IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of June 16 to June 22 in east Idaho history.
1900-1925
BLACKFOOT — A unique marriage ceremony was performed in Blackfoot, The Bingham County News reported on June 19, 1913.
Roughly 30 years prior to 1913, Judge F.S. Stevens married Henry Jimmett to his wife from Shelley, who wasn’t named in the article.
Fast forward nearly three decades, Judge J.M. Stevens — a son of Judge F.S. Stevens — married Clifford Jimmett — the son of Henry Jimmett — to Miss Daffine Webb. The ceremony was performed in the judge’s chambers at the courthouse.
“The only thing that would have made the ceremony of the last marriage complete was to have the older judge present,” the article reads.
After the wedding, Clifford and Daffine left for Burley to visit Daffine’s parents before “taking up the duties of life.”
1926-1950
BLACKFOOT — A man “narrowly escaped death” when his plane burst into flames in the air and was destroyed, The Rexburg Standard reported on June 16, 1927.
The plane was loaded with gasoline and took off “perfectly.” J.M. Bills, Blackfoot commercial aviator, was about 100 feet from the ground when the “mass of flames burst from the tank.”
“Bills started an immediate drop for earth, righted the plane and made what witnesses say was a perfect landing under adverse conditions and on choppy ground,” the article states. “The pilot, enveloped in flames, leaped out of the cockpit and ran out of danger just as the fire spread to the wings.”
Bills, who carried passengers on sight-seeing trips and who was an experienced flier, was testing the plane before taking passengers on a trip over American Falls Dam.
The heat from the fire kept spectators more than a block away from over an hour. The exact cause of the fire was not known at the time of publication. Loss of the plane, which had been purchased a year earlier, was estimated at $3,000.
“Before Bills learned to navigate the air, the plane was wrecked in its hanger by a severe windstorm, and had to be completely rebuilt,” the paper mentioned.
Bills spent the spring of 1927 in Salt Lake City, Utah, for about three weeks “perfecting himself in aviation.” He flew back from Salt Lake alone and had flown several times prior to the disastrous event.
1951-1975
ST. ANTHONY — A Pocatello teen drowned in the Snake River while escaping from the Idaho Industrial Training School in St. Anthony, the Idaho State Journal reported on June 20, 1961.
Alvin Pilkenton, 16, escaped from the school along with 15 other youth on May 31, 1961.
Officers said the boy apparently drowned while attempting to swim the river shortly after the escape. His body was recovered from the Snake River on June 19, 1961.
What officers reported went along with the story another escapee told police after being captured that the boy disappeared in the water while the two were attempting to swim to safety.
“Youth workers had discounted the story, believing the second youth was attempting to give the Pilkenton boy more time to escape,” the paper said.
Only one of the 16 youth who escaped was still at large at the time the article was published.
Pilkenton was originally committed to the institution from Caribou County when he was a resident of Soda Springs. His family later moved to Pocatello. He was born in February 1945 and was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Coy Pilkenton.
1976-2000
FIRTH — A search for a missing 65-year-old Firth man was underway, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported on June 21, 1977.
Orville Prestwich was reported missing on or about June 2, 1977, when authorities found his pick-up truck at the head of Wolverine Canyon near Blackfoot.
The missing man reportedly refused aid from two men after the pair noted Prestwich’s truck was “disabled” following a plunge down a 40-foot embankment.
“We don’t have any new leads, but we haven’t given up looking for him,” a Bingham County sheriff’s deputy said.
The county had assigned one deputy on a full-time basis in the search for Orville.
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