Out of the past 8/12/10

25 years ago: Aug. 12, 1985

Cape Girardeau Park Department personnel are sprucing up the riverfront in anticipation of quite a bit of activity this week; the Delta Queen, Mississippi Queen and a new river cruiser, the New Orleans, are all scheduled to dock here at different times.

The county commission agrees to sell county-owned property immediately west of the Jackson courthouse, including the former police station, to the Jackson Exchange Bank for $125,000.

50 years ago: Aug. 12, 1960

Word is received of the death of George H. Pritchard, a former faculty member of State College; Pritchard, 71, died in a hospital in North Little Rock, Ark., where he and his wife resided several years; Pritchard was athletic director and instructor of anatomy and physiology for 30 years at the local college.

Eight tracts have been suggested by the site committee and building committee of the Advisory Council, appointed by the school board, as location for a junior high school.

75 years ago: Aug. 12, 1935

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Because the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which has given way to the Works Progress Administration, gave sanction for construction of a new section of South Main Street in Cape Girardeau, that project stands approved by the district W.P.A., says Charles L. Blanton Jr., district W.P.A. director.

DENVER, Colo. -- Elam Vangilder, 39-year-old former major league pitcher and resident of Cape Girardeau, is seriously ill with an infection in a hospital here; Vangilder is in Denver to pitch in the baseball tournament sponsored by the Denver Post.

100 years ago: Aug. 12, 1910

Summer commencement exercises are held in the evening in the auditorium at Academic Hall, immediately following a concert by the Normal School's military band; the commencement address is made by president W.S. Dearmont.

A.S. Duckworth, who has been in Japan on business since the first part of the year, returns to Cape Girardeau.

Featured in "Men of Affairs" is Tony Haas.

-- Sharon K. Sanders