Out of the past 9/9/06

25 years ago: Sept. 9, 1981

The "new tenant" in the old Cape Girardeau fire department headquarters symbolically moves in as city manager Gary A. Eide turns over the keys to the building to Larry Haertling, president of the Cape River Heritage Museum; formerly known as the Southeast Missouri Museum, the museum has been without a home since the summer of 1980, when it closed its doors at 127 N. Water St.

The Cape Girardeau County Court is expected to finalize a $150,000 contract with J.M. Cleminshaw Co. of Cleveland, Ohio., Thursday for consulting and appraising work in connection with the county's reassessment program.

50 years ago: Sept. 9, 1956

Entries by the hundreds poured in on clerks yesterday and today, bringing predictions that the 1956 SEMO District Fair will have the greatest number in all its history; the fair's gates will open tomorrow.

By actual count, 3,354 people visit the new towboat, the E.E. Smith, when it opens to public inspection at the foot of Themis Street in the afternoon; the boat has been leased to Smith Oil & Refining Co.; master of the boat is Capt. William S. Howell; designer and builder is Robert Erlbacher.

75 years ago: Sept. 9, 1931

The 16th and final weekly concert presented by the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band is given in the evening in Courthouse Park in conjunction with members of the 140th Infantry Band of Chaffee, Mo.; the program was arranged by band leaders Thomas Danks of Cape Girardeau and O.T. Honey of Chaffee.

John A. Horrell, 82, one of the organizers of the Cape County Milling Co. of Jackson and a pioneer citizen of Cape Girardeau County, dies at the home of his daughter, Mrs. G.B. Lemons, in Springfield, Mo.; Horrell was born and reared in the Cane Creek neighborhood, the old stone house in which he was born still standing on the Jackson-Oak Ridge road; he is survived by his widow, the former Miss Lucy Riley, and seven children.

100 years ago: Sept. 9, 1906

The Rev. Adolph Kistler of the Presbyterian Church has announced that Charles Galloway, the famous organist of St. Louis, will give a dedicatory concert on the new pipe organ in the Cape Girardeau church on Sept. 18.

Roy Drum and R.W. McAnnally of Marble Hill, Mo., arrive in Cape Girardeau to attend the Normal School; the fall term will open Sept. 12.

-- Sharon K. Sanders