Out of the past: Oct. 8

1990

For nearly two hours, city council members take Mayor Gene Rhodes to task over the way he represented the city in a three-county effort to establish future highway needs for the area; the mayor also is assailed for changing design plans for the renovation of city hall.

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- After four years of sacrifice, cuts and more cuts, and the approval by voters last year of a half-cent sales tax, Bollinger County is on the verge of being debt-free -- in the black for the first time in years; the county owes Mercantile Bank of Marble Hill $60,000 that was borrowed in anticipation of 1990 taxes; once those are collected late this year, the note will be paid off and the county won't owe anyone.

1965

Only the federal government submits a bid in the morning to buy State College's bonds to finance the construction of two 12-story dormitories and a dining and social center; the single bid doesn't come as a surprise, with Mark F. Scully, college president, explaining the bond market at present is not a favorable one.

The city councils of Illmo and Scott City met separately the past week to discuss consolidation with a committee headed by chairman Kenneth Raney; both towns have called for elections to vote on a merger of the municipalities.

1940

Republicans from throughout the district gathered at Cape Girardeau Oct. 8, 1940, to hear Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio, son of th late President William Howard Taft, speak at a rally at Houck Field House. Taft is shown in the center with William J. Kies, chairman of the Republican county committee, at left and James A. Finch, a longtime leader in Republican ranks, at right. (G.D. Fronabarger ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

Coming here from Springfield, Missouri, where he delivered a campaign address, U.S. Sen. Robert Taft, son of the late William Howard Taft, speaks at a Republican rally in Houck Field House in the evening; Taft is completing an extended speaking tour in behalf of the Willkie-McNary presidential ticket.

Preliminary work on the improvement of six blocks of the extension of South Main Street, from the Frisco freight depot to the cotton gauze plant, begins by the city and Works Project Administration; later, it is proposed to extend the street further to connect with South Sprigg Street at the end of the old tollgate hill on Boundary Street.

1915

George Landgraf has resigned his position as stenographer in the Frisco store room and accepted a position as bookkeeper and stenographer at the Phillips Lumber & Fuel Co.; Landgraf is a graduate of the Cape Girardeau Business College.

K.A. Brumback, manager of the handle factory that is operating in the old Mutual Wheel Co. building in South Cape, has two fingers nearly severed while operating a circular saw.

-- Sharon K. Sanders