Out of the past: Jan. 7

1999

Southeast Missouri State University and the former director of its earthquake center have reached a tentative settlement in a civil suit; David Stewart and school officials have reviewed the proposed settlement; neither side has signed the agreement yet, but next week's scheduled trial in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court in Jackson has been canceled; the settlement would bring an end to the 4-year-old lawsuit.

The Salvation Army Tree of Lights campaign needs an additional $14,000 to make the annual fund drive's goal of $200,000; donations to the Tree of Lights make up about one-third of the Salvation Army's annual budget; the campaign helped provide Christmas baskets to needy families and toys to children at Christmas, but it also funds programs at the Salvation Army, 701 Good Hope St., throughout the year.

1974

Two elementary schoolchildren are injured when hazardous road conditions cause a Nell Holcomb School District bus to slide off a road; Alan Ainsworth, sixth grade pupil at Nell Holcomb, suffers a sore neck and Mark Sullivan, seventh grade, receives a fractured vertebra when the bus slides into a mound of dirt in Tanglewood Estates; two Cape Girardeau school buses are also involved in minor accidents on icy roads, but no injuries result.

Jerry W. Ford, secretary of Ford and Sons Funeral Home, Inc., a licensed funeral director and embalmer and a former schoolteacher, files for the one-year seat on the Cape Girardeau Board of Education open for the April 2 school election; he is the first candidate for the unexpired term of the Rev. Earl W. Tharp, who is moving from the city.

1949

Construction next summer of a new double-lane highway to parallel Highway 61 from near Cape Girardeau to Ancell appears probable, as negotiations for right-of-way for the approximate $1,500,000 project moves ahead; M.S. Gwinn of Sikeston, division engineer for the State Highway Department, estimates that about 40% of the tracts involved representing 50% of the ownership has been secured; the project would provide a one-way, 24-foot lane for southbound traffic beginning at a point 1,500 feet above the new Highway 74 intersection; northbound traffic would use the present Highway 61.

The search for a spot for a federal armory returned again to Capaha Park yesterday, when the Chamber of Commerce military affairs committee, in joint conference with city officials, altered its original request by formally asking for a location at the approximate spot of the old community building and appointing a subcommittee to meet with the full City Council tomorrow to ask final council approval.

1924

Jess Niswonger, 19, of Jackson was seriously hurt and a companion, Clarence Carter, 20, escaped with slight bruises, when an automobile driven by the latter crashed through the railing of a bridge across the first lateral drainage canal on Kingshighway, five miles south of Cape Girardeau, late last night and plunged to the bottom of the canal 35 feet below; the automobile landed on its side, and both occupants were pinned beneath it in a few inches of water.

The sudden drop in temperature in Cape Girardeau over the weekend sent dozens of hobos to their "winter quarters" at the fire station on Independence Street; there were more than 25 of the travelers there Saturday and Sunday nights; the basement of the big building, which is heated by the furnace, was opened to tramps, where the police may watch over them.

-- Sharon K. Sanders