Out of the past 3/19/06

25 years ago: March 19, 1981

A lawsuit filed last month by the city of Jackson and others seeking to force Cape Girardeau County officials to move the circuit clerk and probate offices from Cape Girardeau back to Jackson has been dismissed at the request of the plaintiffs.

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Former Governor Warren E. Hearnes was approved as executive director of Southeast Missouri Legal Aid Services by an 11-8 vote of the agency's board of directors last night; after a period of more than two hours of sometimes heated discussion, Hearnes, 57, won on the second ballot over his opponent, New York lawyer Sam Lieberman.

50 years ago: March 19, 1956

Philip H. Steck, a candidate for Cape Girardeau city commissioner, files a petition in Common Pleas Court for an alternative writ of mandamus to force the removal of names of 13 candidates for commissioner from the ballot in tomorrow's primary election; the petition alleges that only his petition and those of Roy Smith and Edgar Bock comply with the law.

Clarence H. Vogelsang, 48, vice president of Farmers and Merchants Bank in Cape Girardeau, is killed in a traffic accident six miles south of Festus, Mo., on Highway 61.

75 years ago: March 19, 1931

Employees of Cape Girardeau's street department complete planting 87 trees in various places in the city under the direction of Street Commissioner Louis J. Brinkopf; 40 of the trees were planted about the lagoon in Fairground Park, and 27 hard maple trees were placed in Old Lorimier Cemetery.

The new plant of the Sugar Creek Creamery Co. at South Sprigg and Merriwether streets will open for business about April 1, says R.C. Kerr, manager; remodeling of the building and installation of the machinery in the new location represents a $6,000 investment.

100 years ago: March 19, 1906

At the gymnasium in Academic Hall at the Normal School tonight will occur what is perhaps the first basketball game ever played in Cape Girardeau; the team from the Webster Society will play against that from the Benton Society; basketball is a splendid game to watch, with something going on every moment.

Ivy McLain submits a report on the census conducted in Cape Girardeau's Third Ward; the census found 1,819 Americans, 1,128 Germans, 331 blacks, 25 Irish, 19 French, five Swedes, four Bohemians, four Scots, three Dutch and one Italian.

-- Sharon K. Sanders