25 years ago: July 30, 1984

Phillips, Dudley and Associates, a Cape Girardeau firm, is selected by the Cape Girardeau County Court to handle all architectural studies and work related to expanding county office space in Jackson; the court is considering two options: constructing a new building on the old jail site adjacent to the courthouse, or purchasing a building adjacent to the courthouse and expanding it.

The abandonment last week of plans by Southeast Missouri State University and the city of Cape Girardeau to jointly construct a multipurpose building won't affect the Missouri Legislature's $8.2 million appropriation for the facility, says State Rep. Marvin Proffer, chairman of the Missouri House Budget Committee.

50 years ago: July 30, 1959

Poliomyelitis is on the increase in the Cape Girardeau area this year, the number of patients admitted to the local center thus far in 1959 being three times as great as the number of patients for comparable periods of the last two years; it is believed that epidemics of polio run in three-year cycles.

H.B. Newman, head of the Missouri Utilities Co. for 36 years, resigns his post effective Jan. 1. 1960; Newman came to Cape Girardeau as head of the company in 1923, succeeding E.A. Hart.

75 years ago: July 30, 1934

Coach Louis Muegge of Central High School is working at the Marquette Cement Mfg. Co.; Muegge expects to remain at that position until favorable weather permits him to make his initial call for the coming football season.

Because of a big picnic at Flat River, Mo., at which he is to speak, Col. Harry S. Truman won't be able to keep his speaking engagement in Cape Girardeau tomorrow; it may be possible to secure him for an address later in the week; Truman is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator.

100 years ago: July 30, 1909

A message from Washington, D.C., relative to President William H. Taft's trip down the Mississippi River, shows him stopping in Cape Girardeau for an hour's visit on the evening of Oct. 26.

Water pipes are being laid on North Ellis Street from Broadway to the new flat building being constructed by D.A. Chapin.

-- Sharon K. Sanders