle hanging from a string in the front. His daughter was still small and Carol was broken hearted because she didn’t get any boots.
He received his patriarchal blessing on 16 March 1930 by William Taylor Harper:
"Brother Clarence LeRoy Nelson in authority of the Holy Pristhood I lay my hands upon your head and give unto you a patriarchal blessing. Thereby reveal unto you the tings which the Lord woul have you do, in order that your name may be perpetuated in earth and leave behind you that shall come up in honorable remembrance before the Lord, when you have completed your earthly mission. Thou art of the seed of Joseph and heir to the covenants of the Holy Priesthod.
The Lord has blessed you with responsibility; therefore dear brother be humble and prayerful before the Lord. Always keep your home in order through faith and humility that your children may respect your example and always remember the Lord in their homes through the faith and humility of their father.
Therefore, may you enjoy the inspiration of the spirit of the Lord in all that you say and do. That you may be excepted of him.
Remember that faith and humility will bring the blessings of the Lord to your home, that when you ask him in times of trouble of sickness he will hear and answer you. You will have faith to acknowledge his blessings, honor your Priesthood in all your walks in life and there is no blessing which the Lord will withhold from you, that shall be for your good. I seal upon you dear brother every blessing that shall make you a Redeemer in Israel and seal you up to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, crowned with immortality and eternal life. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen"
His priesthood ordinations are: Deacon – 7 Jan 1900 by Norlon Tuttle; Teacher 24 Feb 1904 by Rosel L. Hunter; Priest by Rosel L. Hunter; Elder 24 Sept 1906 by Rosel L. Hunter; High Priest 8 May 1910 by William Taylor Harper.
Special assignments were: 1st Counselor to Bishop W.A. Hale of Oakley 2nd Ward and was set apart to that calling by Melvin J. Ballard.
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| Ila Vera and Clarence LeRoy |
“Memory of handshake still brings thrill to Clarence Nelson’s friends”. Clarence Nelson was a member of the Stake High Council for many years. The very mention of that name brings a thrill to memory and one can almost feel the warmth and grip of a hearty handshake. Elder Nelson never cowed before wrong. He never played coward or sneaked around the bush with knife in hand. Mormonism was in action in his life. Does not the parable of the Good Samaritan pierce the very heart of the Christian doctrine?
The following instance reveals the inner life of this faithful man: In the month of February Mr. William Gray was up Goose Creek. His son was to be operated on. Mrs. Gray called Clarence at two o’clock in the morning and said, “Clarence, if you know of anyone going up Groose Creek tomorrow, would you please ask them to tell Will to come down as Russell is being operated on.” “I am going up Groose Creek right now and I will let Will know,” responded Clarence. Against her protest and with the thermometer twenty degrees below zero, this Good Samaritan saddled his horse and rode throughout the mountains for miles to take to a father the report of his son’s illness.
Newspaper article "Clarence Nelson" is Praised as One Who Never Stooped to any Little, Mean Thing"
At the funeral of Clarence LeRoy Nelson, which was held in the L.D.S. Tabernacle Thursday afternoon of last week. Bishop Rosel H.Hale of Oakley Second Ward presided. Mr. Nelson had died in the L.D.S. hospital at Salt Lake City September 12, 1943.
The mixed double quartet directed by Mrs. Althera Hardy (Mrs. Althera Hardy, Miss Dona Faye Clark, Miss Rachel Hale, Mrs. LaVaun Severe, John S. Martin, Blaine Martindale, Forrest Severe, Ezra Clark) sang "Beyond the Hilltops." Mrs. John S. Martin was accompaniest for the songs.
Ivan W. Holt offered prayer. Blaine Martindale sang "Silver Haired Daddy of Mine." President Charles S. Clark, the first speaker, paid tribute to Clarence Nelson as a man who had always supported him in every decision he had rendered since becoming stake president. President Clark mentioned Clarence's democratic spirit and recalled the grasp of his handshake-a grasp which thrilled one with the thought that he was in the presence of a friend. He said that the fact that the funeral was one of the most largely attended in Oakley in years spoke in better terms than he could of what people thought of Clarence. Glen Critchfield played "Home on the Range" as a trumpet solo. The next speaker was Rufus K.Hardy, one of the presidents of the First Quorum of Seventies of the General Authorities of the L.D. S church. He had been President of the New Zealand mission 35 years ago when Clarence was serving on his mission there. President Hardy developed the theme that Clarence's troubles, anxieties and struggles of this world are over; that there was no occassion to feel sorry for him; that he had run the race, had fought the fight, and had won. The speaker referred to the fact that whenever any couple is married, it is almost a foregone conclusion that a separation must sooner or later take place. He had never known a couple who passed from this life simultaneously. President Hardy said in part: "There is one instance I shall always remember about this man when I was in New Zealand. For two months it had been known that the elders were going into the country, riding their bicycles. Oil was very scarce. When the day came for their departure, a number of them were in distress for they had no oil for their vehicles. To the surprise and gratifiction of the entire group, Elder Nelson brought forth enough oil to supply them all. He had had the foresight and initiative to see that this vital necessity was taken care of. Nile Matthews of Burley sang "A Perfect Day." Wallace A. Hale, to whom Clarence had been counselor in the Oakley Second Ward Bishopric for years, said that no man ever had a better counselor: "Clarence was a man of sound judgment and integrity. Whenever I had a difficult problem as bishop, he was always a pillar on which to lean." Cyrus Hunter the next speaker, said he always had been acquainted with Clarence Nelson. The two had been boys together, and were born the same year, and were in the same grade at school. "During all this time," siad Elder Hunter, "I have never known my friend Clarence to stoop to any little mean thing. He was a lover of children. He once told me that the most difficult task he ever faced in his life was leaving the children to whom he had been attached to in New Zealand. Clarence had remarked: "When I looked at those little kids and thought that I would never see them again in this life, I could scarcely break away, even to come home." Bishop Wilford W. Sagers, the concluding speaker, in paying a tribute to Clarence as "a man of fine extraction and courageous mold," declared that Mr. Nelson was built from good timber, woven from fine fabric, carved from enduring granite. I have been traditionalized in this conviction that one of the grandest men whose personality ever cheered the people of Oakley was Swanty Nelson; and one of the sweetest souls who ever mingled among thoes of her sex was Sister Swanty Nelson. Bishop Sagers continued, "Clarence was absolutely unafraid. He never played coward. He refused to be bluffed and he couldn't be honeycombed by the slicker. He was not a policy man or a politician. He was plain spoken, he expressed his opinions as conscience dictated and there he stood- let the world make the best of it." Referring to Clarence's affliction, Bishop Sagers said: "I have often thought of the anxiety of Sister Nelson. Because of the difficulty of diagnosis of this affliction, Clarence had never left the house but what his wife's eyes followed him; and he never went away from home but what she spent anxious hours waiting for his return. Only God and she know the prayers of her heart. I pray God with the rest of you that in this hour she will find comfort in the realization that Clarence has found peace and rest." The mixed double quartet sang "Beyond Today." John Franks offered prayer. The graveside prayer was by J. Earl Whitely.
To Clarence Mormonism was a faith, not a mummery. Religion was meant to be translated into action. He is the kind of man that we live in hopes of again feeling the grip of his greetings. May God bless Vera and the children.
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| Headstone in Oakley, Idaho Cemetery |
