Out of the past 1/23/12

25 years ago: Jan. 23, 1987

After 10 years on the job, Wally Allston is stepping down next month as director of the Cape Girardeau County Detention Center.

Tests of 10 wells near of the old Kem-Pest laboratory that was used to develop pesticides for 10 years until its closing in 1975 have revealed no contamination; coincidentally, the Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday that the site was one of 64 new Superfund candidates and one of two in Missouri.

50 years ago: Jan. 23, 1962

A sudden sleet and freezing rainstorm struck Cape Girardeau during its evening rush hour yesterday, slickening streets and glazing windshields.

Allan Baker is Cape Girardeau's "Outstanding Young Man" of 1961; the Cape Girardeau Jaycees made that pronouncement yesterday at the annual Bosses Night banquet at the Colonial Restaurant.

75 years ago: Jan. 23, 1937

With the 160,000-acre Birds Point-New Madrid floodway evacuated in advance of a break in the riverside levee certain to come, attention has turned to caring for more than 3,500 refugees from the area; between 1,500 and 1,600 refugees are being fed and housed at Charleston, Mo.; other towns helping the homeless are Sikeston, Mo., East Prairie, Mo., Wyatt, Mo., and Anniston, Mo.

Charles L. Blanton, district WPA supervisor, has received a state work order for the Cape Girardeau fairground park development project; work will begin as soon as possible.

100 years ago: Jan. 23, 1912

Casper Westermeyer, 82, a German immigrant to America, lost his houseboat when the ice gorge in the river crushed it to splinters and scattered his belongings along the icy shore; his heart is still with the wreckage, and he cannot persuade himself to become an inmate of the county farm, where he has been asked to go.

Mrs. M.E. Leming and daughters Rose and Frances are spending the rest of winter in Texas; they first went to San Antonio, after which they will visit with Mrs. A.R. Ponder at Crystal City, Texas.

-- Sharon K. Sanders