Out of the past 1/27/11

25 years ago: Jan. 27, 1986

The Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents has accepted a proposal by Centerre Bank to install an automatic teller in the University Center; the university had advertised for bids for the bank service, and Centerre was the only facility to submit a proposal.

Cape Girardeau County Auditor H. Weldon Macke announces he will seek re-election to a fifth consecutive term; Macke is the only auditor ever elected to the post, having first won in 1968 after Cape Girardeau County became a second-class county in 1967.

50 years ago: Jan. 27, 1961

Slow movement of ice in sluggish Mississippi River waters at Greenfield Bend three miles north of Cairo, Ill., threatens to form a gorge, halting river traffic; three or four boats with tows are trying to push through the ice, but progress is slow.

State College enrollment climbed to a new second-semester high yesterday, the final day of formal enrollment, with 2,307 students registered for classes; the figure compares with 2,131 students enrolled for the second semester a year ago, the first break from the term system that had existed for 27 years.

75 years ago: Jan. 27, 1936

Slipping to 4 degrees below zero early today after slight relief was felt yesterday, the mercury sets a new record for the season in Cape Girardeau; the official reading, on the State College instruments, is higher than most commercial thermometers, some of which sank to 10 below.

August Kern, 40, a farmer of near Ancell, is nursing a badly sprained back; late Saturday, Kern fell 15 feet off a haystack on his farm, landing flat on his back on the frozen ground.

100 years ago: Jan. 27, 1911

A letter by John J. Mack of Baltimore, a former resident of Cape Girardeau who left here in 1858 for the East, recalls the antebellum town; he reminisces about Mayor John Ivers, his father's cousin, and prairie schooners transporting gold-seekers to Pikes Peak.

The bell and whistle off the old steamer Cape Girardeau will be placed in Capt. Buck Leyhe's "new" packet Cape Girardeau; the Spread Eagle is being rebuilt as nearly like the old Cape Girardeau as possible, and will be given the name of the old-time favorite.

-- Sharon K. Sanders