In December 1913 and April 1918 two sons of the Lusk family, whose ranch lay near Pauline at the north end of Arbon Valley, married two daughters of J. R. Bailey of Arbon. The American Falls Press followed the couples through the First World War and a death in 1922, and Utah papers printed the obituaries between 1952 and 1960.
Dave and Anna
The Lusks were a Malad family who spent their summers on a ranch on Rattlesnake Creek, at what is now Lusk Loop. The Baileys had come to Arbon from Wellsville, in Utah's Cache Valley. Arbon was in Oneida County until Power County was created in 1913.
David Thomas Lusk, called Dave, was born at Malad in 1888. In August 1913 the Press printed notice that he would make final proof on the homestead he had entered in 1910 near the eastern mountains. Final proof was the last step in "proving up": the settler and his witnesses swore that he had lived on the land and farmed it, and the patent followed. On December 24, 1913, by the family history, he married Susannah Bailey, known as Anna or Annie, in Pocatello. No newspaper report of the wedding has been found.
In November 1917 the paper's travelling farm writer, who signed himself the Pilgrim, wrote of a recent visit to Dave's ranch:
Dave Lusk has a little son three years old, and the little rancher is about as lively and active a chap as can be found anywhere. The other day the Pilgrim was at his father's ranch and the little fellow announced his coming by telling Mrs. Lusk that the "Program" was here. The appellation was not so far off, either, as the Pilgrim came to Arbon valley with a well defined program and carried it out.
The boy was probably John Paul, their eldest.
Park and Erma
Dave's younger brother, Edward Park Lusk, was born at Malad on Christmas Day 1895. He was called in the draft of 1917. On September 12 a social at Central Hall honored "our boys who are soon going to leave," and Park Lusk headed the list of seven. By the end of October the Press reported:
Park Lusk, who was recently promoted to be a corporal in A company, 347th machine gun battalion, has written to his parents that he has again been promoted and is now second duty sergeant. This is making a record for advancement in six weeks' service without any previous military training.
In April 1918 Sergeant Park Lusk came home from Camp Lewis, at American Lake in Washington, "on ten-day furlough." Pauline gave a party in his honor, and on Saturday, April 13, he went back to camp. By the family history, he and Erma Bailey, J. R.'s daughter, had been married in Pocatello the day before. She was seventeen.
In February 1919, three months after the Armistice, the Press carried this:
Mrs. Park Lusk received word that her husband was in a hospital in France wounded, but does not know how serious. Several of the letters she had written to him were returned with the word wounded written on them.
No more is known of the wound. By August 1919 Park was home, visiting his parents at Malad with Erma, and on July 10, 1920, their second son, Ralph, was born at his grandmother Lusk's house in Malad, "a fine big boy," as the paper put it.
In February 1922 Erma came down with pneumonia. She died at Pauline on February 24, after ten days' illness, less than four weeks after her twenty-first birthday. The Press report of her funeral in the Pauline meeting house said, "She married Park Lusk about four years ago," and named the two sons she left: Park, aged three, who was James Park, and Ralph. Her father dug her grave through the snow beside her sister Jennie's in the Arbon cemetery, as the Stories entry tells. Park and the children, the same column said, had gone to his parents at Malad for the rest of the winter.
By the family history, Dave and Anna raised the boys on the Lusk ranch with their own children, who were close to their ages and were their double cousins. The boys stayed with them after Park married Jessie Noble Daniels in 1927.
The obituaries
The first of the obituaries was for the sisters' brother, Melvin Kerr Bailey, born at Wellsville in 1895 and, the Salt Lake Tribune said, brought to Arbon Valley as an infant. He farmed and raised cattle there. The Tribune's report, badly scanned, says he died of a heart attack on the morning of Friday, May 9, 1952, while at work near his home. His survivors included his widow, Stella, and his sister Mrs. Dave Lusk.
Dave Lusk died in a Salt Lake hospital on Wednesday, December 9, 1953, at 65, after an illness. The Deseret News called him a "prominent Arbon Valley farmer" and said he had gone to school at Malad and in Arbon Valley, where he moved at nine. Among his sons, David W. was at Arbon and Vernon was with the Army's Counter-Intelligence Corps in Japan.
Park Lusk died on Monday, March 21, 1960, at 64. The Tribune's brief notice gave his home as Fort Hall, recorded both of his marriages and said the second had ended in divorce. It noted his First World War service and summed up his working life in five words: "Farmer at Arbon many years." Erma's sons were then at Fort Hall and at Arbon.
Where the accounts differ
Park's obituary dates his marriage to Erma April 13, 1917, and his marriage to Jessie October 24, 1927; the family history gives April 12, 1918, and October 20, 1927. For the first wedding the papers of the time lean toward 1918: Park was home on furlough that April, and in 1922 the Press put the wedding about four years back. The family history says Dave died in Pocatello; the Deseret News says a Salt Lake hospital. And the obituaries bring both families to the valley in the second half of the 1890s, while the family accounts date the Lusks' coming to 1888 and J. R. Bailey's settling to 1894.
The article as printed
American Falls Press, October 30, 1917, page 3. Transcribed from the page scan. The Park Lusk item stands in the Pilgrim's column "Along the Highways," given here whole.
ALONG THE HIGHWAYS
Gleanings by the Pilgrim in His Wanderings Here and There.
Newell Leishman, a young bachelor, four years ago homesteaded a 320 acre tract located two and a half miles west of Arbon, snug up against the foot of Bowen's peak. That young rancher has been industrious in the development of his homestead is attested by the 150 acres in cultivation. This year he harvested some fine No. 2 Turkey Red, and is preparing to harvest an increased acreage the coming year. He is within the registration age for military service and if called upon by Uncle Sam to serve as a soldier will answer "present" and put in no claim for exemption.
W. E. Dawson, who owns and farms a quarter section of fine land, one mile southwest of Pauline, this year harvested an average of 12 bushels of Turkey Red wheat from 130 acres on this ranch, and from 150 acres which he is farming on the Fort Hall reservation he harvested from 10 to 14½ bushels per acre of Turkey Red. Dawson is well pleased with his yields this off year and has plans laid to put every available acre into wheat for 1918. His ranch has been named the Valley View farm, an appropriate name, since from Mr. Dawson's home, a comprehensive view of Arbon valley may be had. In no small measure does Mr. Dawson attribute his success as a rancher to the fact that he remains on the farm throughout the year—summer and winter.
Mr. Roy Humphrey has sold all his mules except one team. He disposed of two spans of mules last week for $650, and one other span brought $300. Mr. Humphrey has a ranch two miles east of Arbon and will hereafter use horses on the farm. Besides raising grain he intends to go into the business of raising horses, range grazing land being close at hand in the mountains to the east of the valley.
What is wanted from the weather factory just now is one good soaking rain to put the ground in better shape for plowing and seeding. The same good soaking rain would also show the dust that it can't be the whole thing all the time.
E. L. Davis, a rancher two miles northeast of Arbon, this year threshed 1100 bushels of Turkey Red wheat, which tested a shade better than 60 [illegible] seeded [illegible] acres to Turkey Red [illegible] is an optimist and has faith in the valley.
Park Lusk, who was recently promoted to be a corporal in A company, 347th machine gun battalion, has written to his parents that he has again been promoted and is now second duty sergeant. This is making a record for advancement in six weeks' service without any previous military training. This young man of Arbon valley seems to have found his carreer in the United States army, and it is very evident that the officers of his company have recognized his ability and his willingness to study and train.
Ernest Poppie has sent his mother, Mrs. Ernest Poppie, several photographs of Camp Lewis at American Lake, Wash. This young man of Arbon valley is getting along well in the service of Uncle Sam and will make good as a soldier.
D. B. Ripley, whose ranch home is three and a half miles southeast of Arbon, has about 40 acres of dry land alfalfa, seeded in 1913, which regularly gives two good cuttings each season and the big stacks of hay in the stockyard show that the tonnage harvested is heavy. Last winter during the hay shortage this rancher had hay to sell and the alfalfa fields of the ranch are a better revenue maker than the grain fields. This ranch has some fine meadow land and eventually all of it will be seeded to alfalfa.
While hiking along the road on the east end of peaceful Arbon valley on Sunday noon the Pilgrim was challenged by a critter of the two-year-old heifer variety and had to perform a quick sidestep to get out of the way of the wild-eyed fool. About 100 yards north of the D. B. Ripley ranch the animal was coming north and the Pilgrim was headed south on a highway at least 60 feet wide. As is customary with range cattle, the four-footed wayfarer stared at the strange sight of a man afoot; usually the range cattle beat it in the opposite direction, but this time there was nothing doing in the "beat it" line. The heifer took the middle of the road charged the hiker, and but for the fact that a hat was thrown in its face and some quick sidestepping done an accident might have resulted. It is all well and good to learn new things from day to day, but this business of playing at being a torreador is not in the curriculm. And further, this blear-eyed critter should be ashamed of itself acting in that way after all the nice things that have been said about cows in the chronicles of this column—it is plain to be seen that it is an ungrateful brat. No damage was done, except that a nice black hat worn only a year and a half was considerably mussed up.
The weather witch on Bannock peak sent down the first snow of the season on Friday morning, October 26. The roads on the east side of the valley were well covered with snow in the early morning, but the sun soon conquered it. During Saturday night the snow valve was again opened and on Sunday morning the mountains on both sides of the valley were well covered with snow and the valley itself had its share of the stuff. This time the sun did not succeed in driving the snow off the mountains, and it seems that the higher peaks have their snow caps for the season.
On this site: the Lusk family, Dave and Anna Lusk, Park and Erma Lusk, the Bailey family, James R. Bailey, and the Stories entries Wounded in France and Jennie Gibbons.
Sources
- American Falls Press, August 21, 1913, page 7
- American Falls Press, September 18, 1917, page 4
- American Falls Press, October 30, 1917, page 3
- American Falls Press, November 20, 1917, page 3
- American Falls Press, April 9, 1918, page 3
- American Falls Press, April 30, 1918, page 4
- American Falls Press, February 7, 1919, page 6
- American Falls Press, August 1, 1919, page 2
- American Falls Press, July 16, 1920, page 3
- American Falls Press, March 10, 1922, page 4
- Salt Lake Tribune, May 10, 1952, page 19
- Deseret News, December 11, 1953, page 38
- Salt Lake Tribune, March 24, 1960, page 31