Out of the past 5/28/11

25 years ago: May 28, 1986

A gathering of City Council members and community leaders hears Stewart W. Smith Jr., executive vice president of Union Electric Co., compare and contrast UE's nuclear power plant in Calloway County and the Soviet Union's plant at Chernobyl.

Dr. Harold O. Grauel, a past Grand Master of the H.O. Grauel Lodge 672, recently received a 50-year membership pin from the Grand Lodge A.F. and A.M. of Missouri.

50 years ago: May 28, 1961

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- The recently organized Calvary Baptist Church of Chaffee has called the Rev. Norman L. Jameson of Caruthersville, Mo., who will assume his pastoral duties on May 31.

Ground-breaking ceremonies are held in the morning for the new St. Paul Lutheran Church at Jackson, with the Rev. Walter Keisker, pastor, officiating; preceding the ceremony, contents of the copper box deposited in the cornerstone of the now-razed church in 1907 are exhibited; construction of the new church could begin this week.

75 years ago: May 28, 1936

Faced with trying to fatten the city's coffers, the Cape Girardeau City Council is considering a 50 percent real estate valuation or a city gasoline tax; a report compiled by the city clerk's office shows municipal spending has been exceeding income, forcing the council to seek some new sources of revenue.

No equipment for reviving a drowning person could be found in Cape Girardeau late yesterday, when a 12-year-old farm boy fell into Ramsey Creek southwest of the city; a fireman and two policemen rushed to the scene, but without modern equipment, the child couldn't be resuscitated.

100 years ago: May 28, 1911

According to news from Poplar Bluff, Mo., the Rev. Lincoln McConnell is stirring up the sinners of that town; the evangelist may come to Cape Girardeau for one sermon after leaving there, and before beginning his next meeting in Kansas.

Jean Ruff and Carrol Stein, returning from a swimming outing on Three Mile Creek yesterday afternoon, discovered the Cape Girardeau & Chester Railroad trestle over that stream afire; Ruff scooped creek water onto the blaze using his best Sunday hat, while Stein soaked his shirt in water and wrung it out over the flames; after much scrambling, the boys extinguished the blaze.

-- Sharon K. Sanders