PAPER MARKS 90 YEARS OF DELIVERING NEWS

Most residents in Cape Girardeau can't remember a time when the Southeast Missourian wasn't around to deliver the news of the day. For 90 years this newspaper has served the community.

The Southeast Missourian tallies its years of service from Oct. 3, 1904, the day brothers Fred and George Naeter began publishing the newspaper. A World's Fair excursion aboard a St. Louis steamer in the fall of that year brought the brothers to Cape Girardeau, where they discovered that a defunct newspaper The Daily Republican was for sale.

The Republican had been started in 1900 by R.L. White, who eventually took Park H. Adams as his partner. But the newspaper quickly went through a number of owners. Col. L.B. Houck eventually acquired the paper and he was followed by partners Charles A. Powers and Fred A. Hutzfield. By 1904 The Republican had failed and was for sale by its creditors.

The Naeter brothers learned the newspaper could be purchased for $1,800; a down payment of $200 would seal the deal. Returning to St. Louis, they borrowed $425 from friends and came back to Cape Girardeau to make the purchase.

The resurrected newspaper began publishing again in a storeroom of the Old Opera House, at the northwest corner of Broadway and Lorimer, on Oct. 3. It was soon evicted from that location because of the noise produced by its press. After several temporary locations, the company constructed its own home in 1908 in the 200 block of Broadway. In 1925 it moved to its current address, 301 Broadway.

Among the companies advertising in its first, four-page edition were Flentge & Co. (dry goods), William H. Bohnsack Jr. (men's and boys' clothing), William & Ellis insurance, Ladies Bazaar and Millinery, Cape City Roller Mills, Moothart Commercial College, Emma Shulz, D.D.S., Bauer Bros. Bakery, I. Ben Miller (ice cream), Vogelsanger Hardware and First National Bank;

Louis H. Graessle (insurance and real estate), Planters' Mills, Glenn Mercantile, Broadway Mercantile, Temple & Slavick (plumbing and heating), Andrew J. Schmittzehe (foundry and machine shop), City Steam Laundry, E.F. Regenhardt (building contractor), Broadway Saloon (and bowling alley), and Sturdivant Bank were also advertisers.

None of those firms is still in business.

Politically, George and Fred Naeter soon joined by brother Harry Naeter supported the Republican platform. They pledged in their first editorial to do all they could to "promote true Republican principles" and to advance "such principles as are set forth in the Republican National and State platforms."

That unequivocal support of Republican politics continued until 1918, when the journal became an independent newspaper and changed its name to The Southeast Missourian. The change was made on March 1, just days after the death of Harry Naeter, who had urged the abandonment of partisan politics in the delivery of the news.

From its beginning, the Southeast Missourian was different than the newspapers that had preceded it, emphasizing local news and personalities. Other publications of the day featured mostly state and national news. Not that the Missourian neglected the world outside of Southeast Missouri. In 1906 it issued the first extra in Cape Girardeau history detailing the devastation wrought by the San Francisco earthquake.

Other extras followed, including news of the armistice that concluded the "war to end all wars," and another in 1939 that heralded the start of the second world war. Extras throughout the years told of peace declarations, a devastating tornado, the assassination of a president, and the resignation of a president. The final extra printed by the Missourian came last summer, informing its readers of the "great flood of 1993."

Under the guidance of the Naeter brothers and subsequent owners Thomson Newspapers (1976) and Gary Rust (1986), the newspaper won numerous awards for its publication, as well as its community service projects. Along the way, the company grew from a two- and three-man operation to its present 230 employees.

Today, the Missourian is delivered each morning to 18,500 subscribers in an area stretching north to Perry County and south to Scott and Stoddard counties. The western counties include Bollinger and Madison, and the eastern counties in Illinois are Union and Alexander. The circulation count increases on Sundays to 30,000 and on Wednesdays to 33,500.