Conversations with Dr. Frank Nickell, Cape Girardeau's unparalleled historian, tend to start with a single question and eventually meander through a variety of topics. What started as a discussion recently of the goings-on at the Kellerman Foundation, where Frank is the resident historian, drifted into a brainstorming session where suggestions for future foundation displays flew about the room like a shuttlecock in a high wind. ...

Published May 8, 1996, in the Southeast Missourian: Dr. Bill Atchley, interim president of Southeast Missouri State University, Tuesday explained what the letter E in May Greene means to him during May Greene Day at the May Greene Elementary School. (Don Shrubshell ~ Southeast Missourian archive)...

Here's another in the late Joni Adams' series "Profiles." Photographer Lou Peukert took several photos of Charlie Hutson, but only one was used with the article. I've interspersed several of the others in this blog...

If you lived in Cape Girardeau in the summer of 1989, chances are you remember the fire that destroyed Uncle Ralph's Furniture at the southwest corner of Spanish and Independence streets. A couple things stand out in my mind about that business and the conflagration that forced its removal from downtown Cape Girardeau to the west end...

Cape Girardeau's public school system dates back 154 years. Before that, youngsters received their educations at home or at subscription or parochial schools. This article, by Missourian columnist Emily Hughes, reveals that tax-supported education wasn't universally popular at the time of its inception...

The original clubhouse at the Cape Girardeau Country Club was opened the evening of July 29, 1921, with a formal reception and dance. The building was constructed by Cape Girardeau contractor Will Gerhardt on the highest point on the course. The two-story structure faced east, overlooking the Mississippi River. ...

In the early 1970s, the Southeast Missourian began publishing a feature series about area women. This one profiles the life Myrtle Branson Sheppard, a longtime area civic leader and educator. The articles were all published under the same title: "A woman's world."...

Published March 3, 1989, in the Southeast Missourian: Dr. James Goodrich: Dueling gentlemen had an exaggerated sense of personal honor. (Southeast Missourian archive)...

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, I came across this article published on the front page of the Southeast Missourian on Tuesday, March 16, 1971. In 1971 Big Bro and I would have been 10 years old and pupils at St. Mary's Grade School, when Fr. Oliver served the Cape Girardeau cathedral and school...

In the early 1900s, the City of Cape Girardeau and officials with the Frisco Railroad were locked in a battle over renewal of a franchise agreement that would allow Frisco to continue to operate its trains through the city. Adding fuel to the fire was the belief by many in Cape Girardeau that the road had violated the terms of an earlier agreement...

Last week's blog about Albert Stone Duckworth's gift of thousands of fossils to Southeast Missouri State University was actually prompted by an article I found about one of his sons, Herbert S. Duckworth, in a 1946 edition of the Southeast Missourian...

Albert Stone Duckworth was the curator of the museum at Southeast Missouri State University from 1926 until his death in 1958. His obituary relates that Duckworth started his professional life working for a Chicago lumber company. Shortly after moving his family to Cape Girardeau in 1903, Duckworth "was called upon to make a timber survey for the Japanese government in 1907. ...

In the early 1970s the Southeast Missourian published a series of weekly feature articles written by staff reporter Sally Wright Brown, now Sally Owen. The series was called "A woman's world," and featured interviews with area women, some prominent, some not so prominent...

Since 1976, the University of Missouri Extension Council has recognized farms that have remained in the same family for at least 100 years. A list of the farms honored as Century Farms is available on the Extension website. It contains numerous familiar names from Southeast Missouri...

For many years, the Exchange Club of Cape Girardeau annually honored men and women active in community service. Beginning in 1958, the Book of Golden Deeds Award was given to some of the most notable civic leaders in Cape Girardeau's history, starting with Dr. A.H. Rasche. Missourian files list recipients through 1990, including Rush Limbaugh Sr., M. Luther Hahs and, my mentor, Judith Ann Crow...

As a kid, I attended St. Mary's Grade School, now St. Mary Cathedral School. And for all eight years, you could depend on two things: Daily Mass and Monsignor Joseph Huels. "Papa Joe," as some of us still refer to him, was a fixture at St. ...

As a kid, I remember Mom mentioning a gathering spot on Broadway with peanut shells covering the floor. Jones Refreshment Stand was located in the 700 block of Broadway. It got its start on April 3, 1921. Here's how an Out of the Past column described it:...

Old photographs fascinate me, especially if they are from the local area. It's always a bit disappointing, however, to find such a photo but not know who the people pictured are. That's not the case with the photo I'm using with this blog. Every face is identified, and all were prominent men of the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s...

For roughly 44 years, the original Franklin Elementary School in Cape Girardeau suffered from an identity crisis. While the pupils who attended the school and the teachers who taught them knew the name of the facility, no where on the outside of the building was it emblazoned for the rest of the world to see...

Cape Girardeau has always taken a great deal of pride in its bands, from the American Legion's Golden Troopers and Cape Girardeau Municipal Band to the Golden Eagles Marching Band at Southeast Missouri State University and the Central High Marching Band...