The Sunshine Canyon club: six women at the south end, 1924

Five days before the presidential election of November 4, 1924, the Pocatello Tribune printed a short column of news from Arbon Valley. Its first item announced that the women of "the south end of Arbon Valley and the adjoining canyon community" had formed a club "for mutual cheer and civic usefulness." They called it the Sunshine Canyon club.

The club had six members, listed, in the way of the time, by their husbands' names: Mrs. A. L. Ballaine, Mrs. Stanley Ballaine, Mrs. Guy Larsen, Mrs. Clive Hatfield, Mrs. Reinhold Fredrich and Mrs. Walter S. Fredrich. Mrs. Walter Fredrich was president, Mrs. Hatfield vice president, and Mrs. Reinhold Fredrich secretary and treasurer. Mrs. A. L. Ballaine chaired the program committee. The club met every week in a member's home, and its stated aim was to promote "a friendly, progressive spirit throughout the community" and to join "the forward movement of the women of the nation." On its list of subjects were the coming election, child welfare and the study of great women.

On October 23 the club met at Mrs. Reinhold Fredrich's home. The women talked about the election and the child labor amendment, then had a social time and a luncheon. The proposed amendment to the Constitution had passed Congress that June and been sent to the states. The same Tribune page shows what the election season looked like nearby: Asher B. Wilson, the Democratic nominee for Congress, spoke at Lava Hot Springs, and former Governor James H. Hawley had to cancel a street-corner speech at McCammon because of the weather.

Who they were

The paper does not say which canyon it meant, but the members' homes point to Bull Canyon, at the Summit end of the valley. Walter and Rachel Fredrich lived there, and in November 1923 the American Falls Press reported visitors at the home of Mrs. A. L. Ballaine "in Bull Canyon." No other source we have found uses the name Sunshine Canyon, so it may have been the club's own.

Mrs. Walter S. Fredrich, the president, was Rachel Fryer, a 1917 Pomona College graduate who had come to Arbon to teach and married Walter in 1918; her story is told with Walter Fredrich's Bull Canyon homestead. The secretary was the wife of his brother Reinhold, whom the Tribune spelled Rheinhold. Her first name has not turned up in the papers; in December 1922 she and Reinhold were among the five at Rachel's birthday dinner for her mother.

Mrs. Guy Larsen was Delone Smith, a daughter of the Summit homesteader E. G. Smith. She married Guy at Malad in 1918; see Elmira and Delone Smith. Guy was a son of Peter M. Larsen of Mendon.

The Ballaines had come by way of American Falls. In September 1914 A. L. Ballaine, said to be from Plummer, opened a farmers' feed barn there with J. D. Smith, and Mrs. Ballaine came from Colfax, Washington, to join him. The partnership ended in July 1915, and the family moved to Malad, where Ballaine and his son Stanley meant to build a livery barn. Mrs. Stanley Ballaine was Stanley's wife; her first name is not given in the reports found. In 1930 the census found Abraham L. Ballaine, 66, and his wife Flora, 58, at Summit, very probably the same couple. The Malad column on the same Tribune page reported that Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Ballaine and Mrs. A. L. Ballaine "of Arbon valley" had been shopping in Malad that Tuesday.

Clive H. Hatfield filed on 160 acres in Bannock valley in October 1913. In June 1915 the South Arbon column expected Mrs. Clive Hatfield and their baby from Dayton, Washington, the town many of the valley's Washington settlers came from. At Thanksgiving 1920 the Hatfields entertained friends, taking up the carpets for dancing and cards. In August 1924 a smut explosion on the Ray Hatfield place destroyed the threshing outfit that belonged to Clive, along with seventy-five sacks of wheat. The papers read so far do not say how Clive was related to the other Hatfields in the valley.

The rest of the column

The column carried two more items. Walter and Rachel Fredrich had come home late on Saturday evening from a trip to Utah. And Mrs. Peter M. Larsen, Guy's mother, was back from six weeks in Oregon with her daughter, Mrs. L. R. Gosney. A 1944 notice names a Mrs. Vera Gosney among Peter Larsen's children, so this was probably Vera.

No later report of the Sunshine Canyon club has been found, and how long it met is not known.

The article as printed

Pocatello Tribune, October 30, 1924, page 3. Transcribed from the page scan.

ARBON VALLEY
(Tribune Special)
The women of the south end of Arbon Valley and the adjoining canyon community have organized into a club for mutual cheer and civic usefulness. So far the Sunshine Canyon club has the following members: Mesdames A. L. Ballaine, Stanley Ballaine, Guy Larsen, Clive Hatfield, Rheinhold Fredrich and Walter S. Frederich, The officers of the club are as follows: Mrs. Walter S. Fredrich, president; Mrs. Clive Hatfield, vice president, Mrs. Rheinhold Fredrich, secretary and treasurer; Mrs. A. L. Ballaine, chairman of program committee. The purpose of the club is to promote a friendly, progressive spirit throughout the community, and to ally itself with the forward movement of the women of the nation. Such subjects as the coming election, child welfare, and the study of great women is before the club at its weekly meetings in the homes of the members.
The Sunshine Canyon club enjoyed its weekly meeting at the home of Mrs. Rheinhold Fredrich, October 23: The coming election and the child labor amendment were discussed, after which a social time was enjoyed by all. A delicious luncheon was served.
Mr. and Mrs. Walter S. Fredrich returned home late Saturday evening from a trip to Utah. They report a very enjoyable time.
Mrs. Peter M. Larsen returned home last Tuesday, after a visit of six weeks in Oregon with her daughter, Mrs. L. R. Gosney.