Out of the past: March 16

1994

SIKESTON, Mo. -- After serving seven terms in the Missouri House of Representatives, Dennis Ziegenhorn has decided not to seek re-election this year; the Sikeston' Democrat's 160th District serves Benton, New Hamburg, Kelso and a part of Scott City.

In the midst of blue flames and flying sparks, pieces of 19 guns fall to the ground in the back lot of B & B Auto Salvage in Jackson; the guns destroyed were seized by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department in the course of regular criminal investigations and during the arrest of suspects; the department's policy is to destroy confiscated weapons instead of selling them at police auctions.

1969

A general week of renewal kicks off at St. Mary's Cathedral, with the Rev. Giles Anthony Webster, O.F.M., of Siena College in Lousdonville, New York, speaking at all Masses.

Dr. D.I.L. Seabaugh, one of the senior physicians in Southeast Missouri who practiced in Cape Girardeau County for more than 61 years and president of the Jackson Exchange Bank since retirement, dies in a Cape Girardeau hospital at age 86; also active in civic and church organizations, Seabaugh was a charter member of the Jackson Rotary Club, a 32nd Degree Mason, a member of New McKendree Methodist Church at Jackson and served as a member of both the Jackson and Millersville boards of education for many years.

1944

Only a small amount of flying remains to be done at Harris Field before the Army Air Forces program is suspended; tentative plans are to complete the training this week, but present orders are that the field's services are to be discontinued March 24.

A permit for construction of a one-story brick building at the corner of Independence and Water streets has been issued by Cape Girardeau City Engineer John R. Walther; the building, to be utilized by Montgomery Ward & Co., as a warehouse and storage room, will be built by Giboney Houck, owner of the property; the structure will measure 50 by 70 feet, and its walls will be 12 inches thick.

1919

Fire starting in the L.B. Houck building at the corner of Main and Themis streets at 1 a.m. spreads to the Meystedt building, one door north, burning everything out and causing a loss estimated at $43,000; losers in the fire are Houck, building and fixtures; Allison's Toggery, stock and fixtures; Mac's, stock and fixtures; Joanna Meystedt, building and fixtures; Main Street Barber Shop, fixtures, and the household goods of several families living above the stores; C.C. McSpadden, owner of Mac's, had just opened his store yesterday.

Dr. John I. Ellis of Oak Ridge, one of the most prominent physicians of Cape Girardeau County, dies at his home in the morning, following a stroke of apoplexy suffered last evening while he was attending a patient.

-- Sharon K. Sanders