A mission to lead and better the community

In the summer of 1904, everyone was coming to St. Louis to see the World's Fair. But brothers Fred and George Naeter lived in St. Louis and were walking along the riverfront one Sunday evening in August when they came upon a sign that read: Excursion rate, Cape Girardeau $5 Round Trip. "Where is Cape Girardeau?" they asked.

The futures of the Naeter brothers and Cape Girardeau came to be intimately entwined during most of the 20th century. After visiting the city of 5,000 a few weeks later, they assumed the debt of a defunct newspaper and turned it into a publication that during 73 years of Naeter family ownership took community leadership and betterment as its duty and mission.

They began in newspapers as boys handsetting type and left the profession just as the computer age was beginning. Both were savvy businessmen who knew their newspaper would prosper and remain healthy as long as the community it served thrived. People often said the Southeast Missourian "made" Cape Girardeau. Fred Naeter always said the newspaper simply grew with the community.

George Naeter was born May 14, 1869, and Fred Naeter on Jan. 8, 1874, both in Shelbina, Mo. Their father, a cigar maker, died when they were young. As boys, both Fred and George took jobs as printers to help support the family. At 19, Fred and a partner bought the Shelbina Torchlight and sold it five years later for $5,000. Afterward they tried to start a newspaper in Quincy, Ill., and lost everything.

Fred Naeter was setting ads for the St. Louis Star, and George was a Linotype operator for the Globe-Democrat when they took that three-day excursion trip to Cape Girardeau. A college professor they met told them the town had everything but a good newspaper, though three were publishing at the time.

Their Cape Girardeau Republican, later renamed the Southeast Missourian, began publishing on Oct. 3, 1904. An opposition newspaper derided them as "two bums from St. Louis," but they worked from 7 a.m. to midnight seven days a week. It was 24 years before they took a day of vacation.

A younger brother, Harry, left the University of Chicago to help them start the newspaper. Harry died in 1918.

Fred was the brother most visible to the public. He was president of the Southeast Missouri Press Association in 1908 and president of the Missouri Press Association in 1912. He was on the board of directors of the Inland Daily Press Association.

He was said to have served on as many state boards and commissions in Missouri as any other person of his era. He was a Republican, but governors from both parties appointed him to commissions. In 1929, he was named to the State Survey Commission, which compiled a comprehensive study of the state public schools, colleges and penal institutions. Its recommendations were a blueprint that was still being used decades later.

He was chairman of the rural schools division of the Caulfield Commission, one of only three citizens appointed to the commission who wasn't a member of the legislature.

In 1934, Gov. Guy Park appointed Fred Naeter to the state Bi-Partisan Advisory Board, which supervised a building program at charitable and penal institutions.

He served on the Constitutional Convention that drafted the present Missouri Constitution adopted in 1943. In 1951, he was named vice chairman of the state Citizens Advisory Committee overseeing expansion of the state highway program.

He also served an interim appointment as a member of the University of Missouri Board of Curators.

If Fred Naeter was Mr. Outside, George was Mr. Inside. He made the final decisions on all equipment and on the company's printing and stationery businesses.

His community service was closer to home. He served on the board of the Salvation Army for 34 years and worked to preserve the region's history.

The Naeter brothers preferred to call their editorial efforts to better the community civic campaigns rather than crusades. They tried to set an example and pursued ideals.

They installed Cape Girardeau's first electrical streetlight in front of their building to show the community the positive effect it would have.

The agricultural extension agent the newspaper campaigned for was the first ever assigned in the state and one of the first in the nation.

The newspaper spearheaded the effort to construct the Ten-Mile Rose Garden, which at one time lined the road between Cape Girardeau and Jackson with 10,000 roses. The newspaper once offered a $25 reward to anyone who could find a yard in Cape Girardeau without a rose.

When movies were introduced and a farm woman said she wished she could see one of those movies she saw advertised in the newspaper, the Naeter brothers began a series of summer movie programs at rural community centers, bringing along a generator to run the projector.

They were always interested in enriching with the city's religious and cultural life. In 1926 and 1933 they sponsored prolonged crusades in Cape Girardeau by evangelist Billy Sunday. Fred Naeter's support helped preserve Old McKendree Chapel, the oldest Methodist church building west of the Mississippi River.

When they concluded the city needed a new park, they campaigned for passage of the bond over many objections. The park today is still a focal point of community activity. They brought Evangeline Booth, daughter of the founder of the Salvation Army, to Cape Girardeau to christen the park's community center.

Bringing fame to Cape

The newspaper also brought to Cape Girardeau opera singer Ernestine Schumann-Heinck, John Philip Sousa and his band, the St. Louis Symphony and numerous stage productions.

The faces of many of these visitors, including Harry S. Truman's, can be seen in one of two 8-by-10-foot tile murals the Naeters installed on the exterior of the architecturally distinctive newspaper building they erected in 1925. Titled "Gathering & Disseminating News" and "The Art of Printing," the murals illustrated the Naeters' belief in the importance of newspapers.

For many years the newspaper sponsored an art exhibit to encourage amateur artists in the area. Their work was displayed in the newspaper's offices.

When the newspaper celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1954, a special publication pointed out some unfinished business the city needed to take care of in the coming years. It campaigned to save the city's historic Common Pleas Courthouse from demolition and for the federal government to build a floodwall to protect the city's downtown from the Mississippi River. Both projects eventually came to pass.

In ceremonies in 1954 in Chicago, the newspaper received the Community Service Award from the Inland Daily Press Association.

On his 80th birthday, George Naeter celebrated by operating a Linotype machine. He died in 1956. A nephew, Harry Naeter, then became co-publisher with Fred Naeter.

Fred Naeter was still involved in the operation of the newspaper at 90, a year before his death on Sept. 18, 1965.