Women who proved up: Arbon and Crystal land claims, 1908–1919

In October 1911 the Rockland page of the American Falls Press reported that Miss Eloise Wood, "a new comer, from Indianapolis," had been taken to Arbon, "where the young lady is seeking a homestead." In the next few years the paper's land-office notices named a number of Arbon Valley and Crystal women proving up claims of their own.

Women had held land in the valley from the start. The first federal land title issued there, in 1901, went to Gertrude Daniels for desert land in the Big Meadows of West Fork, and that same year Jennett Daniels Price, filing at West Fork on the same day as her brother Henry Daniels, made one of the valley's first homestead entries.

What proving up meant

A claim became the settler's own only after "final proof." A homesteader had to live on and cultivate the land for a set term, five years at first and three under a law of 1912, or could "commute" after fourteen months by paying cash. A desert-land claimant had to bring water to the land. The land office at Blackfoot then ran a notice in a local paper for several weeks, naming the claim, the day and place of proof, and the witnesses. Until 1913 Arbon was in Oneida County, so some proofs were made at Malad City, the county seat; others went before the United States commissioner at Pocatello.

Two wives' desert claims

In August 1912 the Press printed notice that Annie M. Bailey and Willard H. Bailey of Arbon would make final proof on their desert-land entries at Pocatello on October 1. They were wife and husband, and each was a witness for the other. Annie's forty acres, entered on September 9, 1910, lay just west of Willard's homestead, and her patent came in March 1914 (see the Bailey family).

That September the paper carried a notice for Anna E. Lusk, whose desert-land entry dated from September 26, 1908:

Notice is hereby given that Anna E. Lusk, of Arbon, Oneida county, Idaho, ... has filed notice of intention to make final proof, to establish claim to the land above described, before John J. Evans, clerk of the district court, at Malad City, Oneida county, Idaho, on the 2nd, day of November, 1912.
Claimant names as witnesses: Daniel M. Daniels, of Malad City, Idaho, and John W. Lusk, Thomas D. Daniels and John Noble, all of Arbon Idaho.

She was Annie Thomas Lusk, and the John W. Lusk among her witnesses was her husband. Her patent for 299 acres, the fields of what is now Lusk Loop, was issued in September 1913 (see the Lusk family).

Under a new name

Some notices gave two names for one woman. "Emma Jane Dawson, formerly Emma Jane Beebe, of Arbon" had entered a homestead on May 17, 1910. She was then a widow, as the site's Stories entry on the Dawson ranch records. That November the Logan Journal listed a marriage licence for James D. Dawson of Arbon and Emma J. Beebe of Weston. Her notice set her three-year proof for October 6, 1913, at Pocatello, with James D. and Lawrence E. Dawson among her witnesses. Her patent, issued in May 1914, carries both of her names.

At Crystal, the notice for Gertrude McClain of Pocatello gave her earlier name, Gertrude Green, and her patent carries both names. She commuted the homestead she had entered on November 17, 1910, with her proof set for February 1913 at Pocatello. The patent followed in January 1914. A Benjamin W. McClain of Crystal was one of her witnesses, but the notice does not say how they were related.

Two homesteads at Summit

At the south end of the valley, the South Arbon column of September 16, 1915, reported that George Bollinger had proved up his own homestead and was now putting up a house on "the homestead belonging to his wife." In October the couple moved in. She had been Miss Sarah Karr, so named in the valley news that July. She died at Pocatello in November 1916, and the patent went to her heirs in 1919. In the next section east, Mamie Nunnelley, a daughter of W. A. Nunnelley, received the patent to her own homestead in July 1915. That August the school trustees bought a three-acre lot on her land, next to the church lot, for the new Highland school (see Summit).

A mother and daughters on Cherry Creek

The fullest picture comes from Crystal, a high basin of springs and creeks. In October 1910 Jacob J. Meitzenheimer filed on a homestead on Cherry Creek, about three miles east of Crystal. That same month Henrietta George, his wife's mother, entered the land beside it. Her notice, dated January 23, 1915, gave her home as Pocatello and set her "fourteen months proof" for March 8. Her witnesses, all of Crystal, included Emma Green and Ernest George, and her patent was issued in February 1916.

In 1917 the Press farm writer who signed himself "The Pilgrim" visited the Meitzenheimers' Cherry Creek Dairy Ranch and set down the family:

In 1888 he was married to Miss Lillie George, a native of the state of Wisconsin, daughter of Mrs. Henrietta George. The aged mother resides with another daughter, Mrs. Emma Green, a quarter mile down the canyon of Cherry creek.

He described a garden of about two-thirds of an acre "under the care of Mrs. Meitzenheimer," and she told him how her husband had cut their first crop of oats, nearly six feet tall, with a scythe. In 1913 Lillie Meitzenheimer had been a witness for Elizabeth Jackson, whose homestead adjoined theirs; Elizabeth Jackson's commutation proof was set for that November, and her patent came in May 1914.

Emma Green, Henrietta George's witness in 1915, turns up often in the Crystal news. On April 9, 1918, the column reported:

Mrs. Emma Green killed a coyote Sunday morning. The animal had become entangled in the brush and Mrs. Green killed it before it could get away.

A week later it noted that she had "moved on her homestead on lower Cherry creek." In September 1919, when Crystal neighbors surprised Mrs. Ezra Burwell on her fiftieth wedding anniversary, Mrs. Elizabeth Jackson, Mrs. Emma Green and Mrs. Lilly Meitzenheimer were among the guests.

What the notices leave out

The notices do not say whether Ernest George, a witness for both Henrietta George and Elizabeth Jackson, was related to the George women. No entry or patent in Emma Green's own name has been found, so how her claim ended is not known. Nor has any later trace of Eloise Wood turned up in the papers.

The article as printed

American Falls Press, September 19, 1912, page 2. Transcribed from the page scan.

Notice For Publication.
Department of the Interior, U. S. Land Office at Blackfoot, Idaho, August 22, 1912.
Notice is hereby given that Anna E. Lusk, of Arbon, Oneida county, Idaho, who. on September 26th, 1908, made desert land entry serialNo.0140. for SE¼NE¼,NE¼ No. 0140, for SE¼ NE¼, NE¼ SE¼, section 13, township 10 south, range 33 east; and lots 2, 3 and 4, SE¼ NW¼. SW¼ NE¼ and NE¼ SW¼, of section 18, township 10 south, range 34 east of the Boise Meridian, has filed notice of intention to make final proof, to establish claim to the land above described, before John J. Evans, clerk of the district court, at Malad City, Oneida county, Idaho, on the 2nd, day of November, 1912.
Claimant names as witnesses: Daniel M. Daniels, of Malad City, Idaho, and John W. Lusk, Thomas D. Daniels and John Noble, all of Arbon Idaho.
10-17 Henry W. Kiefer, Register