For its first quarter century the Arbon post office went where its keepers were: a settler's log cabin, a cabin that was also a store, a one-room building by the Central school, a farm home. Washington dispatches in the Salt Lake papers and the Arbon columns of the American Falls Press follow it from 1898 to the summer of 1922, when it nearly closed for want of a postmaster.
Bowen and Bailey
The office opened in August 1898, when Arbon was still in Oneida County (Power County was created in 1913), with David J. Bowen as postmaster. It was installed in his log cabin (see the first post office). According to the Press's 1917 sketch of Bowen, he kept it about a year and a half. In March 1900 Senator Shoup of Idaho recommended J. R. Bailey for the office, and on April 29 the Salt Lake Tribune reported that "J R Bailey was today appointed postmaster at Arbon Oneida county Ida vice D J Bowen resigned." Vice meant "in place of."
Mrs. Evans's cabin
In November 1903 the Tribune reported that Susannah Evans had been appointed in place of James R. Bailey, resigned, and in December the American Falls Advertiser told its readers: "Mrs. T. B. Evans has been appointed postmistress, vice, J. R. Bailey." (The Press reprinted the line in 1919.)
The Press's roving farm writer, who signed himself "The Pilgrim," wrote about the Evanses in December 1917. Their log cabin, he wrote, had long been the only place in the valley where a traveler could find meals and lodging:
For two years the Arbon postoffice was located in the cabin Mrs. Evans being the postmistress and for three years Mr. Evans conducted a general merchandise store in it. Supplies at that time were freighted in from Pocatello and it was always the policy to stock up in the fall of the year.
People from the neighboring Fort Hall Reservation, he added, were steady customers at the store.
The accounts differ on how long Mrs. Evans kept the office: two years in the Pilgrim's telling, one year in Mrs. E. A. Logan's history of the valley, printed in the Press in March 1917. The appointment register, as the site's first post office entry records, gives her one term, from 1903 to 1906. Her 1953 obituary in the Tribune remembered her as postmistress "several different times."
Bailey again
Mrs. Logan's history goes on: the office "was finally given back to Mr. Bailey, who served altogether about sixteen years, resigning in June, 1916." In November 1908 the Press introduced him as "postmaster and one of the pioneer farmers of Arbon."
The papers' figures for Bailey's service run straight through the Evans years: about sixteen years in Mrs. Logan's history, seventeen in the Pilgrim's sketch of the Bailey family in November 1917.
Miss Leavitt's store by Central
Bailey's successor was already in business near the Central school, which stood on land T. B. Evans had given. On April 6, 1916, the Arbon column reported: "Miss Leavitt has erected a new stone building on the townsite by Central school. She will soon open with a display of millinery and notions." By June she had added jewelry, and on June 24, "Miss L. Leavitt" took over the post office.
Mrs. Logan's 1917 history placed the valley's capital in "a one room building, near the Central school, known as the Arbon postoffice." It was probably Miss Leavitt's stone building, though no item says so outright. There she kept "a small stock of staple groceries, stationery and notions." Her brother Harold kept samples for a Chicago tailoring company at the post office, and in November 1916 he advertised: "MEN TAKE NOTICE See Harold Leavitt at Arbon postoffice for a good hair cut."
In the Press of October 26, 1917, Bowen recalled that the cancellations for his first quarter as postmaster had come to $1.32; the postmistress, probably Miss Leavitt (the scan scrambles the line), put the quarterly revenue from cancellations and money order fees at "well over $100."
Ruth Keeler
In October 1919 the Arbon column reported that Miss Louie Leavitt had gone back to her old home at Albion after three years as "an efficient postmistress." The office passed to the Evanses' daughter Ruth: "Mrs. Ruth Keeler is now postmistress at Arbon and her many friends wish her success in her new undertaking." She had married Jess Keeler in 1915. Like Miss Leavitt, she kept a stock of groceries, stationery and confections beside the mail. At Christmas 1920 she had cards and booklets for sale, while her mother sold Tuberculosis Christmas Seals.
The near-closing of 1922
On March 17, 1922, the Arbon Items reported another change:
Mrs. Ruth Keeler and son Jess left Monday for Pocatello, where they will reside. Mrs. Keeler has resigned as Postmistress and Miss Elizabeth Bailey has accepted the office. The postoffice is now at the home of Mr. J. R. Bailey. As soon as the roads are good the postoffice building at Central will be moved over to Baileys. Mrs. Keeler has been a good and efficient Postmistress and her friends are sorry to see her leave, but also wish Miss Bailey success.
The Bailey family history lists daughters named Elizabeth and Mary, born in 1903 and 1905, and these were very probably the Miss Baileys of 1922.
By the end of June, Mrs. E. A. Logan, author of the 1917 history, was in charge "as acting Post Master, until a permanent one can be secured," and the column carried this notice:
Word was received, by Acting Post Master of Arbon Mrs. E. A. Logan to the effect that the attention of the patrons of the office should be directed to the fact that unless a suitable applicant is obtained it will be necessary to discontinue the office at Arbon. All applications must be in by July 4th, 1922
On October 5 the Press reported that Miss Mary Bailey had been appointed postmistress at Arbon, "according to information received this week from Washington." The next sentence is lost in the scan, and the papers read here do not say whether she took charge. The site's entry on the first written history records that Mrs. Logan, Jennie Logan, was herself Arbon postmaster from 1923 to 1925.
The office stayed open. In August 2011, when it was again in danger of closing, residents were asked to write letters to keep it.
On this site: the first store, the first telephone operator, the Evans family and the 2011 call to save the post office.
Sources
- Salt Lake Herald, August 20, 1898, page 1
- Salt Lake Tribune, March 29, 1900, page 1
- Salt Lake Tribune, April 29, 1900, page 1
- Salt Lake Tribune, November 7, 1903, page 3
- American Falls Press, November 14, 1908, page 1
- American Falls Press, April 29, 1915, page 4
- American Falls Press, April 6, 1916, page 3
- American Falls Press, June 8, 1916, page 8
- American Falls Press, July 20, 1916, page 1
- American Falls Press, November 2, 1916, page 12
- American Falls Press, March 29, 1917, page 7
- American Falls Press, October 9, 1917, page 4
- American Falls Press, October 26, 1917, page 3
- American Falls Press, November 20, 1917, page 3
- American Falls Press, December 14, 1917, page 3
- American Falls Press, October 10, 1919, page 6
- American Falls Press, December 19, 1919, page 3
- American Falls Press, December 10, 1920, page 7
- American Falls Press, March 17, 1922, page 4
- American Falls Press, June 29, 1922, page 7
- American Falls Press, October 5, 1922, page 1
- Salt Lake Tribune, March 27, 1953, page 46
- The first post office and postmaster, Stories, on this site
- The first written history of the valley, Stories, on this site
- James R. Bailey, family history, on this site
- Possible Arbon Post Office Closing, August 17, 2011, on this site