The Wards between Malad and their Arbon farm, 1915–1986

For most of the twentieth century the Ward family kept two homes. One was a house in Malad, over the hills south of Arbon Valley. The other was a farm in the valley itself. The newspapers followed three generations of the family in the two places, from a South Arbon news column of 1915 to Susan Ward's obituary in 1986.

The homestead and the town

Jesse N. Ward and Julia Ann Moon Ward homesteaded in Arbon Valley and moved to Malad in 1907, as the Salt Lake Tribune recalled when it announced their golden wedding at the end of 1945. The history of Jesse and Julia Ward on this site says they first moved out to the homestead in March 1896, the year they married. Malad was the seat of Oneida County, which included Arbon until Power County was formed in 1913. It was also where the Wards hauled their wheat by wagon. As that history explains, early homesteaders often spent the winter in town, away from the harsh Arbon weather and near schools for their children. The Wards kept coming back to the valley each season, and in September 1915 the American Falls Press noted their return to town in its South Arbon column:

Mr. and Mrs. J. N. Ward, who have been spending most of the summer on their farm here, have returned to Malad, where they will remain for some time while Mr. Ward attends to business matters.

Six weeks later the same column reported that a Mr. and Mrs. Ward of Malad had come back to their homestead for a few weeks while he put in his crop. The name is printed "Joss Ward" and probably means Jesse.

Elmer and Susan

Their son Elmer M. Ward and Susan Irene Thomas, who had grown up in Malad, were married there on March 17, 1920. Two months later the Press's Arbon correspondent reported:

Mr and Mrs. Elmer Ward moved out to their farm last week from Malad.

The history of Elmer and Susan Ward on this site says that about 1920 Elmer took over 320 acres of his father's homestead (his parents' history gives 360). From then on the couple moved out to Arbon in March and back to Malad in November each year. They made the trip by team and wagon until 1926, when they bought a Chevrolet truck, as the site's Stories entry on the first trucks also tells.

The children grew up between the two places. Eileen, born in 1928, started school in Arbon each fall because the farm work ran into October or November. Then she moved to Malad for school until March or April. She did this until the fourth grade. From then on the family stayed in Malad through the school year, because the older children had reached high school. Nelda, born in 1923, went to school in Malad and at the one-room schoolhouse in Arbon Valley. Her obituary recalls childhood summers at her grandparents' homestead cabin in Arbon.

By the family account, Elmer bought the Jerry Baker farm in 1939, and it later became the Ward farm headquarters. Even so, the papers still knew the Wards as Malad people. When Baker, who had grown up in Mendon, Utah, and moved to Arbon to take up ranching nearly forty years before, was buried at Mendon in January 1940, the Logan Herald Journal named Mrs. Jesse Ward and "Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Ward of Malad" among the guests at a dinner after the funeral.

The children stay

The next generation made its homes in the valley. Nelda married D. T. "Sod" Williams on New Year's Day, 1942. They spent their first months snowed in at Daniels, tending cattle with a team and sled, and moved to Arbon Valley in 1943. When Sod was drafted into the Second World War, Nelda stayed in the valley and worked the farm with her father. Eileen married Luther "Louie" Estep at her parents' home in Malad on October 25, 1947. She and Louie farmed at Arbon, growing wheat and barley and raising beef cattle, until they retired. Elmer Vance, the eldest, took over the farm and ranch that included the original homestead.

Two of the children died before their parents. Helen died in 1959. In January 1962 the Ogden Standard-Examiner reported that Darrel, the youngest, had died during heart surgery in a Salt Lake hospital. He had graduated from Brigham Young University in 1959. His obituary gave his brother's home as Malad and described his sisters Nelda and Eileen as "both of Arbon Valley." Elmer died on October 7, 1963, while on a hunting trip. He was buried in Malad, as his parents and his two children had been.

Susan's obituary

Susan Ward died in Malad on October 8, 1986, at the age of 83. The Standard-Examiner's obituary placed her life in the same two places. She had lived in Malad and spent the summer months in Arbon Valley, where she and her husband had "owned and operated a farm and ranch for many years." The obituary recalled her service in the Relief Society, the Primary and the Sunday School, and the mission she and Elmer had served together in their church's Texas Louisiana Mission. Her son Elmer V. Ward, listed at Malad in 1962, was now of Arbon. Her daughters, Mrs. Sod (Nelda) Williams and Mrs. Louie (Eileen) Estep, were "both of Arbon." She was buried in the Malad City Cemetery.

The daughters' later years

The daughters also helped record the valley's life. Eileen was a 4-H leader. For several years she reported the Arbon news for the Power County Press, with stories and photographs. In 1993 she and Louie were grand marshals of the Power County Stampede and American Falls Day. In 1999 the Power County Press printed Nelda's account of the winter of 1948–49, when she and Sod were snowed in from the day after Christmas until March 22, 1949, on the ranch where he fed cattle for the J. N. Arbon family. The site's Stories entry on that winter retells her long night of waiting for Sod to come home. Eileen's son, Ken Estep of Arbon, served as a Power County commissioner. In December 2010 this site invited neighbors to an appreciation and farewell open house for him at the county courthouse.

Eileen died on June 6, 2013. Nelda died on February 7, 2024, at the age of 100. Their parents lie in Malad, but Eileen and Nelda were buried at Arbon.

On this site: the Ward family, Eileen Ward Estep's obituary and the Arbon area history.

The Wards between Malad and their Arbon farm, 1915–1986

The homestead and the town

Elmer and Susan

The children stay

Susan's obituary

The daughters' later years

Sources

Connected histories

Jesse Nicholas Ward & Julia Ann Moon

Elmer Mosiah Ward & Susan Irene Thomas