The world became a lot smaller March 21, 1850, when the first telegraph message was sent between St. Louis and Cape Girardeau. Thanks to the miracle of Morse code, Cape had immediate access to news from St. Louis and the major cities of the East Coast...

The 1916 Presidential election was a nail-biter. Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic incumbent, faced a stiff challenge from Republican Evans Hughes. The early results on election night suggested that Hughes would pull off an upset. It wasn't until two days later that Wilson clinched the electoral college after winning California by only 3,773 votes...

Our new era of social distancing has brought one silver lining: drive-in movie theaters are making a comeback. Richard Hollingshead of New Jersey is credited with developing the drive-in concept. In 1933, he received Patent #1,909,537 for a parking ramp layout that provided unobstructed views of a movie screen for a large number of automobiles...

As crime stories go, this one has it all: secret messages passed via classified ads, a shootout with police, a getaway that eluded roadblocks and bystanders mistakenly arrested before the real culprit was discovered. It was the summer of 1930 and Harry E. Brown, 35, was getting desperate. Unable to find work, he hatched a plan to send extortion letters to three leading men in Cape Girardeau...

Imagine you've been put in charge of hosting two celebrities who are visiting for the day. Where would you take them? Wayne Berry, president of the Cape Girardeau Capahas baseball club, was faced with that question in November 1920. His guests were Branch Rickey, manager for the St. Louis Cardinals, and Ferdie Schupp, a starting pitcher for the Cardinals...

An advertisement proclaimed "A Thrill Every Minute" when the circus came to Cape Girardeau on June 6 and 7, 1925. This was no ordinary circus, however. This was the Harry H. Perkins Flying Circus featuring dare-devil pilots performing aerial stunts and taking passengers on joy rides...

Cloa Welker Klobe of Jackson received a brutal telegram on May 10, 1944. "The secretary of war desires to express his deep regret that your husband, Corp. John T. Klobe, was killed in action April 28 in the European area. Letter follows. Dunlop, Acting Adjutant General."...

Cape Girardeau was poised for greatness on March 20, 1871, when the Missouri legislature authorized the construction of a railroad bridge across the Mississippi River here. This permission was granted to former state governor Thomas C. Fletcher, who had just organized the Illinois, Missouri & Texas Railway. ...

From match-fixing to sign-stealing, professional baseball has had its share of scandals. Recent events reminded me of the story of Emmett Eugene Dale, a former major-league pitcher who became embroiled in a bribery scandal, but then found redemption in Cape Girardeau playing for the Capahas in the early 1920s...

Dr. Herman Herbert Piper arrived in Jackson as a veterinary surgeon, but his real passion was inventing. He racked up a total of 10 U.S. patents for a variety of useful contraptions during his lifetime (1865-1937). Although this pales in comparison to Thomas Edison, who accumulated 1,093 patents, Dr. Piper was nonetheless one of the more prolific inventors in our region...

Cotton production had become so lucrative in the early 1920s farmers could theoretically buy an acre of land and pay for it with only one year's harvest. Local farmers didn't want to miss out. They were particularly enthralled by the rags-to-riches story of cotton magnate Robert E. Lee Wilson who was so successful that he owned an entire town: Wilson, Arkansas, population 1,800...

In the 1944 movie "Double Indemnity", Fred MacMurray said, "They say all native Californians come from Iowa." That line could just as easily have been about Missouri. Cape Girardeau, in particular, was the hometown for a large contingent of people who moved west to Southern California. They hoped to take advantage of a booming economy and a climate with pleasant weather that lasts for more than two weeks out of the year...

Cape Girardeau faced an economic disadvantage in the early 1900s. People coming from Jackson or Scott County had to travel on toll roads, a costly impediment for local business. The Cape Girardeau McAdamized and Plank Road Company was chartered in 1851 to operate a road connecting Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Bollinger Mill. Another firm, the Cape Girardeau and Scott County McAdamized Road Company, was created in 1853 to build a road to the south...

Sears, Roebuck & Co. once dominated the mail-order industry by offering a catalog full of nearly every product imaginable. Then the company hit on an idea: what if Sears could offer an entire home from a catalog? This was the beginning of Sears Modern Homes in 1908. ...

Cape Girardeau has had a love-hate relationship with the floodwall since it was built. The wall has protected the downtown business district from numerous floods, but the hulking structure has also cut off the town from the scenery of the Mississippi River. Elmore Leonard chose to set his novel "Killshot" in Cape because he thought the floodwall resembled a prison wall...

Cape Girardeau is sitting on a tourist bonanza: we're located on the Great River Road, Mississippi River Trail Bikeway, and Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. We can now add another multi-state route to the list: the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail...

When the Esquire Theatre opened on Jan. 22, 1947, capacity crowds descended on Cape Girardeau's newest movie palace. Moviegoers wanted to experience the Art Deco edifice with its "full mile of neon lighting." Bing Crosby even sent a congratulatory telegram...

Alexander Ross decided to attend a public meeting of the Board of Regents as an onlooker. Little did he know that he would play a pivotal role in the history of Cape Girardeau that afternoon. When the Southeast Missouri Normal School was first authorized, competition erupted between Cape Girardeau and Arcadia, Missouri, to land the plum. ...

Henry H. Tucker had an audacious plan: build a canal between Cape Girardeau and Poplar Bluff, Missouri. By connecting the Mississippi River with the Black River, barge traffic would be able to travel from Cape Girardeau to Poplar Bluff and then on to Little Rock, Arkansas...

Controversy was brewing in 1915. The city of Cape Girardeau had the opportunity to buy the old fairgrounds for development as a city park. To make this happen, voters would need to approve a bond issue. Louis Houck came out in opposition to the plan, arguing that the city should develop other parks as well. ...

Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver of Cape Girardeau is best remembered for his role in popularizing the "Show Me State" motto. However, a closer look at his life reveals a politician who started out with high hopes but became entangled in minor scandals and the target of ridicule...

It was quite an incentive package that Spanish authorities offered to settlers willing to move to the Cape Girardeau District: free land and no taxes. The settlers just had to pay a small fee to have their chosen land surveyed. When the Americans took control following the Louisiana Purchase, the luxury of tax-free living quickly disappeared. Even worse, the United States government was reluctant at best to confirm the land grants that the Spanish had promised...

Cape Girardeau was a boom town at the beginning of the 20th Century. Between 1900 and 1910, the city's population jumped 76 percent. The Frisco Railroad built a rail line in 1904 providing direct connections to both St. Louis and Memphis. Taking advantage of the rail access, the Roberts, Johnson and Rand Shoe Company opened a factory in 1907...

Steamboats played a crucial role in the growth of Cape Girardeau in the 19th Century, but traveling by steamboat was a risky proposition indeed. Boiler explosions, collisions, fires, sandbars and submerged logs all conspired to sink vessels, often with shockingly large casualty lists...