Out of the past: Aug. 17

1996

Jackson city officials have found a historical precedent for establishing a citywide curfew; but Mayor Paul Sander says residents won't be too thrilled if aldermen decide to follow that model; a 1908 curfew ordinance required residents 18 and younger to be off the streets by 9 p.m., unless they were working or at a school event; aldermen have been considering whether or not to establish a curfew for juveniles in the city.

Twenty-six soldiers spent yesterday building a bridge at Arena Park, an annual signal the SEMO District Fair is about to start; the fair runs Sept. 8 to 13 at the Cape Girardeau park; Army National Guardsmen with the 1140th Engineering Battalion assemble the M2 Bailey bridge each year as a training exercise; the 80-foot span allows foot traffic across the creek during the fair; without the bridge, pedestrians would walk along the narrow and busy Rodney Street bridge.

1971

Searchers still haven't recovered the body of Bob I. Howard, 41, who is presumed drowned after falling from a boat near Honker's Boat Dock Sunday night; members of Honker's Boat Club and the Cape County Civil Defense unit are dragging the river near the dock in search of the body.

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- A car used by an engineering official at the huge Noranda Aluminum plant southwest of here is heavily damaged by an explosion and fire late at night; the car is owned by the City of New Madrid and is parked in the driveway of the home of James R. Miller, resident manager for Kaiser Engineering at the aluminum reduction plant.

1946

Plans are being made to open public schools in Cape Girardeau Sept. 3; but in view of the infantile paralysis situation, actual resumption of classes will depend upon a ruling by the Board of Health; Supt. L.J. Schultz says the school board will proceed with the assumption that schools will open on time.

Rising at a rapid rate, the Mississippi River rose 10.9 feet in 24 hours to reach a stage at Cape Girardeau at 8 a.m. of 24.1 feet; the rise was brought about by torrential rains the past two days in St. Louis, a deluge which caused widespread damage.

1921

Arthur C. Bowman, 41, one of Cape Girardeau's most respected and popular residents, passes away at the home of his wife's parents, Dr. and Mrs. H. Meeker, at Ava, Missouri, after a lingering illness; Bowman, a native of Bollinger County, was a partner with his brother, Lee L. Bowman, in Bowman Bros. Realty Co. for the past 14 years.

Fifteen minutes has been clipped off a trip to Fornfelt, Illmo and other towns south of here by the opening of the new concrete highway leading south from Cape Girardeau; the road was thrown open for traffic Sunday; it is the first section of Kingshighway in this region to be paved and forms as fine a stretch of road as is to be found anywhere.

-- Sharon K. Sanders