Out of the past 2/4/12

25 years ago: Feb. 4, 1987

The Cape Girardeau City Council is considering adopting a $24.9 million, five-year capital improvements budget which is $2 million more than last year's improvements budget; one of the new projects in this year's tentative budget is replacement of the existing terminal building at the municipal airport.

Voters in the Chaffee, Mo., and Oran, Mo., school districts yesterday approved by wide majorities bond issues for construction of new school facilities; also in yesterday's election, residents of the Illmo Special Road District voted to retain their 43-year-old district.

50 years ago: Feb. 4, 1962

A Central High pupil who almost didn't enter the Veterans of Foreign Wars "Voice of Democracy" contest flies to Washington, D.C., from Cape Girardeau as the Missouri representative in the national contest; Jerry Jenkins, 17, son of Mr. and Mrs. George Jenkins Jr., will attend a congressional banquet Tuesday night, where the national winner will be announced.

Sen. A.M. Spradling Jr., yesterday made the anticipated announcement that he will be a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in 1964; the announcement came during the 39th annual Jackson Day Democratic gathering at Springfield, Mo.

75 years ago: Feb. 4, 1937

A long, drawn-out stand against the floodwaters of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in the section south of Cairo, Ill., appears in prospect as the flood appears to reach its crest along the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway, with all levees holding; it will probably be many weeks before the more than 5,000 refugees can return to the evacuated areas.

A large crowd watched fire consume Bartels Mercantile Co. Store, Broadway and Ellis, on Feb. 4, 1937. Fire broke out in the basement shortly after 1 p.m. and by 3 p.m. was out of control. The store was gutted, and three apartments and the medical offices of Dr. R.A. Ritter on the second floor were destroyed. (Missourian archive photo by G.D. "Frony" Fronabarger)

Fire, originating in the basement and baffling firemen because of the huge volume of smoke, sweeps the Bartels Mercantile Co. store building, Broadway and Ellis, in the afternoon.

100 years ago: Feb. 4, 1912

Mabel Poe of Jackson has won the W.C.T.U. declamatory contest for the county, surpassing Hazel Kayser and Lettie Barnes of Fruitland, and Clara Moore of Cape Girardeau to claim the first-place medal.

The overnight low in Cape Girardeau was 5 below zero; from all over town come reports of bursted water pipes and flooded houses, keeping plumbers busy; high during the day is only 12 degrees above zero.

-- Sharon K. Sanders