Out of the past 8/15/12

1987

The Mississippi River continues to drop, holding at 11.7 feet at Cape Girardeau; the level is the lowest the river has been in nearly five years, but has caused no major channel navigation problems yet between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill.

All Southeast Missouri State University buildings were without electricity last night and most of today while its power plant was shut down to enable routine cleaning and other preventive-maintenance chores on the system.

1962

Sears, Roebuck and Co., one of the nation's largest retailers with 740 stores and 900 order offices, announces it will establish a Cape Girardeau store on a three-acre, square block tract fronting on the Town Plaza Shopping Center; construction begins in the morning with staking and excavation for footings on the site, bordered by William Street on the south, Merriwether Street on the north, Sheridan Drive on the east and Town Plaza Way on the west.

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- A request from a Bollinger County farm committee that the county be included among those in Missouri classed as drought areas has been forwarded by state authorities to the Department of Agriculture.

1937

A union service sponsored by the Ministerial Alliance is conducted in the evening at First Presbyterian Church; the Rev. Roland Riechmann, pastor of First English Lutheran Church, is the speaker.

An official history of St. Mark's Lodge No. 93, AF & AM, of Cape Girardeau has just been published, covering the 90 years the Masonic body has been in existence; professor H.O. Grauel was chairman of the committee that revised earlier histories and prepared this complete record.

1912

Don Grimm hands over $500 in gold pieces to Chris Freeman in payment for Freeman's Main Street pool room; the gold coins had been buried in 1862 during the Civil War by Grimm's grandfather; Grimm recently discovered the buried treasure.

Judge John A. Snider has moved his law office from Jackson to Cape Girardeau, occupying a room on the second floor of the Himmelberger-Harrison Building; he will move his home here in a few days.

-- Sharon K. Sanders