Out of the past 5/13/06

25 years ago: May 13, 1981

The Jackson Board of Education has rejected a proposal by the Jackson Community Teachers Association calling for an average 12 percent increase in teacher salaries for the 1981- 1982 school year; board members questioned whether the district could afford the salary increases.

A youth armed with a toy gun and wearing a substance believed to be shoe polish on his face attempted to rob the First National Bank in Cape Girardeau Tuesday; the robbery was thwarted, however, when the robber panicked and fled after a cashier refused to give him money and pushed his gun away.

50 years ago: May 13, 1956

Although he is hospitalized with burns suffered in a fire at his home Friday, Calvin Vogelsang, Cape Girardeau letter carrier, is elevated to the position of district commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars at the district convention held at Perryville, Mo.; he has been senior vice commander.

The First Baptist Church of Jackson held an open house yesterday afternoon for all friends of the church to visit its new educational building; there are 66 rooms in the educational building, estimated to cost $100,000; on three levels there is approximately 16,000 square feet of floor space.

75 years ago: May 13, 1931

Approximately 300 persons visited Southeast Missouri Hospital during the open house which was part of the hospital's annual observance of National Hospital Day; visitors are shown through the hospital by nurses.

Henry Klaproth, 88, and Frederick Hahn, 89, believe they are two of the oldest residents of Cape Girardeau; both are veterans of the Civil War, having been Union soldiers.

100 years ago: May 13, 1906

Horace Siberell of Cape Girardeau, state evangelist of the Christian Church, fills the pulpit of the local Christian church at the Sons of Veterans' hall, over the Broadway Mercantile Store, in the morning.

Quite a crowd of people goes down to the smelter site just south of Cape Girardeau to see how the work is getting along; two big buildings are about completed, and foundations for several others are underway.

-- Sharon K. Sanders