Out of the past 7/25/12

1987

Dr. Bolivar Escobedo is back in town, but area pro-lifers can hold their pickets for now; Escobedo says he has no plans to re-open his Cape Girardeau abortion clinic; instead, he will turn the former clinic into a walk-in health care center.

Jens Brammer, a Jackson architect with nearly 20 years experience, has been hired as planning engineer at Southeast Missouri State University.

1962

A farm tour is made to three farms, with visitors directed by A.D. Arnhart, director of the extension center; the group goes to the Joe McDowell farm near Fruitland, to the Kasten place near Jackson and to the Ferd Peetz farm on Highway 34.

A single-story, brick building, to be used as a trading stamp redemption center, is being built at 39 N. Spanish St.; the building replaces one that is believed to have been constructed shortly after the Civil War; for many years it was occupied by Lilly-Juden Hardware Co.

1937

Memorial services are held in the afternoon at the site of Old Bethel Baptist Church, the first non-Catholic church west of the Mississippi River; R.S. Douglass of Edwardsville, Ill., formerly dean of the Teachers College here and for many years moderator of the Cape Girardeau Baptist Association, gives the principal address, which is historic in nature.

A crowd of about 4,000 thrills to the antics of the American Air Shows Association of Chicago; the crowd surrounds the field on Highway 74, and stands along the highway and vantage points on the surrounding hills to see the aerial stunts.

1912

The third public meeting to consider the actions of members of the Cape Girardeau School Board in the management of school affairs is held at the courthouse in the evening; the people pass a set of resolutions that, among other demands, asks the American Book Co. to return its contract so that textbooks can be picked in a scientific manner.

Southeast Missouri has been deprived of its honor of raising the finest, biggest and best watermelons in the world this season; it is said the backward spring with its continued rains prevented the melons from getting a start; in previous years, Scott County melons swamped markets in early July.

-- Sharon Sanders