Out of the past: March 20

2000

​JEFFERSON CITY — Funding for Southeast Missouri State University would rise 4.8% under the state budget approved Thursday by the House of Representatives; Southeast is slated to get $50.38 million for fiscal year 2001, which begins July 1; the university was budgeted $48.09 million for the current fiscal year.

Scott County Sheriff Bill Ferrell is hoping the Scott County Jail at Benton will be replaced soon, when county voters consider a sales tax proposal to fund a $4 million construction plan April 1; the 48-bed jail, built in 1932, “is designed as a dungeon would be in the 1600s,” says Ferrell.

1975

​The controversy over the resignation of Cape Girardeau’s school superintendent and the reassignment of Central High School’s principal didn’t receive top billing in remarks of five men seeking positions on the Board of Education when they spoke to the Community Teachers Association here yesterday; but members of the audience pounded the candidates — Charles E. Weber, James E. Green, Hugo J. “Junior” Wunderlich, Dr. Wayne McElroy and Jerry L. Ford — with a barrage of questions regarding the matter in a question-and-answer session following prepared presentations.

David A. Graves, who was in the retail business 39 years, is the latest Golden Deeds Award recipient; he was presented the honor last night at the annual Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce-Joint Service Clubs Banquet at the Arena Building; Graves received a standing ovation as Charles F. Blattner, vice president of the Exchange Club, presented the award.

1950

​Saloons may come to Cape Girardeau sooner than had been anticipated; that is, sale of liquor by the drink may be legalized in Cape Girardeau within another two months; it depends on whether the census to be taken in April shows the town to have a population in excess of 20,000.

The 100th anniversary of the extension of telegraph service to Cape Girardeau is tomorrow, but there will be none of the fanfare that likely marked the first line into the city March 21, 1850; the line here was the first to out-state Missouri from St. Louis, which had been connected to the East only two years before; prior to that, messages went to East St. Louis, Illinois, and were taken by boat across the Mississippi to St. Louis.

1925

​Storm dead in Cape Girardeau County’s tornado-swept district are buried as reconstruction work of the devastated area, stretching 30 miles across the northern end of Cape Girardeau County and the southern side of Perry County, is started; the dead are Mary Kempfe, a widow of near Frohna; Grant Miller, 15, son of John Miller, near Schumer Springs; Joe Bletchley, 35, a farmer near Biehle; Oscar Fellows, 10, and Fritz Fellows, 3, of near Lixville; and Eddie Clements, infant son of William Clements, near Schumer Springs.

The Cape Girardeau Northern Railroad is to be offered for sale within the next four months; eliminating the minimum price of $750,000, previously fixed as the sum the line must bring if sold, Judge Oscar A. Knehans in Common Pleas Court late yesterday ordered a new decree of sale prepared and submitted to the court May 25; it is believed the sale will be held about July 1.

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.