Nine threshers behind forty headers: Arbon's harvest of 1911

In the summer and fall of 1911 the American Falls Press followed the grain harvest in the Arbon valley closely, from the July estimates to the wagon trains still hauling wheat in December. Arbon, the old Bannock Valley south of American Falls and Pocatello, was then in Oneida County; it joined the new Power County in 1913. It was dry-farming country, still taking in new settlers.

Steam power had arrived that winter. On January 14 the Arbon correspondent reported that "a thirty-two horse power engine threshing machine and plow attachment and saw mill rigging arrived here during the holidays." By March the Dawson brothers, by the site's research probably J. D. and W. E. Dawson, had a steam outfit for plowing. No paper says it was the January engine, though it probably was: by September the brothers were also leasing out a sawmill.

The July estimates

On Sunday, July 16, a party from American Falls drove around Bannock Peak by automobile, and the Press of July 20 printed their account on its front page, beside a report on the Arbon crop. Four Arbon farmers, G. S. Butler, John Butler, G. W. Allard and Mr. Keeler, "all new settlers," would by their neighbors' estimates "have 25,000 bushels of wheat to market this fall." Three years earlier the valley's forty or so families had raised an estimated 45,000 bushels. "This year estimates run as high as 200,000 bushels." John Payne, the storekeeper, put the grain to be hauled out at 150,000 to 200,000 bushels. The writer foresaw a million bushels a year in time, but warned: "The marketing of their grain is a growing problem."

Nine threshers

On August 31 the Arbon column reported heading nearly done and counted about forty headers at work in the valley and nine threshing machines, three of them steamers. A header cut off just the heads of the grain, which were stacked to wait for the thresher. The Dawson brothers had threshed 800 bushels in six hours. On the front page of that issue the editor wrote about the column under the heading "Tells a Story in Few Words":

A six line paragraph in the Arbon correspondence this week tells a wonderful story of development. It merely states that nine threshers are at work following forty headers, and that more headers will be needed next year. To one unacquainted with the situation these lines are almost meaningless, yet to one who first saw the Arbon country less than three years ago, they speak volumes.

On his first trip, thirty-one and a half months before, the settlement had about forty families and a crop one threshing machine could have handled, had the grain been brought together. Now four men who had come since had harvested about 25,000 bushels between them. "The people of Arbon have made a record of which they may well be proud," he wrote, adding that Landing, Rockland, Pleasant Valley and the country around American Falls had matched it.

Seven bushels a minute

On Friday, September 8, the editor stopped at Vic Randall's place, where the Dawson outfit was at work, and described it on September 14 under the heading "Seven Bushels a Minute":

During the short time he was there the big machine was turning out Turkey Red wheat at the rate of seven bushels a minute. The machine is a self feeder and is operated by a large traction engine.

A horse and a large fork brought the grain from the stack to the men feeding the machine. Randall's field was averaging about thirty bushels an acre, and he finished with 1,224 bushels of Turkey Red, a hard winter wheat, from forty acres. "Two other machines were working in sight of the Dawson outfit but time to visit them was lacking."

Some farmers threshed their own grain. J. E. Keeler Co. brought out a new outfit from American Falls, probably the self-feeding machine owned by "Butler, Keeler, Swim et al." that a Case company representative inspected on September 15. A crew of eight ran it, grain hauler included, "all the labor being performed by parties interested in the machine," and the paper thought the season's threshing of the owners' grain would more than pay for it. The named owners were probably Ed Keeler, Frank Swim and either G. S. or John Butler, with others unnamed; the Butlers and Swims appear in the Swim family history. Julius Abter ran J. T. Guthrie's machine, and William Ferguson brought one over from Malad, by the site's account the first at the south end of the valley.

The count

On September 28 the Arbon column gave the returns: G. W. Houke, 1,844 bushels from 80 acres; E. H. Davis, 3,076 bushels from his dry farm; and J. N. Arbon, 3,256 bushels, some going nearly 34 bushels an acre and some as low as 17. "Arbon valley is a fine dry farming district and a fine place to live, as there is no sickness here," the correspondent wrote. E. E. Zaring, an American Falls grain buyer, came back that week having contracted for many thousand bushels, and said threshing had been practically suspended so farmers could seed. The same issue reported Turkey Red at $1.25, up from $1.05 three weeks before, on orders for about twenty-five cars for Kansas buyers. The damaged digitized text does not show whether that was per bushel or per hundred pounds.

The long haul

The hauling went on into winter. In November I. H. Nash, a former Oneida County assessor, wrote in the Malad Enterprise that he had read in the Press that "wheat is being hauled from Arbon in such quantities that 50 loaded teams were seen at one camping place at one time." The Caldwell Tribune repeated his words on November 24, adding that "Dry land farming is at last a success in Idaho." The Press item he read has not been found.

On December 7 the Press reported that forty Arbon farmers had pulled into Michaud, a railroad siding between American Falls and Pocatello, with about 160,000 pounds of wheat, roughly 2,700 bushels. They came as a train of wagons and loaded cars "so that they will not have to stand on the tracks." A few years earlier, the paper said, such trains would have carried off the valley's whole crop; now they hardly made a hole in it.

No total for the 1911 crop appears in the papers read for this post, so the July figures remain estimates.

The article as printed

American Falls Press, August 31, 1911, page 1. Transcribed from the page scan.

Tells a Story in Few Words.
A six line paragraph in the Arbon correspondence this week tells a wonderful story of development. It merely states that nine threshers are at work following forty headers, and that more headers will be needed next year. To one unacquainted with the situation these lines are almost meaningless, yet to one who first saw the Arbon country less than three years ago, they speak volumes.
At that time the settlement contained about forty families, and the season's yield of grain was estimated at 45,000 bushels. This year four men, all of whom have gone there since the writer made his first trip there, thirty-one and a half months ago, have harvested about 25,000 bushels. Now nine threshing outfits are at work in the valley, and 40 headers will not be able to harvest next year's crop. Three years ago not many headers were required, and one threshing machine, had the grain all been collected to save frequent moves, would have made short work of the whole job.
The correspondent caught the spirit of development. Elsewhere he refers to a man with twenty large stacks of grain, to headers in operation, to new settlers who came only last April having large fields ready for seeding—even an entire stranger can not help catching glimpses of enterprize and development from such information. The people of Arbon have made a record of which they may well be proud. Yet their record has been duplicated at Landing at Rockland, in the Pleasant Valley settlement, and in the country directly surrounding American Falls. On the irrigated tract Aberdeen, Springfield and Sterling are keeping apace, and as soon as the farmers can recover from the burdens imposed by rapid and extensive development this will be one of the most prosperous sections of the west.
The number of threshers at Arbon has a counterpart, in indicating development, in the other new country south and west of American Falls. Two years ago the first combine came to the country. Now there are seven or eight, and more will be needed next year.

On this site: the first steam engine and steam thresher, the first harvesting machines, the Arbon and Davis family histories, and the Arbon area history.