Out of the past: Feb. 27

1993

A young mother and her 2 1/2-year-old son are forced to flee from their burning Jackson apartment at 220 Morgan late in the morning; the mother, Gloria Griffin, receives serious burns to her left hand while attempting to put out the fire; the child is uninjured.

When the M.E. Leming Lumber Co., ceased operations recently, it ended almost a century of a family-owned-and-operated business in Cape Girardeau; the firm would have observed its 100th anniversary this year.

1968

FLAT RIVER, Mo. -- Bids for construction of a four-building campus at Mineral Area Junior College in Flat River will be opened March 21, announces Dr. Richard Caster, president of the college; the college has received a federal grant of $182,650 for construction purposes.

The annual Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce dinner meeting is held in the evening; it combines with a joint meeting of the city's service clubs; one of the highlights of the evening is the presentation of the Golden Deeds Award, sponsored by the Exchange Club, to A.W. Zimmer.

1943

Holding a Cape Girardeau County record, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Davis of near Pocahontas have sent five sons into military service; four are still in training camps in this country: Cpl. Henry F. Davis, Master Sgt. Homer C. Davis, Pvt. Percy E. Davis and Pvt. Johnnie M. Davis; the last son, 1st Sgt. James G. Davis, is serving in North Africa.

The city expects to get enough in the sale of old street car rails, being removed from street pavements, to pay the city's share of costs for the work; 50 tons, or a carload, already has been removed and stockpiled, ready to be shipped to St. Louis or some other market, with the iron to be used as war scrap.

1918

Dr. C.E. Schuchert, director of the old Sixth Regiment band, returned from Camp Doniphan, Missouri, yesterday and is now out of the service; his band was recently divided and its members sent to other bands; when this was done, the doctor asked to be mustered out, and he was given an honorable discharge.

Wilton W. Davidson of Cape Girardeau has returned from Rock Island, Illinois, to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to become a member of the ordnance department of the Supply Company of the 140th Infantry; he left Cape Girardeau as a member of Company L of the Sixth Missouri, which was later absorbed by the 140th; after training at the Rock Island arsenal, he is again back with his regiment.

-- Sharon K. Sanders