Out of the Past: June 19

1999

Something new is growing in Southern Illinois this year: rice; “We have a lot of water over there,” says Blake Gerard, who farms more than 1,300 acres in an area between Cape Girardeau and McClure, and “I decided to take advantage of it; Gerard’s 40-acre field of rice is alongside Highway 3, just north of the Highway 146 intersection; it is the farthest north of any rice crop in the United States.

Citing legal concerns, Southeast Missouri State University has abandoned the idea of using state tax credits in developing its River Campus; university officials weren’t aware of any legal concerns until the issue surfaced in a Southeast Missourian newspaper article this week; the article pointed out government agencies and non-for-profit organizations don’t qualify for state tax credits for renovation of historic buildings because they don’t pay taxes.

1974

An overflow crowd of more than 100, unanimously opposed to the already-begun construction of tennis courts at the base of Cherry Hill in Capaha Park, wound up their efforts to change the minds of the Cape Girardeau City Council members at a public hearing last night; their suggestion, a proposal that the park’s old tennis facilities be torn up and replaced with four new regulation-size courts, was taken under advisement by the council.

A depressed livestock market — particularly for beef — has forced many area cattle breeders out of production and, unless retail meat purchases increase, even more producers are expected to do the same; this same precarious condition exists for hog growers, but lower retail pork prices in proportion to the lowest hog market prices in months hopefully will create a more stabilized marked for the pork industry, producers say.

1949

The Rev. S.E. Stringham, pastor of New McKendree Methodist Church at Jackson, is the guest speaker at Centenary Methodist Church in the absence of the pastor, the Rev. H.C. Holliday; Holliday is in Arcadia speaking at the fifth annual meeting of the Wesleyan Service Guild of the St. Louis Conference.

Carolyn Leigh Cook, 1-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Cook, 703 Broadway, escapes death in the morning when she falls to the sidewalk from the window of the second-story Cook apartment, a distance of 18 feet; the child is taken to the hospital, but a preliminary examination revels there are no broken bones.

1924

Construction work on the new bridge across Sloan’s Creek in North Cape Girardeau, to be erected by the Cape Girardeau Special Road District, is being held up by the high stage of the Mississippi River, which is backing water into the creeks; the road district will build the piers and retaining walls for the bridge, while the contract for the steel work has been let to the Vincennes Construction Co., which is now at work west of Jackson.

A hearse is mistakenly called to the scene of an accident near Millersville; Roscoe Higgins, a 20-year-old steel worker for a construction company erecting a bridge across the Whitewater River, refuses to ride in the hearse and waits for an ambulance to be summoned to take him to Cape Girardeau for treatment; his chest was badly crushed when a heavy tractor crushed him against one of the steel girders of the span.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a blog called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper. Check out her blog at www.semissourian.com/history.