Out of the past 1/5/07

25 years ago: Jan. 5, 1982

Work is substantially finished on the new Jackson Public Safety building, with project architect predicting all construction will be completed by Jan. 15, more than six months after it was originally scheduled for completion.

The East Cape County Fire District, just north of Cape Girardeau, will be adding a 750-gallon-per-minute pumper truck to its firefighting arsenal, if the Cape Girardeau City Council approves a request from the district to part with the seldom-used vehicle.

50 years ago: Jan. 5, 1957

John Tarr, foreman at the Marquette Cement Mfg. Co. plant, summons firefighters to "lovers' lane" near the Mississippi River south of the plant to extinguish an automobile fire early in the morning; firefighters arrive in time to save only the engine and front tires from the flames.

A belt of snow and sleet extending southward from Ste. Genevieve, Mo., to Longtown, Mo., on Highway 61 and between Flat River, Mo., and Fredericktown, Mo., on Route 70 made driving conditions hazardous during the night; at least one death was attributed to icy highway conditions.

75 years ago: Jan. 5, 1932

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Leo Seyer, 64, a farmer of near Chaffee, was killed yesterday when a log which he was trying to unload from a wagon fell on him near his home.

Approximately 3,500 acres of land belonging to A.J. Matthews & Co. will be sold at a public sale to be conducted tomorrow morning at the courthouse in Jackson; the sale, and one for approximately 10,000 acres of the corporation's land in New Madrid County, is to satisfy a mortgage.

100 years ago: Jan. 5, 1907

Thomas Gill, the popular conductor on the Houck Railroad and a Cape Girardeau city alderman, came near being killed the other day; he was working around his horse when the animal kicked at him with both feet, striking him square in the forehead.

William Isreal, said to be the finest tuba player in the world, and William Randol, a cornetist of equal standing, leave for Pine Bluff, Ark., where they will join the Rufus Rastus minstrel company; both were raised in Cape Girardeau.

-- Sharon K. Sanders