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From the Morgue
Sharon Sanders
The Southeast Missourian's resident historian Sharon K. Sanders blogs about interesting pieces of local history pulled from the newspaper's morgue -- the place where our old editions are kept.
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Cape County haunting

Posted Thursday, October 31, 2013, at 12:00 AM

Halloween has always been a favorite holiday in my family. Perhaps that's because my middle sister, Jean, was born that day. My oldest sister still celebrates in grand style with a pumpkin-carving party each year.

Ghosts and goblins apparently hold no fear for most in my immediate family. They belong to a paranormal investigating team -- Paranormal Investigators Alliance -- and go on ghost-hunting excursions to places like the Lemp Mansion in St. Louis. One of their ongoing exercises is to teach others their ghost-busting techniques through a two-day course at Southeast Missouri State University.

While by brother flatly refuses to believe in ghosts and hauntings, I have a healthy respect for the paranormal. My curiosity in such matters doesn't lend itself to midnight wanderings in cemeteries and old mansions, but I do enjoy a good ghost story, especially if it's local. I ran across this story some time ago and decided to save it for Halloween:

I find it curious that the name of the 10-year-old girl isn't given. I found her -- Rube -- listed in the 1920 Federal Census for Cape Girardeau County, but I'll be darned if I can make out the last name.

William and Mary Ann Ringwald were both gone by the 1930 Census, he dying in 1922 at age 82 and she dying in 1929 at age 84. What happened to Rube remains a mystery.

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  • I think it says orphan. Not sure about what is written before Rube.

    -- Posted by jbpv on Sun, Nov 3, 2013, at 1:57 PM

  • Very interesting. I believe it is Clingerman. There is a 12 year old girl with this last name (Hazel R. Clingerman) shown as a "ward" of the Dunger family in Kelso in the 1920 census.

    -- Posted by Tony_Smee on Wed, Nov 6, 2013, at 9:12 AM

  • If you look at the full picture of the census page, you can see the tail of the "g" in Clingerman.

    -- Posted by Tony_Smee on Wed, Nov 6, 2013, at 9:13 AM

  • Tony, I believe you could be right.

    Thanks,

    Sharon Sanders

    -- Posted by GenealogyBuff on Wed, Nov 6, 2013, at 12:34 PM

  • I would love to have a copy of this Ringwald story as this is all about my great grandpa that I never heard this befor.My Grandpa was elderly when I knew him. Let me know how to obtain a copy. Thanks Nancy Beal.

    -- Posted by nbeal48 on Sat, Mar 15, 2014, at 8:39 AM

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