This was given before the High Priests of the Thatcher Fifth Ward on September 5, 1999:
"I don't know what eggs were selling for when I was born, but I do recall that when my Grandfather Hyrum Claridge gave me two eggs with which to buy some candy, I was 4. Grandpa directed me to go across the alley to Johnny Morris' grocery store located approximately where Thatcher City Hall now stands, and present my eggs and the man would give me some candy. I did and he did and I had candy enough to last for two days. The principle of barter was still in force."
"Now I was born in the Territory of Arizona, at Thatcher, on September 26, 1911, to Elizabeth Claridge Crandall and Stanley L. Crandall. Shortly after my birth my parents took me along with them to Los Angeles, California. There my father entered a school of pharmacy and began his career. Prior to this time, my father worked for Doctor William E. Platt at the latter's drug store in Thatcher."
"My spiritual heritage, as you can surmise from my pedigree sheet, goes back to the time of the Prophet Joseph Smith, when the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was accomplished. My ancestor, David Crandall, joined the church at that time. On my mother's side, my progenitor Samuel Claridge of Leighton Buzzard, England, joined the church in England when he was a young man and came to American to join the pioneer exodus westward with the saints. Both sides of my ancestry were pioneers."
"My beginnings, as far as my memories serve me, begin at about age four. I spent my childhood and adolescent years in Safford. I accomplished a number of things peculiar to boys of my era, namely I learned to play marbles, I learned to milk a cow and ride a horse and eat ice-cream. It was my father who started Crandall's Pharmacy at 417 Main Street in Safford. Naturally, I became a Drug Store Cowboy, as the saying went, otherwise known as the Soda Jerk. My father put me to work in his store as soon as I could see over the counter and make change at the cash register. I attended the public schools in Safford up through High School. I played football and engaged in all the sports that came along. I was class president and student-body president and captain of the football team during my High School days. In 1927, I got to travel to Chicago with the SHS basketball team that won the state championship that year. Then I spent one year at Gila Junior College under Harvey Taylor. It was during that year one day that President Spencer W. Kimball tapped me on the shoulder and said: Clarence I want you to enter the Atwater Kent Radio singing contest. I was a basso-profundo in those days. Well, I entered the contest and sang Bells of the Lighthouse. I won first place in Graham County, but lost out in the state finals."
"It was at that time that I had my sights aimed at becoming a medical doctor, so accordingly, I matriculated at the University of Arizona for classes that I couldn't get at Gila College. I came home on a visit over the weekend of April 24, 1932. While at church, President Spencer W. Kimball urged me to alter my sights for a couple years and fulfill a mission for the church. I acquiesced without argument, so Pres. Kimball conferred the Melchizedek Priesthood upon me and ordained me to the office of an Elder. My papers went into Salt Lake City, and before I could say "Ambusol", President Heber J. Grant sent me a letter that advised me that I would fulfill my mission in Germany. It was the Swiss-German Mission with headquarters at Basel, Switzerland. I spent a week at the mission home in SLC where I was given orientation in the Gospel and in mission rules. We didn't have an MTC in those days. The missionary had to learn the language where he was sent. I was given clergyman status and furnished with a minister's certificate and dispatched forthwith to Germany. At New York I boarded the SS Leviathon along with several other missionaries and watched the waves roll by for six days between New York and Bremerhaven."
"This was destined to be one of the strangest of all proselyting missions. Six months after my arrival in Germany, the nefarious Adolf Hitler took over the reins of government in Germany from President Paul von Hindenburg. The pogrom against the Jews took place immediately and all foreigners became suspect, so open proselyting came to an abrupt halt. All contacts with friends of the church had to be done on a surreptitious basis. And if one couldn't spell "Nationalsozialistichedeutchearbeiterpartei", he too became suspect. The Jewish people were characterized as pigs and vermin and were summarily carted off to concentrations camps. I was detained by the GESTAPO (Geheimestaatspolizei) on two occasions to give an account of my presence and purpose in Germany. My American passport and German visa made a difference. Yet I was hailed before a committing magistrate to explain why I didn't have an "Aufenthaltserlaubnis" (permit of residence), all of which fostered and excuse for German authorities to question my purpose in Germany. In the interrogation by this magistrate I had to explain the Book of Mormon and other church literature in my possession. Little did he know that in my explanations he was piling up counts against himself in the Lord's Kingdom; i.e. unless this event led him to join the church, which is doubtful. I had to return to his office another two times to be interrogated on the same questions. Each time he got the same answers plus a few more twists about the gospel. These interviews took place in Minden, Westfalen."
"It was during my sojourn in the Westfalen area that I had an "echtdeutscher" (a German) as a companion. He had been called upon a mission from the Augsburg Branch. He was educated and so turned out to be a real boon to me while I was assimilating all the complexities of the German language. It was this factor that served me well when I was transferred to the Ruhr Gebiet as District President over eleven branches of the Mission. My headquarters were at Dortmund, which was at the center of Germany's munitions factories. My assignment was to visit all of these branches once per month and settle all their disputes and disorganization. Conscription into the armed fores of Germany was making inroads upon the organization of many branches of the church. So I had my hands full in that regard. It entailed also the dispatching of monthly reports to Basel concerning branch organization, tithing reports, etc. The Church asked me to extend my mission tenure as long as possible in view of the cut-back of missionaries to Germany. By the time I reached home in June 1935, I had been gone exactly three years. My travel time homeward after my release took almost a month. Because of certain restrictions travel wise in Germany ( I was allowed to leave Germany with only ten Reich marks in my possession). I had to go to Basel Switzerland to pick up some travel money and travel orders. Then I took time out to visit the Swiss Alps and exit Europe by way of France and England. Upon arriving in the United States (again by boat), I deviated my course and spent several days in Washington D.C. I had friends there who counseled me to place a few applications for employment with the government, because I was going to find that the "great depression" was still in force and that there were no jobs to be had."
"Upon arriving home in Safford, Arizona, I was immediately set upon by various service clubs who wished to have me address their club concerning the situation in Germany. To them it appeared that war was imminent. This kept me busy for a start. I helped out somewhat in my father's Drug Store, but it was obvious that there was no room for me in the store anymore. my brothers had grown up and taken over. My place had been usurped. Howbeit I was able to obtain some temporary work with the Soil Conservation Service, and later with the National Park Service at the Petrified Forest of Arizona. It was while employed at the Petrified Forest that I received a telegram from the Federal Bureau of Investigation at Washington D.C. offering me an appointment with that Bureau as a clerk."
TO BE CONTINUED...
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