Out of the past 1/9/11

25 years ago: Jan. 9, 1986

WASHINGTON -- Agriculture undersecretary Peter C. Myers, a Matthews, Mo., farmer, will be recommended by U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson to succeed John Block as secretary of agriculture.

Local National Guard personnel are busy packing equipment for their departure tomorrow to join the first detachment of soldiers traveling to Honduras for annual training exercises there; six or seven members of the 1140th Engineer Battalion from Southeast Missouri will join 400 others from throughout the state traveling to the Central American country.

50 years ago: Jan. 9, 1961

Construction begins on a stone and brick addition to the front of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post home on Kingshighway; the work is being done by Elfrank Construction Co. at a cost of $14,800.

A list of 11 architects who had applied to design the proposed new junior high school building is reduced to four by the Cape Girardeau school board; invited here for interviews are the firms of Buchmueller, Whitworth and Associates of Sikeston, Mo., and Perkins & Wills of Chicago; other firms under consideration are P.J. Hoener and Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum, both of St. Louis.

75 years ago: Jan. 9, 1936

Hospitals of Cape Girardeau "hold the bag" in 70 percent of the accident cases they treat; in other words, they get paid in only 30 percent of the instances in which they treat victims injured in automobile wrecks, a survey shows.

A new and faster type of oil-burning locomotive was introduced Tuesday on the Cotton Belt main line; the 365-ton engine is at Illmo, and will be used in freight service between St. Louis and points in Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.

100 years ago: Jan. 9, 1911

Beginning Jan. 1, the Cape Girardeau & Chester and the Cape Girardeau and Thebes Terminal railroads will inaugurate an expanded train schedule; two round trips daily will be made between the Cape Girardeau and Jackson, Ancell and intermediate points.

The new county court convenes in the morning at Jackson; Presiding Judge M.L. Haupt takes the chair formerly occupied W.B. Schaefer; Charles Sievers retains his old seat, and Will Hirsch is in the chair of Herman Rabich.

-- Sharon K. Sanders