Looking back: Stray bullet hits shopper and brakes fail on car with family inside
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IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of Aug. 14 to Aug. 20 in east Idaho history.
1900-1925
ST. ANTHONY — A stray bullet hit a woman while she was window shopping, The Rigby Star reported in an article shared on Aug. 14, 1919, that was originally published by the Teton Peak Chronicle.
Celia Anderson and Zella Parks, of Rigby, were standing on the corner of Bridge and Main Street around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday when a stray bullet hit Anderson. The bullet entered her right arm from the back and “ranged upward.”
“Dr. Melton was called and found the lead embedded some two inches in her arm and shoulder, which had to be cut out,” the article explained. “The operation was very painful but it is hoped not serious.”
It’s believed the bullet came from “the direction of the river” and it was said that boys were there using a gun, but they “emphatically deny ever having shot a shell toward town.”
1926-1950
RIGBY — The brakes on a car carrying a family failed and the accident injured the mother, The Rigby Star reported in its Aug. 15, 1929, newspaper.
Earl Sayer was driving his wife and children on the east end of the detour on Pine Creek bench when the accident happened. They were on their way to the Hill Ranch at Bear Creek.
“Dust from cars ahead of Mr. Sayer obscured his view of the road,” the article reads. “When the brake broke, the car plunged over the side of the road, striking bottom side up, demolishing the car.”
Sayer’s wife suffered a broken collar bone and was “immediately brought back to Rigby” and “given medical attention.” Sayer and the children were “bruised and shaken up.”
1951-1975
GRACE — The Grace Fire Department was organizing a rural fire protection department, The Caribou County Sun reported on Aug. 18, 1966.
The Grace Fire Department was “inviting all rural residents in their vicinity to sign up as charter members of the district.” Grace Mayor Harold Lowe said the fee would be $25 per year. A “special truck,” which belonged to the Grace Department, would be used to service the new district.
Farmers who already signed up as members of the new district were Russell Rindlisbaker, Wes Hubband and sons, John R. Mansfield, Rulon Allen, Calvin Bennett, Fred Ziegler, Carl Rasmussen Sr. and William Perry.
1976-2000
CHUBBUCK — A Kansas man was robbed at gunpoint of more than $2,500 while staying at a motel in Chubbuck, the Idaho State Journal reported on Aug. 17, 1977.
D.O. Young, 76, reportedly traveled to Chubbuck from Kansas with the suspect. Young told police the man entered his room at the Oxbow Motor Inn and pulled two pistols on him while demanding his money.
The suspect may have stayed with friends in the area, the paper said. He was a black male, about six feet tall and in his 50s or 60s. He had a mustache, gold tooth and was driving a brown, late-model El Dorado Cadillac with Bannock County plates.