For years after 1917, one of the three seats on the Power County board of commissioners was held by a man from the Arbon Valley. In the 1920s the American Falls Press followed that seat as it changed hands twice: in 1922 from Ed England to Perry Lusk of Pauline, and in 1924 from Lusk to the Arbon pioneer T. B. Evans.
Until 1913 the valley had been part of Oneida County, governed from Malad. After that most of it belonged to the new Power County, with its county seat at American Falls, while Summit and Buist, at the south end, stayed in Oneida County. Power County was run by three commissioners, one for each of three districts, and its part of the valley lay in the third. Every precinct in the county voted on all three seats, so voters far from the valley helped choose its commissioner. The election of 1922 showed what that could mean.
The landslide of 1922
E. C. "Ed" England of Pauline had won the third-district seat in 1918. The valley's news column reported that fall, "Two of the Bannock valley citizens were elected at the recent election," William Allard as representative and England as commissioner. In 1922, with England on the Republican ticket, the Democrats nominated Perry Lusk against him. Lusk's family account, Perry Park Lusk, says he had moved from Malad in 1906 and bought a farm on the West Fork near Pauline, and that he and his sons were known as good stockmen.
Election day was Tuesday, November 7, 1922. The Press reported that Power County had gone Democratic for the first time since it was organized, and its subheadline gave the credit to Rockland: "Second Largest Precinct in County Credited With Winning Election for Bourbon Party." Bourbons was a nickname of the day for the Democrats.
The people of Rockland precinct quietly went to the polls Tuesday and put over a straight democratic ticket three to one, giving the Bourbons a lead that could not be overcome by American Falls and the other three or four precincts that went Republican.
The valley went the other way. Arbon was "one of the few precincts in the county that went strong for the Republican County ticket," by about two to one, and it gave England 27 votes to Lusk's 17. Pauline, home to both men, gave England 27 and Lusk 26. But Rockland alone gave Lusk 189 votes to England's 54. By the Press's count England carried only four precincts. Crystal's returns had not yet come in.
The Press announced that "Power County's Board of Democratic Commissioners" would take the oath of office at the courthouse on Monday morning, January 8, 1923: W. F. Young, Hardy Breding and Lusk. The minutes of that day's session list England and the other outgoing commissioners as present, along with the incoming men, Lusk among them. The session closed: "The Board adjourned, sine die." The old board had no further day set to meet.
Lusk's two years
The papers say little about Lusk's work on the board. His family's account remembers what the office asked of him: a ride on horseback of about forty miles of bad road to American Falls at least once a month, for $25 a month. In December 1923 the "Pauline School News," a column of neighborhood items from the Pauline school, noted only that "Perry Lusk went to American Falls Monday." The county's annual statement, printed in June 1924, lists him as commissioner, of Pauline, with Young of Rockland as chairman and Breding of American Falls.
Hill or Evans
In July 1924, reporting that year's filings for office, the Press noted that Lusk was "the only democrat incumbent who is not filing again for office." It gave no reason. In his place the Democrats ran T. H. Hill, whom the paper called an "aggressive Arbon Valley farmer." Against Hill stood T. B. Evans, "a pioneer in the valley and an old booster for Power county." A week earlier the paper had noted that Evans "seeks a job as commissioner from that district."
This was almost certainly Thomas Bowen Evans, who had brought his family to Arbon in 1900 and, with his wife, Susannah, kept the valley's first store (see Thomas Bowen Evans & Susannah Smith). He was sixty-four. Whoever won, the third district would again be represented by an Arbon Valley man.
The pages read for this post do not include the November 1924 returns, so the count is not known. Evans evidently won, though, because by the next September he was sitting on the board.
Evans on the board
On September 14, 1925, Evans met with W. F. Young, the chairman, and F. R. Meadows to set the county's tax levies for the year. The proceedings the Press printed that week show the county moving into a new courthouse. In an order signed by all three, a man was empowered to move the fixtures of the county jail "and place them in the new building" and to level the dirt "around the building on the lot occupied by the new court house." Among the bills allowed were Evans's salary for August and his expenses as commissioner.
At the board's regular meeting on October 12, 1925, Young and Evans signed an order to sell at public auction, at the courthouse door on November 14, land that the county had taken on tax deeds and did not need. Some of the tracts were probably in the valley. For the hard years behind such lists, see the foreclosures of 1920–1925.
The papers read here do not say how long Evans served. The site's account of the first county commissioners from the valley names Roy Lindley as the next valley man to hold the seat.
On this site: Perry Park Lusk, Thomas Bowen Evans & Susannah Smith, Pauline and West Fork and the first county commissioners from the valley.
Sources
- American Falls Press, November 19, 1918, page 1
- American Falls Press, November 2, 1922, page 10
- American Falls Press, November 9, 1922, page 1
- American Falls Press, November 9, 1922, page 4
- American Falls Press, January 4, 1923, page 5
- American Falls Press, January 11, 1923, page 5
- American Falls Press, December 20, 1923, page 2
- American Falls Press, June 19, 1924, page 6
- American Falls Press, July 3, 1924, page 1
- American Falls Press, July 10, 1924, page 8
- American Falls Press, September 17, 1925, page 4
- American Falls Press, October 15, 1925, page 8
- Perry Park Lusk, by Melinda Campbell, family history, ArbonValley.com
- Thomas Bowen Evans & Susannah Smith, family history, ArbonValley.com
- The first county commissioners from the valley, Stories, ArbonValley.com