Out of the past 10/29/09

25 years ago: Oct. 29, 1984

Six Cape Girardeau police patrolmen have resigned in the past six weeks to seek more personally satisfying positions within law enforcement and private business, says chief Ray Johnson; all six had less than five years' experience.

Joan Mondale, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale, flies from Washington, D.C., to Cape Girardeau for a Democratic rally at the Ramada Inn.

50 years ago: Oct. 29, 1959

Fire, which apparently had been burning some time before being discovered, did considerable damage to the old Ketterer home, a 1 1/2-story frame at 322 N. Frederick St.; firemen counted 10 roofs on the structure, indicating the house is very old.

A new corporation, headed by Louis W. Kasten, has purchased the Kasten Bros. Press Brick Co., one of the major industries of the county; Kasten Industries Inc., is the purchasing organization; the company is 64 years old.

75 years ago: Oct. 29, 1934

Back from Miami with higher honors than ever before after competing for the national championship of the American Legion drum and bugle corps, Missouri's Golden Troopers were greeted by a crowd of more than 500 persons which jammed the Frisco passenger depot and areaways late Saturday when the special train carrying the corps arrived.

Retail business in Cape Girardeau during 1933 totaled $5,670,000, and in the remainder of the county $1,365,000, according to Bureau of Census figures; there are 286 retail establishments in this city and 148 elsewhere in the county.

100 years ago: Oct. 29, 1909

W.J. Armbruster, who has an $80,000 whiting plant in operation in Illinois near St. Louis, may be enticed to put up a soap manufacturing plant in Cape Girardeau; the Commercial Club is investigating the proposal.

George F. Simms, the expert photographer, has purchased the studio formerly conducted by R.B. Snider in the Houck Building.

-- Sharon K. Sanders