Et cetera : Back in Time: Vinton Post Office Burglarized (in 1894)

Editor's Note: This is a feature of the Benton County Historical Society. If you have something you'd like an answer to about our history, leave a comment below and we'll see what we can find out! Are there any family stories floating around out there about this event?
---The Vinton Semi-Weekly Eagle reported on January 5, 1894. "Vinton Post Office Burglarized."An Attempt on Wednesday Night to Steal the Post Office Money.From appearances, Thursday morning some amateur burglars had broken into the post office the preceding night with the view of getting some money. An Eagle reporter gathered the facts which are as follows:When Walter Brewer drove up to the side door of the post office about 1 o'clock Thursday morning with the mail from No. 5 he found the door open. He quickly dropped the mail and drove for Ed. Pyne, an employee of the post office, who after making a survey of the situation, secured the door with nails and went to his room.The burglars had made several vigorous attempts to pry open three of the windows with an iron jimmy, but the windows were so securely fastened that they failed to get them open. They then produced a 4X4 piece of pine about three feet long which had iron braces attached to two sides. On the end of the wood was nailed a half inch piece of rubber or leather which had perhaps served as a buffer, altho it may have been only an extension of the wood in case it had been used as a post. The iron braces were convenient for two men to take hold of in order to deal heavy blows with the muffled end of the apparatus. This many have been only improvised as a battering-ram. The Chinese laundryman tells us that about 11:30 he heard some pounding but that he paid no attention to it. The lock on the door yielded, and the burglars entered, going to the stamp tills where they found less than a dollar in small change. A loaded revolver was found in a desk on the steel safe; after removing the cartridges from the revolver they threw it on the ground near the door. Little else was done except to throw some mail and a few rubber stamps into the area of the basement window. Their tracks were traced in the snow as far as the courthouse square.The indications point to amateur work. Had they made the attempt on the preceding night they would have secured about $75 of box rent money which had not been placed in the steel safe, through an oversight of the postmaster. The burglars received less than a dollar for their hard labor.