Out of the past 9/10/06

25 years ago: Sept. 10, 1981

A 575-square-foot expansion of the emergency facilities at Southeast Missouri Hospital is underway.

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- School officials in Perryville are unhappy with the present structure of the SEMO Conference and would like to see the high school athletic conference reorganized into an activities association which would coordinate such things as high school bands and debate teams, as well as sports.

50 years ago: Sept. 10, 1956

The SEMO District Fair kicks off in the morning, with no admission being charged; entertainment before the grandstand in the evening is the 4-H Club talent show.

Thieves loot a service station and lumber company office in Cape Girardeau, getting $22 in cash, a large amount of merchandise and a number of blank checks; patrolling police officers discover the Carl Long service station, at the intersection of Independence Street and Highway 61, burglarized, when they investigate after noticing a sliding door standing partially open, and a theft at the Rodibaugh-Cargle Lumber Co. office, 1945 Independence St., is reported later.

75 years ago: Sept. 10, 1931

An ordinance authorizing the Cape Girardeau City Council to issue permits to companies to operate motor buses for carrying passengers within the city was passed by the council yesterday; the council then immediately voted to grant such a permit to B.F. Merrick of Cape Girardeau and J.E. Dyes of St. Louis to operate buses here for hire.

A.R. Ponder, former resident of Cape Girardeau and for the past 20 years a resident of San Antonio, Texas, dropped dead yesterday afternoon; Ponder collapsed and died while giving a speech at the opening of a new bank in Asherton, Texas; Ponder was associated with Louis Houck in the construction of the latter's railroad lines in Southeast Missouri and later helped organize the Cape Girardeau Telephone Co.

100 years ago: Sept. 10, 1906

At a meeting of the Cape Girardeau school board in the morning, the plans for the new school building are received and referred to the committee on building; the members of the board familiarize themselves with the plans, so they can understand when the committee makes its report at next week's meeting.

The Cape Wheelbarrow Co. is certainly prospering; it closes a contract with a big concern in the North for 30 railroad cars of wheelbarrows.

-- Sharon K. Sanders