Out of the past 9/21/11

25 years ago: Sept. 21, 1986

The annual vesper service of the Apple Creek Presbyterian Memorial Association is held in the evening at Old Apple Creek Church near Pocahontas, Mo.; guest speaker is the Rev. Jim Dace.

The second phase of "Ragsdale's on the River" is open at 132 N. Main St.; the sizable structure, formerly the Buckner-Ragsdale Store, now houses a 199-seat restaurant; a pub area on the Water Street side opened in May.

50 years ago: Sept. 21, 1961

Further discussions on problems involved in locating a route for Interstate 24 were held at Carbondale, Ill., yesterday by highway officials from four states and representatives of the federal Bureau of Roads; Cape Girardeau is one of several terminal points being considered for the highway, which connects Chattanooga, Tenn., and Nashville, Tenn.

Police rushed to the Cape Egg and Feed Co., 509 Good Hope St., last night after getting a report of a burglary there; they scared off thieves, who made a fast exit out of feed chutes in the rear of the building.

75 years ago: Sept. 21, 1936

The Red Star Baptist Church congregation, in a brief business session yesterday morning, voted to extend a pastoral call to the Rev. A.L. Cox, now pastor of the East Benton, Ill., Baptist church.

The proposed downtown stormwater sewer system, for which the community raised $25,000, is dead as a Works Progress Administration project; it is officially killed at a conference of the city council, the citizens' committee that raised the money as required by the WPA and district WPA director Charles L. Blanton Jr. of Sikeston, Mo.; according to Blanton, no WPA project will be started unless it can be completed by Jan. 15.

100 years ago: Sept. 21, 1911

Not content with saloon fights and street riots, Cape Girardeau's sports and saloon bums have taken up cockfighting; Will Bergmann recently noticed a crowd of loafers in the yard behind his Broadway store; upon investigating, he found two roosters fighting for dear life; Bergmann broomed the crowd from his yard and captured one of the roosters.

Martin G. Lorberg of the Southeast Missouri Undertaking Co. brought the first ambulance to Cape Girardeau. It was a horse-drawn affair and made its debut here in September 1911. In this image, E.P. Thomas, an embalmer, stood at the rear of the vehicle, and Jim Miller was the driver. The photo was made on Lorimier Street at the Courthouse Park. (Missourian archives)

The Southeast Missouri Undertaking Co. yesterday received a fine hearse and an ambulance; the latter will be ready at all times to answer calls for transporting the sick or injured.

-- Sharon K. Sanders