Out of the past: Feb. 8

1998

FROHNA, Mo. -- The Rev. James Marten has been named the new curator at the Saxony Lutheran Memorial in Frohna; the memorial has been a historic site since 1964 and includes a country store, visitors center and 30 acres of land.

Southeast Missouri State University hopes to transform Parker Hall into a student center that would serve as the campus' living room; the Board of Regents has yet to approve the project, but school officials and student leaders are pushing the merits of the project; they want to expand and renovate the 37-year-old academic building and surround it with additions on three sides.

1973

Southeast Missouri State University narrowly avoided tragedy yesterday afternoon, when a steeplejack working on the restoration of Academic Hall dome fell from the site and onto a side roof of the building; James H. Seibert of St. Louis suffered a broken forearm, jaw and teeth in the fall, as well as lacerations; Seibert was apparently alone on the dome when the accident happened; he is listed in fair condition at Southeast Hospital.

Cape Girardeau's new fire substation will be located on the northwest corner of Kingsway Drive and Kurre Lane; an ordinance authorizing purchase of the land was given last night as the City Council referred to the City Planning and Zoning its own request for a special use permit to construct the station.

1948

The second visiting minister to speak at the local church on an exchange program initiated last month, the Rev. Arthur Geeson, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in St. Louis is the guest speaker at services at Christ Episcopal Church; the rector of the local church fills Geeson's pulpit.

Having recently returned from five years of missionary work in Nicaragua, the Rev. and Mrs. Harold W. Stanfield are guest speakers at a special evening service at Church of the Nazarene in the interest of missionaries; Stanfield is district superintendent of the Nicaragua missionary field and, together with his wife, will return here in July.

1923

Henry A. Astholz, a veteran of the Civil War and for many years one of Cape Girardeau's leading residents, died suddenly at his home at 12 N. Middle St. last evening of heart trouble from which he had been suffering for years; he was 82 years old, passing away just two days before he and his wife -- Augusta Brandes Astholz -- would have celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary.

Cotton is king in Cape Girardeau, as delegates from every county in Southeast Missouri's cotton-growing section arrive here for the two-day cotton conference; delegates represent the Southeast Missouri Agricultural Bureau, the organization committee of the proposed Missouri Cotton Growers' Association, the county Farm Bureau, the extension department of the University of Missouri and business men of Memphis, Tennessee; speakers will be experts in marketing cotton.

-- Sharon K. Sanders