Out of the past: Feb. 23

1999

The Missouri Department of Transportation says the Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau will be closed to traffic from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. tomorrow to allow workers to make repairs to a floor beam; traffic on the span was reduced to one lane much of yesterday and again today; repairing a floor beam on the center line makes the closure necessary.

Deanna Howard isn’t sure why she awakened from a sound sleep in the morning; but when she checked on the two children at her home, she found the living room filled with smoke and flames shooting from her son’s bed; she and her boyfriend, her 3-year-old son and her boyfriend’s 1-year-old daughter escaped her home at 200 Mason St.; Cape Girardeau Fire Marshal Tom Hinkebein says the 3-year-old had placed a pillow into a standing gas furnace, and it caught fire; the child then threw the pillow onto his bed, and the flames quickly spread.

1974

Whether there is extensive flooding this year on the Mississippi River will be determined by the amount of precipitation between now and the flood season, with rain this spring being even more critical a factor than it was last spring, Col. Thorward R. Peterson, the Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District engineer, said at a meeting Friday to discuss spring flooding and the status of the Mississippi River levee system in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois; approximately 50 representatives of levee districts, the Red Cross, National Guard, Missouri Highway Patrol and Illinois State Police attended the meeting.

The Missouri State Park Board will ask for $25,000 in federal funds to match an equal amount of state money to finance planning of a statewide system of trails; the program was recently given to the Park Board by Gov. Christopher S. Bond to develop and operate a trails system that will eventually connect state parks throughout Missouri.

1949

Adam H. Hoffman, deputy U.S. marshal in Southeast Missouri since 1937 and former sheriff of Cape Girardeau County, died last night in a Poplar Bluff hospital after he collapsed while serving official papers; he and FBI agent John Bush of St. Louis had spent the day serving subpoenas on witnesses to be called in federal fraud trials next week; Hoffman, 63, was a native of Jackson, the son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Robert Hoffman.

Workers are cutting down and removing four large trees on Missouri Pacific Railroad property, north of the old Houck Railroad station in the 500 block of Independence Street; the trees, located near the street, are partially rotten, and it was feared limbs might fall on pedestrians; 11 other trees were removed from the same general area last year.

1924

Cape Girardeau is losing another historic landmark; the old John Painter house, believed by old residents to be nearly 100 years old, and carrying with it associations of days before the Civil War, is being torn down at its site on Benton Street, near Merriwether; workers are razing the log structure, while the outbuildings, which for years housed slaves, have already been destroyed; the old house, one story in height with a wide veranda, has been in bad repair for many years.

Final arrangements are being made for the starting of work on the new St. Vincent’s Catholic parochial school building to be erected on South Spanish Street; the new school, to cost about $28,000, will adjoin the present structure, facing west, and it will be a two-story brick with stucco finish; it will contain four large classrooms, which, with the rooms in the present school, will form a total of six, accommodating about 200 pupils.

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 www.semissourian.com/history.