Out of the past: Jan. 17

2000

Candi Brooks and her three children, ages 2, 3 and 4, barely escaped their burning home at 801 Beaudean Lane last night; the two-story frame home was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived; downed power lines and low water pressure hindered personnel in fighting the inferno.

Snider Paranormal Investigations has opened an office at 733 Broadway; Frank Snider, owner of the company and one of its investigators, explains that “if a person thinks they have ghosts in their house or area, we use our knowledge and equipment to tell if the house is really haunted.”

1975

The owner and operator of a Jackson nursing home has put in his bid to represent the 27th District as state senator; Billy Joe Thompson, administrator of Deal Nursing Home, will most likely face incumbent Sen. Albert M. Spradling Jr., D-Cape Girardeau, in a ’76 primary.

Lionel T. Murray of Sikeston, State Highway Department District 10 engineer, says plans for construction of an overpass at a railroad crossing on Route N leading to Illmo will be delayed at least another year; the department had hoped to build the overpass this year as part of its supplementary highway construction program, in District 10, but soil tests made last summer at foundation sites turned up unsatisfactory clay soils.

1950

Warned that it might be necessary to break the riverside levee in the fight on the flooding Mississippi River, residents are moving out of the Birds Point Floodway, taking with them what possessions they can load into trucks and wagons; for the most part it is an orderly retreat; there had been a feeling for several days that the move might be necessary; it is estimated that a third of the families have left the floodway.

Crisis in the present high stage of the Ohio River should come within the next 36 hours, say river observers, as the Ohio nears the crest of its greatest rise since the tremendous flood of 1937; the river stands at a stage of 55 feet at Cairo, Illinois, and a crest Thursday of 55.5 feet is predicted; the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau is at a 30.7 feet and will begin to fall later today; flood stage at Cape Girardeau is 32 feet.

1925

Harry O. Cole has been promoted to plant manager and R.C. Matthews to superintendent of operations at the local plant of the Marquette Cement Mfg. Co.; the announcement is made by Richard Boyle, general superintendent of the company who is here to inspect the local plant; Cole has been office manager at Marquette the past year; Matthews, a Cape Girardeau native and formerly general foreman, succeeds F.C. Richards, who has resigned and will go to Australia, where he was formerly in charge of a cement plant.

SIKESTON — An ordinance directed against employment agencies and plantation owners from the South, who, it is charged, are attempting to induce Black workers to return from this section to Southern states, was adopted by the Sikeston City Council last night; under the ordinance, a license of $500 per day will be levied on each employment agency or person attempting to hire labor in the town, for the purpose of taking the laborers away from here.

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.