Out of the past 10/26/09

25 years ago: Oct. 26, 1984

Seven of the 72 new banners posted by the Cape Girardeau Redevelopment Corp. in the past week have been stolen from several downtown locations; it's unknown how the banners were removed; they were installed on lampposts in the downtown area using a truck equipped with a hydraulic boom and bucket.

The Viking Cruiser, a 42-passenger Mississippi cruise ship, docks in the afternoon at the Themis Street floodgate; the boat is on a week-long trip from St. Louis to Memphis, Tenn.

50 years ago: Oct. 26, 1959

State College president Mark F. Scully and Fred A. Groves, president of the college board of regents, are among the officials of Missouri's two universities and five state colleges who confer with Gov. James T. Blair in Jefferson City, Mo.

James Stovall of Superior Concretors, contractor for replacement of the bridge on Kingsway Drive over Walker Creek, tells members of the city council that the steel is on hand and work on the span should begin this week.

75 years ago: Oct. 26, 1934

Contract has been let to the Marquette Cement Mfg.. Co. by the Tennessee Valley Authority to furnish 75,000 barrels of cement for construction of the Joe Wheeler Dam on the Tennessee River at Florence, Ala.

Relief workers have found that about 75 families living in east portion of the Smelterville suburb have an inadequate supply of water; only six houses, located near the Miles Packing Co. plant, are connected to water lines; the rest of the residents make do with a few mud-ridden pumps, water from the Mississippi River or catch rain water in pits dug in the earth.

100 years ago: Oct. 26, 1909

The ringing of telephone bells at 4 a.m. awakens the residents of Cape Girardeau to the fact that President William H. Taft's fleet of boats is approaching; Taft steps onto the Missouri shore at 6 a.m.; he is then whisked away in an automobile parade to the Normal School, where he speaks to a large crowd and plants a young elm tree; he departs the same way he came, aboard the flag ship Oleander.

Mrs. J.G. Mechin and Capt. E. Gray of Grays Point come up for Taft Day; Gray had been invited by Capt. William "Buck" Leyhe to pilot the steamer Cape Girardeau for the deep waterways convention at New Orleans, but owing to his old age, Gray didn't accept.

-- Sharon K. Sanders