Tribune July 11 - 57 Mr. Clark’s 103 Years Tribune July 11-57 Mr. Clark’s 103 Years When Joseph Smith Clark was born at Farmington, the original Mormon pioneers had been in the territory only seven years. Incorporated Salt Lake City was only three years old. That year, 1854, Brigham Young received his second appointment as territorial governor but trouble with outsiders, trouble that was to lead to the "Utah War," was beginning. Millard Fillmore was President of the U.S. and he authorized the forcible reopening of isolated Japan by Commodore Perry that year. The act organizing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska was passed in 1854, by implication repealing the Missouri Compromise on slavery and bringing on the Civil War. Indirectly the act opened the way for building the Union Pacific Railroad and caused popular dissatisfaction which sparked the organization of the Republican Party. The year 1854 also saw the emergence of the Know-Nothing Party, the rise of which was symptomatic of the breakup of the two major parties over the slavery issue. An obscure Illinois lawyer named Abraham Lincoln made his first public speech condemning slavery and the Kansas-Nebraska Act that year. Up to his fatal illness, Mr. Clark, who died at 103 in Salt Lake City Tuesday, remained interested in national, state and church affairs. He looked back with satisfaction on a successful career. Self-educated, he was president of the Davis County Bank more than 50 years and had served on the Farmington City Council and held other civic responsibilities. As a young man he worked on the construction of the Union Pacific and he assisted with the settlement of the Bear Lake area. One hundred and three years is a long time "to live. Mr. Clark made good use of those years.