Out of the past: June 29

1997

Michael Holland is the new campus ministries coordinator at Lutheran Chapel of Hope at Southeast Missouri State University; Holland, past president of Trinity Lutheran Church and currently chairman of the church's board of elders, assumed his new duties June 1.

Southeast Missourian archive

All that remains of the oldest building on the Southeast Missouri State University campus is its exterior walls; a decision to renovate the Social Science Building at a cost of $4.4 million rather than raze it and put up a new structure was based on preserving the historical integrity of the campus; the Social Science and the Arts buildings are sisters, and demolition of the former would leave a void on the campus, "like knocking a tooth out of someone's mouth"; another consideration on the part of then-president Kala Stroup was that demolition of the building would not be consistent with the goals of the university's historic preservation program.

1972

Lightning, accompanied by loud thunder, Wednesday afternoon struck and damaged the First Baptist Church building on Broadway during a summer storm that dumped more than 1 1/2 inches of rain and some hail on Cape Girardeau; Dr. W.T. Holland, pastor, says the lightning struck the southeast corner of the church's auditorium building, 926 Broadway.

PUXICO, Mo. -- Judged solely on the basis of opinions expressed at a federally conducted hearing here last night, Southeast Missourians and others from over the state want 8,000 acres of the 21,646-acre Mingo National Wildlife refuge set aside as a wilderness area; out of 22 witnesses who appeared, only one expressed outright opposition, another approved in principle but raised questions for consideration, while a third took no stand.

1947

In the absence of the pastor, the Rev. Bernard A. McIlhany, Professor Lynn H. Harris of the English department at State College fills the pulpit at the morning worship service at the Presbyterian Church; McIlhany is attending the annual meeting of the Presbyterian Educational Association of the South at Montreat, North Carolina.

A number of Cape Girardeans attend all-day services at the Mount Olive Baptist Church at Wyatt, Missouri, when "Whitfield Day" is observed, honoring the Rev. Owen H. Whitfield, Black minister and leader during the sharecroppers' strike; a fund of $118 is contributed toward the cost of a house for Whitfield to be built at the Cropper's Camp south of Poplar Bluff, Missouri; both Blacks and whites join in the celebration for the minister.

1922

Answering the Red Cross's appeal for a playground to serve the children of the Smelterville and South Cape Girardeau, Louis Houck has offered to donate a 40-acre woodland; in donating the land, Houck made the gift only on the condition that the larger trees be left on the land, and that the underbrush be cut out and kept cleaned out; the tract contains not only woodland, but an area with no trees that could be made into a baseball diamond.

Presiding Judge C.A. Vandivort of the County Court announces plans have been started for a cornerstone-laying ceremony for the new home being erected on the County Farm the afternoon of July 9; the Rev. Charles H. Swift, president of the Cape County Sunday School Association, has agreed to work out the details.

-- Sharon K. Sanders