Harley Hooker was a born salesman. He was the sales manager for the High Line Seed Farms Company that offered 4,000 acres of land on the Clover tract, so named for its Clover alfalfa. Hooker needed buyers and focused his efforts on German Lutherans in southeastern Nebraska. If you’re a German Lutheran, you might understand why people who are living in relative comfort would choose to travel over 1,000 miles to a high-desert plateau that required clearing sagebrush, picking rocks, living in dust, and learning how to irrigate. As my father always said, “The difficult we do right away, the impossible takes a little longer.” The first group of 69 settlers from Nebraska purchased land at Clover for $160 an acre. Within a few years, Hooker claimed that these families were bragging about how much better their living conditions were and how much more time they had for pleasure and recreation. Uh huh. Probably best that Hooker moved on to market his sales skills in the Jordan Valley.

Around 10 families still have descendants at Clover today, even down to the sixth generation! The early settlers first built a school and then a church which are the remaining buildings. And, there is a cemetery filled with preceding generations. Clover celebrated its Centennial in 2015.

Both the church and the school are still going, some of the few still in existence in country settings. The school takes students from preschool through 5^th grade. Each year the school holds its major fundraiser the second Saturday in October, this year October 10^th. People come from miles around to enjoy a German dinner, bid in live and silent auctions, and purchase homemade goodies. It’s a time for catching up and catching history. One year I won the bid on some old altar vases. My sister said they looked familiar. She looked at the wedding picture of my parents in 1946 and, sure enough, the vases were in the picture. Now that’s finding treasure!

You too can find treasure by heading out to Clover around 11-ish on October 10^th. You will be surprised at how many people you know but perhaps haven’t seen for a while. Purchase some items that will help cover the costs for the school to teach this generation of students and preserve the wonderful heritage of Clover.

-Priscilla Martens

History from High Line Seed Farms Bulletin (undated) and from Clover City Idaho by Janet Lierman Feiler (2015)