Out of the past 2/13/06

25 years ago: Feb. 13, 1981

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- The discovery of rabies in a skunk that bit a Ste. Genevieve, Mo., man, and the possibility another skunk died of rabies earlier this week, has raised fears an outbreak of rabies in Central Missouri has spread to the eastern part of the state; the Ste. Genevieve man was bitten on the outskirts of Perryville last week and is undergoing rabies shots at Perry County Memorial Hospital.

Larry Payne adds his name to the list of candidates seeking two seats on the Cape Girardeau Board of Education on the final day for filings; he is the seventh person to file for the board.

50 years ago: Feb. 13, 1956

The first candidate for Cape Girardeau municipal office, subject to the primary election March 20, files at the office of the city clerk; he is J.F. Lawrence, who files a petition containing 41 signatures for nomination as city commissioner.

A section of Highway 61, from Bloomfield Road south to the Cape Girardeau city limits, is rezoned for heavy industry in an ordinance adopted by the city council; the west side of the highway is already zoned for heavy industry.

75 years ago: Feb. 13, 1931

Slightly less than an inch of rain fell in Cape Girardeau again last night and early today, giving further relief from a dry period of several months' duration; actual precipitation recorded amounted to ninety-one hundredths of an inch.

Mrs. Dixie Hays, widow of the late W.C. Hays, is preparing to move to a farm near Sand Spur, north of Allenville, which was left to her son, Harold Hays, by his father; Harold Hays is a printer in St. Louis, and his mother has been making her home with him; the Sand Spur farm is being improved; a new barn was recently built and the dwelling repaired and made comfortable.

100 years ago: Feb. 13, 1906

It is rumored that a large buggy factory is planning to move to Cape Girardeau; the Commercial Club will take up the matter when members meet Thursday evening.

Pedestrians are attracted by a fire a short distance east of East Cape Girardeau, Ill., late in the evening; the fire at a farm house near the village lights up the eastern sky and causes many in the west end of Cape Girardeau to think that the depot or some other levee building is burning.

-- Sharon K. Sanders