Out of the past: Dec. 5

1999

​The Rev. Douglas C. Breite is installed as the administrative pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in an afternoon service; the Rev. Dr. Jame W. Kalthoff, president of the Missouri District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, performs the rite of installation; Breite is a native of St. Louis; he was ordained in 1988.

Southeast Missouri State University’s Board of Regents could be asked as early as January to approve plans for an addition to the campus’ Wildwood home to house offices for the university foundation and alumni services; Wildwood, which served as the official residence for Southeast’s presidents for more than 70 years, would continue to be used for receptions and meetings; it also would house guests of the university.

1974

​A bid call for Jan. 7 on construction of a replacement bridge over Sloan’s Creek on Bend Road was authorized last night by the Cape Girardeau City Council after approving plans and specifications for the structure; the new bridge will be about seven feet higher than the one now there to provide a driving surface above water should the flood stage again reach heights of 1973.

The sticky question of when does church-owned property turn commercial and become subject to tax assessment is being debated by First Presbyterian Church in Cape Girardeau and the city and county assessors’ office; the church recently received two tax bills totaling $55 — one from the county and the other from the city — on the church’s parking lot at Lorimier and Themis streets; the church contends it should not have to pay taxes on the lot because it isn’t a commercial venture, while the county’s assessor’s office contends it is being used for both church and commercial purposes.

1949

​Complaints from many points over the new cotton acreage allotments has resulted in the calling of a conference at Memphis, Tennessee, on Wednesday night of farm committee members with Agriculture Secretary C.F. Brennan and his chief assistant, Ralph S. Trigg, administrator of the Production and Marketing Administration; Brennan last Friday set the national cotton quota at 21,000,000 bales, a reduction of about 23% as compared with the acreage this year.

Highlighting the annual football dance Friday evening in the Jackson High School gymnasium was the crowning of Phyllis Ann Koeppel as 1949 football queen; the queen was selected by the football squad; Koeppel, the daughter of C.E. Koeppel, was escorted by Bob Vineyard.

1924

​Quartered in Cape Girardeau during the Civil War while a soldier with the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry, J.N. Marsh of Omaha, Nebraska, and his wife are visiting Cape Girardeau to see what has changed since he was here in 1862; they spend yesterday morning touring the town and in the afternoon had a long visit with Mrs. George Kimmel on Lorimier Street; Marsh recalled that when he came here as “a gangling boy, 16 years old,” the Kimmel family owned a beautiful home near St. Vincent’s College; the couple depart at noon for Florida, where they will spend the winter.

The warm weather of the past few days has enabled the Gerhardt Construction Co. to complete pouring the concrete slab that makes the ceiling for the ground floor and the floor of the second story of the new Missourian building; carpenters are now putting up the forms for the second story and, if weather permits, this work will be finished in about 15 days, when pouring of the second story will begin.

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.