out of the past

25 years ago: March 30, 1983

The Cape Girardeau County Court has awarded a contract to Rickard Construction Co. of Cape Girardeau for construction of a new bridge on County Road 481, located about 2 1/2 miles north of Millersville; the old bridge was washed away in the flooding last December.

A Cape Girardeau law student at the University of Oklahoma, David Seyer, has been invited for membership on the Oklahoma Law Review, a quarterly publication of the University of Oklahoma College of Law at Norman.

50 years ago: March 30, 1958

The first Confirmation class of St. Andrew Lutheran Church is received into membership during Palm Sunday services conducted at Central High School auditorium; members of the class are Susan Bohnsack, Jean Daume, Carolyn Edwards, Delores Jean Hengst, Donna Lange and Dennis Hente.

Confirmed into the membership of Christ Evangelical and Reformed Church are George Brown, Dorothy Kurre, Sharon Mabrey, Joe Metje, Ericka Sokolowski, Barbara Kaufman, Robert Murakami, and Trisha Thompson.

75 years ago: March 30, 1933

In a statement for publication in The Missourian newspaper, Albert M. Spradling, president of the Cape Girardeau school board, declares that failure of voters next Tuesday to approve the 25-cent building levy will result in a six-month school term next year.

Plans for the projected four-story apartment building, proposed by the Gilsonite Contracting Co. of Dallas, Tex., have been completed and are in the hands of local architect Jules Reither; although no options on sites have been secured, Reither says it is planned to build in the vicinity of the Teachers College.

100 years ago: March 30, 1908

The smelting plant in South Cape Girardeau is sold under the hammer at the east door of the Common Pleas Courthouse this afternoon; Sheriff B. Gockel cries the sale and is able to get $5,000 for the immense plant; T.M. Williams is the purchaser; it is understood he represents the trustees and other bondholders, whose money built the plant.

From unknown causes, fire breaks out in the Eureka House, a hotel at Campbell, Mo.; in a short time all that remains of the well-known hostelry is a mass of ashes and smoking embers.

-- Sharon K. Sanders