Out of the past 11/20/09

25 years ago: Nov. 20, 1984

Cape Girardeau County clerk records from 1828 to 1894 are now on microfilm, which should soon be available for public research; the 95 rolls of microfilm were presented to the County Court by Southeast Missouri State University professor Dr. Robert White yesterday.

Peter Herschend, an executive with Silver Dollar City and the Missouri Travel Federation, tells a Cape Girardeau breakfast gathering that this area must develop its own "unique market position" if it is to realize its potential as a place as a tourist destination.

50 years ago: Nov. 20, 1959

Only 20 more signers are needed to complete a petition circulating in Ancell asking that the communities of Ancell and Fornfelt be merged into one city; 201 people have signed an identical petition circulated in Fornfelt.

The sawed-off, 12-gauge shotgun used in the holdup of the State Bank of Oran on Monday is recovered by law enforcement officers from the Diversion Channel near the point where the five persons accused of the robbery were reported to have exchanged cars.

75 years ago: Nov. 20, 1934

The cost of burying the dead doubled overnight in Cape Girardeau; the City Council last evening raised the cost of family burial lots in the city-owned Fairmount Cemetery to $40, just double the price which had prevailed since the city opened the cemetery; single grave plots, which are reserved in a separate section of the cemetery, will sell for $5 each instead of the previous $2.50.

Seven State College Indians will play their final college football game Friday, when the Kirksville (Mo.) Bulldogs come to town with the MIAA and mythical state championships at stake; they are Capt. Don Pritchard, Jess Fallet, Glen Lampley, Jim Smith, Danny Dunscomb, Willard Hubbard and Phil Asher.

100 years ago: Nov. 20, 1909

Albert M. Snider, formerly of Bollinger County, returned last night from Texas, where he had gone in July; he says he will make his home in Cape Girardeau.

A house boat anchored at the river bank near the foot of Independence Street sinks with all its contents; the occupants escape before the boat is submerged.

-- Sharon K. Sanders