Looking Back: Father killed while hunting, and countless spiders found in classroom
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IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of Feb. 2 to Feb. 8 in east Idaho history.
1900-1925
AMERICAN FALLS — A husband and father was accidentally shot and killed by someone who he was hunting with, the American Falls Press reported on Feb. 8, 1908.
E.R. Bliss, D.T. McKinnon and Eddy Morris left from Bliss’s home, which was about eight miles northwest of American Falls, tracking a coyote.
After traveling about three miles, they came to a wire fence. Morris went under first and Bliss followed. Bliss got caught in the wires but McKinnon helped free him. Bliss then turned around and held the wires apart for McKinnon to go through.
“The latter (of his body) was half through (the fence), with one foot on either side, his gun resting on the wire, when his clothing became caught on the barbs,” the paper wrote. “And in squirming to get free, his gun was discharged.”
Bliss was shot and immediately toppled over. As soon as McKinnon could get through the fence, he took a boot lace and tied it as tight as he could above the wound on Bliss’s leg. Bliss was still losing blood so McKinnon tied a piece of clothing around his leg to try and stop the bleeding.
Morris left to find help but it took over an hour before he was back to the scene with people to help. Bliss was taken back to American Falls around 2:45 p.m. and that’s when a doctor was called. The doctor needed more help and another doctor from Pocatello arrived by train around 6 p.m.
“Bliss was so weak from loss of blood and so chilled from lying in the snow that there was little hope for him yet the doctor scarcely left his bedside until the end came,” the American Falls Press wrote.
Plans were made to transport him to the hospital in Pocatello on the midnight train but he fainted, and the trip was called off.
The paper said Bliss’s kneecap was shattered and the bullet splintered the bones in his right leg. It was believed the barrel of the gun was within a few inches of Bliss when it went off because the wound wasn’t bigger than a half dollar. However, the paper mentioned “its severity may be judged from the fact” that clothing was carried entirely through the limb.
One of the doctor’s said McKinnon and Morris did everything that was possible to save Bliss.
“The artery shot in two lies in a groove in the bone and no amount of bandaging would have stopped the flow of blood,” the paper mentioned.
Bliss, during periods of consciousness, told the doctor that the shooting was accidental.
McKinnon had been selling life insurance in Hailey, Idaho, until two weeks before the accident when Bliss asked him to come help him build his house. Bliss’s wife was supposed to come the week of the shooting to start living in the home.
Bliss was a territorial agent of the Bankers Reserve Life Insurance Company with Idaho, Montana and part of Utah under his jurisdiction.
The paper said he was “one of the most lovable of men, in the prime of life, and his tragic death is sincerely deplored.”
Bliss left behind his wife and their four-month-old baby. His body was taken to Emmett, Idaho, where Mrs. Bliss’s parents lived.
1926-1950
IDAHO FALLS — A 22-year-old man in a local county jail was rushed to the hospital after drinking nearly half a can of a ‘Drano,’ a chemical drain cleaner, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported on Feb. 7, 1947.
Glenn C. Parker was sentenced one to 14 years in the jail for forgery. He’d been in jail for two weeks when he decided to drink the Drano. A deputy said he went to Parker’s cell when other prisoners were making a commotion after they found out Parker had consumed the poison.
Parker was taken to the LDS Hospital where his stomach was pumped. After, he was immediately taken back to his cell.
1951-1975
RIGBY — First-grade students in Rigby walked into their classroom one morning and found countless little spiders running across desks, The Rigby Star reported on Feb. 5, 1970.
The students were studying about insects and spiders, and different ones were brought to the classroom of Mrs. Ada Anderson for the kids to observe. The paper said a cat-faced spider was brought inside a bottle.
The spider was reportedly “in a cocoon” in the bottle and inside were “many eggs.” It was brought to school in early November 1969. On the morning of Jan. 26, 1970, the students found a “very large web” outside the bottle that was spread over two large desks.
“Little spiders were running in thick clusters or running along web on the silky threads,” the article reads. “Many were just hatching, and there was still a mass of white eggs in the cocoon.”
Students from other classes were invited to come see what had happened, and “most of them were amazed at the great number of little spiders.”
1976-2000
POCATELLO — A Blackfoot man was stabbed while walking on a sidewalk in Pocatello, the Idaho State Journal reported on Feb. 4, 1976.
Terry Brummond, 21, told police he was walking when a man approached him from behind. The man held a six-inch knife up to Brunson’s shoulder and said, “Give me your money or I’ll slit your throat.”
Brummond said he started to turn around and the suspect stabbed him in the collarbone area. He struggled with the suspect but managed to hit hime twice before the suspect fled on foot.
Brummond drove himself to the local hospital then he notified police of the incident.
Police said the knife struck Brummond’s collarbone, which prevented deep penetration. The wound was about half an inch deep. He was treated and released.
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