In the homestead years the Latter-day Saint women of Arbon Valley belonged to the Relief Society, the women's organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Each ward had its own, with a president, a secretary and visiting teachers who called on the ward's families. The American Falls Press noticed its meetings, socials and dances at Crystal and Pauline between 1918 and 1924, but most of what is known about the women who led it comes from obituaries and notices printed decades later.
At work in the columns
The earliest such report found so far comes from Crystal, whose ward was then a year and a half old and met in the Central schoolhouse. On March 12, 1918, the Crystal column announced:
The Relief society will give a social at the amusement hall. March 22. A good program will be rendered followed by dancing, and a big free lunch afterward. Everyone invited. Good music will be furnished.
People came from Pauline as well. "A large crowd of young people of Pauline attended the dance given by the Relief Society at Crystal Friday night," the Pauline column reported on March 29. That May, with the country at war, the Crystal column said the Bee Hive girls, the church's organization for girls, would meet twice a month at the Central school house for food conservation and Red Cross work. It added: "Immediately after the meetings the Relief society meeting will be held at the same place."
At Pauline the Meadow Ward had been organized in 1911, with Anna E. Lusk as its first Relief Society president. In October 1919 the Pauline column announced that "there will be visitors from the R. S. stake board to visit our little ward," meaning Relief Society officers from the stake, the group of wards above them. On February 10, 1922, it described a gathering at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Doman:
The ladies of the Relief Society of the L. D. S. church met at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Doman Tuesday. The husbands were invited and most of them were there. A fine dinner was served about 2 o'clock and the rest of the time spent in games and chatting.
The column counted nineteen small children and named guests from the Kowallis, Jenks, Noble, Bischoff, Thomas, Bolingbroke, Lusk and Daniels families. On March 27, 1924, the school-news column written by the pupils of the Gabbert school reported that the Relief Society of Crystal had given a dance "at the Mormon church," with prizes and a lunch served "at a later hour."
Remembered in their obituaries
The columns rarely named the society's officers. The names come instead from obituaries and one anniversary notice printed between 1946 and 1967.
Annie Kerr Bailey was born at Wellsville, Utah, in 1873 and married James R. Bailey in the Logan temple in 1890. Several years later they moved to Arbon Valley, where they farmed until they retired to Pocatello about 1941. When she died in May 1946, the Logan Herald Journal recalled her as a past president of the Arbon Ward Relief Society and an active worker in church welfare. The Bailey family history also names her a Relief Society president and remembers her as the neighbor called to births and sickness, one of the valley's first midwives.
The Salt Lake Tribune of October 7, 1951, printed the obituary of a Mrs. Roderick, a former president of the Relief Society of the Arbon ward, who had also been a visiting teacher and a member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. The scanned text of the page is badly garbled, though "Elizabeth H. Roderick" and a broken form of her parents' surname, Hawkins, can be picked out among the scraps. Those words, her husband's middle name, Price, and the middle initial H. carried by all seven of her sons make her very probably Elizabeth Hawkins Roderick, wife of David Price Roderick, who homesteaded at Arbon from 1905. The obituary says she had lived 29 years at Montpelier, Idaho, as well as at Arbon, before moving to Salt Lake City in 1942.
Elizabeth Davis Arbon was born at Samaria, Idaho, in 1879 and married Joseph N. Arbon in November 1898. He became the Arbon Ward's first bishop. Her obituary in the Salt Lake Tribune in January 1957 names her as president of the Arbon Ward Relief Society and says she later served as a visiting teacher in the Pocatello Sixth Ward. It dates the family's move from Arbon to Pocatello to 1918. The family history says the couple retired to Pocatello several years before her death, and the Stories entry on the first bishop has Joseph serving again from 1925, so the obituary's 1918 date is uncertain.
Chloe Ann Beirdneau Smith was born in Logan in 1869, graduated from Brigham Young College there in 1887, and married Edward G. Smith in 1891. In 1909 Edward filed on a homestead at Summit, the high part of the valley between Arbon and Buist, beside his brother-in-law Joseph C. Jenson, as the Jenson family history tells. Her front-page obituary in the Logan Herald Journal in July 1963 says she had been Relief Society president in Arbon Valley and a visiting teacher, and a member of the Logan Fifth Ward from 1919. It does not say which ward she led, but the Smith home was at Summit.
Eva Anhder, born at Hyrum in 1888, married Alexander M. Izatt at Logan in 1908. Her obituary in the Logan Herald Journal of February 23, 1958, says she had been secretary of the Relief Society at Arbon, the officer who kept its records. The family lived at Arbon for twenty-three years, and she had lived at North Logan for the past seventeen.
Rosa May Mathews married Eddie Davis in December 1917. Their golden-wedding notice puts the marriage in the Salt Lake temple on December 6. The family history has a wedding at Logan on December 4, solemnized in the Salt Lake temple on December 22. When the couple prepared to mark their golden wedding in 1967, the notice in the Logan Herald Journal said she had been president of both the Primary, the church's organization for children, and the Relief Society in the Arbon Ward. It added that Eddie had farmed at Arbon for forty-seven years. Their story is told in the Eddie and May Davis family history.
What the records leave out
These accounts tell who led the Relief Society, but not when or in what order. Families who know when a mother or grandmother served can add it through the Contribute page.
The article as printed
American Falls Press, March 12, 1918, page 3. Transcribed from the text of the page scan; the scan of this column is badly blurred, and [illegible] marks words it does not show clearly.
CRYSTAL
[illegible] suffering [illegible] grippe and neuralgia [illegible] the last [illegible]
Mr. and Mrs. Dennison were in Pocatello Thursday visiting their daughter Mrs. Nellie Johnston, who expects to leave in the near future to join her husband in Texas [illegible] the present time.
Last Tuesday night some of the friends of Carl Johnston met at his home as a surprise. A very enjoyable time is reported by all.
Martin Hayden lost a valuable milch cow last week.
L. A. Whiting has been busy hauling hay the last week.
Don't forget the Red Cross social at the amusement hall Friday, March 16.
Little Delbert, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Chris Buckley, is very ill.
Mrs. Ruth Phillips entertained Saturday night in honor of the 21st birthday of her brother Reese Whiting. A nice supper was served and all enjoyed the evening very much.
Mrs. Ralph Whiting spent Sunday at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Phillips.
[illegible] Clezie is busy plastering a house for Ralph Whiting, the old [illegible] place.
The [illegible] year old son of Mrs. [illegible] was attacked and bitten by a [illegible] dog last Wednesday evening. The child was taken to Pocatello for medical attention, and the doctor reports nothing very serious. The child is perfectly well at this writing.
Last Thursday night a party was [illegible] by Mr. and Mrs. Spencer Breeze [illegible] of their nephew Roy Hildreth. A nice crowd was in attendance and the evening was spent in playing games and dancing. A nice lunch was served by the hostess. An enjoyable time is reported by all.
Mrs. [illegible] returned from [illegible] this week and [illegible] to attend school.
The Relief society will give a social at the amusement hall. March 22. A good program will be rendered followed by dancing, and a big free lunch afterward. Everyone invited. Good music will be furnished.
On this site: the Pauline and West Fork history, the Summit history, and the Ren Evans family history, which remembers his wife Anna as a Relief Society president too.
Sources
- American Falls Press, March 12, 1918, page 3
- American Falls Press, March 29, 1918, page 8
- American Falls Press, May 28, 1918, page 4
- American Falls Press, October 10, 1919, page 6
- American Falls Press, February 10, 1922, page 6
- American Falls Press, March 27, 1924, page 2
- Logan Herald Journal, May 30, 1946, page 1
- Salt Lake Tribune, October 7, 1951, page 42
- Salt Lake Tribune, January 31, 1957, page 24
- Logan Herald Journal, February 23, 1958, page 7
- Logan Herald Journal, July 15, 1963, page 1
- Logan Herald Journal, November 26, 1967, page 19