In September 1925 the Arbon post office changed hands again, and in October the woman who had kept it was called before the federal court at Pocatello. On October 17, 1925, the Pocatello Tribune closed its report of a week of mostly bootlegging cases with two names from the valley: the man who had carried its mail and the woman who had kept its post office.
A vacancy at Arbon
The earliest word of a change in the papers read for this post came on September 5, when the Tribune printed a notice from the United States Civil Service Commission. It would hold an examination at Pocatello "to fill a contemplated vacancy in the position of fourth-class postmaster at Arbon, Idaho." The notice said the postmaster's pay for the last fiscal year had been $504. Applicants had to live within the territory the office served, and applications closed on September 23.
The office had been in Logan hands for three years. In June 1922, when it faced closing for want of a postmaster, Mrs. E. A. Logan was keeping it as acting postmaster, as told in Who kept the Arbon post office. The federal register of postmaster appointments, as the site's research reads it, shows E. A. Logan acting from August 1922, Mrs. Jennie Logan appointed on May 3, 1923, and J. R. Bailey acting from September 22, 1925. In November 1925 the appointment went to Edna Bailey, whom the Bailey family history names as his daughter, and the office went back to the Bailey family.
In court
The federal court had been sitting at Pocatello for the past week, hearing mostly prohibition cases. On October 17 the Tribune reported that "Jennie A. Logan, former postmistress at Arbon," had been arraigned on a charge of embezzling post office funds amounting to $419.06. She was to enter her plea on Monday.
She was almost certainly Jennie Logan, the wife of the homesteader Ellis A. Logan, who as Mrs. E. A. Logan wrote the valley's first history in 1917 (see The squatters of 1892, in Mrs. Logan's words). The court report gives no husband's name, and the middle initial "A." is not explained. But the register's Arbon postmaster for 1923 to 1925 was Mrs. Jennie Logan, and no other Logan woman is known to have kept the office.
The same paragraph named "Thor Daniels," formerly carrier on the rural route from Pocatello to Pauline. He pleaded guilty to theft of government mail sacks. The next day's paper called him Theodore Daniels and gave his route as Pocatello to Arbon. Both fit the star route from Pocatello by way of Crystal and Pauline to Arbon, which the American Falls Press had reported let to "Theo. Daniels of Pauline" from July 1922. He was very probably Theodore Daniels (1886–1957) of the Pauline Daniels family. The Sunday Tribune of October 18 told how his case ended:
Theodore Daniels, formerly mail carrier on the rural route from Pocatello to Arbon was fined $100 on a plea of guilty to embezzlement of United States mail sacks. It appeared that Daniels had used the sack to hold grain at his ranch and also had been used as saddle blankets, some twelve having been used in this manner. He was given a stay of execution until Wednesday.
What is not known
The Sunday report says nothing more about Mrs. Logan, and none of the papers read for this post reports her plea or how her case ended. They do not say how the shortage arose or whether she resigned or was removed from the office.
The Logans stayed on at Arbon for another ten years. Her obituary, as given on her Find a Grave memorial, says they lived at Arbon for 29 years before moving to Idaho Falls in 1935. It remembered her as Arbon's postmaster for three years. She died in 1974.
On this site: the first post office, Pauline and West Fork and Arbon.
The article as printed
Pocatello Tribune, October 17, 1925, page 5. Transcribed from the page scan. Letters broken or dropped in the printing ("given," "nuisance," "dismissed," "consent") are read from context.
EDWARDS CASE GOES TO JURY AT NOON TODAY
Variety of Bootlegging Cases Before Federal Court—Former Rural Mail Carrier Arraigned
The way of the bootlegger is various and sundry according to the array of cases which have occupied the attention of the federal court for the past week. Many pleas of guilty have been entered by defendants and sentence passed while others, first denying the charges of violation of the prohibition act have changed their pleas and "taken their medicine." A few have held out for trial, however and will be heard during the coming week. Following the close of the Barney Edwards case in which defendant was charged with manufacturing a still to be used for the purpose of manufacturing liquor which went to the jury at noon today, a demurrer in the case of William Perry charged with immoral relations with a sixteen year old Indian girl was being argued this afternoon.
George Challas, arraigned this morning before Federal Judge Dietrich, plead guilty to possession and sale of intoxicating liquor, other counts being dismissed on motion of the district attorney. He will be sentenced Monday at noon. James Dimas against whom an indictment was returned by the grand jury will plead Tuesday morning. Jerry Woodside, pleading guilty to possession and sale of liquor and also to maintaining a nuisance plead guilty and was fined $100 and given six months in the Power county jail on the first two charges and the same sentence on the nuisance count, the term of imprisonment on the latter to commence immediately upon the expiration of the first. George Goodenough, Dors Jensen, Clyde Clark and W. Southward were arraigned on liquor charges and asked more time to plead. George W. Briggs arraigned this morning charged with possession of property designed for the manufacture of moonshine plead guilty and was fined $100 with a term in the Bonneville county jail as alternative. He was given a stay of execution for ten days. The case of Frank Alfred Jensen who plead guilty to auto theft was removed to the eastern division from the Boise district by consent of counsel.
Thor Daniels formerly mail carrier on the rural route from Pocatello to Pauline was arraigned on a charge of theft of government mail sacks and plead guilty. He will be sentenced later. Jennie A. Logan, former postmistress at Arbon, charged with the embezzlement of postoffice funds to the amount of $419.06 was arraigned and will plead Monday.
Sources
- Pocatello Tribune, October 17, 1925, page 5
- Pocatello Tribune, September 5, 1925, page 5
- Pocatello Tribune, October 18, 1925, page 6
- American Falls Press, March 17, 1922, page 4
- American Falls Press, June 29, 1922, page 7
- Find a Grave, memorial 75611002, Jennie Rust Logan (1888–1974)
- The first written history of the valley, Stories, on this site