Out of the Past 7/26/08

25 years ago: July 26, 1983

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff Herman "Bob" Gribler asks Circuit Judge Stanley A. Grimm to empanel a jury to look into the death of Deborah I. Manning.

After a record-breaking six consecutive days of 100-degree-plus temperatures in the area, it almost felt like someone turned on an outdoor air conditioner yesterday; the high temperature recorded at the municipal airport was 86 degrees.

50 years ago: July 26, 1958

Undaunted by the Mississippi River floodwaters that wiped out most of his early-season vegetable crop, Dr. R.D. Seabaugh says that if the water recedes quickly enough he will put out a crop of fall vegetables on the riverside tract near Bainbridge, Mo.

Plagued by unfavorable weather, the $2,346,697 new building program at State College is progressing slowly; work on the Practical Arts Building was slowed at first by the necessity of blasting through solid rock for the foundation.

75 years ago: July 26, 1933

Reese, the 10-year-old son of Rudolph Henley of Cape Girardeau, is in the hospital in critical condition with a skull fracture following a fall from a second-floor window at the family's Broadway flat shortly after midnight; it is believed he was walking in his sleep when he plunged through the open window.

The Cape Girardeau National Recovery Committee is named by the local chairman, W.F.D. Batjer, and will meet tomorrow to begin its work; the committee has members representing all facets of the community, including industry, wholesale and retail sales, construction, medical and education.

100 years ago: July 26, 1908

An agent of the Gamewell fire alarm service will arrive in Cape Girardeau tomorrow to consult with Mayor W.C. Patton and the fire board of the city council with a view of arranging for the establishment of signal service here soon; the service was provided for by the council two months ago when a modern fire department was decided upon.

The Rev. John Schaller, years ago pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau, has been appointed president of the Lutheran teachers' seminary at Wauwatosa, Wis., a suburb of Milwaukee.

-- Sharon K. Sanders