Out of the past: July 1

1996

Rejecting a lower offer for St. Vincent's College, the Vincentian Fathers of St. Louis will begin foreclosing on the property this week; the Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation struggled for more than a year to raise $600,000 owed the Vincentians on the seminary property and buildings; after months of loan extensions, time has run out, the Catholic group's attorney said Sunday.

Members of the local Postal Workers Union are on picket lines in Cape Girardeau and Jackson to express their fears concerning privatization of the mail service; a number of postal workers believe that mail service in the region would suffer as a result of what they believe is the federal government's attempt to turn the U.S. Postal Service over to private companies; the picketing follows an announcement in April that the Postal Service was considering turning its proposed operation of Priority Mail Network over to one of its competitors.

1971

The Marquette Hotel, 338 Broadway, is closed by order of the Missouri Division of Health for violations of the state statutes on hotel and tourist camp regulations; County Prosecuting Attorney A.J. Seier serves the closure order to the hotel owner, Thad Bullock; among the violations were failure to comply with rules on fire extinguishers and escapes, as well as insufficient lighting in some areas.

Cape Girardeau County will soon have an additional 30 acres of park space thanks to a cooperative agreement among the County Court, the Planning and Recreation Committee and the County Sheriff's Department; the project, a rehabilitation program for prisoners of the county jail at Jackson, involves clearing underbrush and unwanted trees in Alvin K. Klaus Park, a wooded tract about half way between Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

1946

Southeast Missourian archive

Tragedy road wings yesterday afternoon at the motorboat regatta and air show here, sending two fliers to their deaths when they crashed their Piper Cub airplane into the Mississippi River near the Illinois shore, opposite Broadway; killed in the crash were the pilot, Charles J. Petersdorf, 22, of Cape Girardeau and his 14-year-old brother-in-law, Henry W. Becker of University City, Missouri; hundreds of persons on the riverfront witnessed the plane's fall.

An unexpected development bobs up in the American Legion's Fourth of July picnic plans when Arnold Roth, publicity chairman, learns Harris Field, used by the Army for training pilots during the war and suitable for heavy military traffic at that time, is no long approved by the Army for landing of its planes except in emergencies; it is learned that Brig. Gen. Howard L. Peckham, who will deliver the principal address at the picnic, cannot fly into Harris as planned; instead, he will likely fly to St. Louis and then brought here.

1921

Business at the Cape Girardeau Post Office has shown a great increase in the past few years, and today the office moves up from second class to first class; principally, this means the salary of the postmaster jumps from $3,200 to $3,300; the office is elevated to first class based on the receipts for the calendar year, ending Dec. 31, 1920, which were $43,199.30.

Raymond Stovall, a former Cape Girardeau Boy Scout under A.C. Nielsen, who left last July for Chicago to train with the Salvation Army School there, returns home a newly-minted lieutenant; he is now stationed at Centralia, Illinois.

-- Sharon K. Sanders