Out of the Past 8/30/08

25 years ago: Aug. 30, 1983

A proposition calling for the levying of a 3 percent motel/hotel gross receipts tax and a 1 percent restaurant tax will be on the November ballot in Cape Girardeau if the Chamber of Commerce has its way; the money initially would be used to help finance a tourism and convention bureau for the town.

Dr. Thomas B. Harte, a professor of speech communications and theater at Southeast Missouri State University, has been chosen to receive this year's Faculty Merit Award.

50 years ago: Aug. 30, 1958

Summer's final fling for the whole family before children go back to school Tuesday is well underway by hundreds who scatter to places near and far to observe the annual Labor Day holiday; the major attraction in Cape Girardeau is the annual Knights of Columbus picnic.

A lot in the 1700 block of Broadway in front of the property of Southeast Missouri Hospital, recently acquired by John L. Wescoat, is being excavated to bring it to street level; the property will be used by his brother, William H. Wescoat Jr., as a display tract for his line of automobiles.

75 years ago: Aug. 30, 1933

Southeast Missouri will benefit directly and immediately through the government's Public Works Board action yesterday in granting funds for river construction work; about 25 miles of dikes flanking the Mississippi River from Commerce to Bird's Point will be rebuilt beginning this fall.

Cape Girardeau postmaster H.H. Haas may become a cotton planter when he retires late this year; he has consummated a deal for a 608-acre plantation in New Madrid County, five miles from Parma, Mo.

100 years ago: Aug. 30, 1908

By the middle of September, the congregation of the Methodist church should be using the edifice which has been under construction for two years on North Ellis Street in Cape Girardeau; the church is virtually completed.

Lt. Wilson Bain returns to Cape Girardeau from his week's encampment at Fort Riley, Mo., having been attached to a company of the First Regiment of St. Louis; he reports a great week of soldiering.

-- Sharon K. Sanders