Looking Back: A post office is robbed; a family asks for blood donations for father; and dogs are set loose at animal shelter

IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of April 20 to April 26 in east Idaho history.

1900-1925

LORENZO — The Lorenzo post office was robbed, the Rigby Star reported on April 20, 1916.

The post office was located inside the Lorenzo Mercantile Company store. There was $480 in stamps, and between $150 to $175 taken. Some change was also stolen from the store’s till.

The person or people responsible apparently entered the building by opening two sets of locks on the front door.

“Examinations of the windows disclosed the fact that they were just as they had been left, and the dust on the sill told plainly that the entrance and exit had not been through any window,” the paper wrote.

A drill and nitroglycerine were reportedly used to break into a safe. The paper said the robber or robbers were “highly successful” and did everything so quietly that nobody in the area even heard the explosion. No part of the store, other than the safe, was damaged by the explosion.

The article mentions the job “was not the work of amateurs.”

“The officers were at once notified upon the discovery of the loss, but so neat had been the job that there was little or nothing to work upon,” the article states. “To date, no trace has been found of the burglars.”

The belief was that the person or people involved made their getaway in a car, rather than on the train, so there was “less chance for suspicion.”

1926-1950

IDAHO FALLS — A father and son were both hospitalized after being kicked by two different horses, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported on April 24, 1940.

Joseph O. Fisher, 70, was hospitalized first, but it’s not clear what injuries he suffered from being kicked by a horse. The week after his incident, his son, Vardis Fisher, also an Idaho author, was working on his father’s farm when he was kicked by a horse.

“I was getting ready to go out into the field to plant dad’s crops when this horse, for no apparent reason, suddenly reared up and planted his hoofs in my face,” Vardis stated.

He continued, saying, “I was stunned, and as I began to recover my senses, I wondered the truth of a book by Arthur Machen, who wrote a novel based on the day when horses would gain enough intelligence to rebel against man.”

Vardis said as he lay on the ground, he wondered if the “rebellion was at hand.”

Vardis, who suffered a forehead laceration, was taken to the emergency ward at the Idaho Falls LDS Hospital. He was treated and released. Vardis then returned “undaunted” to his father’s farm.

1951-1975

AMERICAN FALLS — A family was asking for people with a specific blood type to consider donating to help a man who needed open-heart surgery, the Idaho State Journal reported on April 21, 1966.

Don Terry, 35, of American Falls, was scheduled to have surgery the following week in Salt Lake City. A minimum of 13 pints of O-negative blood was needed for the operation.

“The Red Cross gave us a list of persons with O-negative blood, and we contacted them by letter,” Don’s father, Elmer Terry, of Pocatello, told the Journal. “Most of them have been very generous in offering to give blood.”

If other people with the same blood type were interested in donating, they were asked to contact the Terry family. Transportation to Salt Lake City, where the blood would be drawn, would be provided.

Elmer said a doctor from Pocatello was scheduled to perform the surgery to correct a defective heart valve.

Don was married and had two children at the time.

1976-2000

POCATELLO — Thieves broke into an animal shelter in Pocatello and opened several of the cages that had dogs inside, the Idaho State Journal reported on April 20, 1976.

The break-in happened at the animal shelter in upper Ross Park. Police said a shelter worker discovered the break-in about 10:45 p.m.

The thieves had left a door open after ransacking several offices and opening some larger cages. At least eight dogs were released, and an undetermined number of dog care items were stolen.

All the dogs released were found, except for an 8-week-old Terrier-Chihuahua.