Out of the past 12/1/07

25 years ago: Dec. 1, 1982

A two-day seminar on Missouri's jails and prisons kicks off in Cape Girardeau; Edward D. Daniel, director of the Missouri Department of Public Safety, says Missouri needs to develop and implement voluntary minimum jail standards to avoid being "targeted" by prisoner civil rights suits.

MURPHYSBORO, Ill. -- About 75 families living in and near this Southern Illinois town are evacuated in the evening when 19 cars of a 52-car freight train derail near here; authorities arriving on the scene order the evacuation after noticing a strong odor coming from the Missouri Pacific train; however, no toxic leak is found.

50 years ago: Dec. 1, 1957

Cold, his feet swollen and his legs sore, Robert Thorne, 12, returns at 2 a.m. to the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Thorne, near Burfordville; the boy had been the object of a 36-hour, woods-combing search by neighbors, the highway patrol and other law enforcement officers.

Guest speaker at the Church of the Nazarene in Cape Girardeau is the Rev. W.H. Davis of San Antonio, who is superintendent of the San Antonio District of the denomination.

75 years ago: Dec. 1, 1932

Although Cape Girardeau has an appropriation in its budget of $2,500 for relief work, how much of that actually can be used will depend on tax collections, says Mayor Edward L. Drum; however, he says, every time the city gives a man a job it is doing relief work.

Razing of two brick buildings on the east side of Main Street just north of Independence Street to make room for the new Montgomery Ward & Co. department store has started; L.A. Mudd has charge of tearing down the buildings.

100 years ago: Dec. 1, 1907

The Protestant churches of Cape Girardeau hold a mass meeting at the Baptist church in the evening; the Rev. W.H. Whitnell, pastor of Centenary Methodist Church, highlights the existing conditions here and makes recommendations for betterment.

Mrs. Anna Bierwirth, one of Cape Gir-ardeau's oldest residents, left yesterday for Chicago, where she will make her home with her son, William Bierwirth; she was accompanied by her daughter.

-- Sharon K. Sanders