The Ward name has been in Arbon Valley since 1893. In that year, Joseph W. Ward applied for both a Possessory Claim on Lake Canyon (directly west of the current Ward farmstead) and water rights in the same area, which at that time was called "Lake Creek" ( Bannock Valley , p. 9). Joseph was the…
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.
The Ward name has been in Arbon Valley since 1893. In that year, Joseph W. Ward applied for both a Possessory Claim on Lake Canyon (directly west of the current Ward farmstead) and water rights in the same area, which at that time was called "Lake Creek" (Bannock Valley, p. 9). Joseph was the older brother of Jesse and George, two other homesteaders in the Bannock Valley.
Jesse and Julia Ward are the ancestors of all the current Ward, Williams, and Estep families in Arbon Valley. You can still see the cabin he built on the current Ward farm (it was moved to its present location in 1949). This cabin is sided in white shingles, but the logs are still underneath the siding. Six generations of the Ward family have lived in this house.