Out of the past 10/26/14

1989

The possibility of the Mississippi River between St. Louis and Cairo, Illinois, being closed to navigation later this year because of low water continues to mount; unless there is significant rainfall in the Missouri River and upper Mississippi watersheds north of St. Louis, the National Weather Service says the Mississippi at St. Louis could drop to minus 5 feet by Nov. 15.

The Friends of Saint Francis last night presented at $30,000 check to the medical center at its annual banquet; in addition, Carrie Suedekum received the Friends' 1989 Honorary Award.

1964

Brilliant October days and the absence of rainfall have enabled construction crews on the Interstate 55 project in Scott County to move rapidly ahead; pavement is being poured in a continuous ribbon, with workers setting the forms and track on which the machinery moves to lay concrete; highway officials say there is an outside chance that work might be sufficiently completed to allow opening of the pavement to traffic before winter sets in; the present contracts extend the highway from Scott City south to a point near New Madrid, Missouri.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol, in an economy move expected to save the state several hundred dollars a month in Southeast Missouri alone, is installing its own gasoline pumps and is discontinuing the practice of buying at service stations; pumps and tanks are being installed in all district locations where the patrol has at least one officer.

1939

Today marks the 30th anniversary of William Howard Taft's visit to Cape Girardeau, the only time in the city's history a president of the United States has been here; arriving by river from St. Louis at sunrise, he gave a brief talk at the Normal School, planted a tree, and was gone from this river town by 7 a.m.

When his automobile stalls on the Frisco main line at the entrance crossing to the cement plant on South Sprigg Street shortly after noon, B.M. Gibson, 59, of 1117 Ranney Ave., escapes injury by leaping from his car just a second before the northbound Frisco passenger train crashes into the vehicle; the 1929 Durant coupe is demolished as it is hurled into a shallow ditch on the east side of the track.

1914

In a room in Academic Hall, one of the largest collections of Indian relics in the country is on display; collected by Col. Thomas Beckwith of Charleston, Missouri, the collection contains about 50,000 articles, every one found in a half-dozen counties of Southeast Missouri.

Jack Beaudean, the famous baseball player who played with the old Capahas team about 10 years ago when it won all championships for Southern Missouri, sustained a broken bone in his ankle yesterday, when he fell from a pecan tree; he and several others were out in the woods gathering pecans and, when he climbed a tree to shake down the nuts, one foot slipped from a limb and he fell to the ground.

-- Sharon K. Sanders