Out of the Past: July 11

1999

Members of Christ Presbyterian Church recently held a groundbreaking and dedication service at a construction site along Lexington Avenue; the church plans to build a 3,000-square-foot worship and education building; the congregation bought the 8-acre site nearly eight years and has raised money and planned for construction the past four years.

The Rev. Dr. Ellis Rottman, a former missionary to Brazil, is the guest preacher at Hanover Lutheran Church; he shares a videotape of the Brazil Mission Society, which supports the ministry of the Lutheran Orphanage and Concordia School for the Deaf; Rottman was pastor at Hanover from 1968 to 1973.

1974

More than 13 months after flash floods devastated homes and businesses in Cape Girardeau, unsightly debris still clutters the banks of Cape La Croix Creek and, with few exceptions, little is being done to correct the situation; most prominent among the polluted sections of the normally placid stream, which swelled far beyond its narrow banks during the May 1973 deluge and drowned many businesses located in its path, is an area near the intersection of Bloomfield and Kingshighway, located directly between Cousin Fred’s and James Wrecker Service.

Construction on more than $12 million in Southern Illinois road projects should be getting underway by the beginning of next week, say officials with Teamsters Local 347; an agreement between striking Teamsters and Associated General Contractors was reached yesterday, ending a 37-day strike that crippled construction in downstate Illinois.

1949

Two sleeping teen-age girls were uninjured when two 6-inch holes were ripped in the mattress of their bed by lightning, which struck their Fornfelt house at 3 a.m. yesterday; the bolt set fire to the bedroom curtains and smashed the window pane; the girls are Kay Riggs, 13, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Eldon K. Riggs of Fornfelt, and her cousin, Peggy Bohannon, 11, of East St. Louis, Illinois, who is here with Mrs. Riggs’ sister, Jean Bohannon.

U.S. District Judge Rubey M. Hulen in St. Louis rules the Delmo Housing Corporation in Southeast Missouri is exclusively charitable in purpose and is not subject to government taxes; the ruling, which follows a closed hearing two weeks ago, orders Collector of Internal Revenue James P. Finnegan to return $242 in social security taxes; the corporation was set up in 1946 to aid white and Black sharecroppers to own and maintain their homes; the Delmo housing unit was established by the government, but was taken over by private parties after being liquidated.

1924

Another 6-inch intake line from the Union Electric Light & Power Co. is being put in place to supplement a similar line that was started working at noon yesterday; water service is gradually returning to normal; the water famine didn’t develop suddenly; four or five days prior to the actual clogging of the primary intake pipe, there were difficulties, resulting in workers trying to blow the sand from the pipe; but the effort failed, and as the stream of water from the pipe diminished, the supply in the city mains naturally decreased; in addition, the plant was caught with one of its four reservoirs empty.

Two University of Illinois students, who are spending their summer vacation paddling a canoe down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, make a brief stop at Cape Girardeau in the morning for water and supplies; they are R.E. Beaudoin and R.W. Proctor, both of Chicago.

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.