Out of the past 7/26/05

25 years ago: July 26, 1980

Sunny weather brings out a good crowd during the auction of fixtures from the old Cape Girardeau Public Library in Courthouse Park.

A request to add Cape Girardeau County to the growing list of "agricultural disaster areas" in Southeast Missouri was issued by the County Emergency Committee on Agriculture yesterday; the CEC estimates the corn yields in the county will be down 55 percent, largely because of the heat, and soybeans will be down about 50 percent.

50 years ago: July 26, 1955

The Cape Girardeau City Council yesterday gave first reading to an ordinance fixing the city tax for 1955 at $1.09 on the $100 assessed valuation; this is a reduction of 14 cents from the rate prevailing the past year; however, because of the 45 percent blanket increase in real estate assessments ordered by the state, the new levy will yield $37,495 more than in the past fiscal year.

A collision between a Frisco train and an automobile results in injuries to Troy Patton of Chaffee, Mo., the driver of the car; Patton, a brakeman for the railroad, sustains a fractured pelvis, an injury to his right leg and lacerations and contusions in the crash that occurs at the south edge of Delta, where Highway 25 crosses the tracks.

75 years ago: July 26, 1930

Judge Frank Kelly appoints three commissioners to assess damages for land taken in Scott County for rights of way of Highway 61, soon to be constructed from Benton to Sikeston, Mo.; those named are Mike Dirnberger of near New Hamburg, Mo., Louis Gober of Vanduser, Mo., and Ernest Hanselman, a farmer and merchant of Oran, Mo.

Repairs of the outlet sanitary line of the West End district have been virtually completed, and sewage is again flowing through the 21-inch pipe at its terminus at the Mississippi River in Smelterville for the first time in nine months.

100 years ago: July 26, 1905

Fred Kain receives a railroad car load of watermelons from Sikeston, Mo., in the morning, the first of the season to be delivered here; they are splendid melons and will go fast; Kain sold 16 car loads here last summer and expects to match that record this year.

The Broadway Pleasure Club is organized with permanent officers; nearly 40 young men of the city are present and sign the constitution; G.B. Schultz is president, A.R. Hussey vice president, Jimmie Astholz secretary, and Al Brinkopf treasurer.

-- Sharon K. Sanders