Out of the past: July 16

1993

OLIVE BRANCH, Ill. -- An earthen levee along the Mississippi River south of Miller City, Illinois, broke yesterday afternoon, flooding farm land and forcing area residents to flee to higher ground; the levee broke around 1 p.m.; by late afternoon, the levee break had widened to about 300 feet.

Fire destroyed a building-materials storage facility and its contents owned by Michael L. Annis Inc. on Wednesday night; the fire department was delayed in arriving at the blaze because Highway 74 has been closed by backwater from the Diversion Channel; the facility is along Highway 74 east of the Bloomfield Road intersection.

1968

Excavation work is expected to begin tomorrow to reduce the grade of a hill on Mount Auburn Road, a half-mile north of Gordonville Road.

The Cape Girardeau Airport Board is looking for another operator for the airport's restaurant; during a Monday meeting, board members learned the present operator, Herbert E. Kyllon, had failed to open the restaurant that morning, nor did it open today; Kyllon hasn't contacted the board in regards to his intentions; the board is considering his six-month verbal contract with the city breached, barring future developments.

1943

With summer weather bearing down on consumers of Cape Girardeau, a major shortage of beer may be at hand; the supply is slow coming in to distributors and retailers, and there is nothing they can do about it; the companies distributing beer are rationing it out to the retail establishments on a basis of the purchases in other months and other years; cuts in malt, grain, bottles and metal caps have all played a part in the shortage.

It probably will be impossible to get war prisoners for the internment camp at Weingarten, Missouri, for orchard and farm work in Cape Girardeau County, farm agent T.P. Head found on a visit to the camp yesterday; the camp commander is covered up with demands for workers.

1918

Mrs. J.M. Finney of Cape Girardeau has received word from the War Department her daughter, Julia Finney, has arrived safely in France; Ethel Grimes, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Grimes of Cape Girardeau, was expecting to sail at the same time, so is believed she too has arrived; the young women are both graduate nurses from a St. Louis hospital and have offered their services as Red Cross nurses.

Fire starting from a spark from a threshing machine caused the loss of fully $10,000 at the farm of County Judge G. Jake Keller on the Bloomfield Road, three miles west of Cape Girardeau, yesterday afternoon; two large barns, a large silo, about 800 bushels of wheat, 1,000 bushels of corn, 100 tons of hay and quite a number of farm implements were consumed in the blaze.

-- Sharon K. Sanders