Out of the past 10/3/07

25 years ago: Oct. 3, 1982

The B.F. Johnson Hall of Mathematics and Computer Science on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University is dedicated in an afternoon ceremony; Johnson Hall is the former North Hall of Science and is being renamed in recognition of a Southeast professor who died in 1941.

Two police motorcycles have been presented to the Cape Girardeau Police Department by the Missouri Department of Public Safety; they were purchased under a federal grant through the Division of Highway Safety.

50 years ago: Oct. 3, 1957

L.G. Barcus and Sons, contractors of Kansas City, Kan., are the apparent low bidders for construction of the new section of Main Street and a bridge across Sloan's Creek; it is part of the floodwall project.

Charcoal barbecued chicken, cooked over an open, concrete block pit 65 feet long, is served in the evening at Arena Park to Cape Girardeau County residents by the Cape County Poultry Improvement Association and the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce.

75 years ago: Oct. 3, 1932

Plans for giving the unemployed of Cape Girardeau County work on highway construction were made Saturday at a meeting of Division Highway Engineer A.R. Towse and a county central committee at Jackson; the committee will have charge of the employment of men who will work on Highway 34, to be built from west of Jackson to the Bollinger County line, and the farm-to-market route from Delta west to Drum, Mo.

The Rev. J.W. Ellis is reappointed pastor of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church in Cape Girardeau.

100 years ago: Oct. 3, 1907

President Theodore Roosevelt passes Cape Girardeau at 3:45 a.m., much earlier than expected; despite the inopportune time, a large number of people gather at the levee to watch the imposing display of river craft; the president doesn't appear on the deck because of the early hour.

CAIRO, Ill. -- A great crowd greets President Roosevelt, as his flotilla of boats lands at the wharf around 9 a.m.; Roosevelt speaks for an hour to the large assemblage and is wildly cheered for his remarks promoting good citizenship and the 14-foot Mississippi River channel.

-- Sharon K. Sanders