Out of the past: Oct. 6

1998

The proposal to widen Highway 34 in west Jackson from two lanes to five has drawn fire from city officials who say the Missouri Department of Transportation has failed to listen to them; the plan gives top priority to a project city officials say they cannot support as a more pressing need than the proposed East Main Street interchange at Interstate 55; the Jackson Board of Aldermen has unanimously passed a motion stating its opposition to the MoDOT plan.

PATTON, Mo. -- A former Meadow Heights School District student and his family will receive up to $277,200 through an out-of-court settlement of a lawsuit in which the family alleged their son, who is handicapped, was sexually molested by a student at Meadow Heights.

1973

While fear of a possible propane shortage has prompted the federal government to impose a mandatory allocation system, the fear locally is over a possible shortage of diesel fuel; while diesel fuel is largely depended upon by farmers, who in recent years have converted to diesel-operated tractors, it also is used for home heating.

Carps Super Store, one of Cape Girardeau's largest businesses, is being purchased by Wetterau Foods Inc., a major distributing company in the Midwest and South; the 5-year-old store near the intersection of Kingshighway and William Street is to be operated by Mohr Distributing Co., a Wetterau subsidiary.

1948

Articles of association and a petition to incorporate a Main Street Levee Improvement District, signed by about 90% of the property owners in the affected business district from Bellevue to the traffic bridge, are filed in Common Pleas Court; the move is the first step necessary in securing flood control for a Mississippi River overflow area; the district is only one of several proposed in a continuous flood control program that would reach from north of Sloan's Creek to south of the cement plant.

Bodies of 20 Southeast Missouri armed forces dead, including three from the Cape Girardeau area, have been returned to the United States from Europe; those from this immediate section are Pfc. Harold W. Baltz, Pvt. Doyle J. Clubb and S-Sgt. John L. Demmer.

1923

The Missourian receives a telegram from C.W. Finney, general agent for the Sells-Floto Circus, saying he will be here Oct. 12 to arrange for the appearance of his circus at Cape Girardeau on Nov. 5; it will be the close of the season for the circus and a memorable event for Cape Girardeau.

At the noon hour, Oct. 25, during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Southeast Missouri Teachers College, a tablet will be unveiled memorializing students who died in the service of their county during the World War; the plaque, to be placed in the main corridor of Academic Hall, to the left of the entrance, will contain the following names: Fred Beardslee, Burton Capshaw, Leslie Christmas, Claycomb Crow, Harry Crumb, Julien Dearmont, Albert Eikman, Eldon Hood, Jake Humphrey, Charles Lovelace, Alva Martin, Edgar Rozier, Jackson Smith, Roy Thornburg, Richard Townsend, Phillip Twidwell, Louise Wasem and Bernard Wunderlich.

-- Sharon K. Sanders