Out of the past: Feb. 27

1992

Spring still may be three weeks away, but you'd never know it with the daffodils and forsythia bushes already in bloom in Cape Girardeau. Unusually mild temperatures this month have caused many early flowering plants, shrubs and some trees to begin budding or blooming.

After coming close to defeating the incumbent four years ago, Bob Holden is launching a second campaign for state treasurer. Holden ended a two-day, nine-city campaign kickoff tour yesterday in Cape Girardeau.

1967

The Cape Girardeau area and other Southeast Missouri localities were painted with a treacherous coat of ice overnight, causing extreme driving hazards, a major traffic jam north of here and a flurry of auto mishaps. About 300 cars were stalled on the ice-covered U.S. 61, from about five miles south of Old Appleton northward into Perry County.

Dr. George H. Reavis, 84, who many years ago was superintendent of Cape Girardeau Public Schools, has made a $500,000 bequest to start a Phi Delta Kappa foundation to support educational research. Reavis, who was superintendent here from 1911 to 1913, lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

1942

Approval for doubling the size of the civilian pilots-training program now underway and adding an advanced cross-country training course was received yesterday by the Consolidated School of Aviation Inc., which has the contract for training all Teachers College air students. The new program will give the school at once a total of 56 students under the government contracts, 30 of these for primary training, 20 for secondary training and six for the advanced cross-country course.

Superintendent L.J. Schultz announces the new building at Central High School to be used for vocational shop training is nearing completion, and first classes for adult training will be there March 9. The building will house shops for training in automotive, metal, electrical and woodworking trades.

1917

The Illinois Central Railroad Co. has purchased 100 acres of the Lance farm at the Missouri end of the Thebes, Illinois, bridge from Louis Houck. There are 360 acres in the farm, and of the amount purchased by the railroad company, about 60 acres are along the river, and the remainder is in the hills. It is thought the Central may put terminal yards there.

The splendid old grog factory, better known as the distillery at Appleton, is to be saved for the benefit of posterity; a stock company has been completed, with various businessmen and farmers of the community purchasing shares at $300 each. The company will be known as the Appleton Distilling Company.

-- Sharon K. Sanders