Out of the past 4/22/05

25 years ago: April 22, 1980

The search for a murder suspect who escaped yesterday through a first-floor restroom window of Common Pleas Courthouse is concentrated in the Trail of Tears area north of here, after the fugitive was sighted in a wooded area near Leemon; it is believed he made his getaway in a stolen automobile from South Lorimier Street.

Cape Girardeau moves a step closer to establishing a municipal transit system with the appointment of Steven D. Engelman to the position of transit supervisor; he will develop plans for a public transportation system and administer any such system that is initiated.

50 years ago: April 22, 1955

An initial shipment of the Salk polio vaccine arrived in Cape Girardeau last night, and the first mass inoculation of first- and second-grade pupils in the county will start next week; children at St. Vincent's School will be the first to receive the vaccine on Tuesday morning.

A series of storms, some of them of the tornado variety, strikes over a period of five hours at a dozen points in Southeast Missouri in four counties, causing damage of at least $750,000; hail accompanies the disturbance which ranges from the Lutesville, Mo., area on the north to Sikeston, Mo., and Bertrand, Mo., with intervening areas also suffering damage as the storm rises and falls in a freakish manner.

75 years ago: April 22, 1930

Testimony is being heard in federal court in the first floodway case growing out of condemnation of right of way land for the proposed floodway in Mississippi and New Madrid counties; the case now occupying the court is styled T. Dan Black vs. the United States government; the government contends that the appraised damages on the Black land were too high and asks that they be set aside.

Louis A. Steinhoff has been appointed Cape Girardeau city assessor, succeeding Silas P. Lail.

100 years ago: April 22, 1905

Work has been progressing on the Houck railroad until it now extends to Daisy, a considerable distance north of Oak Ridge; the rails were laid last week, and the work train can now enter that town; farmers will soon enjoy the advantage of a connection with Cape Girardeau.

I.H. Poe, superintendent of the county poor farm, says there are at present only 15 inmates at the farm; the coming of spring weather has caused many of the inmates to take to the road.

-- Sharon K. Sanders