Out of the past: Nov. 7

1999

​Workers of the Main Street Levee District burn driftwood that had accumulated along the inside of Cape Girardeau’s floodwall north of the Broadway floodgate; the clearing is being done at the request of the Army Corps of Engineers; much of the wood was left over from the flood of 1993, according to one of the workers.

Mohawk Iroquois journalist and community activist Doug George of Onondaga Reservation in Central New York speaks to a small gathering of Southeast Missouri State University students interested in the Iroquois culture; George predicts the gambling casinos, viewed by many Indian tribes as an escape hatch from reservation poverty, will be the tribes’ undoing; George contends, “Gambling will ultimately result in the demise of the Indian people as independent. It extracts from the human spirit and produces nothing.”

1974

​Tuesday’s narrow victory by Democrat Ervin Hobbs over County Court Presiding Judge Clarence W. Suedekum again puts construction of the controversial county jail and sheriff’s office in a questionable light; although Hobbs remains uncommitted on the jail question, today he says he believes the expenditure of $750,000 or more for a new jail is unwise.

The Missouri Highway Department’s proposed relocation of Highway 72 south of Jackson gains heavy endorsement by local residents at a public hearing on the corridor location conducted by District 10 officials at Jackson; 20 persons representing a wide range of businesses, civic organizations and city government spoke in favor of the proposal, with only two persons speaking against it; the project would involve construction of a limited access highway from just west of the Interstate 55-Highway 61 interchange between Jackson and Cape Girardeau southwest, crossing Highway 25 about a mile south of Jackson and northwest rejoining Highway 72 three-tenths of a mile west of Byrds Creek.

1949

​Two Cape Girardeau goose hunters are drowned after their boat is swamped in the Mississippi River, five miles north of the city, by the waves of a larger river craft; two other hunters in the smaller boat are rescued; dead are Sanford G. Jones, commanding officer of Headquarters Company of the 140th Infantry and commander of the local post of the American Legion, and Walter F. Heimbaugh, supply sergeant for Headquarters Company.

Already used by 45 organizations and groups this year, some of them several times, the Arena Building will be an increasingly popular place in the next several months; in addition to its use by organizations, it will begin in mid-month a busy season of basketball with three teams — State College, College High Preps and Cape Girardeau Central — embarking on a schedule that will keep the basketball court in use for five months.

1924

​With only 53 rural precincts missing, Sam A. Baker, Missouri’s newly-elected governor, continues to hold a lead of 8,219 over his Democratic opponent, Dr. Arthur W. Nelson; 50 years ago today, Baker was born in a farmhouse in the hills of Wayne County; he was educated at the old Normal School at Cape Girardeau and still considers Southeast Missouri his home.

Building lots in Sunset Terrace, being offered for sale by M.E. Leming at special prices in a 10-day sale, are going like hotcakes; only 32 lots of the 215 available are still untaken, but Leming believes they will be purchased before tomorrow night; Amanda Hutson, widow of the lamented Police Chief Jeff Hutson, was the first person to start a home in Sunset Terrace; she bought a lot Monday, and workers began building a nice bungalow Thursday.

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.