Out of the past 4/19/09

25 years ago: April 19, 1984

Cape Girardeau police are investigating three reports of small cars being turned on their sides apparently by vandals last night or early today.

A fireworks ordinance, which doesn't prohibit the sale or discharge of bottle rockets, received first-round approval yesterday by the Cape Girardeau City Council; however, the author of the ordinance, Councilman Donald Strohmeyer, says he plans to propose regulations after the Fourth of July which would prohibit the sale and discharge of bottle rockets but would still allow small firecrackers.

50 years ago: April 19, 1959

Hattie P. Mitchell, missionary to the Belgian Congo, speaks at First Christian Church; Mitchell has served as a missionary with the United Christian Missionary Society for 36 years.

Windstorms move across Dunklin and Pemiscot counties in the evening, doing heavy damage in some spots; the Kennett, Hayti and Caruthersville areas in Missouri are among those hit by the storm; the east part of Mississippi County has heavy hail, which damages young crops.

75 years ago: April 19, 1934

All the ground in the plot on South West End Boulevard, 32 acres, has been engaged for group gardens, says the Rev. A.H. Beardsley; last year, when a Red Cross garden was conducted there, some 25 or 30 strips of ground were unused.

With the death of Henry Schweer this week, the last veteran who served in Company F, 29th Missouri Infantry, Volunteers, in the Civil War, has passed on; this company was organized in Jackson and Cape Girardeau and was composed of Cape Girardeau County and Scott County boys.

100 years ago: April 19, 1909

Because of the prevalence of smallpox, measles and pneumonia at the Adams orphanage on Jefferson Avenue, the city health board has ordered a quarantine of the place; a 4-year-old died at the home Saturday and was buried yesterday at the old city cemetery.

William "Arch" Lorimier, 25, a direct descendant of Louis Lorimier, the founder of Cape Girardeau, dies after several weeks of suffering from pneumonia and typhoid complications.

-- Sharon K. Sanders