Out of the past 8/15/05

25 years ago: Aug. 15, 1980

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- The director of the North Scott County Ambulance Service says he and another employee are resigning because Scott County Court has failed to appropriate additional funding for the financially troubled service; James Smith of Chaffee says the court had promised additional funding from county sales tax revenue, and repeatedly has refused to appropriate it.

An early morning fire guts the rear portion of a garage and workshop at 520 Good Hope; arson is suspected; the building, owned by Claude A. "Nip" Kelly III of Nip Kelly Construction and Trucking, was being used to repair automobiles.

50 years ago: Aug. 15, 1955

From 5,000 to 7,000 people lined the riverfront yesterday afternoon to watch the Missouri state championship outboard motorboat races held under the sponsorship of the Cape Girardeau Jaycees; a warm sun whose heat was dispelled by a steady breeze made the afternoon an almost ideal one for spectators and stirred up the water enough to cause several spills among the racing craft.

Two thousand bales of alfalfa hay, 400 bushels of oats, 250 bushels of corn and $400 in seed were destroyed in a fire that burned a barn on the C.A. Juden farm in Illinois, directly across the Mississippi River from the foot of Broadway yesterday morning; also destroyed were farm tools and a hammer mill located in a shed adjoining the barn.

75 years ago: Aug. 15, 1930

H.H. Haas of Cape Girardeau is appointed trustee for the bankrupt firm Idan-Ha Hotel Co., at the conclusion of the first creditors' meeting held in the office of H.E. Alexander, referee in bankruptcy.

Plans for the remodeling of the auditorium at Academic Hall at Teachers College are announced by Joseph A. Serena, president of the college; this includes redecoration of the entire auditorium and rebuilding the stage section of the structure.

100 years ago: Aug. 15, 1905

One of the swiftest pieces of railroad building ever performed in this part of the county was that of the Frisco in putting in a switch from the main line of the road to the brewery and Phillips Lumber yard; the work was started Saturday night and was completed at sunrise Sunday.

The club of little women, the D.Y.B.C., gives a delightful excursion in the evening on board the steamer Cape Girardeau; it is the largest of the season, with something like 350 people taking part.

-- Sharon K. Sanders