Night baseball came to Cape Girardeau's Capaha Park in 1949, with the Kiwanis Club leading the way to fund the installation of the lights, as well as the replacement of the old, wooden grandstand . This photo was taken in 1957. (G.D. Fronabarger ~ Southeast Missourian archive)...

A postcard image of the Cape Girardeau Fairgrounds, now Capaha Park, shows a huge crowd seated in the grandstand and on the grassy bank to the south during an early flying demonstration. The photo is undated. (Southeast Missourian archive)...

One of the first bits of research I recall doing for someone outside the Southeast Missourian office after being hired by the newspaper four decades ago concerned something known as the "famous peonage case". That was the first research I did for the late Rush Hudson Limbaugh Sr., but not the last...

In last week’s blog, I brought you a description of the christening of the Eagle Packet Company’s first riverboat named for Cape Girardeau. The CG1 was anointed with a bottle of champagne on Saturday, June 29, 1901, by Lucille Leech. The packet boat served the St. ...

The first steamboat the Eagle Packet Co. of St. Louis named for Cape Girardeau started its life as the War Eagle. It was built in 1899 by the company, owned by the Leyhe family, expressly to serve the Cape Girardeau and Commerce trade. It had operated only a year, however, when bad luck struck. The boat caught fire at the St. Louis wharf and its upper decks were burned off...

Four years before his more famous half-brother became vice president of the United States in the Jimmy Carter administration, Lester Mondale left his Madison County log home to visit Cape Girardeau. Here, he spoke at the 1973 Humanities Forum at Southeast Missouri State University...

When considering the history of medicine in Cape Girardeau, the founding of Saint Francis Medical Center in 1875 and Southeast Hospital (now Mercy Hospital Southeast) in 1928 come to mind. A third hospital opened its doors in Cape Girardeau in 1949, but it is hardly ever talked about: Cape Osteopathic Hospital. It operated in the former residence of John L. Miller at the southwest corner of Spanish and Merriwether streets for 20 years...

The Cape Girardeau tornadoes of 1850 and 1949 in Cape Girardeau, as well as those in Jackson in 1923 and 2003, are well remembered by local residents. Anniversary stories and photographs have served to help us preserve those terrible events...

Rev. Michael D. Collins, circa 1914 (Google Books; The Lyceum Magazine, Vol. 24) The Rev. Michael D. Collins, pastor of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Jackson, didn't see eye-to-eye with Cape Girardeau County Recorder of Deeds G.M. Siemers about Missouri's marriage licenses...

Streaking — that fad where participants shed their clothes and their inhibitions and run naked through sporting events or other public venues — has been around a long time. But it dashed into Cape Girardeau 50 years ago, turning lots of heads as college students here followed the examples of their brethren on campuses around the nation...

Few files in the Southeast Missourian's library are thicker than the one containing the clippings concerning Missouri Electric Works (MEW) of Cape Girardeau. I daresay, it's thicker than the one for the late Rush H. Limbaugh III. MEW gained notoriety in the late 1980s, when the company's facility at 824 S. ...

In my previous two blogs, I brought you a history of Trinity Lutheran Church and a look at articles that predicted what would happen in Cape Girardeau in 1924. All are from the Dec. 31, 1923, end-of-the-year edition of the Southeast Missourian...

Last week's blog mentioned the 1923 year-end edition, published, appropriately enough, on Dec. 31, 1923. Not only did it review accomplishments attained in Cape Girardeau during that year, but several articles predicted what would happen the following year... or maybe the year after that...

In years past, the Southeast Missourian routinely published a large, year-end edition. It reviewed the accomplishments of the year ending and predicted what would happen in the coming 12 months. 1923 was one of the years the newspaper published such an edition. ...

Workers clean up the debris left after a tornado struck Jackson March 11, 1923. (Southeast Missourian archive)...

The winter of 1917-18 is still remembered as one of the worst in Cape Girardeau history. Along with a blizzard and a total of 35.7 inches of snow, it's the winter ice on the Mississippi River crushed four Eagle Packet Co. steamboats...

G.D. Fronabarger likely photographed these young chicks at the Standard Hatchery on Bend Road in 1949. (Southeast Missourian archive)...

Winifred Johnson must have been a strong, independent woman. Born in Ohio in 1864, she was hired as a natural science/biology teacher at the Third District Normal School in Cape Girardeau in 1890, having taught from 1884-1889 in Ohio and West Virginia. She taught here 42 years. In addition, Johnson "traveled extensively through all parts of the United States, Europe and Africa" and was considered one of the highest authorities on history in Missouri...

In the early 1920s the world went nuts about Tutankhamen. The young pharaoh's tomb was found in February 1922, sparking worldwide interest in ancient Egypt and the efforts being made to unearth King Tut. There's no evidence to back my theory that the discovery of the tomb influenced a Teachers College teacher to spend five months in 1923 studying at the University of Cairo in Egypt, but that's exactly what history instructor Winifred Johnson did. ...

The old boy himself, Santa Claus, arrives in front of The Missourian Building while leading the giant Jean Gros balloon figures in the Christmas parade Thursday, Dec. 9, 1948. Thousands of youngsters along the two-mile parade route screamed with delight as the colorful figures were drawn along by high school boys dressed in clown suits. (Southeast Missourian archive)...