Out of the past 9/7/06

25 years ago: Sept. 7, 1981

Labor Day.

White's Standard Station, 1001 Broadway, owned and operated by Thurman "Drake" White, has moved to 1800 Broadway to resume business at a location formerly servicing a Standard Oil Co. retail gasoline outlet; the former location, at Broadway and Harmon Street, concludes its position as the longest continuous location of a retail gasoline unit in Cape Girardeau.

Stanley Winkler of Jackson has leased a location at 230 North St. in Cape Girardeau and will do general blacksmithing there; he will concentrate on tool sharpening, ornamental iron work and welding.

50 years ago: Sept. 7, 1956

The motor vessel E.E. Smith, a new river towboat, will be on display and open to the public on Cape Girardeau's riverfront Sunday afternoon; designed, engineered and built by Missouri Boat & Machine Co. at its Cape Girardeau yard in slightly less than 12 months, the vessel is 152 feet long, 34 feet wide and 11 feet deep.

The 36-year-old iron bridge across Sloan's Creek on North Main Street has been removed as part of the levee-building project in the north part of Cape Girardeau.

75 years ago: Sept. 7, 1931

Cape Girardeau observes Labor Day quietly; the only celebration of the holiday is the picnic given by Centenary Methodist Church at Fairground Park; hundreds attend the event, which features a style show, doll buggy parade, minstrel and baseball game, with a dinner served by the church women in the evening.

The huge Mississippi River towboat Herbert Hoover, the diesel-powered dean of tows now in service, passed Cape Girardeau yesterday afternoon on its first southward journey; on its way to New Orleans, the boat is moving leisurely down stream, pushing a light cargo of three 1,000-ton barges; it is the largest boat of the Inland Waterways Barge Line, measuring 226 feet long.

100 years ago: Sept. 7, 1906

The Rev. Johannes C. Jaech has been released by the members of the Evangelical Salem church, on Rural Route 2; some time ago, the pastor asked that he be permitted to leave in order to accept a charge at a small town near Chicago.

Joe Albert has designed the official flag for the Cape Girardeau centennial celebration; it's on exhibition, floating from the staff on the top of the Sturdivant Bank building.

-- Sharon K. Sanders