Out of the past: July 24

1993

The Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau reached a crest Friday and is receding slightly, but the worst isn't over; after a crest Friday of 46.6 feet, the National Weather Service is predicting another crest of 47 feet on Aug. 3.

More than 30 balloonists from 14 states are in Cape Girardeau for Balloon Fest '93; they are competing for more than $10,000 in prize money; conducting the races here for a second straight year are Rob and Jetta Schantz, who own and operate Skysigns Unlimited Inc., a business of hot-air balloon sales, service, instruction and show promotions.

1968

The Cape Girardeau County Jail at Jackson, which has a normal capacity of 18 prisoners, has 24 lodged in its cells at noon, and the Sheriff's Department is having to buy additional beds.

Police are investigating recent vandalism on the north walls of both wings of Jefferson School, 520 S. Minnesota Ave.; vandals wrote obscene words and made other markings on the red brick walls; school officials say they have no idea how, or if, the walls can be cleaned; vandals also broke into the school took paper towels and set them on fire at two doorways on the west wing; no damage resulted from the fires.

1943

One hundred and four years ago, an "Indian princess" died and was buried at a point a short distance west of Moccasin Springs near the Mississippi River in the northeast end of Cape Girardeau County; today, only a cheap, wood cross marks the spot on a pleasant knoll on the edge of a field on the north side of the Greens Ferry Road, the "Trail of Tears" the Cherokee Indian tribe to which she belonged followed in going on their forced removal to the Indian Territory.

Mrs. Oscar O'Daniell of Cape Girardeau is notified by the War Department her brother, Pvt. T.L. Penrod, 23, who was previously reported a prisoner of the Japanese following the fall of Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines, has died in a Japanese prison camp.

1918

A one-half interest Tillie Lance held in the old mill site on Broadway was sold at public auction at the courthouse Monday; the purchasers at $1,800 were U.B. Linson, Daisy Kimmick and J. Frank Masterson.

William J. Bryan of Nebraska, the greatest orator in the country, delivers a lecture at the Chautauqua in the afternoon to a crowd that fills the tent to overflowing; the "great commoner" arrived here on the noon Frisco and was met at the station by George L. Meyer and Charles T. Lewis, who escorted him to the St. Charles Hotel.

-- Sharon K. Sanders