Peter M. Larsen: summers at Summit, winters in Mendon

Peter M. Larsen was a Mendon schoolteacher who kept a ranch at the Summit end of Arbon Valley, near the mouth of Bull Canyon. From 1915 to the 1950s the papers on both sides of the state line followed him and his family between Cache Valley in northern Utah and the ranch in Idaho. Arbon was in Oneida County until 1913 and in Power County after.

He was born in Mendon on December 2, 1864, a son of Magnus and Mary Larsen, early Cache Valley pioneers whose family had come from Denmark. His sister Sophia was the mother of the Arbon Andersens. In 1893 he married Ann Longstroth of Mendon. They had five children: Guy, Miles, Theo, May and Vera.

1915: "from Cache Valley"

The first reports come from the South Arbon column of the American Falls Press in 1915. In early June it reported that Guy Larsen's saddle horse had stepped in a badger hole and broken its leg. In early September, with harvest under way and crews short of men, the column reported that "Peter Larsen and son Miles, have arrived from Cache Valley to harvest their grain," and to look after their cattle. In early October the column reported that Miles was quite sick and had to be taken home to Mendon. Two weeks later the column added:

Peter Larson was called to Mendon a few days ago on account of the serious illness of his daughter Mae.

That November the same column called Guy "Mr. Guy Larsen of Bull Canyon."

Mae was probably the May Larsen of Mendon, "a daughter of Peter Larsen," who had become a deputy in the county clerk's office at Logan in 1912. In 1929, as Mrs. Mae Larsen Pedersen, she was a county deputy clerk.

The Mendon column

From 1929 the Cache Valley papers kept count of the Larsens' seasons. On October 1, 1929, the Logan Journal reported that Peter M. Larsen and his wife, of Arbon, were visiting their daughter Mae in Logan, and that he was moving his family to Mendon for the winter. In late September 1930 Mr. and Mrs. Peter Larsen went back to their Arbon ranch, and by late October they were home in Mendon again.

The 1930s columns follow the same round. In November 1931 the couple came back from the ranch to spend the winter in Mendon, and Miles and his wife came down from Arbon to spend several days with them. In October 1934 they were home for the winter after a summer on the ranch. On April 23, 1935, the Cache American reported that they had left on Tuesday for their ranch at Arbon, to spend the summer there.

By then Guy and Miles were married men living at Arbon. The Mendon column called them "of Arbon" when their mother was very ill with heart trouble in April 1933 and her children were called to her bedside. In January 1934 Guy's birds won first and second cockerel at the livestock show in Ogden. The brothers came down for family occasions: their aunt Sophia Andersen's funeral in May 1939, and a dinner that December at their sister May's home in Logan for their father's 75th birthday.

Looking back

When Peter Larsen turned 80 in December 1944, the North Cache News reported that he had taught school for 23 years and still drove his own car. He hoped to buy a new car after the war and drive to Alaska on the new highway through Canada. The paper said that in 1915 he had been "one of the first homesteaders in Arbon Valley," and that the buildings he put up there were still in use. Guy and Miles were still at Arbon, and one of his twelve grandchildren was in the armed forces in France.

At 87, in December 1951, the Logan Herald Journal added more. He had taught at Petersboro and Mendon, served two terms on the Mendon city council and also as mayor, and seen the town get its water system, electric lights and the electric railway. His wife had "died some years ago." He had homesteaded at Arbon and lived there "most of the time since leaving the school room in 1912." By then Guy and Miles were both living at Malad.

When did the Larsens come?

The accounts do not agree. The site's Summit history credits a Peter Larsen with water claims there in 1893–94. Land records show that a Peter Larsen of Mendon made one of the first homestead entries at the Summit end on July 2, 1901, and received his patent in 1907; this was probably the same man. Guy's obituary in 1961 said the family moved to Arbon when he was nine, about 1905. The 1951 article dates his years at Arbon from 1912, when he left teaching. The 1944 notice put his homesteading in 1915 and called him one of the first in the valley, though the land records show entries at the Summit end from 1901. What the papers show plainly is a family with one foot in Mendon and the other at Summit for more than thirty years.

Guy Larsen died at Malad in 1961. His obituary remembered him as a justice of the peace, school trustee and fire warden at Arbon.

The article as printed

American Falls Press, September 2, 1915, page 8. Transcribed from the page scan.

SOUTH ARBON
Harvest begun in this section of the country the first of last week and every one is busy. Men have been scarce this season and several crews started in short handed and have been unable to get a full crew.
Mrs. George Beasley and children are visiting her aunt, Mrs. Thomas King.
Roy Smith is erecting a bungalow on his homestead
Mr. Willis Potter of Blackfoot is visiting his brothers, George and Roy, and will work here through harvest.
Mrs. Stott has returned to Dayton, Wash., after spending two months with her children, Tom and Robert, and Mrs. Emmett Lee of this place.
Albert Lickingteller made a trip to Malad after a header the middle of last week
Miss Irene Nunnelley was quite ill last week but is some better at this writing. She is suffering from nervousness.
Emmett Lee and family, Mrs. Gus Brahmstadt, Mrs Geo. Bollinger, Jack Folsom and wife and Mrs. Hopkins were visitors at Tom Stotts Friday.
Little Vernon Jenson is slowly improving but is still very weak.
Mrs. Orville Mikkelson has returned from Logan, Utah where she has been with her mother who was very ill.
Peter Larsen and son Miles, have arrived from Cache Valley to harvest their grain and see after their cattle here.
Clyde Johnson was in Malad last week and had a growth removed from his face.
A number of young people from here attended the dance at the Central school house, Saturday evening.
Mrs. Lee VanHorn was the guest of her mother Mrs. Mina Johnson several days last week.
E. O. Lee and family were Sunday visitors at Tracy Lees.
Mrs. H. E. Chapman, Mrs. Herman Noth, Misses Elmira and Delone Smith and Miss Amy Johnson were visitors at the Nunnelley home Friday.
A. C. Baker and [illegible] were on the sick list last week.
Last Thursday there was a heavy rain just across the mountain and up to Malad, but it only sprinkled enough to settle the dust here. People who went over to Malad Friday said there was still puddles of water in the road and lots of mud.
Leslie [illegible] has returned after spending the summer in Dayton, Wash.
Misses Ella and LaNetta Ferguson have been the guests of Misses Elmira and Delone Smith.
Every one is busy, and the weather continues hot. The past ten days have been the hottest known in this part of the country since it was settled six years ago. One day last week the thermometer registered [illegible] degrees in the shade.
The Lee brothers and Tom Stott started their combine last Monday and had a breakdown the first thing and have been having all kinds of bad luck since.
Some one put out a fire on the flat above Nunnelley's saw-mill, last Tuesday afternoon after it had done considerable damage. It soon spread and got into the timber in several of the branch canyons where it burned until sometime during the night.
Grandma Hayes has been quite sick but is better at this writing. Her many friends wish her a speedy recovery.
W. A. and James Nunnelley and L. E. Howell made a business trip to Buist last Tuesday evening.
Mrs. A. C. Ripley of Malad is visiting her sister, Mrs. D. C. Ripley of this place.
Mr. McIntyre has several men, with teams employed to haul material for the new school building and has begun work on it. This is such a busy season he has had a hard time to get help and had to get some men from Malad Valley.
Mrs. Francis [illegible] has been sick for the past week.
Leora, the little two year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Orville Mikkleson has been sick for the past week.
Mr. Albert Frederick who has been here for the past two weeks helping his brother harvest has returned to their ranch near Malad.
Mrs. Frank Turner and children and Miss Jenie Kearns were to Malad on business the middle of last week.
Mr. [illegible] Folsom went to Malad Thursday where he will work for a few weeks.
Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Gardner, Joe Sorenson and sister Olive arrived from Mendon, Utah last week to harvest their grain here. They report having had one of the hottest, dryest summers Cache Valley has had for several years, and that their apple yield in Mendon was very small.
The infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Seal Smith is sick at this writing.
Joe Jenson and family spent Sunday in the canyon picking service-berries
S. A. Cram, who has been sick all summer is able to be out again.
W. W. Harvey is drilling wells in the Sheep Creek country.
S. A. Brahmstadt was sick a few days last week.
The attendance at the Highland Sunday school has been quite small the [illegible] weeks owing to the busy season [illegible]

On this site: the Summit area history, the Firsts entries on Summit's first water claims and first homesteads, and the Larsen family album, which holds the 1907 homestead patent to Peter Larsen.