Letters from a mission: J. C. Cairns of Arbon comes home, 1912

On March 7, 1912, the Pocatello Tribune printed a letter from Dublin. Its writer was John C. Cairns, who had a ranch at Arbon, in Bannock Valley (then in Oneida County), and was serving a mission for the Latter-day Saint church in Great Britain. Over the next two months the paper followed him home.

The Tribune knew him as "the old time Pocatello boilermaker" who now owned "a valuable ranch at Arbon." The paper also counted him among Arbon's "kingpin boosters." In July 1910 he came to town with his two sons-in-law and told a reporter that Arbon would organize a Commercial club of its own, "not to boom the town, but to work for its steady growth and progress." He spoke of a new Arbon Irrigation company that meant to take water from Buck Wright creek, of plans to lay out a townsite and incorporate the village, and of a Pioneer Day celebration on July 25 to which he hoped Pocatello would send speakers. He praised the new road up Mink Creek and over the divide, built under Road Supervisor Tom Reynolds with the help of volunteer labor from the settlers, as "one of the best pieces of road building I ever saw."

The papers we have read do not say when he left on his mission. His Dublin letter said he had spent "the last fifteen months" traveling through the cities of Scotland, "my native home," and then some weeks in Ireland. The Tribune of March 20 said he had left his ranch "last year." He was still in Pocatello at the end of September 1910, so he probably went sometime between that fall and early 1911. The Dublin letter closed with wishes for a prosperous new year, so it may have been written some weeks before the paper printed it.

In the letter he told the Tribune that he had talked with "an enormous lot of business men" and always mentioned Pocatello, and that several of them had written to the Commercial club about the country. With it came comic postcards and a card of Irish shamrock seed, which he asked the paper to plant in good soil and keep warm. A second packet, noticed on March 20, showed English sights: the railway station at Crewe with its five miles of platforms, the locomotive that had pulled the king and queen on their coronation trip, the landing stage at Liverpool, Shakespeare's birthplace, and the Midland station at Nottingham. The paper added that he expected "to return shortly."

He sailed from Liverpool on Thursday, March 7, 1912, the day his Dublin letter appeared in print, on an Allan Line Royal Mail liner, very likely the Corsican; the name is blurred in the printed copies. His letter from Halifax, dated March 16, appeared in the Tribune of March 28 under the headline "Missionary Tells of Life at Sea." It described 1,700 passengers of whom only about 500 came to breakfast the next morning, a Sunday service with a collection for the Liverpool Seamen's Orphans, a cold and rough Tuesday, and two shipboard concerts. Off Newfoundland the weather changed:

"When approaching the coasts of Newfoundland we encountered a very severe fog and we were awakened on Thursday morning by the terrible screaming of the fog horn, which sounded as near as I am able to describe, like a hungry lion in a circus or zoo."

The ship came alongside the landing stage at Halifax late on Friday afternoon, March 15, after eight days at sea. He closed by saying that the talk on board had turned to Idaho again and again, and that he "did not forget to boost Idaho and especially the neighborhood of Pocatello."

Less than a month later a Salt Lake paper reported a wedding. The Deseret Evening News of April 11, 1912, said that John C. Cairns of Arbon, Idaho, had married Elizabeth A. T. Halley of Crewe, England, in the Salt Lake Temple on April 10. Mrs. Kelso gave a party for the couple that evening, and they were to be at home in Idaho after April 15. The notice does not mention the mission, but the same name, the same town and the timing make it all but certain that the groom was the returned missionary. The bride's name is hard to read in the copy we have seen (her first name may be spelled Elisabeth), so the spelling here, especially of the surname, may not be right. The papers do not say where the two met or whether she crossed the Atlantic with him. It is only clear that she came from Crewe, the town on some of his postcards.

On April 26 the people of Arbon gave him what the Tribune called "a grand reception" on his homecoming. A large crowd enjoyed a supper and dance. The short notice of May 6 gave the length of his mission as some fifteen months; it printed "she" where it meant "he."

He stayed on; in July 1914 the Power County commissioners allowed a bill from "John C. Cairns" for road work. The papers do not tell us whether Arbon ever formed its Commercial club, or whether the shamrock seed came up in Pocatello.

On this site: the talk of a townsite at Arbon in 1911, Pioneer Day in the valley from 1916, the contest between Pocatello and American Falls for the Arbon trade in 1912, the Arbon Ward's first thirty years, and another valley missionary, Mathew Bird of Buist.

The article as printed

Pocatello Tribune, March 7, 1912, page 6. Transcribed from the page scan.

SOUVENIRS FROM EMERALD ISLES
Missionary From Bannock Creek Writes to The Tribune and Tells of the Beauties of Ireland's Cities.
John C. Cairns, the Bannock creek rancher, and one of the kingpin boosters for Arbon, that rich community which, since the construction of the Mink creek road over to the divide, is directly tributary to Pocatello, is on a mission for the L. D. S. church in Great Britain. In a letter to the Tribune from Dublin he sends a packet of postcards and says:
"It has been some time since I had the opportunity of reading your Tribune, and no doubt you will know that I have lost some very valuable news. For the last fifteen months I have been traveling through various cities of dear old bonnie Scotland, my native home. A few months ago I received one of your papers, and since then I have longed to get back where I would have the opportunity of enjoying the news which you people publish of the surrounding country. For the past few weeks I have been traveling through the larger cities in the beautiful island of Ireland. I spent several days in the beautiful city of Dublin. This is one of the most beautiful cities that I was ever in. I think I will be safe in saying that it is one of the most beautiful cities in the British isles. I have been talking with an enormous lot of business men in my travels, and while talking with them I have always mentioned the people in and around Pocatello. Several of the men have written to the Commercial club asking about the wonderful land that we people have in that country. They have received in return some very nice letters, explaining and advertising our city and paper. You will find enclosed a few comical postcards which show some of the real Irish wit. You will also find a card which contains some real Irish shamrock seed. Please plant them in the best soil that you can find, and then keep in a warm place. If it grows it will be quite a novelty. I leave Ireland this evening to spend a few days in some of the larger cities of England. I leave Liverpool, England, on the 7th day of March to sail to the dear old 'land of the free and the home of the brave.' I sincerely hope that in the near future I will be back among my dear friends and loved ones. I will conclude by wishing you all a bright and prosperous new year."