Out of the past 1/8/06

25 years ago: Jan. 8, 1981

The recently formed Cape Girardeau Redevelopment Corporation finalizes its version of an urban redevelopment ordinance for the city which corporation officials hope will be acted upon by the city council at its next meeting; the 20-page ordinance outlines the steps necessary for redevelopment to take place in Cape Girardeau.

The Properties, Land, and Facilities Subcommittee of the Southeast Missouri Boy Scout Council's Long Range Planning Committee has recommended to the executive board that 22 acres of land owned by the council in Cape Girardeau County be sold.

50 years ago: Jan. 8, 1956

Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Kerley escape from their burning home south of McClure, Ill., at 12:30 a.m. with only their night clothes and a few garments they are able to snatch as they ran outside; a watchdog circled the house and whimpered outside the bedroom window, waking the couple and evidently saving their lives.

A group of 23 farmers in northeast Bollinger County, their woods and pasture lands devastated by a fire last week that burned over 2,000 acres, have declared in a resolution that they will join in prosecuting the person responsible if he is apprehended.

75 years ago: Jan. 8, 1931

Two men, workers on the government fleet in winter quarters here, were accidentally drowned in the Mississippi River last night; Lester Drury, 32, of Ste. Genevieve, Mo., fell into the river when he misjudged the position of a gangplank leading from the shore to one of the barges; Rudolph Kraus, 48, of St. Louis fell from the deck of Quarterboat No. 1.

If the city's finances will permit, City Commissioner Phillip Steck proposes to add four men to the police force, two to the fire department, purchase a new fire engine, and construct an addition to the fire station.

100 years ago: Jan. 8, 1906

The contract for the new shoe factory is let in the morning by the building committee; the building, to be located on the southeast corner of William and Henderson, should be finished in 30 days; built of corrugated sheet iron, it will resemble several other modern factory buildings erected in Cape Girardeau within the last year.

The first serious accident on the street railway occurred last evening on Good Hope Street near the bridge across the Cape and Chester line; a streetcar left the track, and two men, in falling from the rear platform, were injured, one seriously.

-- Sharon K. Sanders