Stories from Sunday, July 2, 2000

The first information we could find about the church is a deed on file in the Cape Girardeau County Recorder's Office. The deed is dated July 22, 1856. According to the deed, Charles Hermann and Louise, his wife, and Henry Pohlmann and Caroline, his wife, sold land to the church. Trustees of the church at that time were: Charles Hermann, Christian Tuschhoff, Henry Pohlmann and Henry Richter...

Andrew Jackson, 78, had less than eight weeks to live when legendary photographer Mathew Brady ventured to the Hermitage to shoot the only photograph ever taken of the ex-president. A man of unquestioned vigor and will, Andrew Jackson was nevertheless an enigmatic figure. Ill-tempered, yet charming, backwoodsy, yet adroit, Jackson still presents historians with seeming contradictions...

While reflections on Andrew Jackson, parades, a pageant queen, antique and craft shows and historic tours all went on as part of Jackson's Sesquicentennial in 1965, it was nevertheless a "hairy" time. In the early stages of the hippie movement, the dropping-out teenagers were joined in beard-growing by the conservative middle class workers and businessmen of Jackson. ...

Research that had moved the naming of Jackson back from 1815 to 1814, led to just a 24-year interval between the city's 150th (Sesquicentennial) anniversary in 1965 and its 175th gala in 1989. Like its predecessor, the 1989 event was a big one, spread throughout most of the year. Like the 1965 event, it kicked off on Andrew Jackson's birthday, March 15, including the burying of the razor. Dogwood seedlings were delivered in April and a 175th headquarters opened May 1...

Mayors of Jackson City Administrators*...

25 years ago, 1975 County Court Thursday was brought to task by retired Jackson man who, during more than hour of scolding, labeled it a "do-nothing" court because of its failure to resolve long-standing county jail controversy; Sewell S. Wood, who year ago appeared before former County Court to urge it to decide controversial question of location of proposed jail, charged that three county judges are doing nothing more than "sitting up here in your own little pew arguing, fussing and discussing" without making any decisions; judges Presiding Judge Ervin Hobbs and associate judges Edwin W. ...

COLUMBIA -- Larry Bock, a farmer, agribusiness leader, and county commissioner of Gordonville, was named Agricultural Leader of the Year by the Missouri Association of County Agricultural Agents, Monday night, at the University of Missouri-Columbia...

On Memorial Day weekend eight Demolays in the Excelsior Chapter of Jackson attended State Conclave. At this yearly event they competed in numerous sports and ritual. In team sports they won first place in basketball and tug-of-war. They also won second in softball...

June 19, 2000 Chairman Brad Burgess called the regular monthly meeting to order at 7:45 p.m. Members present were Brad Burgess, Tim Goodman, Kathy Maynard and Sheila Gross. Guests present were Steve Southard, Junior Swift, Richard Cochran, Bill Dalton, Tim Riggs, John McAllister, Brian McAllister, and Brad Skelton...

Members of the Jackson Rotary Club concluded their 1999-2000 year Tuesday by bestowing annual awards on members and community leaders. Chris Weiss, meanwhile handed over the gavel of leadership to new president Vanita Jones, as the organization also passed on club leadership to its 2000-2001 officers...

Today there is barely a break between the Jackson business strip and the Cape Girardeau business strip. This was not always the case. The area was once widely heralded for the "Ten Mile Garden," a 10-mile stretch along (then) Highway 25, from the two city limits, with flowers, trees and shrubs carefully planted...

Col. Lewis Martin Bean (1843-1933), a former school teacher and Civil War veteran, founded the Jackson Weather Bureau, July 1, 1893. A civil engineer and surveyor by trade, who held several Cape County offices, Col. Bean was the county's official weather observer 1893-1920. During that time he recorded a low of -25, Feb. 13, 1899 and 6.45 inches of rain in 24 hours, July 20, 1905. The highest temperature recorded was 112 degrees, July 24, 1943 -- long after the Colonel's time...

Southeast Missouri author and historian Edison Shrum made a shocking discovery in 1986. Alerted that a log cabin had been found inside the F.J. Armstrong farm house on Silver Springs Road, Shrum determined that it was the log cabin of area patriarch Andrew Ramsey. He estimated that it was built between 1795 and 1810...

Cape Girardeau County allegedly boasted the first piano west of the Mississippi. Shipped from London to New York by Astor & Norwood Co., then to Philadelphia and over land to the Ohio River, the piano was delivered to Burfordville. There George Frederick Bollinger, founder of Bollinger Mill, presented it to his young daughter, Sarah Bollinger...

Much of Jackson's business district, including the entire "Battle Row," was destroyed by a disastrous fire, April 17, 1888. Thirty-five years later, disaster struck again. A tornado ripped through the city March 12, 1923, leaving some $100,000 in damages behind. ...

While many would argue that Jackson has never appreciated its architectural heritage, some degree of appreciation has been around for over a century. Much of the original town fabric went up in smoke in the calamitous April 17, 1888 fire. Virtually the entire uptown business district burned, including "Battle Row," as the main strip of buildings was called...

PERRYVILLE -- Shortly after midnight on Saturday, Bill Tweedy walked into the Perry County Sheltered Workshop for the first time in months. "It was pretty well cleaned out," said Tweedy, who was last inside the workshop on March 26 for a rally protesting working conditions for the handicapped...

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Longtime Cape Girardeau pediatrician James R. Kinder, who gently guided generations of patients from "diapers to diplomas," died Saturday in a traffic accident near Cartersville, Ga. He was 82. Kinder, and his wife, Mary Hunter Kinder, were traveling west on Georgia Route 20, when the Kinder vehicle was involved in a two-vehicle accident about three miles east of Cartersville...

Mother Nature started it. Then it snowballed like falling dominoes. Now, there's a battle being waged in our yard. A few weeks ago, one of my tall trees split open in a storm, sending half of the massive thing crashing down. Along the way, it took out my tool shed...

EAST PRAIRIE -- The Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center has received a brand new COMPAQ Presario computer, thanks to some Boy Scouts the center sponsored for a field trip. The computer was the prize in a drawing held during the Scouts' visit to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., last Memorial Day...

Southeast Missouri State University is moving ahead with its capital campaign by launching an effort to land donations from alumni and other supporters in Cape Girardeau County and the Scott City area. It's all part of the university's "quiet phase" of the 125 Years: Prologue to the 21st Century Campaign, said Wayne Davenport, vice president for university advancement and executive director of the Southeast Missouri University Foundation...

The Fourth of July and the history of the creation of the United States will be discussed Sunday on KRCU's "Going Public" radio show. Guests will be Dr. Frank Nickell and professor Glen Williams. The show airs at 3 p.m. on 90.9 FM, the region's Public Radio affiliate station...

It actually stopped raining one or two days last month and the skies cleared enough so that I actually saw some stars. No, summers are not often very good for astronomy in our region. La Nina weather pattern wavers the jet stream over us allowing the cold fronts to stall out producing many days of cloudy weather. Fortunately, there really is not much going on this month except that the summer constellations and the Milky Way are becoming visible as the night wears on...

You know the baseball season is progressing rapidly for the McDowell Capahas when one of their biggest events of the summer -- the National Baseball Congress Mid-South Regional that they host each year -- is just about ready to begin. The two-weekend tournament will kick off Friday night. There will be games Saturday and Sunday, then the tournament will conclude the following weekend. All of the action will be at Capaha Field...

VALMEYER, Ill. -- The McDowell Capahas reached the semifinals of the eight-team 4th of July Tournament with a 9-8 victory over the St. Louis Printers Saturday. McDowell improved to 19-5 on the season and moved into today's 2 p.m. semifinal against Waterloo (Ill.)...

SOUTH HAVEN, Miss. -- Wood & Huston Cape Junior Legion split a pair of games Saturday in the Mid-South Super Series II. A 13-3 win over Oxford (Miss.) and an 11-0 loss to the Dallas (Texas) D-Bats put Wood & Huston at 1-2 in pool play and 19-24 on the season...

What are some things that bind us together? Mark Twain said that when the compliments work down to babies we all stand on common ground. Another thing that binds us together is that we all reside in watersheds. What goes on in a watershed? We live and work there. We harvest trees for lumber and paper. We grow crops and livestock so we can eat. We build homes to live in, stores to shop in, and places to conduct business. We hunt, fish, and recreate in them. We use them for transportation...

If constitutional government were a baseball game, it probably would have been canceled by now due to lack of public interest. The apathy so pervasive in today's America was not the reaction anticipated by the Founding Fathers, who expected resistance to the republic they had created to come in the form of overt rejection, even armed revolt from some...

There was a time in this country's history when free speech was truly dangerous. Consider the courage of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. By subscribing to such a revolutionary document, they knew they were putting their lives and their honor at risk. In fact, five were captured and tortured by the British as traitors. Nine died in the War of Independence. At least 12 of the 56 signers had their homes destroyed...

Also last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal of a white supremacist from Illinois who says the state committee that denied him a law license violated his free-speech rights. Acting without comment, the high court turned aside Matthew Hale's arguments that Illinois "has established orthodox religious and political beliefs" to which an aspiring lawyer must subscribe as a condition of admission...

This past week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Miranda vs. Arizona, a landmark ruling it had issued back in 1966 during the heyday of the Warren Court. The Miranda case is the one that gave us the warnings law-enforcement personnel are required to issue to prisoners at the time of their arrest: "You have the right to remain silent. ...

Watching his 1962 Mets with growing dismay as they dropped pop flies, missed the cutoff man and failed to execute easy, routine plays, an anguished manager Casey Stengel cried out: "Doesn't anybody around here know how to play this game?" One recalls Stengel as House and Senate Republican leaders watch the ball roll through their legs. ...

Americans are a proud lot. We love our country, arguably the richest and most powerful nation on Earth. But what is it that makes the United States of America so great? Some would say it is our democratic institutions. Polls show Americans think we have the best form of government, warts and all...

DUTCHTOWN, Mo. -- Julia Anne Stanley and Raymond Leonard Grider were married June 10, 2000, in a garden ceremony at the home of the groom in Dutchtown. Ms. Stanley is the daughter of Donna F. Stanley of Cape Girardeau, and the late Roy D. Stanley. The groom is the son of the late Raymond and Elsie Grider of Cape Girardeau...

It has been my privilege to have a sneak preview of a plan to enlarge and enhance a site for an unobstructed view of our treasure, the River. When the flood wall went up our intimate, romantic relationship with the River seemed to have been cast into the waters and floated off downstream...

JACKSON, Mo. -- Robert and Nell Langford of Jackson celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a reception at Cape Girardeau Country Club. Hosts were their children and grandchildren. The Langfords were married June 24, 1950, in Harrisburg, Ill. They have lived in Jackson since 1969...

Mr. and Mrs. Paul W. Stehr of Cape Girardeau announce the engagement of their daughter, Cassi Lyn Stehr, to Jorg Rudolf Weissflog, both of Charlotte, N.C. He is the son of Elvira Weissflog of Houston, Texas, and the late Rudolf Weissflog. Stehr is a 1990 graduate of Baylor University. She is an account supervisor at TLP Advertising Agency...

Mr. and Mrs. Melvin G. Barks and Martha A. Barnhart of Cape Girardeau announce the engagement of their daughter, Shelly A. Barks, to Christopher Duerksen, both of Jackson. He is the son of Brenda Glenn of Jackson. A July 15 wedding is planned at Covenant Christian Church...

Mr. and Mrs. Frank M. Parker III of Magnolia, Texas, announce the engagement of their daughter, Maile Beth Parker, to Douglas Eugene Gannon, both of Cape Girardeau. Parker received bachelor and master of science degrees in kinesiology from Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas. She is assistant volleyball coach at Southeast Missouri State University...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- David and Phyllis Bruch of Sikeston announce the engagement of their daughter, Tabitha A. Bruch, to Brian L. Thompson of Jackson. He is the son of Brad and Cara Thompson of Kelso. Bruch is a 1999 graduate of Kelly High School at Benton. She is employed at SEMO Specialties and Sports in Jackson...

Brenda Haney and Phillip Crow of Dexter announce the engagement of their daughter, Melissa Dawn Crow of Cape Girardeau, to Mark Kendreck Spence. He is the son of Paul and Phyllis Spence and the late Kathleen Spence. Crow is a 1993 graduate of Dexter High School. ...

Mike and Linda Ingram of Cape Girardeau announce the engagement of their daughter, Laurie Ann Ingram, to Neil Thomas Birchler. He is the son of Phillip and Debbie Birchler of Sparta, Ill. Ingram expects to graduate from the University of Missouri at Rolla in December, where she is majoring in management information systems and economics...

JACKSON, Mo. -- Elizabeth Adell Adams and Jeremy James Koerber announce their engagement. She is the daughter of Ed and Judy Adams of De Peres. He is the son of Richard and Susan Koerber of Jackson. Adams received a bachelor's degree in exercise science from Truman State University, and a teaching certificate from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She is a physical education teacher at Claymont Elementary School...

Mr. and Mrs. Tom Sowers of Rolla announce the engagement of their daughter, Kimberly Rafferty Sowers, to David Neal Tanner. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Neal Tanner of Cape Girardeau. Sowers is a graduate of Rolla High School. She received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri at Columbia. She is an account executive at Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago...

MILLERSVILLE, Mo. -- Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Hale of Millersville announce the engagement of their son, Lt. Jared Scott Hale, to Brean Jean Hayek. Hayek is a 1995 graduate of Parkway South High School. She received a bachelor of science degree in education from Southeast Missouri State University in 1999. She is teaching fourth grade at Knob Noster School...

Clarence and Marie Walker of Cape Girardeau announce the engagement of their daughter, Camisha LaDawn Johnson, to Marco Wesley Ester of Fort Wayne, Ind. He is the son of Beverly Grissom of Las Vegas, Nev., and the late Henry W. Ester of Fort Wayne. Johnson received a bachelor of science degree in health management from Southeast Missouri State University. She is a client services trainer with Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield...

Chester J. and Georgia L. Webb of Tamms, Ill., announce the engagement of their daughter, Brandy Lee Webb, to Jonathan Jesse Keltie. He is the son of Jonathan D. and R. Denise Keltie of Cape Girardeau. A July 15 wedding is planned at New Salem Baptist Church in Marble Hill...

Cape Girardeau Central High School Valedictorian: Kelley Ann Green, 18, of Cape Girardeau, daughter of Ken and Ann Green. Kelley will attend the University of Missouri-Columbia in the fall, and has received the Curator's Scholarship, the Kiwanis Club Scholarship, the Aid Association for Lutherans Scholarship, Missouri Teacher Education Scholarship, and the Bright Flight Scholarship. She will major in elementary education...

A bricked cooking cove presents a visual delight in the kitchen next to the double ovens. The brick and cedar-sided ranch home features a plantation-style porch with stone floor. Ten lush acres just outside the city limits of Cape Girardeau form the setting for this countryside ranch and all its amenities. If horses are you're passion, you're in for a treat. Not only will they have room to roam, there are three barns on the property already set up for horses...