Out of the past: Nov. 8

1998

The Rev. Henry Gieschen is installed as the new pastor of Scriptural Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau during an evening service; a potluck dinner follows; Gieschen has served as pastor for 21 years and had previously pastored in Michigan.

The Rev. David V. Dissen, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau, preaches his retirement sermon at Trinity; when he began his ministry career nearly 40 years ago, Dissen served as vicar to Cuban congregations around Havana during the Castro Revolution; Dissen and his wife, Judy, will remain in Cape Girardeau after his retirement.

1973

In an effort to comply with President Nixon's appeal last night for energy conservation, city, school, hospital and business and industrial officials throughout Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois are considering how they can meet his plea; going into session shortly after the president completed his nationwide broadcast on the county's energy problems, the Cape Girardeau City Council ordered employees to abide by Nixon's recommendations, such as turning down the heat in municipal buildings and reducing speeds in city-owned vehicles.

Christmas decorations in downtown Cape Girardeau should be as bright as ever, despite the nationwide energy crisis; Charles Hutson, president of the Metro Association, said new decorations are being strung that "are designed to look as pretty in the day as in the night"; the new lights use 110 volts rather than the 220 volts used in the old ones.

1948

The bodies of three Cape Girardeau County service men who fell in the fighting in Italy are among 15 from the district who have been returned to the United States aboard the Army Transport Victory; they are Pvt. Allan C. Denton of Cape Girardeau, Pfc. Cletus M. Runnels of near Whitewater and 2nd Lt. Richard O. Birk of Jackson.

A preventative measure as well as a corrective one, U.S. Government Engineers are placing tons of boulders in Block Hole, a popular fishing place on Castor River Diversion Channel southwest of Whitewater; dredged by years of washing by water, the hole at low water stage has a depth of 40 feet, and at its widest point is more than 400 feet; in correcting the dredging at the bottom of the hole, huge boulders, some weighing as much as a ton, are rolled into the water's edge, and then placed with a drag line; the rocks are being placed in the more shallow areas near the bank to keep it from washing.

1923

W.F. Bergmann, chairman of the Cape Township Special Road Commission, appears at the special meeting of the directors of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce and asks for aid in promptly complying with requests made by the State Highway Commission regarding the building of a bridge south of town; for several months, engineers of the commission have been working on plans for a bridge to span the Diversion Channel, to replace one that was installed over the channel temporarily and is in danger of going out with the first flood; the commission is working to secure the needed rights of way for the new road leading to the bridge.

The remains of Hannah A. Travis, 73, of Brooklyn, New York, are laid to rest in Lorimier Cemetery, nearly three years after she died while visiting friends in Cape Girardeau; no ceremony marks the removal of the body from Lorberg Undertaking Parlors, where it has remained virtually all the time since her death, to the cemetery where interment was made with only a few persons looking on; while relatives debated where to bury her, the remains of the unfortunate woman lay in an air-tight coffin in the undertaking parlors.

-- Sharon K. Sanders