Out of the past: Aug. 5

1995

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- A handful of people in Bollinger County would like to revive a proposal to create a recreational lake in Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties; they have started a petition drive asking that voters have a chance to decide the fate of the lake; the lake project died in 1990, when the Bollinger County Commission refused to place the issue before voters; the project left lots of bad feelings in its wake.

Laboratory technicians at Saint Francis Medical Center are greeting customers in a new way, with drive-through, curbside lab service; Convenient Lab lets patients deliver samples and have some laboratory tests, including blood draws and throat cultures, done without ever leaving their vehicles.

1970

For the third time in 10 years, Cape Girardeau voters yesterday turned thumbs down on the issue of public housing here; the balloting was much closer than in the previous referendums; only 169 votes separated ballots against the issue from those in favor of an ordinance approving construction of 175 federally finance low-rent units here.

Two county issues were decided by voters in yesterday's balloting; the proposal to build a new juvenile detention home and juvenile court building was defeated; the issue received a majority vote, 4,520 to 4,104, but failed to received the two-thirds needed to activate the plan; in a landslide vote, the question of whether to abolish the office of county school superintendent was approved, 6,501 to 2,044.

1945

A special mortgage-burning service is held in the afternoon at St. James A.M.E. Church, marking the complete clearance of all debt on the church property; the mortgage amounted to $1,445.32; the service is conducted by the Rev. R.S. Everett of Cairo, Illinois, assisted by the pastor, the Rev. C.L. Williams.

Red Star Baptist Church's 12-day preaching mission and homecoming concludes with a program including the dedication of the first $10,000 of the congregation's postwar building fund and sermons by a state denominational official and a young minister recently arrived in the States following overseas service; Dr. T.W. Medearis of Kansas City, general superintendent of missions of the Missouri Baptist General Assembly, preaches at the morning service; speaker at the evening service is the Rev. Otis L. Langston, a son of the Rev. and Mrs. A.J. Langston, who has been serving overseas as a Red Cross field director.

1920

In pulling down an old two-story log house on their father's farm, the sons of Judge Charles Sievers of near Jackson discovered a cache of gold eagles and half-eagles totaling $140; all date to 1861 or earlier, and are believed to have been hidden at the outbreak of the Civil War; the house and the land upon which it stood was once the home of the Horrell family.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- By canceling embargoes on movement of freight through Thebes, Illinois, and restoring service between Thebes and Chaffee, Missouri, the Illinois gateway that was originated by the Frisco system several years ago and recently dropped has again been opened; the trouble started when the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad refused to haul freight trains from Chaffee to Thebes, and the Frisco refused to deliver northbound freight to the C. & E.I. for the reason that the line was not a participating owner in the bridge over the Mississippi River at Thebes; freight from the Frisco sent over the bridge would be heavily taxed in the interest of the C. & E.I.

-- Sharon K. Sanders