Out of the past 11/14/05

25 years ago: Nov. 14, 1980

Southeast Missouri State University, which for years has been feeling the pressures of an overcrowded College of Business, announces the upcoming acquisition of a three-story apartment building near the campus which will be renovated and used for business classroom space; the 17,000-square-foot Dorington Apartments Complex is at 347 N. Pacific St,, at the junction of North Street.

Three bids are opened by the city for a new disaster warning system for Cape Girardeau, offering a wide range of prices; Fulton Contracting Co. of Foselle, Ill., bids $138,500; Sachs Electric Co. Inc., of Chesterfield, Mo., $256,000, and R. Dron Electric Co. Inc., of Granite City, Ill., $345,847.

50 years ago: Nov. 14, 1955

Missouri Utilities Co. workers begin stringing the electrical wiring for the city's Christmas decorations; the colorful lights will be turned on for the first time Saturday morning.

The Cape Girardeau School Board is told efforts are being made to obtain a teacher who can instruct the city's mentally retarded children; superintendent L.J. Schultz says there are 40 such children known and are undoubtedly others whose identities are unknown.

75 years ago: Nov. 14, 1930

George W. Cross, receiver for the Cape Girardeau Northern Railroad, is mailing out checks to creditors of the road as the first payment of general claims since the road was placed into receivership nearly 16 years go.

James P. Martin, formerly manager of the Fox West Coast Theater at Murphysboro, Ill., takes up his duties as the new manager of the Fox theaters in Cape Girardeau, succeeding Reynolds Maxwell.

100 years ago: Nov. 14, 1905

The party of Illinois congressmen which has been widely heralded for several days while making a trip down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers passes this point at noon and stops here for a few minutes; Congressman William Lorimier, the spokesman of the group, states the journey's purpose is to form an organization in every town of any size along the rivers to boom the deep waterway project.

The Normal School trustees let a large contract for pianos; John Remsburg, the well-known piano tuner, who is agent for the Adams Schaaf piano, and T.B. Turnbaugh, his partner, of Bloomfield, Mo., get the business; they will furnish seven upright pianos, six for the Normal School and one for president W.S. Dearmont.

-- Sharon K. Sanders