They are not all living today - unless you might say they live in their deeds or in a name engraved upon stone- but one thing they had in common was their name: Thomas Cloward.
It may not have been a great name, as kings and rulers go, but one thing for sure, it has been a popular one.

Thomas P. Cloward, the Utah Pioneer, made the first pair of shoes that were made in Utah, and he and his son Thomas Cloward; his grandson, Thomas Junior Cloward, and his great-grandson, T.J. Cloward, have all made their homes in Payson. Another grandson, also Thomas Cloward, lives today at Whiterocks, Utah.

Thomas P. Cloward, the pioneer, was one of the 143 members of the company who were with Brigham Young when, on July 24, 1847, he looked out over the valley of the Great Salt Lake.

Thomas received the "P" in his name some years before, at the age of 15, he had been bound out as an apprentice at the shoemaking trade. It being the custom to take the name of his "master," with whom he lived while learning a trade.

When he was 24 he enlisted with a company of picked Mormon men whose purpose was to explore the Rocky Mountains. He left Winter Quarters with the company of Heber C. Kimball, being one of the first wagons in the line of the march. During the long trek he drove the team of the Kimballs when the latter became ill.

Thomas Cloward, a son of a pioneer has long ago returned to his maker, but he too was a pioneer of his day, having been born in the year 1854 at Provo. He homsteaded land in Salem and Payson, Utah and turned acres of sage and barren waste into a land of well-tilled crops.
The third Thomas Cloward in direct descent from the pioneer is living in Payson today. He takes pride in being one of those who are sponsoring a Cloward reunion to be held July 18 at Payson. Last year at a similar gathering more than 500 descendents of the pioneer met in their first reunion, commemorating the anniversary of the 100th year of the family's residence in Utah.

The Fourth in the line of descent is T.J. Cloward, handsome young veteran of World War II, who was born on the birthday of his great-grandfather, Thomas P. Cloward the pioneer. With his wife and young daughter he makes his home in Payson.