Out of the past 9/6/08

25 years ago: Sept. 6, 1983

Circuit Judge Tony Heckemeyer of Sikeston, Mo., has granted Douglas Wayne Thompson, who will stand trial once more for the 1961 shooting death of a Cape Girardeau auxiliary police officer, a change of venue from Mississippi County to Scott County.

Although a thunderstorm rumbles through Cape Girardeau during the night, it doesn't bring enough rain to relieve parched crops, gardens and lawns.

50 years ago: Sept. 6, 1958

Soil where the new floodwall is being constructed along Water Street is being exchanged for new dirt; the soil under the old wharf is made up largely of cinders, ashes, rock and even decayed timbers, the area having been the dumping ground for the town before it was paved with cobblestones; engineers found it wouldn't bear the weight of the concrete wall.

State College girds itself for the largest enrollment in its history, a conservatively estimated 1,900 students, the vanguard of whom will arrive tomorrow.

75 years ago: Sept. 6, 1933

The first Cape Girardeau County workers given employment under the new state-federal unemployment plan, 20 men are called by contractor E.L. Makham, who has started clearing the right of way on the 1 1/3 miles of roadway to be paved north of Cape Girardeau.

Beginning next Wednesday, the steamer Golden Eagle will make a weekly cruise to Cape Girardeau from St. Louis; the steamer Cape Girardeau is being used in excursion trips to other points.

100 years ago: Sept. 6, 1908

The new Methodist church in Cape Girardeau comes into its own with the first regular services ever held there; the Rev. E.P. Crow, the presiding elder, preaches both the morning and evening sermons.

A large number of Cape Girardeau baseball fans attends the great ballgame in St. Louis between the Detroit Tigers, leaders of the American League, and the home team Browns; the visitors claim the victory; some of the Girardeans have their picture made by a newspaper photographer while they are eating lunch; the picture appears in the Republic, showing Eddie Schindler, Edward Harris, Martin Bender, Julian Friant and others.

— Sharon K. Sanders