Hy Secrist and the wheat thieves at Pauline, 1917

Early on Friday, November 9, 1917, two men drove a wagonload of stolen wheat away from a grain platform at Pauline, at the north end of Arbon Valley. Before dawn they were under arrest in front of a farmhouse about three miles to the south. The American Falls Press told the story the next Tuesday, and later followed the two men to the penitentiary and to their pardons.

Wheat at the platform

That fall buyers took the valley's wheat at platforms at Pauline and Crystal, sparing farmers the long haul to the railroad, and trucks carried the sacks to the railroad at Michaud. By early November bad roads had stopped the trucks for a time, and the sacks piled up. The valley's first grain warehouse grew from a platform at Pauline.

Ed England bought wheat at the Zaring platform and lived just behind it. For the past few weeks loads coming in from the south had first gone to the scales at the tithing yard, a quarter mile north, to be weighed, and then come back to the platform to be unloaded.

A lantern and a telephone pole

About one o'clock that Friday morning England heard a wagon. Thinking some farmer had come in late with a load, he went out and saw it heading for the tithing-yard scales. Instead of stopping at the platform, it went on south past it, and England grew suspicious. The Press continued:

He went for a lantern and followed the tracks of the wagon from the platform to the tithing scales and saw that the load had been turned there. This evidently was done to throw him off the trail. Mr. England telephoned to Deputy Sheriff Secrist, who resides about three miles south of the platform, and this officer went north to the first cross road and awaited the coming of the wagon.

It was very dark. Secrist could hear the men talking, and heard them mention that a light was burning in his house. They stopped the team. After about ten minutes Secrist went back home, "blew out the light and then took station behind a telephone pole in front of his yard." The Press went on:

When the outfit was abreast of him he stepped out, halted them and told them to drive into his yard, placed the men under arrest, put the team into his stable, then put the men to bed in his home and stood guard over them until morning, when they were taken to American Falls and placed in the county jail.

American Falls was the Power County seat; the valley had been in Oneida County until 1913. The men confessed to taking 29 sacks of wheat and asked Secrist to telephone England "so they could square the matter. This Mr. Secrist declined to do." The paper believed they had meant to bring the load back the next day and sell it to the platform it came from.

Two to fourteen years

They were Godfrey Harris, who had been threshing in Arbon Valley that fall with his own outfit, and William Straugh, who worked for him, both of American Falls. On Friday the Press added that Harris had come from Washington state and that Straugh had once been fined for bootlegging. The papers spell his name both Straugh and Strough.

The two waived a preliminary hearing. On Wednesday, November 14, they went before Judge Terrell at Pocatello, pleaded guilty and were given indeterminate sentences of two to fourteen years. "TWO TO FOURTEEN YEARS FOR WHEAT THIEVES," ran the headline on November 16. On the evening of November 15 the penitentiary chaplain, James Leitch, came for them and left with them for Boise. "But retribution came quickly," the paper wrote, "and the men will eat breakfast this morning with Warden DeKay, as enforced guests at the penitentiary."

The names caused one more stir. A neighbor told Andrew Stroh of Aberdeen that his son William, a farmer near Blackfoot, was the man in jail. Father and son both came to American Falls to set it right, and on November 20 the Press obliged: "Stroh is Stro. Straugh is Straw."

The sentences did not run their length. On October 8, 1918, the Press reported: "Pardons have been granted William H. Strough and Gottfried H. Harris, to take effect December 24." It recalled that they had pleaded guilty to stealing wheat in Arbon and had been "caught with the goods" by Constable Hy Secrist. Christmas Eve of 1918 came a little more than thirteen months after the men reached Boise.

The farmer-deputy

The 1917 reports give only his surname, but the 1918 notice and later items make the officer, almost certainly, Hyrum Secrist, "Hy" in the valley columns. In March 1917 the Press had noted that Hyrum Secrist had built a "fine bungalow on his splendid farm," and that his son Jesse had finished a house on his own homestead. Mrs. Secrist was a sister of William Affleck and of Mrs. John Bullock of Arbon. The papers do not say when he became deputy sheriff or constable.

He went on keeping the peace in the valley. In July 1920, in the same Arbon column that credited neighbors with "keeping the sheep back," the correspondent reported that he had spent two weeks "riding the ranges, on the lookout for sheepmen, also arresting several for Trespassing." On March 17, 1921, he was with Deputy Sheriff Charles Torrance's posse in the gunfight at W. H. Ball's place near Pauline; the Press reported that Ball's first shot took the cap from Secrist's head. Torrance was mortally wounded, as the Stories entry on the shootings tells. That September Secrist and a deputy game warden from Blackfoot were in the Crystal country "rounding up violators of the game law," and late that year the county paid him for serving subpoenas and warrants of arrest.

He kept order of another kind as well. In the summer of 1922 he managed the Saturday dances at Central Hall in Arbon, newly renovated. In August a correspondent complained that moonshine had broken up a dance, wrote that Secrist had tried to make the hall a clean and respectable place, and warned that it would be closed if that crowd kept it up. That November Mr. and Mrs. Hy Secrist and Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Secrist moved to Pocatello for the winter.

The article as printed

American Falls Press, November 13, 1917, page 1. Transcribed from the page scan.

JAILED ON CHARGE OF STEALING ARBON GRAIN
Two Men Caught With Grain Said to Have Admitted Theft and Will Plead Guilty When Case is Called in Court.
Last Friday about 1 o'clock a. m. Ed England, buyer at the Zaring wheat platform at Pauline, who resides just in the rear of the platform, heard a wagon approaching the platform and thinking some farmer had come in late with a load to be weighed, he went out and saw the wagon heading for the tithing yard scales, a quarter mile north of the platform. The past few weeks it has been customary for the loads of wheat to go to these scales. Loads coming from the south go to the scales, weigh the load, and then return to the platform to be unloaded. Instead of stopping at the platform the wagon heard Friday morning continued south past the platform, and the suspicion of Mr. England was aroused. He went for a lantern and followed the tracks of the wagon from the platform to the tithing scales and saw that the load had been turned there. This evidently was done to throw him off the trail. Mr. England telephoned to Deputy Sheriff Secrist, who resides about three miles south of the platform, and this officer went north to the first cross road and awaited the coming of the wagon. It was very dark and he could hear the men talking and mention the fact that a light was burning in Mr. Secrist's home. They stopped the team, and after waiting about ten minutes Mr. Secrist returned to his home, blew out the light and then took station behind a telephone pole in front of his yard. When the outfit was abreast of him he stepped out, halted them and told them to drive into his yard, placed the men under arrest, put the team into his stable, then put the men to bed in his home and stood guard over them until morning, when they were taken to American Falls and placed in the county jail. They confessed the stealing of the 29 sacks of wheat and wanted Mr. Secrist to call Mr. England up over the phone so they could square the matter. This Mr. Secrist declined to do. The intention of the two men, it is believed, was to return with the load the following day and sell it to the platform from which it was stolen.
The men's names are Godfrey Harris and William Straugh. Harris has been in Arbon valley with his threshing outfit this fall and Straugh has been working for him. Both are from American Falls. The Harris threshing outfit is stored away at the Brahmstadt ranch.
The two men waived their preliminary hearing and according to reports they will plead guilty in the district court to the charge of grand larceny.

On this site: the history of Pauline and West Fork tells of the north end of the valley, the Stories entry on the first grain warehouse tells of Ed England's wheat buying at Pauline, and another tells of a later charge of wheat theft, against Joe Kulock in 1927.