Out of the Past 3/1/09

25 years ago: March 1, 1984

Bernard F. Law, archbishop-elect of Boston, celebrated a farewell Mass with Catholics from Cape Girardeau and surrounding parishes last night at St. Mary's Cathedral; he has served the Missouri diocese for the past 10 years.

Cape Girardeau County Court Presiding Judge Gene Huckstep, speaking at the Chamber of Commerce First Friday Coffee, says 40 to 50 acres of county park property could be the site for a veterans home or a hospital for handicapped children; Huckstep says county officials are willing to make the land available for development of such a facility.

50 years ago: March 1, 1959

Eighty-one raccoons are taken alive by 150 hunters in an all-day, postseason invasion of the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge, 40 miles southwest of Cape Girardeau; the animals, far too numerous in the 22,000-acre wildlife area, are taken for release in other areas of the district where they aren't so plentiful.

The congregation of First Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau votes to extend a call to the Rev. W.T. Holland, general superintendent of missions for the Kansas City Association.

75 years ago: March 1, 1934

Construction starts on a steel-and-concrete building to house an automatic gauge for recording the stage and rate of water flow in the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau at the south end of the sea wall near the Frisco passenger depot.

Workers will begin construction tomorrow on a new building in the Red Star suburb for a mill for the Joy-Tarbell Lumber Co. of Chicago; the structure will be in addition to a building erected here a year ago to house a finishing mill for the firm; the building will house a sawmill apparatus.

100 years ago: March 1, 1909

The business of the Cape Bell Telephone Co. is growing at such a rate that more lines are being put up, more exchanges are being installed and many new phones put into service; a large, central building will be built soon in the city to handle the increased business.

Hyman Caldwell left yesterday for Chicago and some of the eastern cities to buy more goods for the new store at Cape Girardeau; he will be away for 10 days.

-- Sharon K. Sanders