Out of the past: Feb. 28

1999

The Rev. Allen Oakley is the guest speaker at First Presbyterian Church in Cape Girardeau; he has served as moderator for the synod of Missouri and as presbytery associate executive in St. Louis; he also served as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Kennett.

“Time Travels” is the name given the 1999 version of the Southeast Missourian’s annual Progress Edition; in 78 stories and 110 archival photographs, the edition chronicles the transformation of Cape Girardeau from a sleepy river port on the edge of a vast swamp to a regional transportation, education, medical and commercial center.

1974

A meal program for older residents, sponsored by the Cape County Council of Aging, will get underway at the end of March in the coffee shop of the old Marquette Hotel; an earlier start to the program had been thwarted by the agency’s inability to find a suitable location; Thad Bullock, owner of the shuttered hotel, has donated use of the coffee shop, banquet room and kitchen.

A March city primary is assured with the filing of two more candidates — Samuel L. Gill and Leo R. Dougherty — for seats on the Cape Girardeau City Council; their filings bring the number of candidates to six; other candidates are Bradshaw Smith, Brenda J. Green, Wilburn A. Lee and incumbent Oliver A. Hope.

1949

Two cases, each naming Butler County defendants charged with vote conspiracy, are dismissed on a government motion in Federal Court, after Lafayette Broome, special assistant to the attorney general in Washington, tells the court the government witnesses would stand on their constitutional privileges; the witnesses indicate they would refuse to testify on grounds that to do so might incriminate them.

Cape Girardeau’s traffic ordinances, dating back to horse and buggy days and 18 in number, including revisions, are all repealed by the City Council, and in their place a new, up-to-date code is enacted; reading of the 75-page ordinance — No. 1189 — takes one hour and 25 minutes and concludes a huge task that had occupied many hours of work incorporating the latest traffic regulation practices into one comprehensive code; the work of compiling the document was done by city attorney Albert M. Spradling.

1924

Averaging a divorce every 12 minutes, 10 divorces were granted by Judge John A. Snider in two hours during the regular session of Common Pleas Court yesterday; stories of marital unhappiness, indignities, abandonment and abuse brought decrees of legal separation for eight women and two men; included in the decrees — all discussed in some detail on the front page of the Southeast Missourian — was a divorce for a girl-mother of 18, who married when she was 15 years old.

Hirsch Bros. Store, northwest corner of Sprigg and Good Hope streets. (Courtesy of Doris Dace ~ Sooutheast Missourian archive)

Announcement is made of the dissolution of the old Hirsch Bros. Mercantile and Provision Co., and the organization of two separate concerns, one to be known as the Hirsch Bros. Co.; it will take over the grocery and variety basement departments; the other, to be known as The Leader, Inc., will take the dry goods, shoe and ready-to-wear departments; improvements will be made to the store at Sprigg and Good Hope streets immediately to accommodate the new arrangement.

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.