Out of the past 4/18/05

25 years ago: April 18, 1980

Letters from Cape Girardeau County jail inmates to circuit court judges complaining of food, visiting hours and a lack of heat in the jail have been turned over to the county grand jury investigating the sheriff's department; the letters were released to the county prosecuting attorney's office at the request of the grand jury.

Jerry F. Wilson, a 19-year veteran of newspaper advertising and a member of this newspaper's staff for 12 years, has been named advertising manager for The Southeast Missourian.

50 years ago: April 18, 1955

Registration of voters moves slowly in the city's 12 new wards as the five-day program to compile a complete new roster of eligible voters gets underway; a spot check of a few of the wards at noon shows that few voters had reported.

Dr. Leonard W. Higgins becomes head of the department of surgery at Cape Osteopathic Hospital; he came to Cape Girardeau from Buckner, Mo.

75 years ago: April 18, 1930

Legal difficulties involving the government's condemnation proceedings to secure rights of way for its setback levee in two Southeast Missouri counties are presented before Judge Charles B. Faris in federal court, with the government losing the first skirmish of the engagement; Faris refuses a motion by the government to set aside the awards by commissioners in the first 17 cases reported on in Mississippi County.

A model T Ford delivery truck belonging to Sugar Creek Creamery is damaged in the morning, when it rolls from its parking place at the rear of Leming Hall and plunges over the high terrace on the east side of North Henderson Avenue; the vehicle turns over in the street, breaking up the body and wheels.

100 years ago: April 18, 1905

The Thebes, Ill., railroad bridge is put into active service; one of the two tracks is finished, and all passenger and freight trains which have been transferred are now sent by way of the monster connecting link.

Work will begin on the foundation of a new baker shop in Haarig tomorrow; it will be just east of the Haarig bank and will be two stories in height; John Kaes, a baker connected with the larger shops of the city for several years, will be the proprietor.

-- Sharon K. Sanders