Out of the past 2/6/12

25 years ago: Feb. 6, 1987

BENTON, Mo. -- The Scott County Commission is considering seeking voter approval of a quarter-cent capital improvement sales tax to help finance the operation of the county landfill.

After several months of planning and packing, Cape Girardeau's Family Learning Center has opened the doors at a new location and is conducting business as usual; the center has moved to 805 S. Sprigg St., where 12 children are enrolled in day classes.

50 years ago: Feb. 6, 1962

Wm. Bollinger used a pitchfork to spear a 20-pound buffalo at the lagoon in Capaha Park, one of a number of large fish taken from the lake in 1962 as it was being prepared for dredging and renovation work. (Missourian archive photo by G.D. "Frony" Fronabarger)

Work is underway dredging a small channel on the west side of the Capaha Park lagoon, which will allow fish to congregate there while the rest of the lagoon is cleaned and renovated under the guidance of the Exchange Club; the work has revealed some big fish in the lake, including a 35-pound buffalo.

Police commissioner John L. Wieser, after an absence of nine weeks, was welcomed back to the city council table yesterday; Wieser was stricken with a heart attack and spent several weeks in the hospital before going to his home.

75 years ago: Feb. 6, 1937

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- It is announced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Memphis that the Mississippi River levee will be rebuilt in the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway; the engineers maintain the floodway "worked to a perfection" during the recent flooding, saving Cairo, Ill.

Dr. R.A. Ritter, whose office equipment was destroyed in the fire which burned the Bartels building Thursday, says he will move next week into a suite in the Moseley Jewelry Co., building at Broadway and Ellis Street; for the time being, he is located by appointment in the office of Dr. J.H. Cochran.

100 years ago: Feb. 6, 1912

BENTON, Mo. -- A prisoner from Blodgett, Mo., was taken to the Scott County Jail last night and turned over to the sheriff for safe keeping, and it was a lucky thing, too, that the sheriff was called to the jail; when he entered the bastille with his prisoner, he found 14 inmates were just about ready to skiddoo; bars had been sawed from windows and in the walls of the cells, and in a little while the whole gang would have made its escape.

Gene Sullivan is back home for a visit after two years and four months service in the Navy, having been a machinist aboard the battleship Missouri.

-- Sharon K. Sanders