Burglars Enjoy Cocktails, Dine On TV Dinners By Candlelight

10 Years Ago

Wednesday, July 9, 2003

• Pioneer Museum officials are upset about the theft of a rifle made before the Civil War. It is the first theft of anything this big that manager Brenna Sundby is aware of. The rifle is a pre-Civil War flintlock that was converted to cap and ball. It has silver and brass inlay on the tiger-striped wood stock. The rifle was part of a display of the collection of Hinsdale’s Dr. Tom Cockrell.

Videotape shows a gray-haired man breaking into a case to get the weapon. He is very tall, tall enough to put a 6-foot gun under his shoulder and down his leg and walk out with it. He was wearing jeans, a brown corduroy sport coat and a baseball hat. The man may be linked to thefts from other museums.

• Bill Silver had some trouble with his car on his trip back from Glasgow on the 4th of July. He was traveling north on Highway 24 when the 1977 gold Cadillac burst into flames and was destroyed. The wind carried flames into the pasture of the Shipp ranch along the road.

• A good farmer builds things right, keeps them repaired and they last a long time. A barn built in Tampico about 100 years ago is doing just fine according to this recipe. It has some new metal siding (red, what else) and looks good for the next century. The old horse barn that housed 20 work teams on an experimental farm is now part of the cattle-handling operation on the Page Whitham Ranch.

• Construction has started on the new addition to the south side of the Fort Peck Theatre which will house handicapped-accessible restrooms and a new concession stand.

25 Years Ago

Thursday, July 14, 1988

• Jeremy Sauskojus, a student at Lustre High School, attended American Legion Boys State in Dillon recently. Sauskojus served as city parliamentarian for Powder River City and clerk of district court for Clark County. He is the son of Gerhardt and Gerane Sauskojus.

50 Years Ago

Tuesday, July 9, 1963

• Great Northern Railway trains began to roll on schedule at 6 p.m. Sunday, after service in this area was interrupted on Friday evening by a derailment 8 miles west of Dodson. A cloudburst in the area, with unofficial precipitation reported at 5 to 7 inches at various points, washed out a small railroad bridge causing derailment of three diesel units and 59 cars of the Twin Cities Special freight train. Two transients were killed and four others reported injured in the wreck.

• “Askeladden,” a 16-foot kayak, weathered winds of hurricane force, hail and torrential rains and brought two Norwegian adventurers safely to Fort Peck Sunday, completing a leg of their 2,500-mile trip from Portland, Ore., to New Orleans, La., which they expect to complete by next Christmas. They are Bjorn Braaten and Kare Anderson.

Thursday, July 11, 1963

• A pounding hailstorm struck Nashua about 2:45 p.m. Wednesday, wiping out crops and gardens in the immediate area, breaking windows, roofs and tree limbs in the town and causing damage impossible to estimate immediately. Hailstones more than 2 inches in diameter covered the ground. Nearly all the windows in the west side of the Nashua School were broken and on the town’s main street, numerous windows in business buildings were broken and neon signs destroyed. Force of the hail was sufficient to break through roofs in some residences, causing damage to homes from water as well as from the hail.

• Burglars apparently dined by candlelight and departed the best dressed burglars in town after entering a Glasgow residence last week while the owner was out of town.

Returning Saturday evening after having been out of town for a week, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Hoffmann found that their home had been ransacked and a large quantity of men’s clothing, suitcases and other items taken.

The list of items reported as missing included two men’s and one woman’s suitcases, eight men’s suits, 20 men’s shirts, 20 pair men’s socks, eight sets men’s underwear, 50 neckties, one pair men’s shoes, cuff links, cigarettes, men’s toilet articles and six cans of frozen orange juice. Sheriff’s officers said the unknown person or persons apparently had used candles for lighting as they ransacked the house. There was evidence on a table that two TV dinners had been eaten by candlelight, complete with cocktails.

• Showing at the Survant Theater was Paul Newman as “Hud,” and “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father,” starring Glenn Ford and Shirley Jones.

75 Years Ago

Thursday, June 30, 1938

• Arrangements have been completed for Hinsdale’s Fourth of July picnic, with program of sports, baseball, softball, fireworks, shows and dances. The Rainbow Players will present a show at the Majestic Theatre Saturday evening, followed by a dance.

• There are 6,854 voters registered in Valley County for the primary election to be held July 19. At the primary election in 1936, there were 7,616 registered. At the general election in November 1936, there were 9,449 registered.

• That grasshopper picture has bobbed up again. Originally made in Glasgow, it recently was reproduced in a Minneapolis daily newspaper and was credited as coming from North Dakota, according to a clipping received by Mrs. Gertrude Cushing of Glasgow from a friend in Minneapolis.

A couple of years ago, the picture was made by C. E. Coles, Glasgow photographer. It pictured Mahler (Bud) Nass of this city posed triumphantly with his gun and holding a hopper slightly larger than a jackrabbit. Hundreds of the pictures were sold as postcards.

Soon Mr. Coles began to receive reports of his widely-traveled picture. Canada claimed the mammoth hopper for its own when the photo was published in a Saskatchewan paper. Later it was printed as a “local product” in a dozen odd newspapers in various parts of the nation.

• In the Glentana News, Mr. and Mrs. George Greenwood were charivaried Sunday night by friends.

• Reflecting optimism which prevails over generally good crop conditions in the county, more than 1,000 people gathered at the Buffalo Coulee ranch near Vandalia Sunday for the 17th annual Valley County picnic sponsored by the people of Vandalia community.

• The annual Sangerfest program of the Lustre district will be held July 10 at the Bruderthaler Church, Daniel Toavs, secretary of the association, has announced. Adolph Funk is chairman and will preside at the morning session, which will be in German, and at the afternoon program, which will be in the English language.