Out of the past: Nov. 21

1995

The Cape Girardeau City Council will decide Dec. 4 which amendments to the city charter will be placed on the April ballot; Charter Review Committee members urged the council yesterday to put eight measures on the ballot, covering such changes as an ethics committee, establishment of an emergency reserve fund and term limits.

The Family Learning Center, once well known for its work with abused and neglected preschoolers, will cease its Cape Girardeau operations Dec. 15; though at one time the only program of its kind in the region, the rise of similar services has led to a decline in enrollment; the Family Learning Center opened in 1981 and was an independent, non-profit agency until 1989, when it merged with the Community Counseling Center.

1970

The year 1970, beginning of a promising new decade, is turning out to be what many Southeast Missouri farmers may remember as the year disaster followed upon disaster; virtually every farmer's problem is getting crops out of the fields where they can become cash; there are large quantities of exceptionally good crops standing in wet fields, useless until harvested.

The Southeast Missourian opens its office doors in the afternoon for the 24th annual Art Exhibition, which will continue until 5 p.m. Sunday; 40 of the 379 paintings on display are by third-time guest artist Paul J. Penczner, Hungarian-born but now a United States citizen and a resident of Memphis, Tennessee,

1945

E.P. Ellis, 76, of Cape Girardeau, former city commissioner and school board member, is seriously injured when struck by a train early in the morning at a grade crossing at Fayville, Illinois; his right leg is amputated below the knee, and he also suffers from shock, body bruises and lacerations.

At a meeting Sunday at the Old Apple Creek Presbyterian Church, near Pocahontas, it was decided to continue the congregation on an active basis; in recent years the congregation has dwindled, mainly because many of the older members have died or moved elsewhere; an effort will be made to revive the congregation on an active basis; the congregation is one of the first five Presbyterian churches established in the trans-Mississippi territory and is the parent of the congregations here and at Jackson.

1920

The Methodist Episcopal Church at Independence and Sprigg streets hosts the Epworth League Convention; the afternoon programs include the following topics: "Youth the Hope of the Church," delegate from Gordonville; "The call of the Church of Live Service," delegate from Appleton; "The Epworth League and the $500,000 Building to Be Erected for Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals in Washington, D.C.," delegate from Cape Girardeau.

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff N.J. Hutson and his deputy, William Browning, raid the former M.L. Spradling place on the extreme western edge of the county, near the Bollinger County line, having been tipped off that "white mule" was being manufactured there; they arrested two brothers and found the still with several jugs and a keg of whiskey.

-- Sharon K. Sanders