Looking back: This week in eastern Idaho history
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EAST IDAHO — Every week, East Idaho News is looking back in time at what life was like during this week in history.
This week we search newspapers for the week of Aug. 2 to Aug. 8.
1900-1925
POCATELLO — An ad in The Pocatello Tribune on Aug. 4, 1924, mentioned there was a coal club that was forming. It cost $2 to join the club, and in return, members would receive one ton of coal for free if they also purchased an Estate Heatrola, which was the “new-day way” of heating a home.
1926-1950
REXBURG — During the first week of August 1934, The Rexburg Standard announced that merchants of Rexburg were “cooperating in a plan” to give away $50 cash to a community member every Saturday. The first drawing was set for Aug. 11 on Main Street, and the newspaper said the weekly giveaways would continue until further notice.
Every shopper was “urged” to ask for a ticket for the drawing with every .25 cent purchase they made.
1951-1975
RIGBY — Murder charges were filed after a shooting in a Menan bar, according to The Rigby Star’s Aug. 8, 1968, newspaper. The article said Nicholas Rodriguez, 25, was being held in the Jefferson County jail on a first-degree murder charge and assault with a deadly weapon.
According to Sheriff Shaffer — the sheriff at the time — two men were fighting a third man and they apparently had him down on the floor. Rodriguez went and got a gun because his friend was the one on the floor being beat up. Rodriguez was accused of shooting and instantly killing Luciana Garzia Guerra, 30, and injuring Guerra’s half-brother Andres Cantu, 22. Guerra and Cantu were living in Lewisville at the time of the incident.
1976-2000
SODA SPRINGS — The Caribou County Sun in Soda Springs announced on Aug. 4, 1977, that Idaho Governor John V. Evans started a statewide campaign for immunization in Idaho.
The article explained that Evans signed a proclamation designating August as an official Immunization Action Month in Idaho. This was part of a campaign to “immunize all people in need of protection.”
He urged participation by all local governments, all organizations and all people in alerting Idahoans to “potential dangers of low immunization levels” and to “initiate action to immunize all Idaho children against vaccine-preventable childhood diseases.”
The goal was to raise immunization levels to 90 percent or more against all vaccine-preventable childhood diseases, according to the paper.
All immunizations against the diseases were available, free of charge, at public health clinics operated by district health departments. People could also go to most private physicians and pay a standard fee to be immunized.