Out of the past 2/26/11

25 years ago: Feb. 26, 1986

A 120-acre tract of farm land west of the Nash Road industrial complex has been pegged as the likely site for a maximum security prison, if the state chooses to locate the prison in Cape Girardeau County; the land would sell for $4,000 to $5,000 per acre.

Southeast Missouri State University made it a clean sweep of the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association coaching honors yesterday as Ed Arnzen of the women's basketball team was named conference Coach of the Year; Monday, Southeast's Ron Shumate was named men's Coach of the Year in the M.I.A.A.

50 years ago: Feb. 26, 1961

At a recent business meeting, the congregation of the Red Star Baptist Church voted to call Jerry Pool as minister of music education; he comes from a similar position with the First Baptist Church of Prescott, Ark.; he is a native of Cape Girardeau.

GIDEON, Mo. -- Burglars enter the offices of two school buildings and the post office here, wreck the walk-in safes in the schools and take approximately $960.

75 years ago: Feb. 26, 1936

Ripping away at river craft and man-made construction of various kinds along the Mississippi in this vicinity, the heavy ice floes continue to move south as the breakup becomes general along the river; three pile-driving machines were smashed, and three barges and two pontoons were set adrift, all owned by the Massman-Peterman Construction Co., late yesterday by the grinding ice.

Rural route mail carriers of Cape Girardeau are having a hard time maneuvering on the quagmires that are the county's roads; while one carrier yesterday detoured 32 miles because of impassable roads, Albert Nagel on Route 2, Jackson, reverted to old-school methods, using a horse and buggy to deliver part of his route.

100 years ago: Feb. 26, 1911

Henry Sperling, 82, a pioneer of Cape Girardeau County, dies at the Missouri Baptist sanitarium in St. Louis; Sperling was born in Germany and came to America with his parents when he was 15; he was a blacksmith, and during the Civil War, he shoed horses for the Union Army; he leaves two daughters, Mrs. Minnie Frye of Franklin, Calif., and Mrs. Maggie Wood of Bonne Terre, Mo., and one son, Blucher Sperling of Cape Girardeau.

William C. Brinkopf, the 19-year-old son of Henry J. Brinkopf, returned from Columbia, Mo., last evening, having attended the state college of agriculture at the expense of the Frisco Railroad.

-- Sharon K. Sanders