Out of the past 4/19/07

25 years ago: April 19, 1982

Three new members of the Cape Girardeau City Council -- Cecilia M. "Skeets" Sonderman, Dr. Peter Hilty and Curtis S. Smith -- take their seats for the first regular meeting under the city's new charter form of government; it is also the first regular meeting on a Monday night instead of Wednesday night; that switch was made at the request of a local minister.

Scott City school superintendent Bill G. Hodges has resigned his position with the district effective at the end of the current term; he had been superintendent at Scott City for several years.

50 years ago: April 19, 1957

A training plane from the Malden (Mo.) Air Base makes a forced landing in a soggy wheat field on the farm of Woodrow Beck a short distance from Matthews, Mo., shortly before 2 p.m.; the pilot is apparently uninjured.

Excavation started yesterday just north of the traffic bridge on the Mississippi River front at Cape Girardeau for the concrete floodwall that will join the north section of earth levee; the Barcus Co. of Kansas City, Mo., has the contract for the unit of the flood protection project.

75 years ago: April 19, 1932

At a special session yesterday, the Cape Girardeau City Council filled 18 positions in various departments, which included two new appointments; J.C. Reed was appointed city assessor to succeed Louis A. Steinhoff, and L.L. Dalton was named city health officer to succeed Henry Haman Jr.

A two-story brick residence at 325 S. Sprigg St. in Cape Girardeau, owned by H.A. Nussbaum, is being remodeled into quarters suitable for business purposes.

100 years ago: April 19, 1907

A new orchestra has been organized to be known as the New Cape Girardeau Orchestra; it is composed of F.A. Kassel, first violin; Al Kimich, second violin; H.M. Lacroix, base violin; E.C. Koppel, clarinet; Ben Messmer, trombone, and Edgar List, drums.

John Dugan, the expert monument cutter, has leased the old blacksmith shop on Broadway, just west of the Bergmann-Bartels Store, and has opened up a monument works; he is the only man in the Cape Girardeau region who can carve German lettering on monuments.

-- Sharon K. Sanders