Out of the Past: Aug. 27

1999

Cape Girardeau’s two Save-A-Lot stores will close, and a new one will be born next week, a consolidation that will give the city’s south side a grocery store after a two-year absence; the Save-A-Lot store at 396 N. Kingshighway will close Sunday night, while the other store at 19 N. Spanish St. will close Tuesday night; the new store at 121 S. Sprigg St. will open its doors for the first time at 8 a.m. Wednesday; the consolidation of the grocery stores announced in June is occurring approximately two weeks behind schedule.

Construction of a new federal courthouse at Cape Girardeau could begin in the fall; Dennis Miller, project manager with the General Services Administration, says, “We are kind of shooting for September to November of 2001”; the courthouse, which could cost $40 million, will be built on a four-acre site at Frederick and Independence streets, just west of City Hall.

1974

Nearly 150 students at Southeast Missouri State University are having problems finding places to live; university housing officials are battling an unexpected deluge of contracted dormitory tenants with no place to go except the dorms, which are nearly bursting at the mortar seams with too many occupants; there are reports that many students are forced to sleep on extra mattresses on the floor, with as many as four students per dorm room last night, the first night dormitory housing was open to all on-campus students; formal dormitory room capacity is two occupants.

New resolutions for forming port authorities in Cape Girardeau and Scott counties must be approved and the original resolutions repealed, two special port authority advisory committees were told Monday; Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney A.J. Seier told representatives of the counties the original resolutions “would not cover everything” needed in a port authority; he said the resolutions should be uniform in both counties, if they intend to submit a joint application to the Missouri Department of Transportation for recognition as a port authority.

1949

A powerful shovel, excavating for footings on the Spanish Street building project, yesterday unearthed an old packing case which contained a large number of tickets for the old Scott County Macadamized Road Co.; the tickets, printed in an assortment of colors to denote the type of passage involved, were in use about 1906; they show that the cost for passage of sheep and hogs on the road was 1 cent per head; for horses, mules and cattle, the charge was 3 cents a head; a one-horse vehicle was 15 cents, a two-horse vehicle was 25 cents, and a four-horse vehicle was 45 cents for travel over the entire road.

A street parade calls attention to festivities at Capaha Park in the evening, where the official dedication of the park's new baseball facilities takes place before the Capaha-Jonesboro, Illinois, game; concerts are played by the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band and the the Golden Troopers drums and bugle corps, and K.P. Oldfield serves as master of ceremonies for the dedication program.

1924

The First State Bank of Illmo, capitalized at $50,000 and with deposits of $180,000, was closed by order of its board of directors late yesterday, after state bank examiner R.G. Harrison reported to the board that the bank was in an insolvent condition; Harrison took charge of the bank, after a partial examination, and made his report to the state banking department at Jefferson City; “frozen loans” and an alleged shortage of approximately $10,000 in the accounts of the bank’s vice president were responsible for the closing, board members say.

Authorities are investigating the death of a 2-month-old baby boy, who died at Arbor in south Cape Girardeau County Tuesday after an illness of 46 days; during that time, the infant received no medical attention, because his parents are affiliated with a religious sect that is opposed to using the services of a physician; Leo Quade, son of Herbert and Frieda Quade, is buried at Jackson Cemetery.

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 semissourian.com/history.