Out of the past 7/16/09

25 years ago: July 16, 1984

Drury Development Co. withdraws its offer of a west end site for the Cape Girardeau multipurpose building.

Marjorie Gregory, the wife of Lt. Col. Robert Gregory, a Cape Girardeau man listed as missing in action after the aircraft he was flying was shot down during a mission in Vietnam, will be among 51 families of Missouri servicemen to receive commemorative medals Monday in St. Louis.

50 years ago: July 16, 1959

Polio in Southeast Missouri has jumped 166 percent to date this year over last, and the season in which it customarily has waxed strong is just beginning; health authorities term the increase here and nationwide as inexcusable in view of the protection given by the Salk vaccine.

Dr. Jean A. Chapman, former State College student and a son of Mr. and Mrs. Vernon A. Chapman of Cape Girardeau, announces the Monday opening of his medical offices at 1902 Broadway.

75 years ago: July 16, 1934

Cape Girardeau is flooded with district-grown cantaloupes; trucks and automobiles bring in melons of all sizes and kinds; one of the growers, A.M. Miller of near Vanduser, Mo., says the price of cantaloupes is 50 cents per dozen.

Four families bring produce from the community garden to Cape Girardeau's community canning center for packing; vegetables received today are three bushels of beets, three bushels of Swiss chard and a small amount of green beans.

100 years ago: July 16, 1909

Charles Brand finished threshing wheat on the Minton farm yesterday; the wheat was saved from the rising river, but Brand didn't have time to move his machine and it was soon marooned on a space of land about 40 feet wide; the ferryboat Warsaw came to his rescue last night, hauling the engine and thresher to Cape Girardeau.

Cape Girardeau will take Dr. M.A. Grissom, the dentist, to court to gain a few feet of property; the property in question is covered by a barn in the rear of the lot at the corner of Broadway and Spanish Street; the barn extends over the property line onto the courthouse square.

-- Sharon K. Sanders