Out of the past: Jan. 13

1999

CAIRO, Ill. -- Pulaski County and parts of Alexander and Johnson counties in Illinois have been named a federal empowerment zone, a designation that will enable them to qualify for more federal assistance and should make them more attractive to business; the region will be eligible for $2 million in federal assistance during the first year of the U.S. Department of Agriculture program.

While few things in life are free, for a few hours yesterday the Cape Girardeau Post Office gave way 1-cent stamps, 10 to a customer; the giveaway was prompted by long lines at the post office and malfunctioning automatic stamp-vending machines; effective Sunday, first-class stamp prices went up a penny, to 33 cents.

1974

The Rev. Edgar G. Latch, chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, has invited the Rev. Arthur C. Fulbright, a former resident of Cape Girardeau County and former pastor of the Dexter United Methodist Church, to offer the invocation in the House Feb. 21 and serve as honorary chaplain; Fulbright is presently the pastor of Wilkes Boulevard United Methodist Church in Columbia.

Mrs. Robert S. Todd is named Outstanding Young Woman at a tea sponsored by the Jackson Jaycee Wives at Riverside Regional Library; the annual award is given to a woman on the basis of her contributions to home and community; Todd is business manager and assistant editor of the River Hills Traveler, a monthly sports-oriented publication owned by her husband.

1949

An estimated 30 petition forms are in circulation, requesting that the Cape Girardeau City Council refrain "from the transferring of any jurisdiction of the city over any portion of Capaha Park, by deed or other transaction"; the action is an outgrowth of a recent meeting attended by about 20 persons who reside near the park and who are protesting the proposed location of a federal armory on the site of the old community building in the park.

With special invitations from the White House, a large contingent of Southeast Missourians is preparing to travel next week to Washington, D.C., to attend the presidential inaugural ceremonies; a number will travel in a special Pullman railroad car and will leave St. Louis the first of next week to be in Washington Thursday.

1924

The Rev. J. Pendleton Scruggs has accepted a call to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of Cape Girardeau and is expected to arrive here soon after Feb. 1; his duties at Franklin, Kentucky, where he is pastor of the Baptist Church, will make it impossible for him to come to Cape Girardeau until that date; Scruggs is no stranger to Cape Girardeau, having pastored First Baptist two years, before he resigned to pursue war work.

Christ Evangelical Church stood at the corner of Ellis and Merriwether streets. This frame structure was replaced by a brick edifice in 1929. (Southeast Missourian archive)

For the first time in history, services in German at Christ Evangelical Church in Cape Girardeau won't be held every Sunday; by a vote of the congregation at a business meeting last Sunday, it was decided to have services in German only once a month, starting on Feb. 1; it was explained that services in the English language have been much better attended, due to the preference the Sunday school pupils have shown for the English service.

-- Sharon K. Sanders