Out of the past: Sept. 1

1998

After postponing the opening day of school to allow contractors to finish several renovation projects, Cape Girardeau administrators dismissed classes early yesterday because of high heat indices; school superintendent Dr. Dan Tallent says the early dismissal was called after heat indices reached 110 in some classrooms at Washington Elementary and Louis J. Schultz schools.

Federal marshals might be asked to monitor November elections in Mississippi County; it's time to end vote buying and voter fraud in Missouri, Southeast Missouri Republican leaders said Monday at a press conference in Cape Girardeau; state Sen. Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau and Rep. Mark Richardson of Poplar Bluff want the Legislature to hold hearings on voter fraud; Kinder and Richardson were joined at the conference by representatives of U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson.

1973

Four minibuses are to be placed in operation to serve the elderly and the handicapped on a paid membership basis; where those vehicles will be placed will be determined by the location and concentration of memberships in the Southeast Missouri Transportation System; the system will serve Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Perry counties.

Negotiations concluded last week for purchase of the Colonial Restaurant building and grounds by James K. and Russell Withers Jr., from Mr. and Mrs. Al Sanders and Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Sparkmann, the transaction including real estate at the western end of Broadway and fronting along Kingshighway; the Withers brothers recently acquired interests in the restaurant business there of Mr. and Mrs. William Bryan.

1948

The west side of historic Common Pleas Courthouse and park in Cape Girardeau.G.D. Fronabarger ~ Southeast Missourian archive

The west side of historic Common Pleas Courthouse and park in Cape Girardeau.G.D. Fronabarger ~ Southeast Missourian archive

Judge Rubey M. Hulen, in an opinion filed in Federal Court here, rules the City of Cape Girardeau, not the Louis Lorimier heirs, is entitled to compensation in condemnation of the Courthouse Park tract as the site for a new Federal Building; the ruling is the outgrowth of lengthy litigation, begun in 1940, in which the heirs of the city's founder contended the city had no right, under the original Lorimier deed, to trade the park property for the present Federal Building, and, if condemned, that the proceeds should go to the heirs and not the city.

Low stage of the Mississippi River -- it stands at 12 feet on the local gauge -- brings out dredges of the U.S. Engineers to remove sandbars that threaten to ground heavy barge tows; the Fort Chartress has been stationed at Devil's Island, above Cape Girardeau, at Mile 59 to widen the channel where sand has moved out into the traffic route.

1923

Cape Girardeau's new cotton gin, in the Cape Mill Manufacturing Co. building at 226 N. Main St., is given a thorough test in the morning, and all is ready for the season's cotton crop; the three-stand, 70-saw outfit, was installed at a cost of nearly $7,000; company officials estimate it will be three weeks before the gin will start working.

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Earl, 5-year-old-son of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Schott, who live near here, died late yesterday afternoon, three hours after being bitten by a rattlesnake; several of the children of the family were assisting their father in working in a corn field; a sled loaded with fodder ran over the snake, injuring it; the boy, who was following the sled, was attacked by the injured reptile and was bitten on the shoulder; no medical aid was secured for an hour and by that time paralysis had set in; Dr. W.O. Finney of Chaffee treated the boy, but could not save his life.

-- Sharon K. Sanders