Looking back: Daughter starts family barn on fire and semi crash spills oranges across highway

IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of April 22 to April 28 in east Idaho history.

1900-1925

ANNIS — A little girl accidentally started hay on fire, which lead to her family’s barn being destroyed, The Rigby Star reported on April 28, 1910.

Royal Ellis, who lived in Annis, was cooking potatoes and feeding the hogs. The “cooker” was near the sheds and his little daughter “decided it was time to light the cooker and in some way set fire to some hay which soon had the barn on fire.”

“Mr. Ellis, who was a short distance from the scene, saw the smoke and rushed to the barn and discovered the fire had too much headway to be checked, and with the aid of neighbors saved a valuable team, a cow and calf, and also a drove of hogs valued at $600, which he had sold to a dealer not one hour before,” the local paper wrote.

The loss from the barn was around $150. Had the fire started a little later, Ellis would most likely have lost over $1,000 worth of property “as he was going from his place out into the field when the blaze was discovered and would probably not have reached the barn in time to have saved anything.”

1926-1950

GRANT — A 10-year-old Grant boy died after he was thrown from a horse and broke his neck, The Rigby Star reported on April 28, 1927.

The accident involving Marion Fife happened near the school in Grant. He had rode on the horse with another person to a nearby swale to “water the animal” and was returning to school when the horse stumbled and threw Fife to the ground. The other person on the horse was not injured.

“The fall broke the neck of the little lad and his death is believed to have been instantaneous,” the paper explained. “The sad accident was witnessed by other children who were at the school house.”

Marion left behind his parents, five sisters and a brother.

1951-1975

BLACKFOOT — A Blackfoot man plead guilty to a charge of “failure to register for the draft,” the Idaho Falls Post Register reported on April 24, 1967.

Donald Clark Williams did not register by his 18 birthday, which took place Aug. 29, 1959. The local paper said he refused to register until December 1965.

“He claimed religious convictions kept him from registering,” the article mentioned.

Judge Fred Taylor ordered a pre-sentence investigation for Williams, who was most likely was going to be sentenced later that week.

1976-2000

POCATELLO — A semi-truck loaded with oranges sideswiped a car on Interstate 15 near Pocatello and tipped, scattering oranges across the highway, the Idaho State Journal reported on April 24, 1977.

Police said damage was estimated at $51,000. The driver of the semi, Earl Roe, of Montana, was not injured. Clifford Benson, of Pocatello, the driver of the sideswiped car, was also uninjured. His car received $1,000 in damages.

“Oranges from the cargo were given to passing motorists,” the Journal said.