1999

New to the SEMO District Fair this year is the Robinson Carving Co.; Stacey Robinson and his family will be giving chainsaw-carving shows each afternoon of the fair, and their creations will be auctioned off Saturday, with proceeds benefiting the fair; this evening’s entertainment includes a baby boys contest and a truck pull.

A Chaffee High School football player injured in his school’s season opener Friday night never regained consciousness and dies this evening at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee; Mark R. Whitaker, 16, son of Mr. and Mrs. George R. Whitaker of Chaffee, was knocked unconscious early in the the fourth quarter of Chaffee’s game with St. Vincent of Perryville, suffering a massive blood clot at the base of his brain.

1974

Two Southeast Missouri reservoirs are among seven lakes in the state that will undergo extensive tributary water sampling during a national eutrophication survey being undertaken by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Lake Wappapello in Butler and Wayne counties and Clearwater Reservoir in Reynolds County are scheduled for testing under the landmark environmental study.

Workers are disassembling exhibit booths and clearing debris at Arena Park following last night’s closing of the 1974 SEMO District Fair; sunshine and pleasant temperatures teamed up to boost the final day’s attendance to 18,378 and bring the total number of persons going to the fair this year to 49,598; that’s down from last year’s total of 76,462 fairgoers.

1949

Now set for great days on Friday and Saturday, the SEMO District Fair is rolling along, with horse racing and society horse shows to be the big features; rain takes a decided hand in today’s activities, with heavy showers overnight soaking the race course; the wet track forces cancellation of the pacing and trotting races in the afternoon.

Normal operations on the Frisco Railroad through Cape Girardeau, blocked by a freight train wreck north of Seventy-Six since midnight Monday, are not expected to be possible before noon tomorrow; crews worked throughout last night before extricating the body of the locomotive engineer, Quinton Briggs, pinned beneath the wreckage of the engine and cars which plunged through a trestle into the bed of a small creek; it was necessary to bring a diver from St. Louis to recover the body; the diver worked for more than three hours removing coal which had spilled from the tender onto Briggs’ body.

1924

Fairground Park is rapidly assuming a gala appearance as concession men, race horses and floral hall entries pour in for the opening of the annual Cape Girardeau Fair on Thursday; concessions sprang up in the shady, picturesque park almost overnight, while the barns, housing the racing stock, are filling rapidly.

A large number of adherents of Methodism gathered yesterday at the old McKendree Church on Williams Creek for all-day services at the historic camp ground where stands the shrine made sacred by tradition; this was the first meeting place for Methodists west of the Mississippi; the church, rapidly falling to decay, was built in 1808; under the trees, the assembly makes the hills re-echo with the lusty singing of old-time songs.

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.