Out of the past: March 19

1994

Construction of the $5.7 million Jackson Middle School is underway again after being delayed for nearly a month by inclement weather earlier this year; Penzel Construction Co. resumed work on construction of the 93,570-square-foot building earlier this month.

Cape Girardeau County's sales tax receipts for 1994 are pouring in at another record rate through the first quarter of the year; in March, the county's receipts from its half-cent sales tax totaled $510,696, the largest single monthly check ever received.

1969

The traffic signals at Cape Rock Drive and Kingshighway are activated at noon; the signals, which have been in place several weeks, couldn't be activated until a controlling device was delivered.

Dr. Harry E. Goddard of Kennett, Missouri, past department commander of the American Legion, presents 50-year pins to members of Louis K. Juden Post 63 for their service to the Legion, at a dinner meeting; those present to receive pins are Charles W. Bauerle, V.A. Chapman, Raymond Beckman, Robert A. Faust, C.R. Gibbs, Oscar C. Kaiser, Walter H. Oberheide, Ed H. Vandeven, Henry H. Wiseman, A.W. Zimmerman Jr., George Vandeven and Bert A. Andrews.

1944

Twenty-four Toledo Mud Hens and their manager, Ollie Marquardt, arrive at Cape Girardeau on the noon Frisco trains, along with St. Louis Browns manager Luke Sewell and a half-dozen of his players; Mayor R.E. Beckman's community reception for the major and minor leaguers is all but stormed out, with a driving sleet and rainstorm providing the most impressive greeting.

More than 200 out-of-town delegates are expected here this week for the annual meeting of the Women's Society of Christian Service of the St. Louis Conference of the Methodist Church; featured speakers will be Bishop John C. Broomfield, Mary Blackford, a returned missionary, who was a prisoner of the Japanese, and Mrs. J.D. Bragg of St. Louis, national W.S.C.S. president.

1919

The stage of the Mississippi River here in the morning is 18.7 feet; it's rising rapidly from St. Louis and other points north, with all streams in the area very high; a forecast from St. Louis is that a 25-foot rise is expected there by Saturday; should the river reach that stage at St. Louis, the gauge here would register about 30 feet, which is getting pretty near the danger mark.

The Civic Improvement Service Board is being repainted and new stars are being added; the president of the Civic League is asking parents of soldiers and sailors wounded or killed in the late war to send those names to either the Blore Brothers or Mrs. E.G. Gramling for inclusion on the board.

-- Sharon K. Sanders