Out of the past: Sept. 27

1999

Southeast Missouri State University is receiving millions of dollars to help get Southeast Missouri families off welfare; some $4.78 million is earmarked for Southeast’s Bootheel initiative for fiscal 2000; SEMO will coordinate 24 programs to assist welfare recipients and their families.

The 6.6 pounds of cocaine seized by Cape Girardeau police over the weekend represents one of the largest narcotics seizures in Southeast Missouri history; the incident began Sunday evening, when police attempted to stop a speeding car on Highway 177 north of Bertling Street; the driver led police on a moderate-speed chase, tossing bags of cocaine out the window, which were later retrieved; he and a 16-year-old boy were arrested after a short foot chase on a Southeast Missouri State University parking lot.

1974

The Cape Girardeau County Court votes 2 to 1 to award an excavation contract to Nip Kelley Trucking and Equipment Co. of Cape Girardeau to begin site preparations for construction of a new jail on the County Farm in Cape Girardeau; the court’s action is taken on a motion of Associate Judge J. Ronald Fischer and seconded following a lengthy discussion by Presiding Judge C.W. Suedekum; as expected, Associate Judge Edwin W. Sander refuses to second the motion; the Kelley bid is $25,000 more than what the architect had estimated, but is still lower than the only other bid, submitted by Kiefner Brothers Inc. of Perryville.

Completion of work on a 200,000-square-foot addition to the Hardware Wholesaler Inc. plant here is expected to be completed by January 1975, says Leonard Mattes, distribution manager; voters approved a $2.3 million revenue bond issue for the addition to the distribution center on Nash Road in an election here yesterday.

1949

The shortage of coal in Cape Girardeau, brought on by the work stoppage of miners, is described by coal dealers as even more critical than it was during the war; a spot check of the yards reveals that while there is still coal available, it is being parceled out in half-ton and one-ton lots; and that is only to regular customers.

The Cape Girardeau County Court formally entered an order increasing the boundaries of the Cape Special Road District yesterday and a short while later approved three road construction projects, two of them in the new section; at the special election Sept. 7, 469 voters cast ballots for the expansion of the district and only 35 were against it.

1924

Under circumstances similar to those encountered the last time it exhibited here, the John Robinson Circus arrives in Cape Girardeau in the morning and unloads for the trek out to Fairground Park in a drizzling rain; following the unfailing “circus thrill” of the animals parading up Broadway, there are a large number of veteran circus greeters on hand to help the show unload; on its 101st annual tour, the John Robinson Circus sports a number of new features, including a big spectacle called “Peter Pan in Animal Land”, starring Patsey Salmon, who was a sensation last year with Ziegfield’s Follies.

The funeral of professor Charles H. Dutcher, veteran Missouri educator, who died Thursday, was held yesterday at First Christian Church at Warrensburg; Dutcher was made president of the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau in 1877, serving three years.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a weekend column called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper.