Out of the past: Aug. 24

1997

New McKendree United Methodist Church in Jackson has entered into a “big sister” relationship with Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church in Montgomery, Alabama; two pastors and a lay member — the Rev. Scott Lohse, the Rev. Richard Northcutt and Walt Pierce — attended a Church Growth Seminar at Frazer Church Aug. 1-3; Frazer Memorial is one of the fastest growing United Methodist churches in America.

Jerry Bush is the new youth director at First General Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau, having assumed duties here Aug. 3; he worked in corporate sales at Kraft General Foods eight years before going into full-time youth ministry; Bush worked six years in volunteer youth ministry in Sikeston, Missouri; Anchorage, Alaska, and San Antonio, Texas.

1972

The Greater Cape Girardeau Development Corp. has obtained two parcels of land totaling 29.5 acres from Armstrong Cork Co. for expansion of its existing 120-acre industrial park tract south of the city; the final transactions in the sale were made yesterday; the parcels — one 14.9 acres and the other 14.6 acres ­— are north of Nash Road between the three parcels of land which were originally purchased by the development corporation in 1963 and which presently form the industrial park.

Academic Hall(Southeast Missourian archive)

State College, in its fourth name change since its founding 99 years ago, officially becomes Southeast Missouri State University; the long-expected action is taken by the Board of Regents under a law adopted by the last session of the Legislature and signed by Gov. Warren E. Hearnes.

1947

A bolt of lightning ignites a field of clover at the Wilson Sides farm, southwest of Jackson, during an electrical storm which passes over the area at 2:15 p.m.; the lightning hits and runs along a fence for several yards and then enters the field to burn a long strip 10 feet wide; a second bolt strikes a large cedar tree 25 feet from the Sides home, and Sides, who is lying on the floor in the home resting, feels a slight shock; the tree splits through the center and lays over into a corn field.

A crew of 50 to 60 men, with living quarters aboard barges at the site, is engaged in driving pilings to construct a dike which will divert the flow of the Mississippi River water into the main channel of the river at Devil’s Island, five miles upstream from Cape Girardeau; upon completion of the work, the bulk of water flow will be thrown into the main river channel toward the Illinois shore.

1922

Rodney G. Whitelaw, pioneer citizen of Cape Girardeau, former mayor, of recent years secretary of the Cape Girardeau Fair, and nationally known in carnival and fair circles, died in Denver, Colorado, yesterday morning; Iska Carmack and Barrett Whitelaw, daughter and son, who were with their father, expect to arrive here with his remains early Saturday.

Charles Deacon, local young man who recently sold his meat market at St. Marys, Missouri, is here for a week’s visit before going to Festus, Missouri, where he will take charge of a new Kroger Grocery and Bakery Co. store which opened three weeks ago; Deacon says Kroger stores are being established throughout this section of the country, one having been opened at St. Marys, another at Festus, and two are to open at Jackson and Perryville, Missouri, respectively, next week; Cape Girardeau is to have three within three months.

­** — Sharon K. Sanders