Clark Davis

Love Begins

Clark Davis is the son of Lloyd and Irene Davis. He is first seen when he and his best friend Daniel Whittaker ride into the small down of Trinity, Missouri on their way to California. Clark has further plans to catch a tramp steamer out of San Francisco to get to China. He has a dream to see the Great Wall. However, when the two stop into the local restaurant to eat, Daniel incites a brawl, and the two are ultimately locked up. Clark wants to plead guilty to the damages, and be able to work off his debt, but Daniel insists they plead not guilty. He escapes from the jail that night while the night deputy is sleeping. When the sheriff returns the next morning and finds only one prisoner, he makes an arrangement with Clark to work off his debt at a local farm. It is here that he meets and falls in love with Ellen Barlow. They marry, and Clark takes over care of Ellen's family farm.

Love's Everlasting Courage

When Clark marries Ellen, he takes over the care of her family farm. When a drought strikes, his mother and father come for a visit, and his father helps him to find water. In the mean time, Ellen takes a job with the tailor, and falls ill with scarlet fever. Ellen dies, and Clark is left to care for the farm and the couple's young daughter by himself.

Love Comes Softly

Clark has grown stronger in his faith through the loss of his wife, but Missie has turned into a tomboy with little education. When young Marty Claridge's husband dies suddenly on the way to their claim outside of Trinity, Clark makes her a deal: if she marries him and teaches his daughter to read and write and be a lady, he will pay for her passage to get back home to New England. She accepts, and Clark brings her back to the farm. Clark seems unaware of how much Missie terrorizes Marty, but when she lets on that they are having a problem, Clark helps her through it. He helps her realize that God is ever present, and he doesn't let bad things happen: he just holds us up when they do. When there is no time to find help, he delivers Marty's son, Aaron. Clark falls in love with Marty, and when she leaves in the spring, he goes after her.

Love's Enduring Promise

Ten years after Clark and Marty have fallen in love, they still live on the farm, and have another son, Arnie. When Aaron (who recognizes Clark as his father) and Clark are chopping wood, Aaron is scared by a trap and yells, just as Clark is swinging the axe. He is startled, and hits his leg instead of the wood. He is unconscious by the time Aaron drives the wagon back to the farm. Clark takes a turn for the worse, but eventually his leg heals, and he is able to help Nate, the hand that Missie has taken on, with the harvest.

Love's Long Journey

Clark has said goodbye to his daughter and her new husband, Willie (Nate), and he and Marty are overjoyed at that they will become grandparents. Clark helps Missie by way of letters through telling Willie about the baby, through having Christmas without her family there, and through the struggles of her new marriage.

Love's Abiding Joy

After eight years of being apart, Clark finally gets to visit his daughter in Tetsford Junction. But soon after he arrives, tragedy strikes the small family when Willie and Missie's infant daughter, Kathy, dies suddenly in her sleep. Clark is distraught, but he helps his daughter through the pain and heartache of losing Kathy.