Good Old Days – 03-21-14

Compiled By The Sidney Sun-Telegraph Staff

These stories from the past first appeared in The Sidney Telegraph. Original writing is preserved, though some stories were shortened for space reasons.

100 YEARS AGO

‘Sidney Post Office To Become Second Class’

March 14, 1914

The Sidney Post Office is now eligible to become one of the second class rating, the receipts for the first time having aggregated a total of 8,000 a year.

The official advancement to the higher class will become effective on the first day of July next. It means an increase of Salary for Postmaster McIntosh as well as for his assistant Miss Kelly and allows another clerk.

75 YEARS AGO

‘Sidney Man Aids Police In Identification of Saleman’s Slayer’

March 21, 1939

A 22-year old Fon Du Lac, Wis., laborer tonight was held for removal to Akron, Colo., where Chief of Police James Silgen said, he admitted killing a salesman a week ago.

The chief said the youth, Ellsworth E. Medberry, had waived extradition on a first degree murder warrant. Although Medberry did not know the name of his victim, Akron authorities said he would be questioned concerniing the slaying of John T. Gray, 32, of Colorado Springs.

Lyle Carlson, Sidney salesman, aided Colorado police in identification of Medberry as the slaying suspect. Carlson told police he was approached by Medberry at Sedgwick, Colo., a day or so before Gray disappeared. He said Medberry asked him how much money he carried with him.

Medberry also was identified by other persons as a hitchhiker seen in the vicinity where Gray disappeared. He had been picked up in Denver for vagrancy but was released.

Medberry, taken into custody when he returned home to visit his bride of less than a year, had been sought since three persons identified a Denver police picture of him as a likeness of a hitchiker picked up by Gray at Sedgwick.

Federal bureau of investigation experts reported the bullet found in Gray’s head had been fired from a .25 calibre pistol taken from Medberry when he was arrested at Denver on a concealed weapon charge.

Medberry received a suspended sentence on condition he leave the city, and hitchiked home by

way of Chicago.

Chief Silgren said Medberry told him the following story:

He hitchhiked west to a job on a dam project in Colorado and took a pistol along for protection. After riding about 100 miles with the Colorado Springs salesman on March 10, he decided to get the automobile. In a struggle, he forced his victim out of the car near Akron and into a garage near a schoolhouse, where the body of Gray was found the following Monday.

Medberry told Silgen he struck the salesman over the head with his pistol and did not shoot him.

50 YEARS AGO

‘Storm Yields Alleged Bank Robber Here’

March 23, 1964

Law officers marked uup a big victory in the Thursday snowstorm that raised havoc—highway wise—in this area.

They nabbed a man accused of helping to rob a Kansas bank and he is now awaiting federal hearing.

Billy Gene Ainesworth, 31, Nowata, Okla., was driving a semi-truck along Highway 30 during Thursday’s snowstorm when the truck went out of control and upset along side, blocking the road at a point east of Chappell.

Righting the truck was a long procedure and, in the meantime, the FBI, looking for a man charged with bank robbery went to the scene. They showed a picture of the man they were looking for and Troopers Lee Anderson and Bob Cook of Chappell identified. Ainesworth was taken into custody just after the truck was set upright.

At the time of the arrest, Ainesworth was reportedly using the alias, Bob Boop, and was working for the Midwest Coast Trucking Co. of Sioux Falls, S.D. His “wanted’ poster listed at least ten aliases he has used. His previous record included conviction for forgery and military desertion. The poster also stated that Ainesworth “is known to have carried firearms in the past. He reportedly has suicidal tendencies, consider him dangerous.”

The FBI agents, William E. Green of North Platte and Robert Kinsey of Scottsbluff, who made the arrest were aided by members of the Highway Safety Patrol.

U. S. Commissioner, J. L. Thorpe presided at the arraignment of Ainesworth Friday evening. The defendant was charged with aiding and abetting Harold J. Bunce and John E. Griffin to commit a felony by entering the Prairie State Bank at Augusta, Kan. on Sept. 4, 1963, with intent to steal. Ainesworth waived preliminary hearing here and his bail bond was set at $10,000. He was committed to the U. S. Marshall from Omaha and will be picked up early this week.

25 Years Ago

‘Wind-whipped blaze blackens 2,00 acres’

March 20, 1989

The Sidney Fire Department’s volunteers fought four grass fires Friday and Saturday.

The three the department responded to Saturday were relatively minor and routine but the Friday afternoon fire a dozen miles west of Peetz, CO. burned an estimated 2,000 acres of grass and croplands and was fought under terrible conditions.

The Sidney department, which dispatched nine fire fighters and two trucks, was one of four fire departments that fought the Colorado fire during wind gusts of up to an estimated 80 miles an hour.

Blowing dust was so thick firemen could not could not tell, at most times, where the smoke was, except from its smell.

Preliminary indications are that the fire was started when a utility power line was snapped by winds and fell to the ground on land owned by Herbert Herboldsheimer about three miles south of the Nebraska state line.

Winds drove the fire in various directions over four or five sections of land, often jumping across roads.

Frank Fehringer, a volunteer Peetz fire sergeant and whose farm was adjacent to the fire but was untouched by it, estimated 2,000 acres were burned.

Burning tumbleweeds no doubt helped to spread the fire across roads. The weeds were blowing high into the air, many catching on tops of telephone and power lines.

Water for pumper trucks was obtained from a well in Peetz. Firemen also used shovels to dig fires lines. Some farmers in the area plowed or disced fire lines using tractors.

During the time the fire was burning, from about 10 a.m. until nearly 2 p.m., visibility was rarely more than 50 feet. At times, fire trucks had to come to a complete halt in order not to risk running into one another.

Much of the terrain affected by the fire contains steep hills and canyons, adding to the difficulty facing fire fighters.

In addition to the Sidney fire department, equipment and men came from three Colorado fire departments: Peetz, Sterling, and Stoneham-New Raymer.

Several deer, horses and other animals were seen running from the fire at times.

Sidney Fire Chief Keith Stone, who has long experienced fighting grass fires, said he has never experienced having to fight a fire under such conditions of blowing dust. He said he saw evidence that, in some areas at least, the wind may have actually blown out the fire.

Sidney firemen were summoned to the fire at about noon Friday when it became clear to the Colorado firemen that additional assistance was needed.

Saturday, Sidney firemen extinguished grass fires three miles west of Huntsman along the Sidney-Lowe Railroad; two miles west of town along the Union Pacific overpass southwest of Brownson.

TEN YEARS AGO

‘SMS Students Raise $798 For Leukemia Association’

March 24, 2004

A friendly battle among Sidney Middle School mid-point rooms has resulted in a substantial donation to the American Leukemia Association.

Pennies for Patients raised $798.68, said Marty Potter, whose mid-point room of both 7th and 8th grader spaced the field.

“The kids brought in so much the other classes just gave up,” Potter said of the intra -class competition. “they really did a good job.”

For three weeks, SMS students collected pennies, nickels , dimes, quarters even $20 bills, for the project, Potter explained.

While the students in 12 midpoint classes were dropping their change into the collection bottles, and talking family members into into contributing, SMS faculty staff members aided the cause with a “dress down day” Potter said.

Potters class raised $160.00 “our goal was $85.00. “we did great”