Out of the past: March 20

1994

SEDGEWICKVILLE, Mo. -- The first of three celebrations commemorating the 125th anniversary of Sargent's Chapel is held in the morning; it consists of a music service honoring baptized members; a potluck dinner follows; the congregation traces its roots back to 1803, when the Rev. Samuel Weyberg was invited to preach in the area, but the chapel was founded in 1869.

The Rev. L. Don Henson has been named the new pastor at Word of Faith Fellowship Church in Cape Girardeau; he succeeds the Rev. Earl Cox, who died last fall.

1969

Public library officials, defending their choice of a site for a new library, identify several other tracts considered and then rejected as being too expensive or unsuitable; the proposed new library will be constructed on the southwest corner of Broadway and North West End Boulevard, if voters approve a $490,000 bond issue April 1.

Kelley Transportation Co. of Cape Girardeau presents to the city council a written preliminary proposal to provide bus service here; Cape Transit Co., which operates the present bus company, has announced it will suspend service April 1, unless the city agrees to subsidize it.

1944

Bowing out with one final grand gesture, winter officially gives way to spring, but in its wake it leaves sub-freezing temperatures, highways and streets made slippery by sleet, a light blanket of snow and a distinct threat to fruit and tender vegetables.

Thirty-eight baseball players -- 30 Toledo Mud Hens and eight St. Louis Browns -- are in Cape Girardeau for the first combination major-minor league training camp; but it is anything but spring-like, the weather being a bit on the chilly side; the athletes don their uniforms at Houck Field House and limber up there, before going to the Arena Building for their first workout with gloves, bats and balls.

1919

Joe Hobbs has been appointed by the city council as a city fireman; Hobbs has spent his entire life in Cape Girardeau and knows the city and most all of the buildings like a book; he should be a valuable addition to the department.

Emily Wilburn, director of the art department of the Normal School, has been called to the art department of the Peabody Institute in Baltimore for the summer work; Elizabeth Gregg of Virginia, formerly of the Cape Girardeau Normal, will also be a member of the Peabody faculty this summer.

-- Sharon K. Sanders