Out of the past: March 28

1998

The first quarter of 1998 saw a 13% increase over the first quarter of last year in Cape Girardeau County sales-tax revenue, the largest increase ever; March boasted the highest sales-tax collections for a single month, continuing an upward trend in sales-tax revenue; the county's one-half-cent sales tax took in $1.23 million in the first three months of 1998; the first-quarter sales-tax numbers represent sales made in November, December and January.

Cape Girardeau and Scott City residents will get a chance next week to review plans for a new roadway between the two cities; the Missouri Department of Transportation will hold two open-house sessions to gather input on four possible corridors for the highway; the four main corridors will link the two communities from Interstate 55 or Route N in Scott County to Kingshighway or Southern Expressway (Highway 74) in Cape Girardeau.

1973

Southeast Missouri's battle with floodwaters of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers center in Mississippi County, where 70,000 acres of farmland are flooded and 150 families have been forced to flee their homes; the rain-soaked mainline and setback levees of the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway are holding well; the major problem is high water in the southern half of the floodway between the two levees.

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- A recommendation to petition 10th District Rep. Bill D. Burlison, D-Cape Girardeau, requesting that the Army Corps of Engineers expand its flood studies of the Cape Girardeau area to include a major part of the county that is rapidly undergoing urbanization has been approved by the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission here.

1948

Easter Sunday. The annual community Easter sunrise service, sponsored by the Ministerial Alliance, is moved from Courthouse Park to the Presbyterian Church because of the extremely low temperatures; calling residents to worship is a group of trumpeteers under the direction of Professor O. Louis Wilcox of State College; the Rev. Bayard S. Clark, president of the alliance, presides at the service, and Dr. Jean Ruff is song leader; delivering the Easter message is professor A.C. Magill of the college.

Bishop Ivan Lee Holt of St. Louis preaches the Easter sermon in the morning at Centenary Methodist Church; the choir, under the direction of Professor and Mrs. J. Clyde Brandt, sings the anthem, "Christ, Our Passover" by Buck, and for the choral benediction, the "Hallelujah Chorus" from "The Messiah" by Handel.

1923

U.S. Deputy Marshal O.A. Knehans of Cape Girardeau tried twice yesterday to serve a summons to Col. T.Q. Ashburn, director of inland and coastwise waterways of the War Department, who fled down the Mississippi River on Sunday with the leased river fleet of Edward F. Goltra; pursuing the fleet in a motor launch, Knehans attempted to serve the papers near Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, and at Vicksburg, Mississippi; each time, the fleet was inched away from Knehans' jurisdiction, which ended on Missouri's eastern shore.

Approximately 3,400 acres of land in Cape Girardeau County, valued at more than $400,000 and the property of A.J. Matthews and Co. Inc., have been seized by Sheriff William Browning on orders of the Circuit Court in St. Louis, where an attachment suit to collect notes totaling $11,000 has been filed; the order of attachment was granted in the court after attorneys representing T.P. Fristoe of Cape Girardeau and Lee Hunter of St. Louis had filed suit to collect on the notes.

-- Sharon K. Sanders