Out of the past: June 4

1998

A local lawyer, who has been serving as the special municipal judge for Cape Girardeau, will sit on the bench on a more permanent basis beginning next month, the Cape Girardeau City Council announced Thursday; Bob Gowen, 39, will take the bench as the Cape Girardeau municipal judge effective July 1; he will replace Judge Edward Calvin, who is retiring after 15 years on the court.

Pilots Agree's strike against almost 100 barge companies enters its 56th day with more than half of the union's 1,200 members off their jobs; the strike went into effect at midnight April 3 when many members of the newly formed Pilots Agree union notified barge companies and Corps of Engineers representatives that they were striking for better wages and working conditions; there is no noticeable slowdown of barge traffic along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

1973

Cape Girardeau police are seeking leads in a Sunday morning vandalism spree that resulted in an estimated $2,200 in damages to 22 vehicles, the yards of two homes and a business; vandals, possibly two young boys, slashed and punctured tires on 18 cars, broke windshield wiper blades on two vehicles, broke radio antennas and slashed convertible and vinyl tops; they also overturned and broke a bird bath and statue in a yard in the 200 block of Minnesota, destroyed a flower box in the 1400 block of Good Hope and damaged a no-parking sign and overturned a trash barrel at a service station in the 1000 block of Broadway.

Tornadoes strike near several communities in eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois late in the day, but it was high winds and not tornadoes which cause the most severe damage; Cape Girardeau receives over a half inch of rain, and winds reach velocities of up to 40 miles per hour, but no major damage is done.

1948

Cape Girardeau and Perry counties as units, and a major portion of the smaller incorporated towns therein, have lost in population in the last eight years since the 1940 census, figures revealed by Burton P. Weaver, supervisor of the special census, show; Cape County's population dropped from 37,775 in 1940 to 37,389 at the present time; Perry County's drop was from 15,358 to 14,180.

Gov. Phil M. Donnely's approval yesterday of a $500,000 appropriation for the construction of a new field house at State College has given the college Board of Regents the go-ahead signal for taking initial steps toward replacing Houck Field House, which was destroyed by fire Feb. 17; at the time he gave approval of the fund for the field house, the governor vetoed an appropriation of $740,000 earmarked for the erection of a new science building at the college; he also vetoed building items at five other state educational institutions.

1923

Machinery for Cape Girardeau's cotton gin has been ordered and delivery is expected before July 15; William Leming, manager of the Cape Mill Mfg., Co., ordered the machinery from the Gullet Gin Co., of Amity, Indiana; it will be a three-stand, 70-saw outfit, modernly equipped with ball bearings and all necessary ginning departments; the machinery will be installed in the old Union flour mill, situated on the Frisco Railroad and convenient to the river.

Mystery surrounds the death of Benjamin H. Boettcher, a student of the Teachers College, whose body is found in the Mississippi River four miles north of Cairo, Illinois, in the afternoon; the body is recovered by William Butler, a light tender, who sees it floating near the shore; there are no signs of violence on the body, and $13 in money and a gold Elgin watch are found in the pockets.

-- Sharon K. Sanders