On the evening of Monday, May 20, 1918, the valley opened the Red Cross war fund drive with three meetings on the same night: at the Central school house at Arbon, at Pauline and at Crystal. The next day the American Falls Press told the Arbon meeting as a comic piece. Three days later the Arbon correspondent's column told it a little differently.
The drive
Arbon had been in Oneida County until 1913. It now belonged to Power County, whose seat was American Falls. The county had only just gone over the top in the Third Liberty Loan when, as the Press put it on May 10, it was called back for an encore. Its share of the Red Cross war fund was $5,200, including the Armenian relief fund that the Red Cross administered. Evening meetings were set across the county, with speakers furnished by the Council of Defense. The drive was to run for a week and close on Monday, May 27. Arbon, Pauline and Crystal came first on the list.
Five-minute speeches at Arbon
The Press began its account with a joke at the speakers' expense: "The greatest bunch of compressed orators ever turned loose on the Arbon valley addressed a Red Cross war drive at the Central school" on Monday night. The chairman's name is lost in the scanned text. He introduced in turn R. S. Anderson, R. B. Greenwood, Paul Bulfinch, William Allard, H. M. Saulsbury and O. H. Barber, "each of whom compressed an hour's masterly address into a five minutes' talk." Allard was an Arbon man and had probably been the valley's first legislator, in the 1915 session. Saulsbury's wife had sold Liberty bonds at Pauline that spring. Barber was the editor of the Press.
Then "a cake made by Mrs Myrtle Poppie was sold at auction by Mr. Saulsbury". It brought more than $40; the last figure of the price cannot be read with certainty in the scanned text. The paper made a comedy of the bidding:
The American Falls crowd left all their pennies, nickels and dimes in Arbon, and most of their dollars and some checks the value of which is not known, but could not stay with a combination of Arbon citizens … The Arbon people still had money left. Walter Sparks was banker for the American Falls boys, and would not permit any overdrafts.
The paper named the Arbon bidders as Messrs. Anderson, Arbon, Allard, Bowen, Lindsay, Davis, Evans and Poppie. Others went unrecorded, it said, because the coins came fast and no one announced the names. The cake was cut up and passed among the crowd, ice cream and cake were served, and the Press judged that "a good spirit prevailed." Mrs. Baum and Miss Jessie Torrance were among the American Falls people there. D. B. Ripley and H. M. Saulsbury were to take charge of raising Arbon's quota of "about $180."
The view from Arbon
The Arbon correspondent, writing in the Press of May 24, was less pleased with the turnout:
The second Red Cross campaign was held here Monday evening at Central Hall. A goodly number were out to hear the speaking, but at a meeting of this kind there should have been a larger crowd.
The column named the visitors from American Falls as Baum, Bulfinch, Greenwood, Anderson, Barber and Sparks. It also added something the town account had left out: James Russel bought the cake. Its figures for the cake and the ice cream are too damaged in the scanned text to read. The next afternoon the Arbon Red Cross society met at the home of Mrs. William Allard. "Knitting and sewing of garments were the diversions of the day."
Pauline and Crystal
At Pauline the same evening, Rev. Wuest, Rev. Matthews, H. E. Grothe and a Senator Evans spoke. The Press did not give the senator's initials. The speakers reported "a splendid interest," and a lunch was served at the close.
The week before, the Crystal correspondent had urged everyone to come to the meeting and give, writing that "Crystal has never failed" in any purpose for national defense. At the Monday meeting the Crystal people went over the top, with $210 subscribed against an apportionment of $196. "Do it now" was their slogan, the Press said, instead of stringing the work out over a week. That won Crystal "second honors" in the county. Only Roy had finished sooner. Without holding a meeting, it had reported that afternoon $214 raised against a quota of $212 for Roy and the Roy Divide. A week later the Crystal column counted something near $260 taken in, with money still coming in.
The figures do not all agree. The county table printed on May 17 set Arbon's share at $231 and Crystal's at $256. The reports after the meetings gave "about $180" for Arbon and $196 for Crystal, and the paper did not explain the difference. No final total for Arbon or Pauline has been found in the later issues.
The baker
The cake at Arbon was not the first Poppie cake of the war. In January the Press reported a letter from Ernest Poppie, "an Arbon valley lad" training at Camp Lewis, to his sister-in-law, Mrs. Albert Poppie. "On Thanksgiving Mrs. Albert Poppie sent him a big cake, and another was sent for Christmas," the paper added. In April the Arbon column described an entertainment, though the scanned text does not make its purpose clear:
A beautifully decorated cake made by Mrs. A. R. Poppie was auctioned off and went to Richard Thomas of Pauline.
That evening raised $35. The papers never say outright that Myrtle Poppie and Mrs. Albert Poppie were the same woman, but it seems likely. Ernest Poppie was later wounded in France.
On this site: Arbon, and the Evans family, whose page tells how the Central (Green Top) school stood on land given by T. B. Evans and served as the community hall of the north Arbon floor. Susannah Evans of that family led the Arbon Red Cross in 1917 and 1918.
Sources
- American Falls Press, April 20, 1916, page 8
- American Falls Press, January 8, 1918, page 3
- American Falls Press, April 9, 1918, page 3
- American Falls Press, April 23, 1918, page 4
- American Falls Press, May 10, 1918, page 1
- American Falls Press, May 14, 1918, page 8
- American Falls Press, May 17, 1918, page 1
- American Falls Press, May 21, 1918, page 1
- American Falls Press, May 21, 1918, page 4
- American Falls Press, May 24, 1918, page 4
- American Falls Press, May 28, 1918, page 4