Out of the past: April 28

1999

Three Scott City students were suspended yesterday and a fourth is under investigation after separate incidents involving threats against a fellow student, a teacher and the school itself; the first incident began Monday when the Scott County Sheriff’s Office notified Scott City police that a student was told she would be killed if she came to Scott City High School on Tuesday; a 16-year-old male was taken into custody just after school opened Tuesday; three other males ages 15 and 16 were taken into custody at the school Tuesday and were suspended; one left a false bomb threat on his desk, another took a bullet to school, and the third threatened a teacher that she could be the first one shot in a school shooting, according to police.

While many Southeast Missouri residents oppose the use of ground troops in Kosovo, President Clinton has asked for more than 33,000 reservists to report to active duty; there were no Missouri troops called to active duty.

1974

The First Baptist Church of Jackson will observe its sesquicentennial — its 150th anniversary — with services starting Tuesday night and continuing through May 5; five former pastors will speak in various services along with other guest speakers; present pastor of the church is the Rev. W. Harry Hunt, who has been serving the church since Jan. 1, 1963, longer than any pastor since the year 1900.

Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Wille, who came to Cape Girardeau in May 1973 from Jackson and have been operating Wille’s Bakery at 401 S. West End Blvd., have purchased a building at 1001 Independence St. from Emil Steinborn, have remodeled it and will open the transferred business in this new location tomorrow; the property, which once served as a garage, has around 1,500 square feet of floor space.

1949

A community effort to raise $20,000 for construction of a grandstand and other improvements at Capaha Park for night baseball, sparked by the Kiwanis Club and shared jointly by all service clubs, will kick off tomorrow; members of teams from the Optimists, Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis and Jaycees will solicit funds beginning Monday.

An experiment by the Little River Drainage District in willow control on drainage ditches of Southeast Missouri was observed with interest by drainage officials, agricultural leaders and representatives of a chemical company and insurance firm yesterday; using a combination of chemicals, based mainly on 2 4-D in solution with oil and water and another combination of the solution with 2 4 5-D, a low-flying plane sprayed both banks of an eight-mile stretch of Ditch 42 starting two miles south of Gray Ridge in Stoddard County.

1924

Two men were shot and wounded, one of them seriously, in a gun battle between Scott County deputy sheriffs and alleged bootleggers in a lumber camp near Carry, east of Benton, Saturday night; Tom Bonnifield, a deputy sheriff of near Blodgett, was shot in the right foot; one of the bootleggers was also shot, a bullet passing through his leg; the latter made his escape, but turned himself in to officers early yesterday.

The Myrtle, a small sand boat owned by the Cape Girardeau Sand Co., is on its way to Huntington, Virginia, where it will be placed in service by the Sand and Gravel Corp. of that place, following the purchase of the boat from the local company; Cape Sand will use its larger boat, the Grace, in sand work here, but will also construct two additional barges soon to speed up production; manager of the company is Pete Deimund.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a blog called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper. Check out her blog at semissourian.com/history.