Looking back: Business owner disappears, and children are burned to death

IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of Oct. 13 to Oct. 19 in east Idaho history.

1900-1925

BLACKFOOT — A business owner walked out of his shop in Blackfoot during the middle of the day and disappeared, The Bingham County News reported on Oct. 14, 1915.

Cliff Rhodes, one of the owners of the Palace Barber Shop, walked outside his shop and headed towards the river on Oct. 13, 1915, around 2 p.m.

No trace of him had been found by his wife or their two children. Rhodes was known as a “moral, honest and prosperous young man.”

“There is no known reason why he should have so suddenly and mysteriously disappeared from his happy home and lucrative business,” the paper wrote. “Suicide has been suspicioned but there is no known reason for such a rash act unless it is insanity.”

1926-1950

AMERICAN FALLS — Two young American Falls children were burned to death despite “frantic rescue efforts” by their mother, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported on Oct. 13, 1949.

Blair Garner, 2, and Myron Garner, 9 months, died in a house fire. The fire swept through the house of Mr. and Mrs. Owen J. Garner on the Blackstone Ranch eight miles north of American Falls. The fire broke out at 3:30 p.m., and the bodies were recovered at 5 p.m.

Mrs. Larue Larsen Garner, the mother, told Power County Sheriff William J. Hoehnen that she was washing clothes not more than five feet from the house when she noticed smoke pouring from the windows.

She reportedly swung open the door to go inside, but a “gush of flames” forced her to step back. She threw a sweater over her head and attempted to find the children, but the heat of the fire stopped her.

B.J. Fitzgerald, a ranch employee, rushed from a potato cellar 100 yards from the house and attempted to climb through a window. He was overcome by smoke and fell unconscious.

The cause of the fire is unknown.

1951-1975

SALMON — Two local sisters made headlines after giving birth within a half hour of each other at the same hospital, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported on Oct. 13, 1975.

“It was a friendly fight over Salmon Memorial Hospital delivery room rights Saturday morning,” the paper wrote.

Debbie Foster delivered a boy at about 5:05 a.m. and her sister Lisa Aldous delivered a girl within a half hour later. Dr. Zack Johnson assisted in both births.

Foster, of Pocatello, and Aldous, who is moving to Blackfoot, are the daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Dartt, of Salmon.

1976-2000

POCATELLO — A 29-year-old man was arrested for alleged indecent exposure after an incident at the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office, the Idaho State Journal reported on Oct. 19, 1976.

The man’s name was not mentioned in the article but authorities had brought him to the jail for questioning.

It’s not clear what he was being questioned for but while at the jail, he removed his clothes twice and drank from toilets two times as well. This led to his arrest.

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