A LOOK BACK AT JACKSON

25 years ago: 1974

Inventory report of county's 264 bridges, culverts and stream crossings and preliminary sketch and design for proposed Cape Girardeau County Law Enforcement Complex were received Thursday by County Court; bridge report lists every bridge, culvert, box culvert and gravel crossing within boundaries of Cape Girardeau County Road District and was promised by County Engineer Robert J. Hahn as part of his examination of bridges in county; on Monday, Hahn submitted report listing 40 bridges he said were in need of replacement and establishing priorty list for replacing each of them.

Lengthy arguments by counsel on testimony of County Clerk Rusby C. Crites concerning County Court records pertaining to plans of constructing county law complex marked opening of Circuit Court hearing Saturday into suit brought against County Court by group of county residents and city of Jackson; issues in case, as pointed out by plaintiff's attorneys, are location of jail outside county seat, financial arrangements and what is considered to be in best interest of county.

County Court Monday got ball rolling toward replacing county's 40 unsafe bridges by tentatively earmarking five of them for immediate replacement and requesting opinion from Prosecuting Attorney A.J. Seier on legalities of submitting $1.6 million bond issue proposal to finance construction of others; first five bridges to be replaced are at these locations: Hubble Creek south of Gordonville, Hughes Creek two miles west of Shawneetown, Shawnee Creek between Shawneetown and Old Appleton, Crooked Creek south of Whitewater, and Caney Fork northwest of Millersville.

There is good chance city of Jackson will receive its request for federal grant this year for park improvement, including construction of new swimming pool, but it is going to cost about 15 percent more than it would have last year when city applied for funds; when city applied for money, cost of pool was estimated at $200,000; estimated cost now is $250,000.

Customers of Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. in Jackson said no by overwhelming 3-to-1 margin in response to survey asking if they would be willing to pay part of cost to eliminate toll charges with Oak Ridge-Pocahontas area.

50 years ago: 1949

Monday session of County Court was devoted to ordering warrants in payment for benevolences, awarding yearly contract for fuel to courthouse and county jail, approving project statement and certifying same to State Highway Commission for Project 49-2, and admitting two patients to state institutions; highway project was for Allenville Road, beginning at point south of levee of Diversion Channel, thence north and east with said road 5.4 miles to intersection with state Route 1, at estimated cost of $4,022.50; work to be done includes cleaning ditches, spreading 400 cubic yards of gravel, dumping riprap stone, repairing bridge over channel and grading; road is milk, mail and school bus route.

New steel shelves to replace some obsolete wall shelves in county recorder's office inner vault have arrived; they will be installed soon; new stack is equipped with roll-away shelves.

Mary Helen Thomas, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Donald Thomas, was crowned basketball queen Tuesday night at varsity dance in high school gymnasium; Thomas was crowned by Kenneth Blackman, captain of basketball squad, in ceremony that opened dance; her attendants were Marta Priest, Phyllis Koeppel, Bobby McFarland and Vera Meyr; their escorts were Clay Anderson, John Blaylock, Donald Hope Morton and Don Wilkening.

Tom LaPierre has been named manager of LaPierre-Sawyer Handle Co; he succeeds his brother, G.M. LaPierre, who died suddenly week ago; LaPierre has been employed in Chicago.

Millersville school board met for reorganization and rehired Mrs. Wallace Sewing and Mrs. Hart A. Jenkins as teachers; Joe Wise was named board president, Maple Roberts secretary and Henley Clark treasurer.

Petitions are being circulated for signers appealing for construction of another bridge over West Hubble Creek in Jackson, to take some of traffic off West Main Street; large numbers of school children traverse only bridge several times each day amid heavy traffic, and it is deemed advisable to erect another bridge, north or south of present one, to alleviate much of traffic hazards.

75 years ago: 1924

Anna Nitch is carrying her right arm in sling, result of kick from a tin lizzie, sustained several days ago.

John Moll of Sikeston is guests of relatives in Jackson at present; he reports that cotton and corn planting is in full swing in Scott County, and if weather holds out, bulk of these crops will be planted this week.

Evil jinx seems to be following August Friedrich, who lives just outside northern city limits; he has sustained severe property loss within last year, having lost his barn by effects of cyclone and then again by fire, and Monday having valuable horse so badly crippled that it had to be shot; horse was hitched to wagon and while driving through or across Goose Creek, wagon tongue struck animal's leg and broke it.

School board held meeting Monday night and selected all teachers but two, Bessie Samuels and Lillian Bowman, who desire to attend university this year.

As weather gets warmer, it can be seen from day to day more plainly that this county has worst prospect for wheat crop than it has had for years; great deal of wheat planted last fall is being plowed under now and ground planted in corn or cotton; it is thought that extremely mild weather in first half of winter caused wheat to grow too luxuriant, and that it was in no condition to withstand temperature of 10 below zero when that kind of weather came during latter part of winter.

Virginia Litzelfelner, who arrived Wednesday night from Lindenwood College, and Mary Litzelfelner, nurse from St. Louis, are home to spend Easter holidays.