Out of the past: Jan. 14

1999

Although a proposed merger has collapsed, Southeast Hospital's leadership hopes to continue working closely with Saint Francis Medical Center to improve local health care while building for the future on its own; the executive committee of the Southeast Board of Trustees met privately Tuesday to discuss events of the previous week that led to the end of 14 months of merger discussions between the hospitals.

Two tows ran aground in the Mississippi River just south of Cape Girardeau Tuesday in accidents caused in part by ice and low water; the U.S. Coast Guard is urging towboat pilots to use caution and limits the size of tows on the river north of St. Louis; similar action is being considered along the river south of Cape Girardeau.

1974

The County Court decides the proposed county law enforcement complex will be built on a 23-acre tract of County Farm property on the west edge of Cape Girardeau; the decision comes in a two-to-one vote, with Associate Judge J. Ronald Fischer and Presiding Judge Clarence W. Suedekum, both of Cape Girardeau, voting in favor of the site and Associate Judge Edwin W. Sander of Jackson voting against it; the controversial question of site selection for the new facility has been pending before the court for over a month.

Over 1,300 children enrolled in the six-county Delta Head Start program in the Bootheel don't start classes today because of a delay in obtaining a $1.1 million grant to administer the program for the coming year; William E. Greenfield, Head Start director, says the 21 Head Start centers in Scott, Stoddard, Mississippi, Pemiscot, New Madrid and Dunklin counties won't open for the 1974 year until funding is received.

1949

An earthquake, which apparently centered in the New Madrid area, rocked all of Southeast Missouri last night, extending into the Reelfoot Lake area in Tennessee and to a slighter extent to Memphis, Tennessee; in Cape Girardeau the shock was fairly strong, being sufficient to shake small objects off walls and on tables; no damage was reported anywhere in the district.

The tax assessor's canvass of Cape Girardeau County, underway since Jan. 3 on personal property, switched to a new field in Cape Girardeau yesterday when City Assessor W.C. Blair and County Assessor John L. Wescoat began assessing new construction; included in their survey, which will continue two or three weeks, will be all new buildings, residential or commercial, constructed since assessments were made last year; among these will be additions erected to buildings previously assessed.

1924

Resident living on West End Boulevard say they are going to place their fight to have the streets of the West End made passable for vehicles before the United States government; this follows the refusal of the local post office to deliver packages to persons residing on the boulevard between William and Independence streets; it has been some time since grocery men, milk distributors, bakers and others could deliver to the homes in this block.

William F. Mars, 82, a veteran of the Civil War, dies at the home of his daughter-in-law, Leona Mars, 735 Good Hope St., in the evening; the deceased came to Cape Girardeau eight years ago to make his home; he was born in Germany and came of America as a young man; he was employed as a bookkeeper for years and lived in the St. James, Missouri, old soldiers' home several years ago.

-- Sharon K. Sanders