A Summit homestead that became an Idaho Century Farm

In August 2024 the Idaho State Journal reported that Thompson Farms of Arbon had been recognized under the Idaho Century Farm and Ranch Program, because the family still farmed the land its forebears had farmed a hundred years before. The article drew its history largely from a video the family made. Older newspapers follow the family across that century, from a Mendon family's homestead claims at the south end of Arbon Valley to the farm of today.

Out from Mendon

The family came from Mendon, in Cache Valley, Utah. Jacob F. Sorensen was born in Denmark in 1844, a son of Nicholai and Melina Olsen Sorensen, and came to Utah with his family in the 1850s. The 2024 article says that Jacob worried, as his family grew, that the Mendon farm would not be enough for them all. The family then made "adjoining homestead claims in Arbon Valley."

The Blackfoot land office register, as read for the site's research, shows Jacob and his sons Frederick J. and James Parley, known as J. P. or Parley, entering homesteads about April or May 1908, in Township 12 South, Range 33 East. That is Summit, the high, fairly level dry-farm country between Arbon and Buist. The whole valley was then in Oneida County. When Power County was formed in 1913, the northern valley went to the new county, but the Summit and Buist end stayed in Oneida. Frederick died in 1909, and his widow, Emma, proved up his claim.

Like other Mendon families, the Sorensens worked their claims in summer and went home for the winter. In November 1911 the Mendon column of the Logan Republican reported that Parley's brothers Ammon and Frank had come in from their homesteads at Buist for the winter. In December it reported, as far as the damaged print can be read, that Mrs. Parley Sorensen had come in from Buist as well.

After the required years of living on and cultivating a claim, a homesteader "proved up," making final proof with witnesses, and received a patent, the title to the land. Parley's patent, for 160 acres in the northeast quarter of Section 33, was issued on January 10, 1914. The 2024 article says that James Parley and his wife, Rachel, were granted ownership of the farm in January 1914; that is very probably this patent.

In the South Arbon news

The American Falls Press printed the Summit families' news in a column it headed South Arbon. It spelled the name Sorenson, as the 2024 article does; the land patents and the Cache Valley papers mostly use Sorensen. In July 1915 the paper's valley news mentioned a dance at the home of J. P. Sorenson, almost certainly Parley. That fall the threshing machine of the Sorenson brothers, the paper did not say which, had an explosion caused by smut, but they put out the fire and were back at work after a few hours of repairs.

On October 14, 1915, the column reported, in a poorly scanned line, that J. P. Sorenson had bought a new Ford. A week later:

J. P. Sorenson and family, Mrs. Laura Hardman and little daughter Cloteal, motored over to Mendon last week in Mr. Sorenson's new car.

The site counts that car among the valley's first automobiles.

In August 1922 the paper's Arbon news reported his harvest:

J. P. Sorenson started heading and threshing last Thursday. He has two headers running to supply grain for the threshing machine. A fine crew of men to help and Mrs. Mock has charge of the cook wagon, which insures good meals and the result will be success.

A header cut the heads from the standing grain, and wagons carried them to the threshing machine.

On the county board

On January 12, 1927, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that the officers elected the previous November had taken over the affairs of Oneida County:

Hugh W. Jones of Malad, William Hill of St. John and J. P. Sorenson of Arbon are the new county commissioners. This is the first time for many years that an entirely new board of county commissioners has been elected.

The 2024 article makes James Parley a Power County commissioner in 1927. The 1927 report puts J. P. Sorenson of Arbon on the Oneida County board instead, which fits a farm on the Oneida side of the county line. The site's account of the valley's first county commissioners names C. W. Hughes of the Summit end on the Oneida board in 1919–20; this report probably adds Parley to that list. The 2024 article adds that in 1939 he was vice chairman of the Agriculture Conservation Association.

From the late 1920s the Cache Valley papers usually called Parley's family "of Malad," the Oneida county seat. Jacob F. Sorensen, whom the Logan Herald Journal apparently called Mendon's oldest pioneer, died at Mendon in February 1934. His obituary in the Cache American listed among his children J. Parley, Ammon, Chauncey and Frank, all of Malad.

To the Thompsons

Parley and Rachel's daughter Devola married Jesse Loosle Thompson in the Logan Temple. Her obituary in 1980 says she was raised on the family farm in Arbon and later moved to Malad. Their eldest son, Gaurth, was born in Logan in 1933. In January 1948 the Logan Herald Journal named him, at 14, its newsboy of the week, and noted that the summer before, his younger brother Bruce had carried the route alone while Gaurth went with his father to their farm in Arbon Valley. The 2024 article says Gaurth bought farmland next to his parents' when he was 16. Jesse Thompson of River Heights died in April 1975; his obituary, its columns badly jumbled in the scan, says that he owned and operated a dry farm in Arbon.

The homestead itself stayed in the Sorensen line. According to the 2024 article, Parley's son Myron, whose wife was Beulah, took over the farm in 1950, when his father retired, and was given ownership in 1969, after the deaths of his parents. Parley died in 1956, as far as the records show, and Rachel, of Malad, died in May 1967. In the 1980s Myron's nephew Gaurth leased the farm, and in 2003 Gaurth bought the original homestead. In 2008 the farm became Thompson Farms of Arbon Idaho, LLC. Gaurth's son Tyler Thompson and his family run it now, growing crops that include mustard, wheat and garbanzo beans.

In 2017 a fire threatened the farm along its main fence, and several neighbors came to help put it out. "When there's a fire, the whole community comes to help," Tyler said in the family's video.

The article as printed

American Falls Press, August 24, 1922, page 5. Transcribed from the page scan.

ARBON NEWS.
W. H. Smith went to Malad Saturday to meet his brother and sister, James and Miss Mollie Smith of Los Angeles, who are here on a visit.
Joe C. Jensen lost a horse last week caused by eating a poison weed.
Beulah Nunnelley visited with Miss Georgie Lee Saturday night and attended the dance at Central.
Mrs. Joe Swenson and daughter, Miss Clotteal Hardman came out from Mendon, Utah, last Saturday to stay during harvest.
Herman Noth and son Lloyd came out Saturday to visit a couple of weeks with Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Nunnelley.
J. P. Sorenson started heading and threshing last Thursday. He has two headers running to supply grain for the threshing machine. A fine crew of men to help and Mrs. Mock has charge of the cook wagon, which insures good meals and the result will be success.
A. A. Sorenson had a horse die last week from eating poison weeds.
Ed. Snyder and family and Mrs. Lorenzo Bailey spent Saturday afternoon and evening in Pocatello.
Mrs. George Donat and baby daughter returned to her home in Pocatello Monday, after a wek's visit at the home of her parents here, Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Keeler.
Mr. and Mrs. John Bowen transacted business in American Falls Monday.
Mr. and Mrs. Guy Grable and son Donald and Miss Lena Hanby, and Paul Rust of Pocatello motored [illegible] Sunday and visited at the home of Mrs. E. A. Logan and family, Miss Thelma Rust and Donald Grable remained for a few days visit.
Frank [illegible] Jones of Pocatello visited the past week with relatives and friends.
Mr. Kidman Sr., and Henry Kidman and wife from near Logan, Utah, visited the past week at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Secrist. The former Mr. Kidman is the father of Mrs. Secrist and Henry was a brother [illegible]
[illegible] have had some very hard rains and electrical storms the past three [illegible] which has delayed harvesting, some of the farmers are preparing to drill.
Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Dawson of Logan, Utah, were in Arbon last week on business, they also visited at the home of their daughter Mrs. Elmer Roderick. They returned to Logan Wednesday, Mrs. Roderick and baby accompanied them for a month's visit.