Out of the past 7/17/14

1989

A team of Coast Guard investigators is trying to determine what caused the small harbor tugboat Edmund L. to sink in the Mississippi River north of Neelys Landing last night.

A group of Southeast Missouri police chiefs is considering forming a drug task force to combat drug trafficking in the region; about 30 Bootheel area chiefs attended an organizational meeting last week in Dexter, Missouri, including those from Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

1964

Construction will get underway in the next few days on a building to house the Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center of the Cape County Chapter of the National Society for Crippled Children and Adults; the new center will be on Holmes Street, between William and Bloomfield streets.

Fifty-thousand channel catfish were released into Lake Girardeau near Crump yesterday; the early stocking was somewhat of a windfall; the Conservation Commission's Chesapeake fish hatchery near Mount Vernon, Missouri, had an exceptional hatch of channel catfish this summer, and the fish released were surplus.

1939

ORAN, Mo. -- Frank Heisserer, 72, a farmer living 2 miles north of here, narrowly escaped death yesterday when a horse he was riding was instantly killed when it stepped on an electric power line that had fallen in a storm; one of Heisserer's legs was caught under the steed, but he wasn't injured, freeing himself by slipping his foot out of the knee-high gum boots he was wearing.

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Relatives here have been notified of the death of Harriett Whybark, 99, which occurred yesterday at her home in Fort Worth, Texas; she was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Whybark, among the earliest settlers in the district; her grandfather was one of the first missionaries in this section.

1914

While speeding from this city to Chaffee, Missouri, a train engine backs into the rear end of the Poplar Bluff, Missouri, local freight and demolishes two cabooses and the tender of the engine; damaged cars are scattered over the track; clearing it takes several hours, delaying other scheduled trains.

Once more, temperature readings here and at Jackson set new records yesterday; at Jackson, the mercury at the courthouse registered 108 degrees, while the Normal School's reading was 109 1/2.

-- Sharon K. Sanders