Out of the past 7/16/05

25 years ago: July 16, 1980

The sun bears down upon Southeast Missouri again, as the state enters the 20th day of the most severe heat wave since the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s; a blistering 105 degrees baked Cape Girardeau yesterday, setting a new record for that date.

Testimony opens before the State Bank Board in an appeal of a Commission of Finance decision May 30 granting a Cape Girardeau bank charter to the South East Missouri Bank and denying the application of the proposed Bank of Cape Girardeau.

50 years ago: July 16, 1955

A carefully made white cross, some 6 to 7 feet tall and bolted to a sturdy 4-by-4 piece of lumber, has appeared at the exact spot beside a culvert just north of Delta, where the body of slain Bonnie Huffman was found the night of July 5, 1954; no one knows who erected the cross, which is drawing scores of people to the site; the cross reads: "To the memory of Bonnie Huffman, July ?, 1954," along with a Biblical inscription from John 11:25.

The Cape Rock Park Association, a private group which 35 years ago acquired the property at historic Cape Rock, has agreed to deed the majority portion of the 27-acre tract to the Cape Special Road District; a small section adjacent to the Country Club will be deeded to that organization.

75 years ago: July 16, 1930

The county court at Jackson yesterday directed Prosecuting Attorney J. Grant Frye to intervene in behalf of the county in a petition to the Interstate Commerce Commission asking that the commission order the Missouri Pacific Lines to purchase and rehabilitate the remainder of the Cape Girardeau Northern Railroad in this county which it hasn't already acquired.

Typhoid fever claims two victims in one family with the deaths at Saint Francis Hospital of Leroy Medlin, 30, a farmer of near Bell City, Mo., and his daughter, Evelyn, 7; Medlin's wife died two weeks ago at the family home.

100 years ago: July 16, 1905

Because of the hot weather, worship services at the Presbyterian Church are suspended; also because of the weather, the church is making no special effort to secure a regular pastor.

Only the chance glance of a woman toward the river saves Johnny Weber, 10-year-old son of Adam Weber, from a watery grave; the little fellow is walking on logs at the river's edge, when he is thrown into the water; an unidentified woman sees his fall and alerts J.H. Stratman, who jumps into the river, grabbing the boy's collar as he sinks.

-- Sharon K. Sanders