Out of the past 2/7/06

25 years ago: Feb. 7, 1981

A battle is brewing between Cape Girardeau County officials and a group of Jackson residents and lawyerss over a Missouri House bill which critics say would radically alter the present circuit court system; the bill would require Circuit Judge Division I Stanley A. Grimm and Associate Circuit Judge Division IV Marybelle Mueller to maintain offices in Jackson, along with a probate clerk office; it would also establish completely separate and unequal jurisdictions between divisions I and II.

A Cape Girardeau veterinarian has been honored as "Veterinarian of the Year" by the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association; Dr. Edwin L. Snider received the recognition during the group's annual convention.

50 years ago: Feb. 7, 1956

Commissioners of the Main Street and North Main Street Levee Improvement Districts, appointed by Judge Marshall Craig in Common Pleas Court, held their first meeting yesterday; Clyde D. Harris, V.H. Dunham and W.P. Renner were appointed Saturday to be commissioners.

Purchase of a 10-acre tract of ground west of Dennis Scivally Park as the probable site for an elementary school in future years was approved last night by the school board; the land will be bought from Mayor Narvol A. Randol at a cost of $1,200 per acre.

75 years ago: Feb. 7, 1931

Norvel Anderson reports that Capt. W.H. Leyhe has the steamer Cape Girardeau spic and span for its annual cruise to the Mardi Gras at New Orleans, La., starting from Cairo, Ill., Monday.

City politics are warming up in Jackson, with candidates springing up on every hand; Joe Schmuke says he won't seek to succeed himself as mayor, and friends of William Essmann have been grooming him to be Schmuke's successor.

100 years ago: Feb. 7, 1906

The coldest temperatures of the season are recorded in Cape Girardeau and the area in the morning; at Cape Girardeau, the mercury sinks to 2 degrees below zero; H.P. Maevers of Egypt Mills reports the temperature at that town is 7 below.

The shoe factory in which all Cape Girardeau has been interested for the last several weeks is at the point of starting; the industry has set a record; three weeks ago nothing had been done toward establishing the factory; today, the factory is built and the machinery installed, and the plant will begin turning out shoes in a day or two.

-- Sharon K. Sanders