Out of the past: Nov. 9

1998

More than 90 camel breeders, trainers and owners attended the first North American Camel Conference at the 5-H Ranch, north of Cape Girardeau, which ended yesterday; camel enthusiasts from 22 states, Canada, Australia and the United Arab Emirates attended the conference, which featured experts in zoological medicine and camel breeding and care.

A swampy, tree-filled patch of ground no longer poses a problem for construction of Cape Girardeau's vocational-technical school; the Cape Girardeau School District has traded the 2.8 acres of wetlands on the school site for seven acres of wetlands on a farm north of Cape Girardeau; superintendent Dan Tallent tells the board the matter is officially resolved.

1973

Southeast Missourian archive

Southeast Missourian archive

A 12-ton mobile crane toppled over as it was being used yesterday afternoon to set metal pillars for construction at the new Student Union Building on the Southeast Missouri State University campus; as he saw the crane fall, 52-year-old John A. Matlock of Thebes, Illinois, began praying more for his fellow workers than just for himself.

Cape Girardeau County's proposed law enforcement complex won't be built on the controversial north lawn of the Jackson courthouse; Associate County Court Judge J. Ronald Fischer of Cape Girardeau thinks it should be built on the county farm property between Jackson and Cape Girardeau.

1948

Some startling figures on the status of draft-age men in the 16-county area of Southeast Missouri are released by the Cape Girardeau Army and Air Force main recruiting station, the pre-induction center for initial administration of the Selective Service Act; of the 290 men examined from Oct. 6 through Oct. 31, 185 men were rejected for mental, physical and psychiatric reasons; 132 men were turned down for mental reasons.

Workers erected a scaffold around the Juden Building, Spanish and Themis streets, yesterday, preparatory to construction of a second story to the structure; the addition, to be built by the Haas Construction Co., will be 40 feet by 49 feet and will house offices.

1923

JEFFERSON CITY -- The State Service Commission adopts a finding of Commissioner E.J. Bean refusing consent to the abandonment of steam service on the Cape Girardeau Northern Railway Co. from Cape Girardeau to Jackson, a distance of 10 miles; Clarence L. Grant, as receiver representing the company, which is $1,422,000 in debt, made application to the commission several weeks ago for authority to abandon the operation of the road's steam service.

John Rodenberry, a 55-year-old laborer, was instantly killed and Alec Whitledge, 52, was seriously injured, when they were thrown off a ledge on which they had been working and were then buried beneath an avalanche of rocks at the Barrett rock quarry, three miles south of Neelys Landing, yesterday; while Rodenberry was instantly killed, Whitledge sustained a skull fracture, as well as several broken ribs and other internal injuries.

-- Sharon K. Sanders