Out of the past 2/12/06

25 years ago: Feb. 12, 1981

Two members of the Cape Girardeau City Council have filed their names as candidates for the proposed charter commission here, raising a question as to whether they may serve on both the council and commission without being in conflict of interest.

BENTON, Mo. -- The Scott County Court recently approved an operating budget of almost $2 million; the figure represents an increase of about $116,000 over last year's estimated budget.

50 years ago: Feb. 12, 1956

James Wainner, lyric tenor with the Washington University Opera Workshop and the Midwest Opera Association of St. Louis, is guest soloist with the Cape Girardeau Symphony Orchestra in a concert presented in the afternoon in State College Auditorium.

Harry R. Cole, mayor of West Plains, Mo., and a resident of Cape Girardeau until he moved to West Plains several years ago, has been presented his city's Outstanding Citizen of the Year Award by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post.

75 years ago: Feb. 12, 1931

Fire originating from a defective flue at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Cletus Hargis on North Water Street in the Red Star suburb last night destroyed that building and an adjacent dwelling owned by Mr. and Mrs. F.M. Johnson; the blaze also damaged other nearby residences.

The First Church of Fundamentals has announced that the Elks Building in Cape Girardeau has been taken over as church quarters; the three upper floors of the building -- the second, third and fourth -- will be used by the church.

100 years ago: Feb. 12, 1906

What is perhaps the greatest pair of mules ever reared in this part of the state was sold in Jackson Saturday near the courthouse; A.B. Bailey, a farmer living a mile and half north of Jackson, bought the pair for the amazing sum of $475 from William Phillips.

Two real estate deals were made north of Fruitland last week; J.H. Sawyer, who has been living on the old Judge Sawyer farm, has rented it to Joe Abernathy, and he is shipping his household effects and some livestock from Jackson to Little Rock, Ark., where he has taken a contract to superintend a big plantation for a year; C.P. Matthews, who lives in Cape Girardeau, sold his old farm and bought the Oscar Hope farm adjoining the Sawyer place; he will move his family there in a few weeks.

-- Sharon K. Sanders