Between December 1908 and January 1911 Arbon Valley voted three times on leaving Oneida County for a new county centered on American Falls. Bills for it failed in the 1909 and 1911 sessions of the Idaho legislature before Power County was created in 1913.
Until then the valley was a precinct of Oneida County, governed from the county seat at Malad, over the hills to the south. In November 1908 the American Falls Press announced a push for a new county, to be called Power County. From American Falls, it said, reaching Malad meant "having to travel through two states and passing through two other county seats before arriving there."
The first vote, 1908
Earlier that year, by the Press's account, the Malad delegation at the Republican county convention, with T. D. Jones as spokesman, wanted the Arbon precinct left in Oneida. American Falls and Rockland refused, saying Arbon people had already petitioned to be included, and the compromise left the choice to Arbon.
A valley committee arranged a meeting: David Roderick, Bishop Joseph Arbon, and a man the digitized text names only as Bert, probably Bert Evans, Tom Evans's son. About the middle of December 1908 a letter reached American Falls saying the people had decided "by a vote of 19 to 2" to come into the new county. Neither Malad nor American Falls had anyone there.
Shoup County and "a small uprising in Arbon"
After the legislature met in January 1909, Representative I. B. Evans of Oneida, the Press said, wrote to "his brother at Arbon" and was told the people had decided to come in. He was probably Isaac B. Evans, a brother of the valley's Tom, Ren and Dave Evans; the paper does not name the brother. The Power County bill was killed in February 1909 and brought back as Shoup County.
Later, Malad men, among them L. D. Jones, came to Boise with petitions against including Arbon. The Press, which wanted the county, answered:
It should be borne in mind that not a single resident appeared from Arbon to enter a protest. There were two petitions bearing the names of fifty-three persons, a number less than half the voting population.
The paper questioned whether one petition was genuine, though it said American Falls did "not want it against the will of the people." The bill passed the House, and the Senate defeated it on Saturday, March 6, 1909, by one vote, after three senators who had backed it changed sides. The Press gave one senator's reason:
Senator Freehafer changed his vote, he said, because his friend L. D. Jones had told him there was a small uprising in Arbon against the bill. Twice it has fallen to the lot of Senator Freehafer to prevent the creation of a county here.
The petition story is the Press's account, from an editorial answering the Malad Idaho Enterprise, whose side was not found.
A stormy night at the schoolhouse
When the question returned in the winter of 1910–11, the Press said the valley would vote this time, not sign petitions. A meeting was called at the Arbon schoolhouse for Saturday night, December 31, 1910. Two Malad men, Mr. Jones and Mr. Thomas, spent two days beforehand talking with people. Five men came from American Falls, three of them in Walter Sparks's automobile, the first on record in the valley.
The Malad men arrived late. McKown of American Falls had recounted the 1909 fight and censured those behind its eleventh-hour opposition, and when they came in he said it again. O. H. Barber of the American Falls party spoke on taxes. Jones said that if Arbon wanted the new county, Malad valley would not oppose it, though he thought Arbon naturally belonged with Malad. Thomas said that "so many of the people of Arbon had relatives in Malad" that their interests lay there. Then Barber narrowed the question:
At the conclusion of Mr. Thomas' address, Mr. Barber explained that the only thing at issue was the boundry line. ... There was no opposition so far as the matter of division was concerned. The real question was where the boundry line should be.
American Falls wanted the line to follow the range between the Arbon and Malad valleys to the south line of township 12 south, taking the valley into the new county. Malad wanted it along the Fort Hall Reservation line and the divide between the Arbon and Rockland valleys, leaving the valley in Oneida.
Jones asked whether so few people could speak for the valley and suggested petitions. Barber asked whether Malad would drop its opposition if the vote went for the new county, and Jones made no reply. Julius Abter then moved that the vote be accepted as final; Jewell Horton seconded, and it "carried without a dissenting vote." Tom Evans and George Butler were judges and Horton was clerk. Twenty-six voted for the new county and two against. The night was very stormy, the paper said, and the crowd was smaller for it.
109 to 30
Because that vote was not a full expression of the valley, Arbon voted again on Saturday, January 14, 1911. Malad was invited but sent no one. On a blackboard the American Falls men showed what the valley's school districts paid in Oneida taxes and would pay in the new county. Every house in the valley was visited.
The vote was 109 for the new county and 30 against. The Press noted that "more votes were cast than at the general election" and called the crowd the largest in the valley's history. On February 1 the Salt Lake Tribune and Salt Lake Telegram carried the result in a Rockland dispatch placing the meeting "this week," though the Press had reported it on January 21.
Even so, the 1911 bill failed. In March D. B. Ripley of Arbon told the Press the people were "much disappointed." Why it died is not explained in the papers found.
Power County at last
Power County was created on January 30, 1913, from parts of Oneida, Bingham, Blaine and Cassia counties, with American Falls as county seat for the time being. Among the governor's first appointees the Press listed "L. B. Evans, farmer; Arbon": Ren Evans, Tom's brother. What became of his appointment is told in the story of Power County's first probate judge.
As the site's family timelines record, the final line divided the valley: the Arbon floor, Pauline and West Fork, and Crystal went to Power County, while Summit and Buist stayed in Oneida.
On this site: the Evans and Arbon family histories and the Arbon area history.
Sources
- American Falls Press, November 14, 1908, page 1
- American Falls Press, March 13, 1909, page 1
- American Falls Press, March 13, 1909, page 8
- American Falls Press, January 7, 1911, page 1
- American Falls Press, January 21, 1911, page 1
- Salt Lake Tribune, February 1, 1911, page 12
- Salt Lake Telegram, February 1, 1911, page 6
- American Falls Press, March 11, 1911, page 6
- American Falls Press, February 6, 1913, page 1