Out of the past 3/19/09

25 years ago: March 19, 1984

Construction continues on the new Jackson post office at the Main Street-U.S. 61 intersection, across the street from the current post office; Sides Construction Co. is the general contractor for the project.

The proposed contract between the city and the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce at a city council study session draws criticism from Mayor Howard C. Tooke; referring to the conflict of interest clauses in the document, the mayor calls the provision relating to chamber conflicts as "unworkable."

50 years ago: March 19, 1959

The present width of the opening in the floodwall at the foot of Broadway is substantially greater than it will be when the wall is completed; pouring additional sections of concrete wall has been held in abeyance at that point to allow room for work operations.

A pin marking 25 years of service as a Weather Bureau observer in Cape Girardeau has been presented to Lee L. Albert; Albert has actually served as bureau observer here for 41 years, carrying out a family tradition that has been continuous since 1885.

75 years ago: March 19, 1934

A bond issue for $125,000 for a grade and junior high school to take the place of Broadway and Jefferson schools and relieve crowded conditions in other schools will be submitted to the voters April 3; this is an alternative to a plan for a six-room school on the site of the old Lorimier School.

William Pack, who lives in the settlement on West Broadway that has come to be known as Shantytown, says that soon Cape Girardeau will be proud of that section; he says the four buildings there are being painted and that an orchard will soon be planted.

100 years ago: March 19, 1909

The firm of Schmittzehe & Erlbacher will open a machine shop on North Main Street, just north of Broadway, about the middle of April; it will do all sorts of machine repairing and will handle the sale of machinery and gasoline engines.

Robert McLard of Bloomfield, Mo., passes through Cape Girardeau with his 12-year-old son, who had been foiled in his attempt to go West and kill Indians; he was detained at Jackson by the authorities.

-- Sharon K. Sanders