On July 8, 1913, the Pocatello Tribune printed a long letter from Arbon, dated July 5, under the headline "800,000 Bushels of Grain in Rich Bannock Valley." Its writer, B. W. Rice, was almost certainly the Rev. B. W. Rice, the Congregational minister then starting the valley's first Protestant churches. A shorter report of his is retold in A minister's portrait of Bannock Valley in 1913; this fuller letter names the settlers farm by farm.
Grain without a railroad
Rice put the valley at 5,250 feet, with 31 square miles in grain on land selling at $20 an acre. He expected some 800,000 bushels of grain, 700,000 of them for sale. Hauling that by team to the railroad at 15 cents a bushel would cost $105,000, or $280.40 for every person in the valley. Within five years, he predicted, people would ride through on "the steam cars." The railroad never came.
He counted 123 Gentiles, as non-Mormons were then called, and 250 Mormons. The American Falls Press summary of his report gave 295 Mormons, but his own arithmetic fits the smaller number: $105,000 shared among 373 people is about $281.50 apiece.
The Fourth of July
On the Fourth the Latter-day Saints met at the Central school house under the flag, while the Gentiles gathered on a mountain top eight miles above the post office. He wrote:
When I asked why they did not all go together they smiled and said that each crowd had some ways that the others could not get used to. I didn't follow up the investigation further, for I have some ways myself that some other folks don't like.
Mrs. E. A. Logan led the Gentile Christians in song and Sunday school, with Mr. Allard as superintendent, while Mr. and Mrs. Nunnelly, probably W. A. Nunnelley and his wife, kept up "a church sentiment" farther up the valley. The Sunday school's start in 1911 is told in the first Protestant Sunday school and church.
Farm by farm
Several were former railroad men. E. A. Logan, a locomotive fireman, had quit three years before to take up 160 acres, and he "now owns his own soul." Frank Jones had left a yard engine for a homestead against the foothills. T. B. Evans, "an old timer," had come fourteen years before "after finding a short rail on the Short Line," a phrase the letter leaves unexplained, and now owned four quarter sections.
William Allard, four years in the valley, expected to thresh 5,000 bushels; the next year he ran for the Legislature. J. E. Keeler had his own 160 and 160 acres of leased state land in wheat; by late October he had threshed 4,300 bushels of wheat. George and John "Butter" were probably G. S. Butler and John Butler, whom the Press had named with Allard and Keeler as new settlers in 1911.
"Bishop Arbon" was Joseph N. Arbon, the first bishop. "Donnum Daniels," with a hay ranch by a mountain spring, was probably John M. "Donum" Daniels of West Fork. "John Bowman," with fifteen-year-old poplars and his own apples, was probably D. J. Bowen, whose poplars were planted in 1895. Mr. Lindley, "the Mark Twain of the valley," the umpire of the Fourth of July ball game, was probably B. D. Lindley, father of Roy Lindley. Others he named, such as Frank Jones and Mr. Van Horn, are not identified further.
Two churches
On Sunday, July 13, Superintendent Ludwig Thomsen of the Congregational church in Idaho "instituted two new churches" in the valley, the Tribune reported. A resident pastor would soon come, and church houses would be built later, one about six miles above the Arbon post office and the other probably in the village "sure to follow the advent of the new railroad." Meanwhile the congregation three miles below the post office would meet in the new Central school, whose basement held a hall 60 feet square. Members of several denominations, the paper said, had joined in "one society of worship."
On August 6 the Tribune reprinted an unsigned letter from the Boise Statesman, probably also Rice's, since it describes the same sample of wheat. Its estimate was lower: 600,000 bushels and "a $90,000 winter job" hauling them. Thomsen, it said, had come with an evangelist, and the Mormons had turned out in large numbers to the meetings. Its count of 158 heads of wheat from one seed, at 40 grains a head, makes the 6,320 grains both papers printed, so the Press figure of 168 heads was probably a misprint. The writer also complained that the reservation lay between the valley and the railroad towns, and wrote of its people in disparaging terms of the day, not repeated here.
Received into the conference
On Thursday, June 25, 1914, the Arbon and Highland Congregational churches met together in the chapel of the Highland church. Thomsen and two delegates from the Pocatello church received them into the Idaho Conference of Congregational churches, and Thomsen gave them "the right hand of fellowship." A pastor, the Rev. Thomas Dent Fee, had arrived that April, and in 1915 a seminary student served both churches. The Summit area history says the Highland church was discontinued in the early 1920s.
In 1917 Mrs. Logan reused whole passages of Rice's letter and the Statesman piece in her history of the valley, retold in The squatters of 1892, in Mrs. Logan's words: the finger on the map at Pocatello, Evans and the short rail, her husband the fireman, the sunsets at the Daniels ranch. Where Rice had written "John Bowman," she wrote "John Bowen." Who Rice was, and how long he stayed, the papers found do not say.
The article as printed
Pocatello Tribune, July 8, 1913, page 4. Transcribed from the page scan.
800,000 Bushels of Grain in Rich Bannock Valley
Bumper Yields Assured This Year in Fertile District Naturally Tributary to Pocatello—Without Railroad, It Will Cost $105,000 to Haul the Crop to Nearest Shipping Point—Ex-Railroad Men Making Good as Grain Growers and Building Up Big Country.
(By B. W. Rice.)
Arbon, July 5.—Here in Bannock valley, 5250 feet above sea level, live 123 Gentiles and 250 Mormons and at present 31 square miles of splendid grain, on land that can be bought for $20 per acre. Five years from now we will be riding through here on the steam cars pointing out to companions this place and that place that could have been bought now at a poor man's figure, but cannot be bought then for $7000 for the quarter section.
From a line through the center of the valley lengthwise there is ample wood and good timber within four miles. Two saw mills supply the lumber at $20 per M.
Grain is making a fine crop. Wheat will crowd 25 bushels; barley 45, and oats 50. That means 800,000 bushels of grain here in this beautiful mountain valley. Seven hundred thousand bushels of this will be for sale, and will cost 15 cents per bushel to haul to the railroad, which means $105,000 team work, which is $280.40 for every human being in the valley. The grain itself is worth three times that sum, so that a young man and his wife who can hold themselves up one year here can earn $1400 with four horses and a quarter section. It will cost him $400, besides what he uses that he raised. They can have good food and clothing, pie three times a week, cake four times, hot biscuits every morning, ice cream occasionally, a water melon now and then, etc.
I find good gardens everywhere in the valley. Yesterday Mrs. Rust fed us fine new ptoatoes and elegant new peas. There are no radishes anywhere else like they have here and even the guineas have an extra twist on their song.
Yesterday with the stars and stripes flying, the Latter-day Saints met in the central school house and the Gentiles gathered on the mountain top eight miles above the postoffice. When I asked why they did not all go together they smiled and said that each crowd had some ways that the others could not get used to. I didn't follow up the investigation further, for I have some ways myself that some other folks don't like.
Not many people are sickly here and not many die, for it costs $35 to get a doctor from Malad and $50 for a Pocatello physician.
Mrs. E. A. Logan, a young woman of religious turn, came in here three years ago and has been leading the Gentile christians in song and Sunday school, while Mr. Allard has been the superintendent. These two persons assisted by the partners of their life's sorrows and joys, have kept up a Sunday school in the middle lower valley, while in the middle upper end Mr. and Mrs. Nunnelly together with friends have kept alive a church sentiment.
Of course the Latter-day Saints maintain their regular church services and work together superbly.
E. A. Logan, a locomotive fireman, quit his job three years ago and took up a splendid 160. He now has great fields of fine wheat and barley and oats, a big potato patch and a good garden, and there is no whistle tooting around telling him when to go to work. He doubtless works harder than a fireman, but then he now owns his own soul.
William Allard, a four year old comer, has all his quarter section under cultivation, a big barn, a good house, a windmill and a splendid outfit of implements and machinery, and will thresh 5000 bushels of grain this fall. He is now instituting a fine cement water plant for the premises and will soon turn a faucet and out comes the aqua.
Frank Jones quit a yaid engine three years ago and paid Uncle Sam $16 for one of the most picturesque homesteads in all the valley or all Idaho. Laying back against the foothills next to the mountains, free from frost, fine rich soil, a warm canyon breeze in winter, a cool, bracing zephyr in summer, cool, sweet spring water to drink, and a delightful view of 12,000 or 15,000 acres of grain and hay. Nobody, not even a wife to call him up on the carpet for finding the short rail.
George Butter came in four years ago and now owns a quarter section and is prosperous. John Butter has over 300 acres of wheat and is looking for 25 bushels. Morris Johnson has a good 160, all under cultivation and well improved. He is getting his third profitable crop this time.
J. E. Keeler has his 160 in splendid condition and has 160 acres state land leased and in wheat, on which a delightful crop is growing.
T. B. Evans, an old timer, came here fourteen years ago after finding a short rail on the Short Line, and now owns four 160's and has regained his health, is rugged and strong.
John Bowman has a grove of poplar trees fifteen years old. He has vegetables, fruit trees and several sorts of berries nicely bearing. He had his own apples in his cellar last winter.
Bishop Arbon has a fine place. His four 160 acres are in splendid shape and he is the leading prosperous farmer of the valley.
Donnum Daniels with his fine hay ranch is making money. His residence is near a big mountain spring on the head of a trout stream. Here as nowhere else in the valley, the splendid sunsets behind the western mountains are only equalled in inspiration by the inspiring hour of a sunrise over the eastern hills.
Mr. Lindley, the Mark Twain of the valley, came in from Washington and intends to spend the remainder of the journey right here. He took your corresondent through barley that he swears will make 75 bushels. He is one of the leading boosters of this region. On the 4th he was umpire for the ball game and his fines amounted to $1800. His good home nestles on the eastern foothills two miles above the postoffice and on either side of him is a son with a 160. His good wife with a well-filled larder got us up a splendid dinner in about 30 minutes. She says she never went to a cooking school, but its a caution what she can do with the fat of two or three chickens. She kept the chickens themselves out for the big lunch at the picnic on the 4th.
Mr. Van Horn, a neighbor of Mr. Lindley, is highly pleased with his home and is getting on his feet in fine shape.
Mr. Smith is coming along nicely, getting ahead year by year. Scores of farmers are making good living and the valley has a bright future.
Sources
- Pocatello Tribune, July 8, 1913, page 4
- Semi-Weekly Pocatello Tribune, July 12, 1913, page 6
- Pocatello Tribune, July 15, 1913, page 8
- Pocatello Tribune, August 6, 1913, page 6
- Pocatello Tribune, July 7, 1914, page 5
- American Falls Press, August 7, 1913, page 6
- American Falls Press, July 20, 1911, page 1
- American Falls Press, October 23, 1913, page 8
- American Falls Press, September 28, 1911, page 1
- American Falls Press, October 26, 1917, page 3
- American Falls Press, November 2, 1917, page 3
- American Falls Press, April 30, 1914, page 1
- American Falls Press, March 29, 1917, page 7