Out of the past: Aug. 30

1998

The Southeast Missouri University Foundation has received more than $51 million in cash, land, buildings and other items since its inception 15 years ago; the bulk of the gifts -- more than $30 million -- has come in cash, but there also have been other gifts; a collection of William Faulkner materials valued at $2.6 million was among the gifts to the foundation in the 1988-1989 school year; a former Pepsi building at Malden, Missouri, was donated in the 1987-88 fiscal year; the building, valued at $3.3 million, was renovated for use as the Bootheel Education Center.

Yesterday was the first of several workdays at Arena Park as the fairgrounds are prepared for the 143rd annual SEMO District Fair, Sept. 13 through Sept. 19; men with shovels and levels and hammers and saws moved about the Future Farmers of America building, where cattle are exhibited, installing a new concrete walkway; in addition, volunteers raised the entrance to the building, allowing large farm and construction equipment to pass through the doorway.

1973

Interstate 55 has proven itself; a major Southeast Missouri segment of the super-highway that opened a year ago today has curbed significantly the area's bloody traffic carnage; the opening of the 29.1-mile stretch of I-55 between Fruitland and Brewer, Missouri, has seen a dramatic 81.4% decrease in the number of accidents and fatalities.

Total cost for Cape Girardeau County's new juvenile detention home will be approximately $188,220.62, the County Court learns; the cost is about $18,000 higher than what was tentatively appropriated out of the county's 1972 revenue sharing money; the court votes unanimously to accept the $127,560 bid of Kiefner Brothers Inc. of Perryville, Missouri, along with four alternates submitted by Kiefner and requested by the city, bringing the total cost of the building to $136,812.

1948

Registration for the nation's second peace time Selective Service Act is underway in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, with 38 registrants reporting up to the noon hour at American Legion Hall headquarters here; the number is about what had been estimated by draft board clerk Robert Altenthal, who said only men born in the last four months of 1922 were required to enroll for possible military service; first to register here is Bill Abernathy, 25, a Navy veteran of six year's service during the war; he will be exempt from military call because of his veteran's status, but was still required to register.

Charles H. Sander, former Jackson mayor, has been nominated by the Republican County Committee as its candidate for the vacancy for presiding judge of the County Court; the Democratic nominee for that office is R.S. Cunningham of Perryville Road; the vacancy was created by the resignation of Presiding Judge Fred Clippard.

1923

The third steamer Cape Girardeau.(Southeast Missourian archive)

The third steamer Cape Girardeau.(Southeast Missourian archive)

The new steamer Cape Girardeau, destined to be placed in service on the Mississippi River between Cape Girardeau and St. Louis, won't be in use this spring, according to Capt. William "Buck" Leyhe, master of the steamer Bald Eagle, which was here yesterday; "It will take another four or six weeks to complete the work on the boat," Leyhe said; the new boat is being built at Jeffersonville, Indiana.

The Rev. J.P. Fitzkam, formerly parish priest of the Catholic church at Benton, Missouri, and for a time administrator of the Kelso, Missouri, parish, is visiting friends in Cape Girardeau, Kelso and Benton; he is here this week to appear as a witness in a trial in Circuit Court at Benton.

-- Sharon K. Sanders