Horses and the first tractors in Arbon Valley, 1916–1922

The tractors that Arbon Valley families remember came in the late 1920s and after, and this site's record of the first tractors began with newspapers of 1920. The American Falls Press found a few on the valley's dry farms earlier: a 10-20 tractor plowing at the south end in 1916, a Case at Arbon in 1917, and J. E. Keeler's "iron horse" in 1918. They worked beside the big horse teams the same paper described on farm after farm.

A farm column counts the horses

In the fall of 1917 the Press ran a farm column, "With Power County's Farms and Farmers," by a writer who signed himself "The Pilgrim." (Arbon had been in Oneida County until Power County was formed in 1913; the Summit end of the valley stayed in Oneida.) His column described each ranch's crops and methods, and nearly always its "work bunch" of horses.

Near Crystal, F. C. Reiger kept four work horses and pulled his twelve-foot weeder with four. The partners Elmer Beuten and G. C. Wright, also near Crystal, had fourteen work horses on 640 acres. They ran two gang plows with a harrow behind each, and "seven horses are hitched to each gang plow." Near Pauline the column described E. J. Kilgore, a recent arrival from Umatilla County, Oregon, "the land of big wheat farms," who had leased 860 acres. The Pilgrim wrote (a "skinner" was a teamster):

All the work is done with ten horses, and Mr. Kilgore is entitled to the distinction of being one of the best "ten-horse skinners" in the west, besides being a good wheat farmer. He has been hauling wheat with an eight-horse outfit and at one point of his "hauling trail" on the reservation it is necessary to make a sharp double turn to get across a narrow bridge spanning Bannock creek.

He made that turn without a whip or a thrown stone. "Mr. Kilgore talks to his horses in language they understand," the Pilgrim wrote.

Plowing by tractor, 1916

On November 23, 1917, the column turned to C. H. Hatfield, who owned a 160-acre ranch "just over the line" in Oneida County and leased 640 acres more. He had threshed nearly 3,000 bushels from 200 acres that year, and he had come from Dayton, Washington, four years before. He was probably Clive H. Hatfield, whose filing on 160 acres in Bannock Valley the Press listed in October 1913. The Hatfields were among the Dayton families who settled at Summit. Of the year before, 1916, the Pilgrim wrote:

Last year he plowed and harrowed 350 acres in one operation with a 10-20 tractor, burning coal oil or distillate (whichever is obtainable at the time demanded), and he finds from actual observation of the cost that the expense of this plowing and harrowing amounted to 42½ cents per acre. He is entirely satisfied with his experiment in using the tractor, finding it more economical than the use of horses, and far more rapid.

Coal oil is kerosene, and the 10-20 was the tractor's horsepower rating. Hatfield also used the tractor in fanning his grain, cleaning it for the buyers and keeping the screenings for his own use. On the same page the Pilgrim described W. E. Dawson of Pauline, who kept nine Percheron-grade work horses, doing the same double job: he "drags the harrow behind the plow, thus getting two workings of the soil with one operation."

A Case, a gasoline plow and an iron horse

The next machines appear in single lines of the valley news. On July 27, 1917, the Arbon column reported that "C. W. and John Hughes bought a Case tractor a few days ago." On January 15, 1918, the Crystal column reported:

Last week three gang plows might have been seen in operation on the Whiting ranch, one attached to a gasoline engine, the other two drawn by horses.

In May 1918 the Arbon column reported that Mr. Keeler had recently bought a new tractor, apparently a Russell (the name is garbled in the digitized text), and a three-bottom plow, and meant to put it to plowing that summer. He had had some trouble with it, but it was now doing good work. Two weeks later J. E. Keeler "went to Pocatello Saturday to get feed for his iron horse," and "Mr. Keeler's tractor is running along in good style now."

Fordsons and sale bills, 1920–1922

In August 1920 the manager of the Pocatello Auto Company and a man from the Salt Lake branch of the Ford Motor Company, on a crop-inspection trip through southeastern Idaho, found Arbon Valley's crops so good that they decided to stage a Fordson demonstration there soon: plowing, harrowing, disc plowing and harvesting. No report that it was held has been found. That September, as this site's entry on the first tractors records, a Salt Lake dealer sold a tractor to Frank Reiger of Crystal, probably the same F. C. Reiger the Pilgrim had found working with four horses in 1917.

In April 1921 T. S. Toyn of Arbon advertised his 1919 Cleveland tractor, a 12-20, with two-bottom plows, in good condition and "only plowed about 800 acres," for sale or for trade for a good car. That July a public sale on a farm two miles west of the Pauline store, and some distance north (the figure is lost in the digitized page), offered "20 head Mares, 3 to 10 years old," milk cows, Deere gang plows, a Ford touring car and "Harness for 18 head of horses." A "Fordson Tractor and Gang Plow, Complete," a double disc and a Blewett combine were offered by private sale. The owner's name is lost as well. From October into December 1922 Toyn advertised his Cleveland again, now with two 14-inch gang plows, "used very little."

The papers do not give a reason for either sale. Both notices ran in the lean years after the wartime boom, the years of the foreclosures of 1920–1925.

For most families the change came later. As the first-tractors entry tells, the Arbons bought a gasoline Caterpillar in 1928, the Bolingbrokes a Caterpillar in the early 1930s, the Lusks traded their horses for a crawler in 1937, and Mark Andersen's family bought its first tractor about 1941. Hatfield's 10-20 is the earliest gasoline or kerosene tractor found so far in the valley's papers, though a steam outfit had plowed there in 1911.

The article as printed

American Falls Press, November 23, 1917, page 3, the "Along the Highways" items in the farm department "With Power County's Farms and Farmers," by "The Pilgrim." Transcribed from the scanned text of the page, with the opening of the Hatfield item checked against the page scan. The scanned text runs this column together with its neighbours, so the order of the items follows the page as best it can be read, and words lost in the scan are marked [illegible].

ALONG THE HIGHWAYS
Gleanings by the Pilgrim [illegible] Wanderings Here and There.
George M. Williams of Samaria, Idaho, last spring purchased a half section of farm land, located a few miles west of the Davis store in Arbon valley, and this fall has been busy plowing a part of the land to [illegible] ready for a good crop next year. This farmer is an experienced dry farm wheat grower and will do his very best to add to the total yield of wheat the coming season. On his farm a great deal [illegible] development is still required before the entire area will be in shape to grow [illegible] but since Mr. Williams is fond of the labor which creates productive farms from sagebrush flats and hills the work is entered upon with pleasure. Mr. and Mrs. Williams will remain on the farm this winter and all other winters, realizing that a [illegible] can not be kept up to the proper standard by the owner being absent from it part of the year.
Homer Lindley is completing a new frame farm dwelling on his ranch three and a half miles southeast [illegible] the Davis store in Arbon valley. The house rests on a concrete foundation [illegible] concrete basement. Mr. Lindley homesteaded a quarter section [illegible] two ago and this year had nearly all of it in wheat. His Turkey Red tested 61 pounds and brought [illegible] bushel at the elevator in [illegible] Mr. and Mrs. Lindley [illegible] the winter in California, [illegible]
The sheltering of machinery and farm implements during the winter months is coming into vogue more and more as farmers learn that it is cheaper to buy lumber than to pay repair bills. There was a time throughout the west when farm implements were left standing through the winter wherever work was left off in the summer or fall, and in the following spring the enormous repair bills exacted by blacksmiths and machinists consumed far too much of the profits of the grain fields, [illegible]
C. H. Hatfield is the owner of a ranch of 160 acres just over the line in Oneida county. He leases 640 acres additional and is growing wheat on a large scale, threshing nearly 3000 bushels this year from 200 acres. He came to this section of the state four years ago from Dayton, Washington, and has the utmost faith in the future of Arbon valley as a wheat growing country. Last year he plowed and harrowed 350 acres in one operation with a 10-20 tractor, burning coal oil or distillate (whichever is obtainable at the time demanded), and he finds from actual observation of the cost that the expense of this plowing and harrowing amounted to 42½ cents per acre. He is entirely satisfied with his experiment in using the tractor, finding it more economical than the use of horses, and far more rapid. The tractor is also used in fanning his grain, in this manner furnishing perfect grain to the buyers and getting the screenings for his own use, another source of economy on the ranch which is often overlooked. These screenings [illegible] excellent feed for [illegible] and hogs and obviate the [illegible] of going down into the pocket-book to supply them. Mr. Hatfield will practice nearly [illegible] wheat seeding for several seasons, being an adherent of the theory that this [illegible] the quickest and most efficient [illegible] to get rid of the mustard.
H. W. Anderson, whose ranch home [illegible] three and a half miles [illegible] of the Davis store in Arbon valley, is one of the group of Anderson brothers who have been farming in the valley since [illegible]. This year he had 175 acres of winter and spring wheat and the yield went above the average of [illegible] When this was written threshing had not been completed. Next spring 200 acres will be seeded in wheat, no fall [illegible] conditions. The old pioneer [illegible] built in 1893 by Andrew Anderson, father of the Anderson brothers, stands on the ranch of H. W. Anderson and is now used as an ice house [illegible] the brothers, supplying all the [illegible]
The growing and feeding of alfalfa to all kinds of livestock is steadily on the increase in this county. Experiments in other states where this excellent forage plant has been grown for many years have proven that there are two ways of feeding the hay, and one of these ways practically does away with all waste. On many ranches the hay is chopped fine and blown or [illegible] into a structure built on the lines of a granary. When the chopped alfalfa is blown into the structure it packs down like bran and it is surprising how large a [illegible] can be packed away into a small space. This finely chopped alfalfa is fed to hogs in a trough and to horses and cattle in a manger. Experiments made with two tons of loose hay, followed by two tons of chopped alfalfa, have shown that three cows were fed on the chopped more than ten days longer than on the loose hay, and it is within the bounds of reason to assume that the waste resulting from the method of feeding loose hay represents 70 per cent of the shortage [illegible]
The dweller in town and city may have some fancy drinks at his bidding that the rancher has not, but the best drink of all—summer or winter—is at the rancher's command who has a dairy cow or two and makes butter. Good butter and better buttermilk go together—one a revenue-maker and the other a health-maker. On ranches of this county where butter is made quantities of this refreshing drink are poured away each churning day because no market is close at hand for it; and, on the other hand, in the towns and cities quantities of [illegible] It would be eagerly bought during the summer months if it could be readily obtained. [illegible]

On this site: the first steam engine and steam thresher, the first combines of 1915, and the histories of Crystal and Pauline and West Fork.