Out of the past: Oct. 17

1993

Bishop John J. Leibrecht of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese celebrates a Latin Mass at noon at Old St. Vincent's Catholic Church; the Mass commemorates Cape Girardeau's bicentennial.

The congregation of First Pentecostal Church is temporarily holding services at 636 S. Kingsway Drive until its new building on Lexington Avenue is completed.

1968

Under a proposal announced by the Cape Girardeau Public Library Board of Trustees, Cape Girardeau will get a new library building at a new location; the new facility would be financed from existing library building funds, the proceeds of a city bond issue and a federal grant; the board hires Cape Girardeau architect Thomas E. Phillips to start the planning stage.

The May Greene Garden, which has served as a resting place in Cape Girardeau since the time of the Civil War, is being restored to its natural beauty; the Cite de la Rose Garden Club members are working in the garden, having been granted permission by the General Services Administration to "maintain the garden and care for it as if it were their own."

1943

The Rev. John L. Taylor, who arrived in Cape Girardeau on Friday, along with his wife, assumes his pastoral duties at Centenary Methodist Church; this is Taylor's second pastorate in Southeast Missouri, having served as pastor at Sikeston, Missouri, four years.

Southeast Missouri's first killing frost of the current season, accompanied by a low reading of 29 degrees, occurs in the morning; considerable ice forms, and the frost kills all tender vegetation, wiping out the unpicked bean crop in Southern Illinois and doing some damage to late corn.

1918

The Southeast Missourian was swamped from 6 to 10 last night with long-distance calls from people throughout Southeast Missouri; shortly after 6 p.m., a man in Puxico called to say Poplar Bluff was holding a celebration because the German government had crumbled and peace had come; then followed calls from Sikeston, Oran, Campbell, New Madrid, Malden, Kennett, Bloomfield, Charleston, Illmo, Benton and other towns; each hoping to confirm the false rumors.

There are five new cases of Spanish influenza reported in Cape Girardeau, but the reports from the various homes under quarantine here are favorable, there being no serious cases reported; the same can't be said in counties south of here, where the disease is said to be raging.

-- Sharon K. Sanders