Out of the past 12/30/09

25 years ago: Dec. 30, 1984

Gerald W. Jones, owner of The Cash-Book Journal newspaper in Jackson, will become the publication's sole publisher effective Tuesday; state Rep. Marvin E. Proffer, who had been co-publisher with Jones, is stepping down at the newspaper in order to devote more time to his duties in the legislature.

The Charleston (Mo.) High School basketball team last night held off a furious Scott County Central rally in the championship game of the 40th annual University High Christmas Tournament to claim its third straight title, 49-45.

50 years ago: Dec. 30, 1959

Without interruption of service, Cape Girardeau police will move from their present building at Independence and Frederick streets to the new headquarters at Independence and Sprigg streets Friday night; some records and equipment will probably be moved during daylight hours, but the general changeover will be from 10 p.m. to midnight.

A fire that races quickly through the frame structure destroys the Ozark Corral on U.S. 61 South and all its contents at 3 a.m.; the building was erected as a barn years ago by Tillman Anderson and was later converted into a tavern and dance hall.

75 years ago: Dec. 30, 1934

Someone deliberately attempts to burn a dwelling occupied by Mr. and Mrs. C.M. Gilbert at 302 Independence St. while the couple attends church services in the evening; a roomer, returning to the house at 8 p.m., finds charred walls and a scorched table in a hallway of the first floor of the house.

Leo Blattel of Chaffee, Mo., brought a dead wildcat of the bob-tailed variety to Jackson yesterday to claim his bounty of $5 paid for the extermination of predatory animals; four of Blattel's dogs caught the cat on the ground and subdued it after a terrific 10-minute battle.

100 years ago: Dec. 30, 1909

R.R. Shoults, the young tar who belongs aboard the warship New Jersey, passes through Cape Girardeau en route to his ship on the Atlantic coast, after spending a two-week furlough with his home folks in Fruitland.

The Chapter Masons have a busy time in the afternoon and evening, as they take a class of five through all the degrees in the Chapter; the degrees are conferred by L.E. Vogelsang of St. Louis, Grand Lecturer of the State.

-- Sharon K. Sanders