Out of the past: Sept. 20

1999

David and Jodi Brown of Jackson hope a piece of Cape Girardeau County history can be saved; the couple is buying part of the farm on which the Liberty School building sits in a pasture off County Road 231; the building was built in 1890 and was used through 1945; the family hopes people will pitch in to donate labor, materials or money to repair the school.

Many people aren’t aware of it, but as of last week the drought status in the region was changed from moderate to severe by the National Weather Service; following that, Gov. Mel Carnhan asked that all 114 Missouri counties be declared disaster areas because of the drought.

1974

Projections of increased traffic on Route K during the next six years have caused officials of Saint Francis Hospital and nearby land developers to ask city and road district officials to seriously consider the possibility of relocating the intersection of Gordonville Road and Route K (William Street); Dr. Mark F. Scully, chairman of the hospital building committee, points out that when Route K was first constructed, traffic totaled about 5,000 cars per day; traffic flow today is about 10,000 cars per day, with projections anticipating 20,000 cars daily by 1980.

The chairman of the Missouri House Appropriations Committee orders his special subcommittee on higher education to investigate the alleged over-appropriation of funds to Southeast Missouri State University; an audit report, released Monday, said the university received about $1.1 million more than it should have in the last two fiscal years.

1949

Assignment of the lease and sale of the stock of the Cape Amusement Co., operator of the Esquire Theater, to Dubinsky Brothers Theaters Inc., is disclosed with the filing of the papers for record at Jackson; under terms of the assignment, Harold Roth and A.D. Waldauer of Memphis, Tennessee, who own or control stock of Cape Amusement, sold all of their stock to Irwin Dubinsky of St. Joseph; he is given the power to liquidate the company and assign, transfer or sell the lease, held by Walter H. Bartels, owner of the theater building.

Who will supply Cape Girardeau with airline service, connecting it with major lines in the larger cities and with its smaller neighbors in the Midwest, will be decided after a hearing in Washington Sept. 28 before the Civil Aeronautics Board; originally, the board authorized Parks Airlines, headed by Oliver Parks, to serve Cape Girardeau; when Mid-Continent Airlines filed application to purchase the Parks lines, several other lines filed petitions with the board asking it to reconsider the original grant to Parks.

1924

Clear skies and warmer weather turn the trick, and the Cape Girardeau Fair ends in a blaze of glory with one of the largest crowds ever assembled at Fairground Park; no figures are available on today’s attendance, but officials say the day’s gate receipts, coupled with those of Thursday and Friday and the rain insurance, will enable the fair association to break even on the financial end of the project this year.

All efforts to salvage the automobile and peanut roaster owned by J.M. Quertermous of Eldorado, Illinois, which hops off into the river here in the morning, have been fruitless; the flivver remains at the bottom of the river, and it seems possible the motor has coughed its last cough and the peanut roaster cooked its last goober.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a blog called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper. Check out her blog at semissourian.com/history.