Out of the past: Oct. 17

1990

Dr. Raymond A. Ritter, a member of the Rotary Club of Cape Girardeau for more than 30 years, is the first recipient of the club's new award honoring a member for outstanding contributions to Rotary.

Arthur Myers of Fredericktown, Missouri, chairman of the Ozark Landowners Association, and Dr. Ray Knox, an earth science professor at Southeast Missouri State University, debate the pros and cons of the Natural Streams Act at a forum at the Cape Girardeau Public Library; voters statewide will decide on the proposal, known as Proposition A, in the Nov. 6 election.

1965

The massed voices of 400 men and women lift in song, and the internationally-known minister of the Lutheran Hour, Dr. Oswald Hoffman, delivers the sermon at a Lutheran Hour Rally in the afternoon at Houck Field House; the big event is the culmination of a Lutheran Spiritual Life Mission, which has involved hundreds over the area in workshop sessions in churches of the Missouri Synod this past week.

A combination of temperatures in the high 80s and a colorful autumn countryside prove to be strong attractions, drawing visitors away from television sets and out to Trail of Tears Park; a park employee reports that more than 2,600 persons in 678 Missouri cars and 75 out-of-state cars visit park; normal weekend attendance is about 1,975.

1940

One man is instantly killed and 10 others are injured, none of them critically, when a load of telegraph poles on a Cotton Belt Railroad flat car crashes over supporting stakes on the sides of the car and carries the men, who are standing atop the load, with them to the ground alongside the tracks; the accident occurs at Ardeola, Missouri, in Stoddard County; Leon Heisserer, 31, of Illmo, is crushed to death as the poles pile up on him.

County Clerk L.H. Schrader says Cape Girardeau County registered 4,643 men for selective military service during yesterday's conscription enrollment; in the city of Cape Girardeau, 2,853 men registered.

1915

Baseball fans are disappointed to learn that neither Hi Jasper nor Jeff Tesreau, who were to pitch for the Capahas and the Perryville (Missouri) Blues respectively, had arrived in Cape Girardeau; however, local favorite Big Elam Vangilder steps into the void, hurling the Caps to a 2-0 game; he defeats pitcher named McCabe, said to be the brother of Tim McCabe of St. Louis Browns fame.

Eva Seward, one of the best known girls in Milltown, sustains a broken rib and several other injuries when she is thrown out of a buggy on the Rock Levee Road; several other young folks are in the buggy at the time it turns over, but their injuries are slight.

-- Sharon K. Sanders