The Bailey name has been a part of Arbon Valley since 1893. There is even a road named Bailey, in honor of this homesteading family, running parallel one mile west of the Arbon Valley Highway. They farmed in the valley until the 1970s. Several Bailey brothers came to the valley in the late 1800s and early 1900s, including John, James, Charles, Lorenzo, William, Parley, Willard, Lorin, and Cyrus. The three oldest brothers, John, James, and Charles were the first Baileys to come to the valley. They were originally from Wellsville, Cache, Utah. Bailey DNA still runs through several families in the valley, including the Lusk family.
FAMILY HISTORY · ARBON AREA
Bailey
From Wellsville, Cache Valley, Utah · earlier England (parents)
Eight sons of Charles R. Bailey of Wellsville took up land in a compact block along today’s Bailey Road. J. R. Bailey first explored the valley in 1892, and his half-brother Charles made the first homestead entry in township 11 South, 33 East, in March 1901. J. R. and two of his daughters kept the Arbon post office for about seventeen years in all between 1900 and 1928, Lorin held the 1916–18 Pocatello mail contract, and the family married into the Lusk, Gibbons, Arbon, Andersen and Bolingbroke families.
- Arrived
- About 1894–1901: visits from 1892, work from about 1894, family home by about 1899–1901 (accounts differ) date range
- Homesteads and land
- 13 places on the map below ↓
- People recorded
- 30 across 3 generations ↓
- Named for them
- Bailey Road
From the family history
The account first written for this family on ArbonValley.com, kept in full. The chapters after it add what the records and the other family histories tell.
1 minute read
About this account · first posted December 30, 2018
Written for the original ArbonValley.com by Jacob Andersen. Memories and documents quoted in the account belong to the people who wrote them. This is the website publication date, not the date of every event described. References to “today” belong to the original account.
Editorial introductions and navigation were added in September 2026. Original citations remain in the account. How we preserve and annotate the history ↗
Their story
The Arbon Baileys were sons of Charles Ramsden Bailey, an English Latter-day Saint convert who settled at Wellsville in Cache Valley in 1859 and had three wives. Five of Susannah Hawkins’s sons — James Richard (“J. R.”), Lorenzo (“Ren”), Parley, Willard and Lorin — and three of Johannah Adamson’s sons — Charles, William and Cyrus — took up land in the valley. Susannah’s brothers William E. and Joseph Hawkins lived at Samaria — Susannah’s nephew W. T. Hawkins married D. J. Bowen’s sister there in 1896 — and Willard and Parley married Roderick sisters of Samaria, which is why the Baileys are sometimes described as coming from Samaria.
J. R. Bailey first saw the valley’s belly-high grass while freighting through it as a young man. By the family’s account he explored it on June 21, 1892, with D. J. Bowen and the Davises and settled in the spring of 1894; his wife Annie refused to live in his dugout, so they spent the first summer in a tent and the next in a log cabin of Knox Canyon logs. The records place the family home at Arbon by about 1899–1901 — J. R. signed as proposed postmaster in April 1900 — and some children were still born in Utah in 1903 and 1905. When the township opened to entry in 1901, Charles A. Bailey made its first homestead entry on March 28 and J. R. entered his homestead on May 27, on the line of today’s Bailey Road. Hard well water meant weekly trips to neighbor Bowen’s spring until a deeper well was drilled in 1924.
J. R. was Arbon’s longest-serving early postmaster — from April 1900 to the end of 1903 and from 1906 to June 1916, with the office in his house — and his daughters Elizabeth (1922) and Edna (1925–28) kept it in the Bailey home again. Lorin held the star-route mail contract between Pocatello and Arbon by way of Crystal and Pauline from October 1916 into 1918, driving over Mink Creek Pass. J. R. was the first Sunday school superintendent of the Arbon Branch (seventeen or nineteen years, accounts differ), a school trustee and District 12 board chairman, a road overseer and a director of the telephone company; Annie was called to births and sickness all over the valley.
Lorenzo and Chloa Bailey raised ten children on his homestead and later on “the Dalton place”, churning 75 to 150 pounds of butter a week for a Pocatello grocer, with neighbors carrying it to town like a co-op; family and county histories credit them with the land for the 1901–02 log school and meetinghouse. Their son Leland ran the dances at the Green Top school and cut the valley’s hair.
The next generation married into most valley families and kept land in the valley through the mid-century. Melvin, who married George Arbon’s granddaughter Stella Johnston in 1915, bought his father’s farm in 1941 and farmed it until 1952; Leland and Vernal patented stock-raising homesteads in the west foothills in 1943, and Vernal and his wife Blanche, Perry Lusk’s daughter, ranched in Arbon Valley until 1974.
Sources: Bailey · James R. Bailey · Lorenzo H. Bailey · Lorin Bailey · Arbon (area history) · The original homesteading families map (2019) · James Richard Bailey 1867–1948 (FamilySearch story) · Homestead patent to James R. Bailey, April 19, 1907 (BLM IDIDAA 005257)
Where they came from
- English Latter-day Saint converts: Charles R. Bailey of Honley, Yorkshire, and Susannah Hawkins of London
- Salt Lake City (Charles R. Bailey)1855
- Wellsville, Cache Valleyfrom 1859; sons born 1864–1888
- Bannock Valley1892–1901
Sources: Bailey · 1880 U.S. census, Wellsville precinct, Cache County, Utah, ED 10 (Bailey households) · Ogden Standard-Examiner, July 10, 1936, page 5: obituary of Susannah Hawkins Bailey
The people
30 people of the Bailey family on the valley map, household by household, and 3 histories of their own in the archive. Names open their histories; portraits open in the family album.
The households 8
Each with the people who married in, and their children and grandchildren below, oldest first.
Charles Adamson Bailey
1864–1905
Half-brother of James Bailey (son of Charles R. Bailey and Johannah Adamson); husband of Grace Spence
More about Charles
Made the first homestead entry in township 11 South, 33 East — the heart of the Arbon floor — on March 28, 1901, and proved up in 1904, a year before his death. The family history says J. R. later bought his homestead.
Grace Morrison Spence Bailey 1866–1948
Married 1888
James Richard Bailey
1867–1948
Eldest son of Charles R. Bailey and Susannah Hawkins; the first of the Bailey brothers in the valley
More about James
Freighter from age twelve who first saw the valley from a wagon seat. Father of thirteen with Annie Kerr; his daughters married into the Gibbons, Lusk, Arbon and Swenson families and his son Charles married Ada Andersen. He sold the farm to his son Melvin in 1941 and spent his last years in Pocatello, where he married Nancy Livingstone in 1946.
Annie Leishman Kerr Bailey 1873–1946
Married 1890
Jane “Jennie” Kerr Bailey Gibbons 1891–1912
Wife of (John) Lawrence Gibbons (married December 20, 1910, Malad)
Melvin Kerr Bailey 1895–1952
Married Stella Johnston Bailey (1915)
Lamond Johnston “Buck” Bailey 1922–2013
Charles Kerr Bailey 1897–1971
Husband of Ada Andersen (married September 4, 1928), daughter of John C. Andersen
Thomas Kerr Bailey 1899–1977
Elizabeth Kerr Bailey Rhodes 1903–1965
Later Mrs. Walter Rhodes
Tressa Bailey Swenson 1908–1974
Wife of Royal O. Swenson (married July 7, 1927)
Merle Kerr Bailey Christensen 1910–2000
Wife of Soren A. Christensen (married June 18, 1928)
Earl Kerr Bailey 1913–1939
William Adamson Bailey
1868–1927
Half-brother of James Bailey (probably the Arbon patentee “William A. Bailey”)
More about William
Entered his homestead “of Arbon” in December 1902 and proved up a year later; how he qualified so quickly is not explained. That he is Johannah Adamson Bailey’s son William is probable.
Cyrus Adamson Bailey
1876–1941
Half-brother of James Bailey (probably the Arbon patentee “Cyrus A. Bailey”)
More about Cyrus
One of the first Bailey entrants, giving his residence as Arbon in May 1901; he proved up in 1903 and later lived at Draper, Utah. That the patentee is Johannah Adamson Bailey’s son Cyrus rests on name, initial and residence (probable).
Lorenzo Hawkins “Ren” Bailey
1879–1967
Brother of James Bailey; husband of Agnes Chloa Facer (married February 27, 1903)
More about Ren
Cleared land for his brothers before filing his own homestead in 1906. He and Chloa raised ten children, all of whom lived to adulthood, dairied and sold butter in Pocatello; he was remembered as a musician. The family later lived on “the Dalton place”.
Agnes “Chloa” Facer Bailey 1886–1980
Married 1903
Lorenzo Bard Bailey 1904–1984
Leland Facer Bailey 1906–1995
Husband of Dartha Fae “Dottie” Bird of Buist (married May 1, 1934)
Married Dartha Fae “Dottie” Bird Bailey
Vernal Facer Bailey 1912–2002
Married Blanche Elizabeth Lusk Bailey (1937)
Deo Facer Bailey 1928–2016
Parley Hawkins Bailey
1881–1975
Brother of James Bailey; husband of Mary Jane Roderick (married October 18, 1905)
More about Parley
Entered his homestead “of Arbon” in November 1905 and a desert-land claim in 1907. He bought land near Malad in 1915 and in March 1918 left with his family for Richmond, Utah.
Willard Hawkins Bailey
1883–1948
Brother of James Bailey; husband of Ann Maria Roderick (married September 30, 1903, Samaria)
More about Willard
Called “one of the prosperous settlers of Arbon” in 1908; with Annie he reclaimed desert land beside his homestead. He sold his place and moved to Samaria in 1915, and later lived at Malad and Ogden.
Ann Maria Roderick Bailey 1886–1962
Married 1903
Lorin Hawkins Bailey
1888–1987
Youngest full brother of James Bailey; husband of Claribel Bolingbroke
More about Lorin
Held the star-route mail contract from Pocatello to Arbon by way of Crystal and Pauline, let in October 1916; he carried the mail over Mink Creek Pass by car, sleigh and buggy into the spring of 1918. He led the Arbon choir and moved his family to Pocatello in 1922.
Claribel Bolingbroke Bailey 1889–1977
Married 1909
Margaret Bailey Waylett 1917–2003
Wife of William Carey Waylett of Pauline (married May 31, 1941)
Homesteads and land
13 places the Bailey family took up or held, 1894–1940, placed from the land patents, the entry registers and the family accounts.
12345678910111213Bailey homesteads, west of the highway
West side of the valley around present Bailey Road, which runs on the section line one mile west of the Arbon Valley Highway. The Bailey brothers’ patents (1904–1916) form a compact block in T11S R33E, Sections 1–3 and 10–15; the large circle on the family map reflects that spread. J. R.’s, Lorenzo’s, Lorin’s, Charles A.’s and Melvin’s homesteads are also mapped separately.
J. R. Bailey homestead and post office
James R. Bailey’s homestead — SE¼SE¼ Sec. 3, S½SW¼ and SW¼SE¼ Sec. 2, T11S R33E, entered May 27, 1901, and patented in 1907 — on the section line now followed by Bailey Road. The Arbon post office stood at his house, on the Sec. 2/3 line, while he was postmaster (1900–03 and 1906–16) and again when his daughters Elizabeth (1922) and Edna (1925–28) kept it. By the family’s account the home went from dugout to tent to log cabin, then a three-room frame house.
Charles A. Bailey homestead (first entry, 1901)
Charles Adamson Bailey’s homestead — E½SE¼ Sec. 1 and NE¼NE¼ Sec. 12, T11S R33E, with Lot 6 Sec. 6, T11S R34E — entered on March 28, 1901, the first homestead entry in the township, proved up in 1904 and patented in 1906 after his death. His family lived here from 1901 for some years.
Lorenzo and Chloa Bailey homestead
Lorenzo Bailey’s homestead, the NE¼ of Sec. 11, T11S R33E (entered June 1906, patented 1911), where by the family’s account eight of their ten children were born in a two-room log cabin. Chloa’s 40 acres in the NW¼NE¼ of Sec. 12 (patent 1913) and the “John Bailey” desert quarter (NW¼ Sec. 11) adjoined it; the family later lived on the former Dalton land to the south and west (“the Dalton place”).
Lorin and Claribel Bailey homestead
Lorin Bailey’s homestead — Lot 2, SW¼NE¼ and S½NW¼ Sec. 3, T11S R33E (entered May 3, 1909, proved 1913, patented 1914) — about three-quarters of a mile north-north-west of J. R.’s house and just east of Jennie and Lawrence Gibbons’s homestead. The archive’s “a mile north of James” and the windmill well shared on the section line fit.
Melvin and Stella Bailey homestead
Melvin Bailey’s homestead, S½SE¼ Sec. 32 and W½SW¼ Sec. 33, T10S R33E (patented 1919), on the west side of the north Arbon floor. He built a house here before his 1915 marriage, and his son Lamond (“Buck”) grew up here; the family moved to J. R.’s farm after buying it in 1941.
Cyrus A. Bailey’s homestead (entry 1901)
Cyrus A. Bailey’s homestead, the S½NE¼ of Sec. 14 and S½NW¼ of Sec. 13, T11S R33E — a strip a mile long and a quarter mile wide on the south-east side of the Bailey block — entered on May 23, 1901, proved up in December 1903 and patented December 1, 1904. Parley’s homestead lay just north of it and William A.’s just south. That the patentee was J. R.’s half-brother Cyrus Adamson Bailey rests on name, initial and residence (probable).
William A. Bailey’s homestead (entry 1902)
William A. Bailey’s homestead, the N½SE¼ of Sec. 14 and N½SW¼ of Sec. 13, T11S R33E, just south of Cyrus’s strip: entered on December 23, 1902, proved up a year later and patented December 1, 1904. That he was J. R.’s half-brother William Adamson Bailey of Wellsville is probable (name, initial and residence).
Willard and Annie M. Bailey’s homestead (entry 1904)
Willard H. Bailey’s homestead, the NE¼ of Sec. 10, T11S R33E, just west of today’s Bailey Road: entered July 18, 1904, and patented April 1, 1910. Willard’s desert land (Lot 1, SE¼NE¼ and N½SE¼ Sec. 3; entered 1909, patented 1915) lay a mile north, and Annie M. Bailey’s own desert forty (SE¼NW¼ Sec. 10; entered 1910, patented 1914) adjoined on the west. Willard sold out early in 1915 and moved to Samaria.
Parley Bailey’s homestead (entry 1905)
Parley H. Bailey’s homestead, the N½NW¼ of Sec. 13 and N½NE¼ of Sec. 14, T11S R33E, entered November 22, 1905, and patented June 19, 1911. His desert-land tract (S½NW¼ and N½SW¼ Sec. 14; entered June 5, 1907, patented 1912) lay just west and south. He sold one place to his brother Willard in 1916, and Lucien McLarry bought “the Parley H. Bailey place” in 1918.
Annie Bailey’s desert land (entry 1907)
The 240 acres of Annie Bailey’s desert-land claim — the SW¼ and SW¼SE¼ of Sec. 1 and SE¼SE¼ of Sec. 2, T11S R33E — entered on June 6, 1907 (the day after Parley’s desert entry) and patented on the cash form on September 19, 1912. It adjoins J. R. Bailey’s homestead on the east and Charles A.’s on the west, so the entrant was probably J. R.’s wife, Annie Kerr Bailey; Willard’s wife Annie M. made her own, separate desert entry in 1910.
Leland Bailey’s stock-raising homestead (patent 1943; entry about 1940)
Leland F. Bailey’s 643-acre stock-raising homestead in the west foothills — S½SW¼ Sec. 32, T10S R33E; Lot 4, SW¼NW¼ and SW¼ Sec. 5, Lots 1–2 and S½NE¼ Sec. 6, and parts of Sec. 8, T11S R33E — patented March 20, 1943. Whether the 2010 fire’s “Lee Baily homestead” was this land or his home place is not known (possible only).
Vernal and Blanche’s stock-raising homestead (patent 1943; entry about 1940)
Vernal F. Bailey’s 645-acre stock-raising homestead — SW¼SE¼ and Lot 4 Sec. 8; SE¼SW¼, W½E½ and Lots 1–3 Sec. 17; NW¼NE¼, NW¼ and NE¼SW¼ Sec. 20, T11S R33E — patented January 26, 1943. Vernal and his wife Blanche (Perry Lusk’s daughter) ranched in Arbon Valley until 1974 (her obituary).
The land patents
The federal patents that made the homesteads theirs, from the General Land Office records.
93 dates in the family’s history
Every date the valley map shows when you follow the Bailey family, era by era: the most telling of each era first, the rest a click away. Dates keep the sources’ own wording.
Homestead or landFamily historyEventValley firstTragedy
Before Homesteading
A Shoshone and Bannock homeland; trails, travelers and cattle range.
September 1853Family history
The brothers’ mother crosses the plains
Susannah Hawkins, then six, crossed to Salt Lake City with her parents and brothers in the Jacob Gates company of 1853. Five of her sons — J. R., Lorenzo, Parley, Willard and Lorin — later took up land in Arbon Valley.
September 25, 1855 (Wellsville from 1859)Family history
Charles R. Bailey reaches Utah
Charles Ramsden Bailey, an English convert from Honley in Yorkshire, reached Salt Lake City after sailing on the Charles Buck and settled at Wellsville in Cache Valley in 1859. Eight of his sons later took land in Arbon Valley.
about 1879–1892Family history
J. R. Bailey freighting and working before Arbon
By his daughters’ account J. R. Bailey was freighting from about age twelve, and on those trips saw the valley’s belly-high grass. He also worked on railroad and canal jobs at Huntsville and Bear River and in a logging camp at Aspen, Wyoming, where Annie cooked for the loggers, before he settled at Arbon.
June 1880Family history
Three Bailey households at Wellsville
The 1880 census of Wellsville lists Charles R. Bailey’s wives in separate households: Susannah with James and the baby Lorenzo, and Johannah with Charles, William and Cyrus. The father is listed with Susannah and, apparently a second time as “Ramsden, Charles”, with Hannah.
James Richard Bailey, Lorenzo Hawkins “Ren” Bailey, Charles Adamson Bailey, William Adamson Bailey and 1 more
Early Claims
Possessory claims and water rights before the valley opened.
1889Family history
Charles R. Bailey in prison
Charles R. Bailey, the father of the Arbon Bailey brothers, was imprisoned in 1889 under the Edmunds Act, the federal anti-polygamy law. His papers at Utah State University include the diary he kept in prison.
June 1892Event
Bowen and Davis look for land and water
David John Bowen and Samuel Deer Davis came over the mountain from Samaria, near Malad, in June 1892. They found water coming out of Knox Canyon that sank underground before reaching the valley floor and decided ditches could carry it to fields. Work on a ditch began that fall with help from Samaria; everyone went home for the winter. The Bailey family history and the 1917 valley history add J. R. Bailey and Ed Davis to the party; the Bailey history dates it June 21, 1892.
1890s Settlement
Homesteads, the first ditch, and the first winters.
August 1893Event
Irrigation company organized in Samaria
The earliest meeting of what became the Bannock Valley Irrigation Company took place in Samaria. Its purpose was to own and control the water of Knox Creek through dams, ditches, pipes, flumes and reservoirs. Members pooled money, labor, equipment and horse teams, and kept detailed minutes — down to the pay for each man’s work and team.
1893–1895 (accounts differ); decreed priority July 24, 1897Event
A mile-and-a-half ditch from Knox Canyon
Working together, the settlers dug a ditch about one and a half miles long from the mouth of Knox Canyon to land they held by squatter’s rights. The Davis account dates it to 1893, the Arbon area history to 1894, and the George Arbon biography to 1895. In later years it grew to several miles — about seven by 1906, when Andrew Jenson described it — and its Knox Canyon Creek water right carries a decreed priority of July 24, 1897.
Spring 1894 (family memory; records place the family home at Arbon by about 1899–1901)Event
James R. Bailey’s first seasons in the valley
James Richard Bailey of Wellsville, who had admired the valley’s belly-high grass while freighting through it, explored it on June 21, 1892, with D. J. Bowen and the Davises (family account). By the family’s account he settled in the spring of 1894: Annie refused to live in his dugout, so they spent the first summer in a tent, and the next year he built a log cabin from Knox Canyon logs. The 1917 local history has a Bailey fencing and sowing grain with Bowen and the Arbons in 1894. The records date the family home later: J. R. signed as proposed postmaster at Arbon in April 1900, entered his homestead on May 27, 1901, and still had children born in Utah in 1903 and 1905.
from the 1890s (not dated)Valley first
The first midwives
With no doctor in the valley, babies were delivered by neighbour women whom their families remember as the valley's midwives.
January 26, 1898 (one account: 1897)Valley first
The first child born to the settlers
May Flint, daughter of an Ogden couple then living in the valley, is the first child known to have been born to the settler families.
Thomas Kerr Bailey
1898 (postmaster appointed June 21; office opened in August)Valley first
The first post office and postmaster
The valley's first post office was applied for in January 1898 as "Mountain Side," to be called Arbon, and D. J. Bowen became its first postmaster that June.
Show 5 more from these years
1894Homestead or land
Bailey homesteads, west of the highway
James Richard Bailey, Lorenzo Hawkins “Ren” Bailey, Lorin Hawkins Bailey
1895Event
Lorenzo Bailey joins his brothers
By family account Lorenzo Hawkins Bailey came at sixteen to clear land for his brothers, too young to file a claim of his own. He was still in his mother’s Wellsville household in June 1900; he brought his bride Chloa to the valley in April 1903 and entered his own homestead, the NE¼ of Section 11, in June 1906.
winter 1896–97; blizzard April 7–10, 1897Tragedy
The hard winter of 1896–97 and the April blizzard
The first winter that settler families stayed through was remembered as a hard one, with its worst blizzard in April.
1896Event
One header for the whole valley
After poor first crops, 1896 brought a good harvest. Ed Davis, D. J. Bowen, James Bailey, Lorenzo Evans and Joseph Arbon pooled $263 for a ten-foot Hodges header, which cut all the grain in the valley that year.
1898 or 1910 (accounts differ); an incorporated company by 1917Event
Arbon Irrigation Company
The Arbon area history dates the Arbon (Valley) Irrigation Company to 1898 — essentially the same organization as the Bannock Valley company, it says, run by the same early homesteaders and later joined by others, including Davis, Bailey, Hawkins, Williams, Ward, Arbon, Bowen, Roderick and Evans. The Edward Davis biography says it was formed in 1910, with Davis a charter member holding fifteen shares. Records show it was an incorporated company by October 1917, when it was on the state’s list of corporations behind in their licence tax, and a 1923 court notice lists three shares of its stock. The two company names have separate federal canal files, so it may have been a successor or a second company.
Early 1900s Growth
Schools, churches, stores and post offices in every area.
1900Homestead or land
J. R. Bailey homestead and post office
James R. Bailey’s homestead — SE¼SE¼ Sec. 3, S½SW¼ and SW¼SE¼ Sec. 2, T11S R33E, entered May 27, 1901, and patented in 1907 — on the section line now followed by Bailey Road. The Arbon post office stood at his house, on the Sec. 2/3 line, while he was postmaster (1900–03 and 1906–16) and again when his daughters Elizabeth (1922) and Edna (1925–28) kept it. By the family’s account the home went from dugout to tent to log cabin, then a three-room frame house.
August 19, 1900Event
Arbon LDS Branch organized
On August 19, 1900, about ten families and a few single men were organized as the Arbon Branch of the Samaria Ward, Malad Stake, with D. J. Bowen as presiding elder — by the original ArbonValley.com and family accounts, in Bowen’s home. J. R. Bailey was the first Sunday School superintendent, with Ed Davis and Joe Arbon as assistants. It was a branch, not yet a ward: Arbon became a ward in 1908. Meetings moved among private homes, and for decades church was held only in the summer months, when families were in the valley.
March–September 1901Event
The first homestead entries
Once the townships were surveyed, the settlers who had squatted on the valley floor since the 1890s filed at the Blackfoot land office. The register dates the first entries: Jennett Daniels Price and Henry Daniels on March 12, 1901, at West Fork, then Donum and Thomas D. Daniels later that month; Charles A. Bailey on March 28, the first on the Arbon floor; D. B. Evans and Julius Abter in April; John Payne’s and Jane Dalton’s desert-land claims in May; Thomas Gibbons, the Bailey brothers, George Arbon, David T. Davis and Jesse Ward’s desert land in late May; D. J. Bowen and J. A. R. Gibbons on June 6 and William Arnn on June 8; the first Summit entries — Joseph T. Wood, Peter Larsen of Mendon and Frederick J. Manning — on July 2; and John C. and Otto Andersen on September 6. Most gave their residence as “Arbon, Oneida.”
James Richard Bailey, Charles Adamson Bailey, Cyrus Adamson Bailey
entry on March 28, 1901Homestead or land
Charles A. Bailey homestead (first entry, 1901)
Charles Adamson Bailey’s homestead — E½SE¼ Sec. 1 and NE¼NE¼ Sec. 12, T11S R33E, with Lot 6 Sec. 6, T11S R34E — entered on March 28, 1901, the first homestead entry in the township, proved up in 1904 and patented in 1906 after his death. His family lived here from 1901 for some years.
Charles Adamson Bailey, Grace Morrison Spence Bailey
1901–1902 (accounts differ)Event
A log building for school, church and dances
The community hauled logs from the canyons and built a 20×36-foot building “by everyone, regardless of church affiliation.” The original ArbonValley.com accounts put it beside the George Arbon homestead on Church Road, where the present meetinghouse stands, on land they say Lorenzo and Chloa Bailey gave; the Power County history puts the 1902 log school in Section 12 instead. It served as Valley View School, meetinghouse, dance hall and public meeting place, and was Oneida County School District 46 by 1907; around 1904 the logs were covered with lumber.
about December 31, 1910 (earliest on record); valley owners from 1915Valley first
The first automobiles
The earliest automobile on record in the valley carried an American Falls party to the Arbon schoolhouse at the end of 1910, to argue for joining the new Power County.
Show 26 more from these years
1900–1903 and 1906–1916Event
Post office in the James Bailey home
J. R. Bailey followed D. J. Bowen as Arbon postmaster on April 28, 1900, and kept the office in his house on the line between Sections 2 and 3, by today’s Bailey Road. Susannah Evans held the office from November 6, 1903, until February 1906; Bailey was reappointed on February 26, 1906, and served until Louie Leavitt took charge on June 24, 1916 — “nearly sixteen years” in all. His daughters Elizabeth (1922) and Edna (1925–28) later kept the office at the Bailey place. The postmaster’s pay came from cancelled stamps and a share of stamp sales — perhaps $30 in a very good month — plus freight on cream, butter and eggs sent to Pocatello.
June 1900Family history
Most of the brothers still at Wellsville
In June 1900 Lorenzo, Parley, Willard and Lorin were still in their mother Susannah’s household at Wellsville, and Charles A.’s wife Grace and their children were there without him. J. R.’s family was not found in Wellsville and was probably already at Arbon.
Lorenzo Hawkins “Ren” Bailey, Parley Hawkins Bailey, Willard Hawkins Bailey, Lorin Hawkins Bailey and 2 more
entry on May 23, 1901Homestead or land
Cyrus A. Bailey’s homestead (entry 1901)
Cyrus Adamson Bailey
entry on December 23, 1902Homestead or land
William A. Bailey’s homestead (entry 1902)
William Adamson Bailey
December 23, 1902Family history
William A. Bailey enters a homestead
William A. Bailey, probably J. R.’s half-brother William Adamson Bailey, gave his residence as Arbon and entered 160 acres in Sections 13 and 14 of the Bailey block. He proved up a year later.
William Adamson Bailey
December 26, 1903Family history
Cyrus and William Bailey prove up
Cyrus A. and William A. Bailey received final certificates on their neighbouring homesteads on the same day, and both patents were issued on December 1, 1904. William’s proof came only a year after his entry, which the register does not explain.
Cyrus Adamson Bailey, William Adamson Bailey
February 25, 1904Family history
Charles A. Bailey proves up
Charles A. Bailey received the final certificate on the homestead he had entered in March 1901, the first entry in the township; the patent was issued in January 1906.
Charles Adamson Bailey
entry July 18, 1904Homestead or land
Willard and Annie M. Bailey’s homestead (entry 1904)
Willard Hawkins Bailey, Ann Maria Roderick Bailey
July 18, 1904Family history
Willard Bailey enters a homestead
Willard H. Bailey, “of Arbon”, entered the NE¼ of Section 10, just west of today’s Bailey Road, and patented it in 1910.
Willard Hawkins Bailey, Ann Maria Roderick Bailey
entry November 22, 1905Homestead or land
Parley Bailey’s homestead (entry 1905)
Parley Hawkins Bailey
November 22, 1905Family history
Parley Bailey enters a homestead
Parley H. Bailey, giving his residence as Arbon, entered 160 acres in Sections 13 and 14 beside his half-brothers Cyrus and William; the patent followed in June 1911.
Parley Hawkins Bailey
entry June 1906Homestead or land
Lorenzo and Chloa Bailey homestead
June 22 or 23, 1906Family history
Lorenzo Bailey enters his homestead
Lorenzo H. Bailey, “of Arbon”, entered the NE¼ of Section 11, east of Bailey Road. By the family’s account he and Chloa lived there in a two-room log cabin; the patent came in July 1911.
November 26, 1906Family history
J. R. Bailey proves up
Five and a half years after his 1901 entry, J. R. Bailey received the final certificate on his homestead on the Section 2/3 line, with no credit claimed for earlier years in the valley; the patent followed on April 19, 1907.
June 5–6, 1907Family history
Parley and Annie Bailey file desert-land claims
On consecutive days Parley H. Bailey and Annie Bailey, both of Arbon, filed desert-land entries: Parley’s 160 acres in Section 14 and Annie’s 240 acres in Sections 1 and 2, beside J. R.’s homestead. Annie was probably J. R.’s wife; both claims were reclaimed and patented in 1912.
Parley Hawkins Bailey, Annie Leishman Kerr Bailey
entry on June 6, 1907Homestead or land
Annie Bailey’s desert land (entry 1907)
August 20, 1907Family history
A “John Bailey” desert quarter beside Lorenzo
A desert-land patent for the NW¼ of Section 11 went to a John Bailey, possibly the brothers’ full brother John Hawkins Bailey of Wellsville. By 1923 the quarter was Lorenzo and Chloa’s.
1908 (American Falls road); about 1910–12 (Jenson Pass)Valley first
The first engineered road out of the valley
Two roads compete for the title of the valley's first engineered road: a county road to American Falls laid out in 1908, and the grade over Jenson Pass toward Malad.
November 1908 – 1910Event
A campaign for settlers
In November 1908 the American Falls Press began a campaign for settlers, advertising the valley as having had no crop failure. An Arbon committee of John Payne, Adam Affleck and Lorenzo Evans answered homeseekers’ letters; J. R. Bailey, Julius Abter and Otto Andersen laid out a new road to American Falls; and Bert Evans, David Roderick and Bishop Arbon called a December meeting on dividing Oneida County. Twenty-eight homesteads were taken between November 1908 and March 1909, families from Dayton, Washington, filed after a copy of the Press reached them, and within about two years nearly all the vacant land was taken.
November 1908Family history
Four Baileys in the wheat caravan
J. R., Willard, Parley and Lorin Bailey drove teams in the November 1908 wagon caravan that hauled Arbon wheat out to market, and the American Falls Press called Willard “one of the prosperous settlers of Arbon”.
James Richard Bailey, Willard Hawkins Bailey, Parley Hawkins Bailey, Lorin Hawkins Bailey
April 23, 1909Family history
Willard and Annie M. Bailey reclaim desert land
Willard H. Bailey filed a desert-land entry on 160 acres in Section 3, north of his homestead, and on September 9, 1910, his wife Annie M. filed her own on a forty in Section 10. Both proved up in October 1912; her patent came in 1914 and his in 1915.
Willard Hawkins Bailey, Ann Maria Roderick Bailey
May 3, 1909Family history
Lorin Bailey enters his homestead
Lorin H. Bailey entered 159 acres in Section 3, about three-quarters of a mile north-north-west of J. R.’s house. By Claribel’s own account they dry-farmed it and hauled water a mile for three years.
entry May 3, 1909Homestead or land
Lorin and Claribel Bailey homestead
April 1910Family history
Four Bailey households side by side
The 1910 census lists Willard, J. R., Lorenzo and Parley Bailey in neighbouring dwellings in Arbon precinct. The birthplaces of J. R.’s children show the family moving between Utah and Idaho until about 1906.
Willard Hawkins Bailey, James Richard Bailey, Lorenzo Hawkins “Ren” Bailey, Parley Hawkins Bailey
August 1912Tragedy
A toddler kicked by a work horse
Two-year-old Eldon Bailey followed his father into the farmyard, was kicked in the head by a work horse and died after an operation in Salt Lake City.
March 23, 1912Tragedy
Jennie Gibbons and her baby, beyond the doctor’s reach
Jennie Bailey Gibbons, twenty-one, died in childbirth at Arbon with her baby daughter while the doctor was still on the snowy road from Malad.
Jane “Jennie” Kerr Bailey Gibbons, Annie Leishman Kerr Bailey, James Richard Bailey
Community Development
A new county, roads and phones — and the first departures.
July 1913Family history
Seven Baileys on the county road crews
At their July 1913 session the Power County commissioners paid seven Bailey men, listed by initial, for road work in the valley.
July 21, 1913Family history
Chloa Bailey’s forty
Chloa Bailey received a patent in her own name for 40 acres in Section 12, next to Lorenzo’s homestead. The Power County history puts the first log school on Bailey land in Section 12, possibly this forty.
1915Homestead or land
Melvin and Stella Bailey homestead
Melvin Bailey’s homestead, S½SE¼ Sec. 32 and W½SW¼ Sec. 33, T10S R33E (patented 1919), on the west side of the north Arbon floor. He built a house here before his 1915 marriage, and his son Lamond (“Buck”) grew up here; the family moved to J. R.’s farm after buying it in 1941.
Melvin Kerr Bailey, Stella Johnston Bailey, Lamond Johnston “Buck” Bailey
October 1916 – spring 1918Valley first
The first mail route from Pocatello, and the first mail by car
In October 1916 Lorin Bailey won the contract to carry the mail from Pocatello by way of Crystal and Pauline to Arbon, and he carried it by car when the roads allowed.
January 1918 (earliest on record)Valley first
The first doctor
The earliest resident doctor found in the valley is Dr. Leo Castle, reported in January 1918 as newly settled at Pauline with an office and a drug store.
1920–1925Tragedy
The foreclosures of 1920–1925
After the wartime boom, mortgage companies and banks took dry farmers to court across the valley, and the sheriff advertised one homestead after another.
February 24, 1922Tragedy
Erma Lusk, too ill to move over the winter roads
Twenty-one-year-old Erma Bailey Lusk died of pneumonia at Pauline, too sick to be taken to a hospital, and her father dug her grave through deep snow beside her sister’s.
Annie Leishman Kerr Bailey, James Richard Bailey, Jane “Jennie” Kerr Bailey Gibbons
Show 26 more from these years
by 1913Event
Central (Green Top) School, District 12
The Central school of District 12 stood on land given by T. B. Evans, east of the later Newport house. It was the community hall of the north Arbon floor: a Congregational church was organized there on July 13, 1913, and the valley telephone company on September 6, 1913, and in 1916 Louie Leavitt built a stone store and post office on the “Central school townsite.” In 1919 at least thirty-three children in grades one to eight attended the school the original ArbonValley.com calls Green Top, named for its green roof; its dances were organized by Leland Bailey and Anna Evans. James Bailey was a trustee from 1916 and chairman to 1921, and in 1925 the school stood “next door to the Arbon oil well.”
1913Event
Lusk and Lorin Bailey claims completed
Annie E. Lusk’s desert-land claim at Lusk Loop (299 acres) was patented to her on September 29, 1913, and John W. Lusk Jr. added forty acres by purchase in 1914; Lorin Bailey proved up on 160 acres a mile north of his brother James.
September 6, 1913Event
The Falls-Bannock Telephone Company
After an American Falls Board of Trade campaign, seventeen valley households organized their own telephone company at the Central school on September 6, 1913, with [D.] J. Bowen as president, D. B. Ripley vice-president, William Allard secretary and J. E. Keeler and T. B. Evans directors; by 1914 it was the Falls-Bannock Telephone Co., and its 1916 directors were J. R. Bailey, J. N. Arbon, George Houk, T. B. Evans and L. B. Evans. Susannah Evans ran the valley’s telephone exchange from the Evans home for about twenty-five years.
1915–1916Event
Rural delivery and the Pocatello star route
Until 1915–16 the valley’s mail came once, then two or three times a week, from Malad over Rocky Ridge, and Pauline and Crystal had no route of their own; in March 1915 Bishop W. F. Kowallis petitioned for service for 345 families. Arbon Rural Free Delivery Route No. 1 was examined for in April 1915, with Newell Leishman the first regular carrier, and in October 1916 a star route from Pocatello by way of Crystal and Pauline to Arbon was let to Lorin Bailey, who carried it by car — and in winter by sleigh, changing teams at W. C. Snyder’s in Crystal — into 1918.
early 1915 (reported June 1915)Family history
Willard Bailey moves to Samaria
Willard Bailey sold his Arbon place early in 1915 and moved to Samaria, his wife’s home town. A year later he bought his brother Parley’s Arbon place.
Willard Hawkins Bailey, Ann Maria Roderick Bailey, Parley Hawkins Bailey
June–July 1915Family history
J. R. Bailey, road overseer
As road overseer in 1915–16 J. R. Bailey had his crew fill the swampy stretch of road near Julius Abter’s. That July Melvin, Charles, Lorin and J. R. all worked on the county road crews.
James Richard Bailey, Melvin Kerr Bailey, Charles Kerr Bailey, Lorin Hawkins Bailey
April 17, 1916Family history
J. R. Bailey elected school trustee
J. R. Bailey and M. V. Tallon were elected trustees at the Central school election. J. R. was still chairman of the District 12 board in 1920 and after the April 1921 election.
late April 1916Family history
J. R. Bailey buys the F. E. Jones place
J. R. Bailey closed a deal in Pocatello for “the F. E. Jones place”, probably Frank E. Jones’s homestead in Section 32 next to Melvin’s, adding it to the family’s land.
James Richard Bailey, Melvin Kerr Bailey
May 1916Family history
Melvin Bailey on the rural route
Melvin Bailey relieved Newell Leishman, the first regular carrier on Arbon’s rural mail route, in May 1916.
Melvin Kerr Bailey
1916–1920Family history
J. R. Bailey in county and party affairs
J. R. Bailey was paid as constable for the 1916 primary election, was on the 1920 jury list with his brother Lorenzo, and in July 1920 filed with T. B. Evans as a Republican nominee for Arbon precinct delegate.
December 1916 – March 1922Family history
Melvin and Stella winter at the Arbon farm
In at least four winters between 1916 and 1922, Melvin and Stella Bailey left their homestead for the cold months and stayed at the farm of Joseph N. Arbon, Stella’s uncle.
Melvin Kerr Bailey, Stella Johnston Bailey
December 1917 – May 1918Family history
Charles A. Bailey’s estate in probate court
Joseph N. Arbon administered Charles A. Bailey’s estate in the Power County probate court, and a hearing on selling all of its real estate at private sale was set for May 14, 1918. No buyer is reported; the family history says J. R. bought his half-brother’s homestead.
Charles Adamson Bailey, James Richard Bailey
March 1918Family history
Parley Bailey leaves the valley
Parley Bailey, who had bought land near Malad in 1915 and sold one Arbon place to Willard, was given a farewell party at Arbon on March 18, 1918, and moved by way of Malad to Richmond, Utah. Lucien McLarry bought “the Parley H. Bailey place”.
Parley Hawkins Bailey
1918Family history
Lorin Bailey moves to Pauline
By the archive’s account Lorin Bailey built a house at Pauline in 1918; in January 1920 he owned a mortgaged farm in Pauline precinct.
October 1918 – early 1919Event
Influenza
The influenza epidemic reached the valley in October 1918. The Evans family were among the first to catch it; schools closed, and the Crystal Latter-day Saints stopped meeting until February 1919. Neighbors went from house to house to cook, do chores and nurse the sick. Several valley households lost members.
March 11, 1919Family history
Melvin Bailey’s homestead patent
Melvin Bailey received the patent for his 160 acres in Sections 32 and 33 of T10S R33E, where he had built a house by April 1915. He and Stella farmed it until they bought his father’s place in 1941.
Melvin Kerr Bailey, Stella Johnston Bailey
April 1919Family history
J. R. Bailey nearly leaves Arbon
Having decided to quit Arbon, J. R. Bailey spent several days in Cache Valley in April 1919 looking for a new place, but he stayed. His older children were at school in Wellsville that winter.
by 1920Family history
Lorenzo Bailey takes on the Dalton land
By 1920 part of the former Dalton land south and west of Lorenzo’s homestead was taxed to him, and by 1923 he and Chloa held and had mortgaged all 400 acres — probably the “Dalton place” where the family later lived.
January 1920Family history
Bailey farms in the 1920 census
In January 1920 J. R., Lorenzo and Melvin Bailey owned their farms at Arbon, with J. R.’s son Charles working on his father’s place, and Lorin owned a mortgaged farm in Pauline precinct.
James Richard Bailey, Lorenzo Hawkins “Ren” Bailey, Melvin Kerr Bailey, Charles Kerr Bailey and 1 more
1922Family history
Lorin Bailey moves to Pocatello
Lorin and Claribel Bailey left Pauline for Pocatello in 1922, selling their house there to Vern Munn by the archive’s account.
March 1922Family history
Elizabeth Bailey brings the post office home
When Ruth Keeler resigned, J. R.’s daughter Elizabeth took over the Arbon post office and it moved back to the Bailey place in Section 3. She was appointed on May 10, 1922, and kept it until the Logans took over in August.
Elizabeth Kerr Bailey Rhodes, James Richard Bailey
September 1924 – September 1925Family history
Bailey land on the tax-deed lists
Lorenzo’s two Dalton tracts were on the county’s notice of pending tax deeds for unpaid 1920 taxes in September 1924, and J. R.’s house forty in Section 3 was listed for unpaid 1921 taxes in September 1925.
July – August 1925Family history
Named in the Ripley foreclosure
When D. B. Ripley sued Thomas and Marie Toyn in 1925 to foreclose the mortgage on his former ranch, J. R. Bailey was among the defendants named as claiming an interest in the land; what his interest was is not stated.
September–November 1925Family history
J. R. and Edna Bailey keep the post office
J. R. Bailey was acting Arbon postmaster again from September 22, 1925, and his daughter Edna was appointed on November 23. She kept the office at the Bailey place until Mary A. Bullock took it in November 1928.
1925Family history
Edna teaches, Melvin chairs the school board
The county school report of 1925 has Edna Bailey teaching at Valley View, District 11, and Melvin Bailey as chairman of the District 12 board.
Melvin Kerr Bailey
1928Family history
J. R. helps build the new meetinghouse
J. R. Bailey gave labour and money toward the Arbon Ward’s new meetinghouse begun in 1928, which was dedicated on August 17, 1939.
Depression & Change
Drought, closures, tractors, electricity, the reservation boundary.
1930sEvent
Four schoolhouses, remembered
Lamond “Buck” Bailey remembered the valley’s schools in the 1930s by their outhouses, tipped every Halloween: Highland in the south end, Arbon Central by the Newports, Valleyview near the LDS church, and the Pauline School in its present location — until the WPA supplied outhouses with cement bases.
Lamond Johnston “Buck” Bailey
1940Homestead or land
Leland Bailey’s stock-raising homestead (patent 1943; entry about 1940)
Leland F. Bailey’s 643-acre stock-raising homestead in the west foothills — S½SW¼ Sec. 32, T10S R33E; Lot 4, SW¼NW¼ and SW¼ Sec. 5, Lots 1–2 and S½NE¼ Sec. 6, and parts of Sec. 8, T11S R33E — patented March 20, 1943. Whether the 2010 fire’s “Lee Baily homestead” was this land or his home place is not known (possible only).
1940Homestead or land
Vernal and Blanche’s stock-raising homestead (patent 1943; entry about 1940)
Vernal F. Bailey’s 645-acre stock-raising homestead — SW¼SE¼ and Lot 4 Sec. 8; SE¼SW¼, W½E½ and Lots 1–3 Sec. 17; NW¼NE¼, NW¼ and NE¼SW¼ Sec. 20, T11S R33E — patented January 26, 1943. Vernal and his wife Blanche (Perry Lusk’s daughter) ranched in Arbon Valley until 1974 (her obituary).
Vernal Facer Bailey, Blanche Elizabeth Lusk Bailey
October 1940 – May 1946Family history
Bailey men register for the draft at Arbon
Leland and Vernal Bailey and their brothers-in-law Soren Christensen and Percy Didericksen registered at Arbon on October 16, 1940. Lorenzo, Melvin and their hired man Newell Leishman signed up in the older men’s registration of April 1942, and Deo Bailey in 1946.
Leland Facer Bailey, Vernal Facer Bailey, Lorenzo Hawkins “Ren” Bailey, Melvin Kerr Bailey and 1 more
March 1941Event
Melvin Bailey takes over the J. R. Bailey farm
After a year in which Merle and Soren Christensen worked it, J. R. and Annie Bailey sold their farm to their son Melvin and moved to Pocatello. Melvin and Stella farmed it until his death in May 1952; their son Lamond (“Buck”), raised on Melvin’s own homestead, came back after the war to ranch with his father, by his obituary.
Melvin Kerr Bailey, Stella Johnston Bailey, James Richard Bailey, Merle Kerr Bailey Christensen and 1 more
January – March 1943Event
Leland and Vernal Bailey’s stock-raising homesteads
Lorenzo Bailey’s sons Vernal (January 26) and Leland (March 20, 1943) received patents for stock-raising homesteads of about 645 and 643 acres in the foothills west of the Bailey block. Vernal and his wife Blanche, Perry Lusk’s daughter, ranched in Arbon Valley until 1974.
Vernal Facer Bailey, Leland Facer Bailey, Blanche Elizabeth Lusk Bailey
Generations
Fewer, larger farms; descendants on the old homesteads.
April 1950Family history
Baileys at Arbon in the 1950 census
The April 1950 census found Melvin and Stella on the home farm, Vernal and Blanche with their two sons on the upper road, and Deo Bailey’s young family at Arbon; Leland’s Arbon house stood empty.
Melvin Kerr Bailey, Stella Johnston Bailey, Vernal Facer Bailey, Blanche Elizabeth Lusk Bailey and 2 more
1952 – about 1961Family history
Stella Bailey keeps the farm
From 1952 Stella Bailey farmed the family place in Arbon Valley, wintering in Pocatello, until about 1961.
Stella Johnston Bailey
1974Family history
Vernal and Blanche leave the ranch
Vernal and Blanche Bailey ranched in Arbon Valley until 1974, when they moved to Pocatello.
Vernal Facer Bailey, Blanche Elizabeth Lusk Bailey
March 22, 2004Family history
Knox Canyon water rights decreed in Bailey names
Four Knox Canyon Creek water rights were decreed with Vernal and Blanche Bailey and their children as owners of record. Their July 24, 1897, priority is the old ditch’s, not a sign of Bailey water use that early.
Vernal Facer Bailey, Blanche Elizabeth Lusk Bailey
August 21–23, 2010Event
Fire in the valley
A fire that began at the Lee Bailey homestead jumped into wheat stubble and ran north-east up the east side of the valley into the Rattlesnake area. Farmers cut firebreaks with tractors and discs alongside the county road grader, BLM crews and Fort Hall firefighters; one rancher estimated 8,000–10,000 acres burned.
Firsts and tragedies
The valley firsts the Bailey family had a hand in, and the hard times it lived through, most remembered first.
What they built
Postmasters
J. R. Bailey was Arbon postmaster from April 28, 1900, to about December 1903 and from February 26, 1906, to June 1916, with the office at his house on the Sec. 2/3 line; he acted again in 1925. His daughters Elizabeth (1922) and Edna (1925–28) kept the office in the Bailey home.
The Pocatello star route
Lorin Bailey held the star-route contract from Pocatello to Arbon by way of Crystal and Pauline, let in October 1916, and carried it by car, sleigh and buggy into the spring of 1918 — probably the first contract to link Arbon directly with Pocatello.
Land for the first public building (family account)
Family and county histories credit Lorenzo (and Chloa) Bailey with giving the land for the 1901–02 log building used as Valley View School and meetinghouse. Neither held land in the valley until 1906 (Lorenzo) and 1913 (Chloa), so the gift as told is uncertain; where the building stood is itself disputed.
Irrigation company and canal upkeep
Bailey was among the surnames of the early irrigation company; James donated his team and time to maintain the canal.
Called for every birth and sickness
Annie Kerr Bailey was called for births and illness; many Arbon babies were delivered by her. She was also a president of the Arbon Ward Relief Society.
Church, school, road and telephone service
J. R. was the first Sunday school superintendent of the Arbon Branch (from 1900; 17 or 19 years by family accounts), a school trustee from 1916 and chairman of the District 12 board (1918–19 by family account; 1920 and 1921 in county reports), a road overseer (1915–16) and a director of the Falls-Bannock Telephone Co. (1916).
Photographs
Portraits and family groups first. Each opens with its caption, date and where it came from.
Earl with parents James and Annie BaileyAbout the 1930s
Photograph from James R. BaileyDate unknownLorenzo and Chloa Bailey family, 60th anniversaryFebruary 27, 1963
Claribel, Margaret and Lorin BaileyDate unknown
Park and Erma Bailey LuskDate unknown5 PHOTOGRAPHS · 1 LAND PATENT · 3 NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS · 3 FAMILY TREESOpen the Bailey family album ↗
Sources and open questions
Everything above comes from the archive’s family histories and the public records the valley map checked them against. Where accounts disagree, the page says so rather than choosing silently.
Where the accounts differ
- The Lorenzo Evans page lists James Bailey among men from Samaria who moved permanently in 1896.
- When J. R.’s family settled is uncertain: spring 1894 in family memory; about 1899–1901 in the records (see ‘Where the sources disagree’).
- J. R.’s Sunday school service was 17 years (family history) or 19 (archive).
- Lorenzo’s arrival “in 1895 at sixteen” is family tradition; he was still in his mother’s Wellsville household in June 1900.
- That Lamond “Buck” Bailey ranched with his father after the war rests on his obituary alone.
- “Lee Bailey”, at whose homestead the 2010 fire began, was probably Leland F. Bailey; which of his places is meant is not known.
Sources 24
Show every source
- BaileyJacob Andersen · posted 2018
- James R. BaileyMelinda Campbell · posted 2019
- Lorenzo H. BaileyMelinda Campbell · posted 2019
- Lorin BaileyMelinda Campbell · posted 2019
- Arbon (area history)Melinda Campbell · posted 2019
- The original homesteading families map (2019)
- James Richard Bailey 1867–1948 (FamilySearch story)Mary Renberg and Edna Arbon, his daughters; with a section by Merle Bailey Christensen
- Homestead patent to James R. Bailey, April 19, 1907 (BLM IDIDAA 005257)U.S. General Land Office
- Homestead patent to Charles A. Bailey, January 30, 1906 (BLM IDIDAA 005255)U.S. General Land Office
- NARA M1620 reel 4, Blackfoot land office register of homestead entries 1897-1908 and desert-land abstractNational Archives (RG 49, General Land Office)
- NARA M1126, Post Office Department Reports of Site Locations, roll 132 (Idaho: Owyhee-Shoshone, incl. Power Co.): Arbon, Crystal, Pauline formsNational Archives (Post Office Department)
- NARA M841, Record of Appointment of Postmasters: Oneida County, Idaho (register page 115 and cards)National Archives (RG 28)
- NARA M841, Record of Appointment of Postmasters: Power County, Idaho (register pages 87-88 and cards)National Archives (Post Office Department)
- 1880 U.S. census, Wellsville precinct, Cache County, Utah, ED 10 (Bailey households)U.S. Census Bureau
- Salt Lake Herald-Republican, October 11, 1916: Pocatello-Arbon star-route contract to Lorin BaileySalt Lake Herald-Republican
- Park Record, July 30, 2003, page 13: obituary of Blanche Elizabeth Lusk BaileyPark Record
- IDWR water-right reports 29-10504 to 29-10507: Knox Canyon Creek, priority July 24, 1897, decreed March 22, 2004Idaho Department of Water Resources
- Power County: ArbonPower County, Idaho
- American Falls Press, 1917-03-29, page 7 (Mrs. E. A. Logan, ‘Bannock Valley: A Historical and Industrial Review’ (ed. 2))American Falls Press
- Church History Biographical Database: Joseph Hawkins (1849), Jacob Gates Company, 1853Church History Library
- Western States Marriage Record Index 247074: W. T. Hawkins and Mary Ann Bowen, June 24, 1896BYU-Idaho
- Salt Lake Herald-Republican, August 17, 1912, page 11: death of Eldon Bailey, two-year-old son of L. H. Bailey of Arbon
- Find a Grave memorial 81492657: Elden B. Bailey (1910–1912), Malad City Cemetery, Block 28 Lot 14Find a Grave contributors
- Find a Grave memorial 81492714: Wanda B. Bailey (1922–1923), Malad City Cemetery, Block 28 Lot 14Find a Grave contributors
Research notes
- The brothers’ patents form a compact block in T11S R33E, Sections 1–3 and 10–15, along the section line now called Bailey Road. J. R.’s, Lorenzo’s, Lorin’s, Charles A.’s and Melvin’s places are mapped from their patents; the family map’s large circle remains the family marker.
- Charles Adamson Bailey (1864–1905) was J. R.’s half-brother, not a full brother or his father: he was “Charles 15” in his mother Johannah’s 1880 Wellsville household, and their father Charles Ramsden Bailey died in 1910. That the patentees William A. and Cyrus A. are Johannah’s sons rests on name, initial and residence (probable, strong).
- “Pre-emption claims in 1893” (archive) cannot be right as worded: federal pre-emption was repealed in 1891, and the township could not be entered until 1901. A squatter’s claim is possible.
- The 1907 desert-land patentee “John Bailey” (NW¼ Sec. 11) was possibly the brothers’ full brother John Hawkins Bailey of Wellsville; by 1923 that quarter was Lorenzo and Chloa’s.
- The 1917 local history mentions an early store kept by two Bailey brothers “where Lorenzo Bailey is now living” (names damaged in the scan); J. R. also stocked a few groceries in his post-office shanty (family history).
- Lorenzo Bailey was born in December 1879, not 1880: the June 1880 census lists him at five months, born in December.
- Eldon B. Bailey (1910–1912), named on the Lorin Bailey page, died at the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City after being kicked by a horse, not at Arbon; he was probably Lorin’s son (he lies in the same Malad cemetery lot as Lorin’s daughter Wanda).