Out of the past: Aug. 14

1990

Cape Girardeau school nurses win a bittersweet victory when the Board of Education decides to hire an additional half-time nurse; nurses had been lobbying board members and administrators for an additional full-time nurse at the elementary level for the past four months.

Cape Girardeau firefighters turn up the heat, giving about 72 Southeast Missouri State University students firsthand experience in using fire extinguishers; the students are part of the 104-member campus housing staff.

1965

Flames race through the Jim Wilson Co. warehouse at Themis and Spring streets during the early morning hours, burning out most of the interior and causing an estimated $445,000 in damages; the building, when it was discovered about midnight, was already leaping through the roof near the middle of the one-story brick structure.

Martin Pomphrey, assistant to the president of the Frisco Railroad, says the company will discontinue passenger service through Cape Girardeau, probably by mid-September.

1940

Plans for construction of an addition to the International Shoe Co. plant in Cape Girardeau are announced; the brick annex will be in the form of an extension of the fourth floor over the north end sector of the building, where the structure now is three stories high.

Three subjects are being held in the Cape Girardeau jail, facing charges growing out of an attempt to steal gasoline at the Standard Oil Co. bulk plant on Maple Avenue shortly after midnight; one of the three burglars escaped as special patrolman Pink Niswonger, who had been hiding in the plant, fired two shots at him; he was later apprehended.

1915

Aroused by the Frisco Railroad removing two local passenger trains, the businessmen and traveling men resolved at a meeting last night to move their freight by other railroads or the river if the trains aren't restored and Southeast Missouri treated more fairly; around 150 men, meeting at the Cape Girardeau Commercial Club, also agree to proceed against the Frisco before the State Public Service Commission.

The latest thievery in Cape Girardeau is reported by Mrs. J.E. Woodson, who lives with her family in the Maple Wilson property on North Ellis Street; one night this week, a thief entered the Woodson premises and stole a fine gown, several pairs of hose and probably other ladies' clothing from the wash line.

-- Sharon K. Sanders