At about six o'clock on the morning of Monday, December 23, 1918, B. O. Kelley, a trucker from American Falls, drove off the Bannock Creek bridge at Pauline and was killed. He was hauling the valley's wheat to the railroad, and the American Falls Press reported his death the next day.
Wheat by truck
Pauline lay at the north end of Arbon Valley, on Bannock Creek, and in 1918 its wheat had a long way to go to market. That July the Press put the haul from the valley to Michaud, on the Oregon Short Line, at twenty-five to thirty-five miles, and said motor-truck routes were being planned for farm country far from a railroad.
The Zaring Grain Company of American Falls, the firm of the grain buyer E. E. Zaring, was already buying at Pauline. In the fall of 1917 Mr. Zaring was buying grain at Ed England's place, a mile north of the Pauline church, with England behind the scales, and late in the summer of 1918 the company opened a warehouse at Pauline with a dance. By October 8 the Arbon column called it "about full," with teams "standing for hours waiting to unload."
Trucks carried the wheat on to the railroad. At about 3:30 on the morning of August 13, 1918, a few weeks before the warehouse opened, a Zaring driver, Fred Hochbaum, was burned at the Michaud siding while filling his tank by lantern light, after bringing in "the last load of 1917 wheat from the Zaring platform at Pauline."
The road was hard on Zaring himself. He spent election day that November at Pauline and won a seat on the Power County board of commissioners, but the Press said he "had more trouble in getting home than he did in getting elected." Starting home that night, "his car got frightened and skidded into a bridge at Pauline," wrecking the steering. Repaired "after a fashion," the car slid off the grade into a ditch at the side of the road near Bannock Creek the next day and wrecked the steering again. Wheat haulers were carrying him on toward Michaud when Dr. Schlitz happened along and brought him home.
December 23
That December B. O. Kelley was hauling for the Zaring company. He spent Sunday night at the home of a Mrs. England at Pauline; the paper does not say which of the Pauline England households it was. Early on Monday morning he set out for the Zaring warehouse to load wheat for Michaud. He meant to go on home to American Falls from Michaud, the paper said, and so was getting an early start. The Press told what happened:
It is reported that Mr. Kelley was driving without a light, and evidently mistook the bridge for a part of the road, and crashed through it. The truck turned completely over, crushing Mr. Kelley between it and the ice. The drop at the bridge is eight feet or more.
The paper said he was killed instantly. The news was telephoned to the Zaring Grain Company, "for whom the unfortunate man was hauling," and Sheriff D. B. Jeffries left as soon as he could get away. He came back with the body at about four that afternoon.
Kelley had come to American Falls from Walla Walla, Washington, about two years before, and had worked in the ice business and in trucking. About a year before his death he had married Mrs. Nell Danielson. He left his wife, four sons, two daughters living in Washington, and an adopted daughter. Three of the boys, Lavere, Sam and Echo, were at home, aged eleven to fifteen. The fourth son was in France with the aviation branch of the service. The armistice had been signed six weeks before, on November 11, but he had not yet come home.
The Press said Kelley "had a hard struggle during the past few years, but was getting in better shape." It closed:
He was very industrious and a hard worker. The discharge of the son in the service will be asked for, so that he may return home to assist the family. Funeral services for Mr. Kelley were held at the family home this afternoon at 1 o'clock.
That afternoon was Christmas Eve. The papers read for this post do not say whether the son's discharge came through.
"Some will surely be killed"
In April 1919 Independent Highway District No. 3, with William Allard of Arbon as its secretary, called for bids to haul and spread gravel on fifteen miles of wagon road in Arbon Valley running south along Bannock Creek, the first graveling contract on the valley road.
In late June the Power County commissioners received a letter signed only "A Citizen." The board had been sworn in that January, with R. W. Peterson as chairman and E. E. Zaring and E. C. England of Pauline, the Ed England who had weighed Zaring's grain there, as members. The writer, a citizen of Arbon Valley, asked that whoever had charge of "the roads and bridges in and around Arbon, down toward Pauline," be made to put them in good condition "without further delay." Part of the letter is scrambled in the surviving print. It seems to say that some bridges could be crossed only "just in a certain way," and that travelers went two or three miles around to avoid them. "If this is not seen to at once," the writer warned, "some will surely be killed through accident," and expensive vehicles ruined, for which, he said, the county would be held responsible. He went on:
There is much valuable time wasted by people being hung up on those bridges without saying anything of the damages done, and no one in that precinct seems to know who the road overseer is. They say they have none.
He said he had lost time and suffered damages himself, and might ask the county to make them good. The commissioners answered through the Press of July 4, asking him to give his name so that they could act. "The author of the letter should not be ashamed to sign his letter," said C. Lee French, the board's clerk.
The letter does not mention B. O. Kelley. None of these reports says which bridge at Pauline he went through, or whether it was mended or rebuilt afterward.
On this site: the Pauline and West Fork area history tells of the Pauline wheat warehouse and the haul to the railroad, and Tragedies and hard times gathers the valley's hardest days from the records.
Sources
- American Falls Press, October 30, 1917, page 3
- American Falls Press, July 30, 1918, page 1
- American Falls Press, August 13, 1918, page 1
- American Falls Press, September 3, 1918, page 3
- American Falls Press, October 8, 1918, page 4
- American Falls Press, November 8, 1918, page 4
- American Falls Press, November 12, 1918, page 1
- American Falls Press, December 24, 1918, page 1
- American Falls Press, January 24, 1919, page 9
- American Falls Press, April 25, 1919, page 4
- American Falls Press, July 4, 1919, page 3