Historic Cape Girardeau

HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU
An Illustrated History
by Tom Neumeyer, Frank Nickell, and Joel P. Rhodes
A Publication of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce

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HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU
An Illustrated History
by Tom Neumeyer, Frank Nickell, and Joel P. Rhodes
Published by The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce
Historical Publishing Network
A division of Lammert Incorporated
San Antonio, Texas

❖
The Emerson Bridge nearing
completion. This photograph was
taken from the River Campus.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LARRY MCHENRY.
First Edition
Copyright © 2004 Historical Publishing Network
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing
from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Historical Publishing Network, 11555 Galm Road, Suite 100, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (210) 688-9006.
ISBN: 1-893619-39-7
Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2004104595
Historic Cape Girardeau: An Illustrated History
authors: Tom Neumeyer, Frank Nickell, and Joel P. Rhodes
photography editor: Tom Neumeyer
cover artist: Marilyn Kay Singleton
contributing writer for
“Sharing the Heritage”: Michael E. Wells
Historical Publishing Network
president: Ron Lammert
vice president: Barry Black
project manager: Curtis Courtney
director of operations: Charles A. Newton III
administration: Angela Lake
Donna M. Mata
Judi Free
book sales: Dee Steidle
graphic production: Colin Hart
Mike Reaves
PRINTED IN CANADA
2 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

CONTENTS
4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
5 INTRODUCTION On the river and of the river: an introduction
to the history of Cape Girardeau, Missouri
9 CHAPTER I Under three flags: the years before statehood
15 CHAPTER II The coming of the steamboats & the first economic boom
23 CHAPTER III Civil War & Reconstruction
31 CHAPTER IV A twentieth century town: the boom years, 1906-1931
49 CHAPTER V Growing pains: life & culture in the Twenties
59 CHAPTER VI Floods & control, Depression & programs, War & change
69 CHAPTER VII Years of transition: the 1950s, ’60s & ’70s
79 CHAPTER VIII Back to the river? 1981 and the road ahead
84 TIMELINE OF CAPE GIRARDEAU
88 SHARING THE HERITAGE
169 INDEX
174 SPONSORS
175 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
175 ABOUT THE COVER
❖
The Emerson Bridge from the Illinois
shoreline, south of Cape Girardeau.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LARRY MCHENRY.
Contents ✦ 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The coordinator would like to acknowledge the following image sources for this project: Bank of
America, Cape Girardeau; the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce; the Cape Girardeau County
Archives; the Cape Girardeau Mural Association; the Cape Girardeau Public Library; the Cape River
Heritage Museum; Margie Hirsch Deimund; Jim Haman; Roger Lang; Robyn Mainor; Larry McHenry;
Gordon and Mary Neumeyer; Red Letter Communications; and Southeast Missouri State University,
Special Collections and Archives.
❖
(From left to right) Dr. Joel Rhodes,
Dr. Frank Nickell, and
Tom Neumeyer.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM NEUMEYER.
4 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

ON THE RIVER AND OF THE RIVER
A N I NTRODUCTION TO THE H ISTORY OF
C APE G IRARDEAU, MISSOURI
Occupying the first considerable elevation on the western bank of the Mississippi, above the mouth
of the Ohio, and affording a convenient landing place for boats, it promises to become a place of some
little importance, as it must be the depot of a considerable district of the country, extending from the
commencement of the Great Swamp, on the southeast, to the upper branches of the St. Francis.
❖
Cape Rock before the railroad came
through at the turn of the century.
COURTESY OF THE CAPE GIRARDEAU
MURAL ASSOCIATION.
- Edwin James,
Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains,
Performed in the Years 1819, 1820
Cape Girardeau is a twentieth century town, with deep roots running back to the Mississippi
River. From rough and tumble beginnings as a riverfront outpost, the little village grew slowly
and sporadically for most of the nineteenth century. Travelers to this isolated area commented on
the “southern” qualities of the people: unhurried, unpretentious, difficult to impress, self-assured
to a fault, fiscally conservative, quietly industrious. The coming of the railroad at the turn of the
twentieth century and the accompanying industrial revolution transformed the community, ushering
Introduction ✦ 5

❖
Above: Crowley’s Ridge, which
extends southwest into Arkansas, has
been a natural transportation
causeway for centuries.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR REGIONAL HISTORY.
Below: Cape Rock, after the railroad
removed most of the promontory to
make way for its tracks.
Opposite, top: A keelboat on the
Mississippi River.
in a period of pronounced commercial,
physical, and social development. The twentieth
century brought the town its modern
appearance and character—less interested in the
river and more closely tied to commercial
networks of rails and highways. Travelers in this
century observed a growing regional center with
more “northern” qualities: entrepreneurial,
German, progressive, civic-minded, ambitious,
yet still fiscally conservative. But this evolution
from sleepy river town to vibrant commercial
hub has never been easy, nor is it complete.
In exploring the more than two-hundredyear
history of Cape Girardeau, five fairly clear
themes emerge. The first is transportation,
which is central to understanding the history
of Missouri settlement in general. Navigable
rivers determined the location of the state’s
earliest towns, and in the case of Cape
Girardeau, traders chose the rock promontory
jutting out into the Mississippi as an easily
identifiable landmark for river traffic. In
the nineteenth century, railroads were critical
to a small town’s survival. Cape Girardeau
benefited from the vision and creativity of
Louis Houck and the town’s geographic
location, atop the first high ground extending
between southern Illinois and Arkansas, to
secure its vital railroad link. In the twentieth
century, access to a highway assured a
city’s continued prosperity and by the
1970s, the major interstate between St. Louis
and Memphis ran along the western edge of
Cape Girardeau.
The second dominant theme, the town’s role as
a regional center, follows logically from the first.
Easily accessible from the Mississippi and
Crowley’s Ridge, Cape Girardeau served as the
trading, milling, ferrying, meeting, and legal
center for one of the five Spanish districts in the
Louisiana territory. Cape Girardeau was the
economic and commercial lifeline for trappers to
the south who brought furs and hides out of the
largest wetlands in North America and for farmers
Opposite, bottom: The Jewish
synagogue was erected in 1937 on
South Main Street, adjacent to old St.
Vincent’s Catholic Church.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM NEUMEYER.
6 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

to the north and west bringing produce and
livestock from family farms. Beginning in the
1830s, steamboats tightened Cape Girardeau’s
relationship to the river, as virtually the entire
town—warehouses, businesses, the courthouse,
the seminary, and homes—intimately faced the
“Mighty Mississippi.” The arrival of the
steamboats, and their passengers, also established
the town’s position as an entertainment center.
Cape Girardeau offered attractions that were
scarce in the rural hinterland including horse
races, fairs, breweries, taverns, prostitution,
circuses, parades, theater, and later sports and
motion pictures. Cape Girardeau also established
itself in the nineteenth century as the area’s
educational center with Catholic academies for
men and women, a public school system, and one
of Missouri’s normal schools.
Railroads began to replace the river as the
dominant mode of transportation by the turn of
the twentieth century, further accelerating Cape
Girardeau’s status as a regional hub. With area
industry, business, and farms producing for
distant consumers, rail lines in Cape Girardeau
connected them to the national market. At
about the same time, Cairo, Illinois, the region’s
most important town, declined and Cape
Girardeau began to replace it as the service
and distribution center of southeast Missouri
and southern Illinois. This trend continued
in the twentieth century as Highway 61 and
Interstate 55 solidified the community’s regional
prominence in media, medicine, and shopping.
Even a few famous individuals have been
drawn to the region’s most prominent town over
the years, especially around election time,
including William Howard Taft, Jane Addams,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman,
Richard Nixon, Jimmy Hoffa, Bobby Kennedy,
Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, George
Bush, Dan Quayle, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and
Dick Cheney.
Diversity is a third theme. The years of
French and Spanish control of the Louisiana
territory left an imprint on Cape Girardeau,
seen today in the town’s architecture. When
Americans began settling in the region, most
came from Tennessee and Kentucky, and they
brought with them a southern way of life. Prior
to the Civil War large numbers of European
immigrants, especially Germans, began arriving
Introduction ✦ 7

❖
A map of Cape Girardeau at the time
of its founding.
COURTESY OF THE CAPE GIRARDEAU
COUNTY ARCHIVES.
in Cape Girardeau, as did African Americans
after the war and in the early twentieth century.
This has given Cape Girardeau a far more
diversified and broadly based population than
most towns in the region.
The German-speaking influence also plays a
key role in the fourth theme, religion. Even
before the first Baptist church held services in
the 1830s, religion was a central feature of life in
the community. Catholicism dominated the
early years, and while the Catholic presence
remains strong to this day, the religious
community grew to include a varied and rich
array of faiths and denominations. At the
present time there are no fewer than seventythree
churches in Cape Girardeau.
Finally, politically speaking, Cape Girardeau
is a conservative Democratic town in the mold
of President Andrew Jackson and the esteemed
Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton.
Democrats have controlled Missouri politics for
most of its history. Yet, since the 1980s, the
Republican Party has been dominant statewide
and, with the 1980 election of Bill Emerson to
Congress, in Cape Girardeau as well. But
like the state as a whole, Cape Girardeau’s
basic conservatism remains the common
denominator. The town simply likes government
small, taxes low, and as little outside
interference and bureaucracy from the federal
government as possible.
The following pages explore these themes
while telling the stories of Cape Girardeau’s
history in words and pictures. A small river
town that became the leading regional center
between St. Louis and Memphis, Cape
Girardeau turned away from the Mississippi
River in favor of railroads and highways. Now, at
the onset of the twenty-first century, the town is
finding its way back.
8 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

CHAPTER I
U NDER T HREE F LAGS: THE YEARS B EFORE S TATEHOOD
Although the heart of one of five original Spanish districts in the Louisiana territory, Cape
Girardeau subsisted as a rough and unpolished frontier village in the years before Missouri statehood.
Founded on the banks of America’s great river, the settlement was born of three diverse cultures:
French, Spanish, and American. For nearly one hundred years, each helped shape the political,
economic, and social life of the rugged little outpost: the French, laying much of the groundwork
for early Missouri society with their unhurried joie de vivre; the Spanish with their irregular land
grants; and the ambitious Americans committed to conquering the continent. As
the territory west of the Mississippi River passed from French to Spanish, technically back to French,
and finally American control, determined men and women carved out a town on the very edge of
western civilization.
Before European contact in the 1540s, the fertile lands and advantages of the river basin drew many
Native Americans to southeast Missouri. Between 900 and 1500 A.D. a vast civilization was established
in the region. As we do not know what they called themselves, we refer to them as Mississippian. Their
impressive earthen mounds, including one south of Shawnee Parkway in Cape Girardeau, can still be
located on the landscape. It is unclear if the first European explorers encountered descendants of these
Mississippians, but it is clear that the French, active in North America since the 1500s, first learned of
the “Mesippi” river from other Native Americans. While probably not the first Europeans to explore the
river, the 1673 expedition down the Mississippi by French explorer Louis Jolliet and Jesuit priest
Jacques Marquette marks the first documented Europeans in what became Missouri. Eight years later,
Robert de La Salle completed the exploration of the Mississippi, claiming for France the river and
everything west from the Appalachians to the Rocky Mountains, and south from Canada to the gulf
coast. In honor of his king, he named the region Louisiana.
❖
Cape Rock in the 1700s by Marilyn
Kay Singleton. The local Native
Americans meet Ensign Jean Girardot
at the location that has been known
as Cape Rock for more than two
hundred years.
COURTESY OF BANK OF AMERICA.
Chapter I ✦ 9

❖
Above: The Mound Builders.
COURTESY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
Below: Ensign Jean Girardot.
COURTESY OF THE CAPE GIRARDEAU
MURAL ASSOCIATION.
For nearly one hundred years, the French
pursued commercial and missionary interests
throughout Louisiana and the Mississippi River
valley with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
Although they founded the first two permanent
European settlements west of the river in Ste.
Genevieve and St. Louis, their focus remained
primarily on the east bank, in present day
Illinois. It was from their largest settlement in
the region, Kaskaskia, that an ensign in the
French marines struck out to establish a trading
post across the river. Around 1733, Jean
Baptiste Girardot took advantage of the river’s
potential and began doing business with area
frontiersmen and Indians near the rock
promontory extending into the Mississippi near
today’s Cape Rock. And although the soldier
moved on, the name stuck. As early as 1765,
French maps clearly show “Cape Girardot.”
Spanish conquistadors also pierced North
America in the 1540s. Hernando de Soto
explored as far north as Arkansas, although
some argue as far north as Cape Girardeau,
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado made it to
western Kansas. Although Spain found Mexico
and Peru far more profitable, and concentrated
their colonial efforts in the New World further
south, for years the Spanish sought a way to
protect this burgeoning empire from other
competing imperial European nations.
Specifically, they wanted to build a “buffer
colony” in the middle of North America to
check further French and English expansion on
the continent. For this reason, Spain welcomed
the acquisition of the Louisiana territory west of
the Mississippi from France in 1762 following
the French and Indian War.
Creating a viable colony in a largely untamed
wilderness, populated with perhaps one
10 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

thousand people concentrated in small villages
clinging to the river, was no easy task. But toward
that end, the Spanish began the first pronounced
development of the region. They organized the
territory to better administrate it, dividing it into
Lower and Upper Louisiana. They further
subdivided Upper Louisiana into five districts
running west from the river: St. Louis, St.
Charles, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, and
New Madrid. Along older wildlife and Indian
trails, the first roads connecting the districts were
established, the “El Camino Real” or “King’s
Highway.” Today, many towns along the
Mississippi, including Cape Girardeau, preserve
the tradition with streets and roads named
“Kingshighway.” Like the French, the Spanish
sought to cash in on the fur trade and gain the
loyalty of the region’s Indians with trade and the
lure of manufactured gifts.
More importantly, Spain promoted
settlement in Louisiana. French, Spanish,
Italian, German, and, later, American
immigrants were encouraged to settle in the
area, as were friendly Shawnee and Delaware
Indians, who the Spanish hoped would help
pacify the resident Osage, then fiercely
defending their land from the influx of
Europeans. As an inducement, Spain promised
generous land grants and no taxes to all who
took a loyalty oath to the Spanish crown and
❖
A map of Cape Girardeau at its
founding in 1806.
COURTESY OF THE CAPE GIRARDEAU
COUNTY ARCHIVES.
Chapter I ✦ 11

❖
Right: Don Louis Lorimier with his
consort, Charlotte, and secretary,
Barthelemi Cousin.
COURTESY OF THE CAPE GIRARDEAU
MURAL ASSOCIATION.
Below: Don Louis Lorimier’s “Red
House,” a model of which has been
recreated on South Main Street across
from Old St. Vincent’s Church.
COURTESY OF JANE JACKSON.
12 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

actually became residents in Louisiana. With
good land increasingly scarce in the east, and
the powerful lure of the frontier, thousands took
the Spanish up on their offer. By 1804, the
population of the five districts in present day
Missouri was estimated at over ten thousand,
nearly fifteen percent of whom were slaves.
Among those lured to the region was Louis
Lorimier, a French Canadian who established a
trading post on the Mississippi just south of
Girardot’s “cape.” In 1796, Lorimier received a
substantial land grant, approximately six
thousand acres, and settled near the present site
of downtown Cape Girardeau. Never fond of
Americans, Lorimier had previously operated
“Laramie’s Station” in Ohio, from which he
organized and supplied Delaware and Shawnee
raids against the Americans during the
Revolutionary War. General George Rogers
Clark struck back at Lorimier by destroying
Laramie’s Station and the surrounding Indian
villages. For these reasons Lorimier left Ohio
and brought his Delaware and Shawnee allies,
and his dislike for Americans, with him to
Spanish Louisiana.
The Spanish appointed Lorimier commandant
of the Cape Girardeau district, a position
that made him responsible for all record
keeping, law enforcement, military matters, and
Indian affairs. It also gave him a near-monopoly
on trade with keelboats heading north to
Kaskaskia with their dry goods and whisky and
those heading south to New Orleans with furs.
As more American settlers moved into the
district, Lorimier’s trading post became the
commercial, ferrying, military, political, judicial,
and social center of the region. Lorimier oversaw
the growing town from his “Red House” that he
built in 1799 near the spot now occupied by Old
St. Vincent’s Church. And although he tried
naming the trading post “Lorimont,” residents
had grown accustomed to “Girardot.”
By the time the Louisiana Purchase brought
the territory under American control in 1803,
Cape Girardeau had grown to as many as one
❖
Above: The Collot map of early Cape
Girardeau from A History of
Missouri by Louis Houck.
COURTESY OF TOM NEUMEYER.
Below: Lowering the French flag and
raising the American flag over the
Louisiana Purchase Territory.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
Chapter I ✦ 13

❖
The Lewis and Clark expedition,
which stopped in Cape Girardeau.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
thousand people, making it, and its
commandant, important enough to warrant a
stop by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
The two explorers began their remarkable
expedition west into the Louisiana Purchase in
1803, ascending the Mississippi late that fall,
arriving in Cape Girardeau on November 23.
Exhausted from the backbreaking work of
moving upstream against the Mississippi’s
current, the crew dropped Lewis off at
Lorimier’s home and trading post to make their
official introduction while Clark went on to the
site of “old Cape Girardeau” north of Cape
Rock. Perhaps Clark’s decision not to meet with
Lorimier may have had something to do with
the fact that his brother, George Rogers Clark,
had burned Lorimier out of Ohio in 1781.
Upon coming ashore, Lewis found Lorimier
and many other Cape Girardeans engaged in
one of their favorite pastimes—horse racing.
Although he was impressed by the striking
Lorimier, whose famous flowing mane of black
hair was characteristically braided into his belt,
the explorer commented in his journal that the
local citizens appeared to be a rather disorderly
and unruly lot, not unlike the “uncivilized
backwoodsmen” of Kentucky and Tennessee.
Lewis was not nearly as harsh in his judgment of
Lorimier’s daughter, Agatha, however, with
whom he seemed quite taken.
Lewis and Clark spent only one day in Cape
Girardeau, and their three weeks on the
Mississippi is an often forgotten part of what is
arguably one of the most far-reaching
explorations undertaken by the United States.
However, on the bicentennial of the Corps of
Discovery, it is important to reflect on the
invaluable experience they gained tortuously
inching their way up the Mississippi. When the
expedition headed north up the river from the
confluence with the Ohio in November 1803,
they consisted of approximately a dozen men,
and one dog. When they embarked up the
Missouri River from St. Charles in 1804, the
expedition was nearly four dozen strong.
Although a great deal of planning went into the
journey, somewhere among the islands,
towheads, and sandbars near Cape Girardeau
they must have realized, “we are going to need
more men.”
14 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

CHAPTER II
T HE C OMING OF THE S TEAMBOATS &
T HE F IRST E CONOMIC B OOM
Cape Girardeau grew slowly, painfully, and haltingly in the years before, and immediately after,
Missouri became a state in 1821. With thick forests behind it, the village, bounded by North,
William, Middle, and Water Streets, sat on a broad hill that sloped over one hundred feet into the
river when Barthelemi Cousin, Lorimier’s secretary, laid it out as a town in 1806. But if anything, the
population actually decreased and observers noted that one of the oldest communities in the region
showed signs of stagnation and neglect. In his 1819 account, Edwin James wrote that, “the town
comprises at this time about twenty log cabins, several of them in ruins, a log jail, no longer
occupied, a large unfinished brick building, falling rapidly to decay, and a small one finished and
occupied.” Although the streets crossed at right angles, James described some as being “so gullied
and torn by the rains as to be impassable, in others, overgrown with such a crop of gigantic vernonias
and urticas, as to resemble small forests.”
Several factors were to blame for this sad state of affairs. First, the Spanish land grants that had
earlier attracted settlers proved to be a nightmare to administer for the United States. Spain had
haphazardly surveyed the region and indiscriminately doled out land when it controlled the Louisiana
territory. Compounding their unsystematic system of granting land, the Spanish made the process of
securing full legal title to the land so complicated that few settlers ever bothered to get one. All of this
led to a tangled mess of overlapping claims, speculation, and fraud that took the United States and
❖
Two steamboats dock on the
Mississippi riverfront around the
turn of the century. Notice the
Coca-Cola banner.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Chapter II ✦ 15

❖
A map of Cape Girardeau in 1808.
COURTESY OF THE CAPE GIRARDEAU
COUNTY ARCHIVES.
Missouri years to sort out. And since nearly a
quarter of Cape Girardeau County property was
tied up in these confused Spanish land grants,
many prospective immigrants to the area shied
away from purchasing land to which they might
never get a clear, legal title. Likewise, the
catastrophic New Madrid earthquakes between
1811 and 1812 retarded development
throughout the entire region for years and
certainly contributed to Cape Girardeau’s
struggling condition. The reeling little river town
was further hurt by the decision to move the
county seat of the newly incorporated Cape
Girardeau County to Jackson in 1815.
But the arrival of regular riverboat traffic on
the Mississippi in the 1830s ushered in a period
of sustained prosperity, as well as commercial
and physical expansion, that lasted until the
coming of the Civil War. Peaking in the 1850s,
steamboats invigorated Cape Girardeau’s
antebellum economy and helped reestablish the
city as a regional commercial, social, judicial,
religious, and educational center. Warehouse
row along the riverfront brimmed with farmer’s
produce and local merchant’s products, some
waiting to be loaded and some freshly unloaded
from steamboats tied up at the levee. As city
boundaries pushed out from these warehouses,
Cape Girardeau published its first newspaper,
The Patriot, in 1836, held the first Southeast
Missouri District Fair in 1855, and organized
the first police department in 1859. Many of
the landmarks that would define the look of
Cape Girardeau were also built during this
era, all facing the river as a testament to the
Mississippi’s central role in the town’s founding
and development.
Perhaps this thriving Cape Girardeau was the
inspiration for Mark Twain’s description of the
fictitious Dawson’s Landing, a town one day south
of St. Louis, in his book Pudd’nhead Wilson. In the
years before the Civil War, it was, Twain wrote, a
“snug little collection of framehouses whose front
was washed by the clear waters of the great river,
16 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

❖
The land grant and plat map for
Andrew Ramsey, one of the area’s
notable pioneers.
COURTESY OF THE CAPE GIRARDEAU
COUNTY ARCHIVES.
Chapter II ✦ 17

❖
Above: Themis Street looking
west from the top of Common
Pleas Courthouse.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Below: The city’s first courthouse,
located at the corner of Themis and
Middle Streets.
COURTESY OF JIM HAMAN.
and whose body stretched rearward up a gentle
incline to the hills and forests on the west.” If the
author had Cape Girardeau in mind, he would
certainly have been familiar with several
distinctive structures among those frame houses
as well. In the growing commercial center of
town, the majestic St. Charles Hotel stood at the
southwest corner of Main and Themis. Built
between 1838 and 1844 by Joseph Lansmon, a
prominent local builder responsible for many of
Cape Girardeau’s most significant residential and
commercial buildings of the mid-nineteenth
century, the grand hotel served for years as the
social center of the town and region. Its fine
accommodations and fabulous parties attracted
folks from far and wide, including General
Ulysses S. Grant and some would say Charles
Dickens and even Mark Twain himself.
Although the St. Charles is no longer a part
of the downtown, its distinctive cupola now sits
atop another Cape Girardeau landmark built
during the heyday of the steamboats, the
Common Pleas Courthouse. Cape Girardeau
had long been the judicial center of the region,
despite Jackson’s designation as the county seat,
and in 1851 the Missouri General Assembly
located a Common Pleas Court there to handle
the area’s criminal, civil, and probate matters.
Probably built around 1854, the courthouse
proudly overlooks the downtown and river from
its perch high above Themis Street. In 1888 and
1889, the courthouse underwent a remodeling
that included the addition of wings and a
portico. By the twentieth century, the sandstone
steps leading up the hill on the east were
replaced by concrete, perhaps the first concrete
construction in the state south of St. Louis.
Other landmarks built in the steamboat era
reflect Cape Girardeau’s emerging role as a
religious and educational center. In the Spanish
years, the Catholic Church enjoyed something of
a spiritual monopoly in the territory due to laws
that initially barred Protestants from Louisiana.
18 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

Accordingly, the Franciscan, and later Vincentian,
orders dominated early religious life in the
Mississippi valley. And while the Catholic
influence remained strong in Cape Girardeau, by
the 1800s a diverse array of Protestant
denominations and other faiths had taken root in
the town, each adding their distinctive history
and architecture to the community.
Although not the first houses of worship
constructed in Cape Girardeau, St. Vincent de
Paul Church, along with St. Vincent’s College
and St. Vincent’s Young Ladies Academy,
certainly illustrate that powerful Catholic
presence. Since the 1600s, the Vincentians had
been establishing seminaries and missions in
frontier areas like southeast Missouri. In the
early 1830s, they sent Reverend John Timon to
establish a parish in Cape Girardeau for its
growing number of English-speaking Catholics.
The fledgling congregation first held services in
a warehouse by the river until a permanent
church was built in 1838. Sadly, the 1850
tornado destroyed this first St. Vincent’s, but a
beautiful Gothic cathedral was rebuilt on the
south Main Street site in 1853 and remains an
icon of Cape Girardeau architecture.
The Vincentians furthered their mission in the
region by opening St. Vincent’s College in 1838 to
prepare young men for the priesthood. Although
known as a college, and officially recognized as
such by the state of Missouri in 1843, the
institution actually functioned more as a
preparatory school for students who would
continue their seminary education at St. Mary’s of
the Barrens in Perryville. Joseph Lansmon built
practically all of the college’s riverfront campus,
including the first building in 1843, an 1853
addition that created the structure’s “L” shape, and
the signature tower between the two. The busy
Lansmon devoted years of his life to the school. In
addition to his scheduled construction projects at
the site, he made unexpected repairs in 1849 after
fifteen hundred kegs of gunpowder aboard a
steamboat exploded, blowing the seminary’s
windows out, tearing doors from their hinges, and
slightly tilting the roof. The next year Lansmon
returned once again to rebuild after the tornado
❖
Above: The Common Pleas
Courthouse, built in 1854 by Joseph
Lansmon, is still used as a seat of
justice 150 years later.
COURTESY OF TOM NEUMEYER.
Below: The old market house, behind
the Common Pleas Courthouse toward
Themis Street.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Chapter II ✦ 19

❖
Old St. Vincent’s Church reflected in
floodwater. It was erected in 1853,
replacing one destroyed by a tornado.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
that leveled St. Vincent’s Church ripped the roof
completely off the school.
For well over a century, St. Vincent’s College
educated young men from across the region and
throughout the nation. In addition to their
studies, the sequestered lifestyle at the school
instilled camaraderie among generations of
students and spawned time honored rituals,
from the annual “shell boat races” to leaving
one’s legacy on the “initial tree.” What is more,
St. Vincent is the patron saint of charity, and the
Vincentians were well known for their
hospitality and willingness to take in strangers.
For years, their college overlooking the river
20 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

gave travelers on the Mississippi an impressive
and warm welcome to Cape Girardeau.
Just to the north on Spanish Street, and also
overlooking the river, the Sisters of Loretto
operated St. Vincent’s Young Ladies Academy.
Opened the same year as the college, the
academy served as a boarding school for females
from around the region and a day school for
local girls. St. Vincent’s Academy taught young
ladies elementary to high school subjects, but
also instructed them in what was considered at
the time to be more appropriate feminine
pursuits, such as music, art, and needlework.
By the 1850s, a considerable number of
German immigrants were settling in the town,
greatly contributing to its cultural and religious
diversity. With a German language newspaper in
publication, the thriving German community
soon needed German-speaking churches as
well. The congregation of Trinity Lutheran
organized in 1854 and later built their church
on Frederick and Themis in the 1870s.
Likewise, many immigrants from the Hanover
region of Germany, who had been conducting
Lutheran services in their homes north of Cape
Girardeau as early as the 1830s, built Hanover
Lutheran Church in the 1880s. German
Methodists organized Grace Methodist
Episcopal Church in the 1850s and in the
Haarig District, along Good Hope and Sprigg
Streets, German-speaking Catholics also began
forming their own parish. After the Civil War
interrupted their efforts, the congregation finally
erected St. Mary’s Cathedral in 1868.
Outside the German community, other
denominations also formed in the antebellum
years, many erecting permanent places of worship.
Perhaps the first church built in Cape Girardeau
was the Baptist church on Lorimier Street between
Themis and Independence. Today, the steps and
separate entryways for men and women are all that
remain from this 1834 site. Methodists, who had
come to Cape Girardeau in the 1790s, built their
first church in the 1840s. Later, after the Civil War,
Southern Methodists established what became
Centenary Methodist Church. Occasional circuit
missionaries performed services for the town’s few
❖
Above: St. Vincent’s Seminary, which
opened in 1843.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Below: St. Vincent’s Academy for
Young Ladies on South Spanish Street.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Chapter II ✦ 21

❖
Above: First Presbyterian Church, at
the corner of Broadway and North
Lorimier Streets.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Below: Centenary Methodist Church,
at the corner of Bellevue and North
Ellis Streets.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Episcopalians in private homes from the 1820s
until Christ Episcopal Church was built in the
1870s. Similarly, Presbyterians began worshipping
in Cape Girardeau in the 1830s and have been at
the same Broadway and Lorimier address since
completing their first church there in 1854.
Obviously faith played an important role in
the life of antebellum Cape Girardeau. But that
faith was surely tested on November 27, 1850,
when a devastating tornado tore through the
little town. After heavy rains drenched the area
for several unseasonably warm days, what many
eyewitnesses described as a “hurricane” blew up
from the southwest part of the county. Traveling
northeast, the half-mile wide twister struck the
southern edge of Spanish Street and crossed the
river before descending on Chester, Illinois. In
no more than a couple of minutes, barns, fences,
and livestock littered the area south of Cape
Girardeau while nearly one hundred homes in
town were flattened. The tornado significantly
altered Cape Girardeau’s riverfront appearance,
laying waste to warehouses and steamboats
along the levee. The roof of St. Vincent’s College
was gone, St. Vincent’s Young Ladies Academy
was severely damaged, and St. Vincent’s Church
was decimated. Gone also was “Old Henry”
King, the black gardener at St. Vincent’s College,
who became the tragedy’s only fatality when his
small house on the campus collapsed.
The tornado opened the emotionally charged
decade of the 1850s for Cape Girardeau, the
state of Missouri, and the United States. Since
the founding of the republic, Americans sought
to hold the union together by putting off the
treacherous issue of slavery for another
generation through compromises like the one
that admitted Missouri to the Union. But the
“peculiar institution” had not gone away, and
now threatened to spread west. By the 1850s
all eyes were once again on Missouri as the
Kansas-Nebraska Act and Dred Scott decision
hardened positions and moved the nation
toward war. Yet, Missouri was not a major slave
holding state. By 1860, 114,000 slaves resided
in Missouri, but very few on large plantations.
Only 36 of the state’s 114 counties had
more than 1,000 slaves and these were
concentrated along the Missouri River and
down the Mississippi, from Ralls County in the
north to New Madrid County in the south. This
included Cape Girardeau County which had
1,047 slaves in 1830, or roughly twelve percent
of the total population.
Seven out of eight Missourians never owned
slaves though, and most people in Cape
Girardeau and across the state sought a
moderate position on the divisive issue. This
proved an increasingly difficult task. Like
Missouri as a whole, Cape Girardeau had grown
economically and culturally closer to the North,
but many still retained strong emotional
allegiance to the South. As with the tornado in
1850, Cape Girardeau found itself figuratively,
and very soon literally, torn apart.
22 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

CHAPTER III
C IVIL W AR & R ECONSTRUCTION
Missouri was a border state with slaves that, in principle, stayed with the Union. This inherent
tension established the parameters for most political, economic, and social life between 1861 and 1865.
While blue and gray armies battled across the state early and late in the Civil War, intense guerilla
fighting raged in the interim. Cape Girardeau felt its share of this strain, with the war leaving almost no
aspect of life untouched. A key strategic location along the Mississippi River and Crowley’s Ridge, the
town remained occupied by the North for most of the war. This made life hard and uncertain. The
mood and morale of the people fluctuated widely. As hard money became increasingly scarce and trade
along the river disrupted, the recently booming economy slumped for nearly a generation. Divided
sympathies tugged at the social fabric. Many of Cape Girardeau’s 2,663 citizens were European
immigrants, primarily from Germany, who tended to support the Union. Areas to the south generally
cast their lot with the Confederacy. Church congregations split and some in the community took
advantage of the circumstances a war created to revisit old feuds and settle old scores. The harsh provost
marshal system imposed by the military during the war, and the punitive treatment of southern
sympathizers by the Radical Republicans afterwards, only aggravated these ruptures. Today, Cape
Girardeau maintains monuments to both the Union and Confederacy at Courthouse Park.
When the Civil War broke out in the spring of 1861, Union and Confederate units quickly mobilized
in southeast Missouri. Confederate forces maintained an early advantage in establishing a military
presence in the region with hundreds of men joining Missouri State Guard units and volunteering for
the regular Confederate Army. By the fall, nearly 4,000 men from the 15 southeast Missouri counties
made up the First Military District of Missouri. Headquartered in Bloomfield, and led by Jeff Thompson
and other prominent politicians and lawyers, these State Guard units harassed and defied occupying
Union troops until 1863. To the south, regular Confederate forces under Gideon Pillow and William
Hardee secured the area around New Madrid and along the Missouri and Arkansas border. In addition,
countless Confederate irregulars roamed the countryside waging guerrilla war.
❖
The Riverview Hotel and the first
Frisco depot at the foot of Broadway
along Water Street.
COURTESY OF BANK OF AMERICA.
Chapter III ✦ 23

The formidable presence of three Confederate
armies in the vicinity helped the Union Army also
recruit heavily in Cape Girardeau. By July 1861,
four companies of Missouri Home Guard units
were mustered to maintain a strong military
presence in the town until regular Union troops
arrived. Almost eight hundred strong, these Home
Guard units were dominated by German
immigrants like George Thilenius. Other Cape
Girardeau men joined the Missouri State Militia,
the Missouri Volunteers, and the Enrolled Missouri
Militia, while still others volunteered for the
regular Union Army.
From a military standpoint, Cape Girardeau was
of great strategic value to both sides. The first high
ground on the Mississippi above the confluence,
and largest town on the river from St. Louis to
Memphis, it also sat atop a military road which ran
south along Crowley’s Ridge into Arkansas. But, for
the Union, military failures in central and
southwest Missouri early in the war made Cape
Girardeau, and southeast Missouri, absolutely vital.
Accordingly, federal troops occupied the town from
July 1861 to August 1865. Specific units from
states like Illinois and Wisconsin came and went
during the war, but their objectives remained the
same. First and foremost, Union troops stationed
in Cape Girardeau were to keep the river open and
defend against any Confederate invasion of the
north “by land or water.” Secondarily, from
this base of operations, they were to subdue
Confederate guerillas, pacify Confederate
sympathizers, and keep the region’s roads open.
Calling their early encampment “Camp
Frémont,” after the regional Union commander,
John C. Frémont, Union troops first moved into
the old fairgrounds around south Frederick Street.
The fair had begun in 1855 as a small farmer’s
market and venue for horse racing, but had to be
discontinued during the war when its grounds
and buildings were commandeered, and later
destroyed, by the military. By August 1861,
Ulysses S. Grant arrived by way of the river to
assume command of the district and the Union
push south. But his stay in Cape Girardeau was
short-lived. Friction between the man who would
go on to lead all Union armies and General
Benjamin Prentiss over who was actually in charge
of military operations in the area, may have
encouraged Grant to move his headquarters to
Cairo, Illinois, soon after he arrived.
Meanwhile, four permanent fortifications were
built to cover the Mississippi and all roads into
Cape Girardeau. Consisting basically of a
perimeter of earthworks and rifle pits with tents
and ammunition in the middle, the forts stood at
the four corners of the city. On the bluff at the end
of Bellevue Street, Fort A, the first fort completed,
guarded the river to the north with its artillery
pieces. Like the other three, the construction of
❖
Fort A, at the foot of Bellevue
Street, overlooking the Mississippi
and riverfront area.
COURTESY OF TOM NEUMEYER.
24 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

Fort A relied heavily on slave and free black labor.
A wind grist mill on the site, which gave it the
nickname “Windmill Hill,” probably served as a
lookout tower. It is said that southern
sympathizers were warned that in the event of a
rebel attack on Cape Girardeau, Fort A’s guns
would be fired into the town, a potentially
powerful deterrent considering many
sympathizers were property owners.
About one mile inland from the river, Fort B
occupied the high ground across from what is
today Academic Hall, on land then owned by the
Michael Dittlinger family. This site gave Fort B
clear views of the northwest portion of the city
and in particular the Perryville and Jackson
Roads, two of the main land approaches to Cape
Girardeau. To the south, at a brick kiln owned by
Joseph Lansmon and now the site of Fort Hope
Apartments, Fort C anchored the southwest part
of town. The only fort surrounded by a moat,
Fort C protected the other main land routes, the
Commerce, Bloomfield, and Gordonville Roads.
Fort D, the last and most important garrison,
overlooked the river in the southeast part of town
at today’s Giboney and Fort Streets. Certainly the
most heavily armed, Fort D contained 24- and
32-pound cannons mounted on siege carriages
that fired at least once on Confederate gunboats
during the war.
With the river and roads open and the town
secured militarily, Union forces went about trying
to pacify the disloyal element in the area. During
the war, Missouri imposed martial law statewide,
instituting the provost marshal system to serve as
the basic police power in the state. Led by the
provost marshal general, who was attached to the
military headquarters in St. Louis, district and
deputy provosts across the state were “especially
intrusted [sic] with the peace and quiet of their
respective districts, counties, and sections; and to
this end may cause the arrest and confinement of
disloyal persons, subject to the instructions and
orders of the department.” The district provost
marshal for the region set up headquarters in
Cape Girardeau’s recently completed Common
Pleas Courthouse.
Proving one’s loyalty remained a primary
function of the provost marshal system throughout
❖
Above: The Civil War Memorial
Fountain, erected in 1911 behind the
Common Pleas Courthouse along
North Lorimier Street.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
Below: The rifle pits around Fort D,
located at Giboney and Fort Streets.
Union soldiers there fired on
Confederate boats.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Chapter III ✦ 25

❖
Civil War Order Number 12.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
the war. To determine a citizen’s allegiance to the
Union, district provosts required test oaths,
performance bonds, and sometimes cash
assessments. In Cape Girardeau, all city officials,
businessmen, teachers, lawyers, jurors, railroad
officers, and anyone wishing to vote were required
to swear an oath of allegiance at the courthouse.
When guerilla warfare intensified, the district
provost eventually made the oath mandatory for
anyone in the area even remotely suspected of
disloyalty. Sometimes assumed Confederate
sympathizers were summoned to the courthouse
to post a performance bond as proof of their future
commitment to the Union cause. In extreme cases,
the provost even collected cash assessments from
all “rebels and rebel sympathizers” in the area to
help pay for property and lives lost to roaming
confederate guerilla bands.
Since the local provost handled loyalty issues
purely at their discretion, not subject to legal due
process or bound by habeas corpus, the civil
liberties of many Cape Girardeans suffered. In
extreme cases, extra-legal punishments were
doled out by the military as was the case when
soldiers hung a suspected spy just west of the
courthouse. The dungeon beneath the
courthouse, and the jail behind it, held suspected
rebel supporters, prisoners of war, guerillas,
deserters, and criminals throughout the conflict.
Often, the very hint of southern sympathy could
land innocent citizens there as well. Failure to
take the oath, or certainly violation of it, could
lead to arrest, forfeiture of one’s performance
bond, banishment, or even death. This probably
required many in Cape Girardeau to give
insincere oaths just to avoid losing life, liberty, or
property. But there were some who stood by their
principles, like the priests at St. Vincent’s College,
and simply refused to take the oath at all.
After Union troops took New Madrid in April
1862, the Civil War in southeast Missouri became
primarily a struggle for possession of Crowley’s
Ridge. Occasional skirmishes, accidental encounters,
and guerilla raids along the Bloomfield Road
between Cape Girardeau, the southernmost town
held by the Union, and Bloomfield, the
northernmost town held by the Confederacy,
punctuated the years 1862 and 1863. In one such
encounter during August 1863, Confederate
guerillas ambushed a Union supply train of nearly
thirty wagons, many horses and mules, and some
sixty soldiers west of the town of Delta. Attacked
while they slept, somewhere between 10 to 20
Federal troops were killed and all but three of their
wagons destroyed in what Unionists referred to as
the “Round Pond Massacre.” Confederate
sympathizers called it a “victory.”
Just over three months earlier, another
Confederate force skirmished with the Union
garrison at Cape Girardeau. In April 1863
Confederate Major General John Marmaduke
launched his second raid into Missouri to harass
Union forces, forage for supplies, and ultimately
gain control of the state. Taking advantage of the
diminished Federal presence in the area due to
Grant’s campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi,
Marmaduke moved his troops up from Arkansas
with General Jo Shelby leading one column
through Ripley County and General George
Carter with another column through Stoddard
County. At Bloomfield, Carter’s men encountered
a Union force under Brigadier General John
McNeil, and after a brief scrap, McNeil fell back
to his fortifications at Cape Girardeau with
26 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

Carter’s colorful cavalry in hot pursuit.
Marmaduke quickly ordered Shelby to reinforce
Carter’s advance toward Cape Girardeau.
Once in Cape Girardeau, McNeil’s army of
2,000 prepared for the arrival of nearly 5,000
Confederates converging on the town along the
Jackson and Bloomfield Roads. Expecting heavy
bombardment, McNeil ordered his men to dig in,
and for all woman and children in Cape
Girardeau to be evacuated. On Sunday morning
April 26, 1863, Marmaduke called on McNeil to
surrender the city, which McNeil curtly refused to
do. Soon after, cannon fire erupted from Fort B as
fighting broke out on the Jackson Road. For
several hours, Confederate and Union soldiers
exchanged fire along the western edge of town.
By the time federal re-enforcements arrived via
the river that afternoon, the battle was over.
Marmaduke’s men retreated to the west and
south, with Union troops harassing them nearly
every step of the way. The Confederates finally
made it to the St. Francis River at Chalk Bluff and
crossed back into the safety of Arkansas.
There is still some debate about the Battle of
Cape Girardeau. A marker on Broadway near
Caruthers commemorates the clash, but no clear
account remains of the actual events, how many
participated, the number of casualties, or even
its historical significance. Both sides can, and
do, claim at least a partial victory. And one must
choose his words carefully about exactly what to
call it, battle or skirmish, depending on the
present company. What is clear is that the fight
in Cape Girardeau in April 1863 marked the last
attempt to invade Missouri by Confederate
forces until General Sterling Price’s 1864 raid.
On that campaign, Price was stopped on his way
to St. Louis at Pilot Knob, and his retreat west
and then back into Arkansas proved to be the
final Confederate threat to the state.
❖
A military map of Cape Girardeau
shows the four forts and other features.
COURTESY OF THE CAPE GIRARDEAU
COUNTY ARCHIVES.
Chapter III ✦ 27

❖
Above: The six original public
schools—Lincoln, Washington,
Jefferson, Lorimier, Central, and
West Broadway.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Below: The city’s first public school,
Lorimier School, opened in
1872. Illustration from Wilson’s
History and Directory of
Southeast Missouri and
Southern Illinois, 1875.
Even though the last military engagement in the
city took place in the spring of 1863, the Civil War
had profound and lasting effects, both negative
and positive, on Cape Girardeau. The fighting
reversed the town’s economic fortunes and
ultimately retarded commercial growth for the rest
of the century. Shifting armies and hostilities along
the Mississippi disrupted the vital steamboat trade
just as guerilla warfare and military service slowed
the agricultural and industrial development of
southeast Missouri. These factors together help
account for Cape Girardeau’s pronounced decline
as a distribution and commercial center during
and after the war. A noticeable loss of population,
that only slowly recovered, further hindered
economic growth. Missouri as a whole lost nearly
a third of its population in the early 1860s. Those
who stayed in Cape Girardeau endured the
nagging fear of impending siege, disturbance of
civic functions, and the restrictions of martial law.
Military occupation changed the sanguine nature
of the city too, giving it a rougher and more
shadowy appearance with the added saloons,
gambling, prostitution, and arrival of the black
market. The Cape Girardeau Eagle painted a
somewhat dismal picture of the town in 1862,
professing, “The business of the place, judging
from present appearances, must have been of no
inconsiderable importance before the breaking out
of this unhappy war, which has so paralyzed
the industrial energies of this State, and turned
some of its fairest portions into a neglected
wilderness…it will take long, very long for
this country to recover from the effects of this
unholy strife.”
While the war hardened some sectional
bitterness, especially to the south of town, the
growing German influence resulted in increased
cultural depth and diversity for Cape Girardeau.
The Turnverein Hall on Broadway is a testament
to this positive effect of the war. The building that
later became the Opera House, and still later,
the Royal N’Orleans Restaurant, was originally
built by the German Turner Society, a social and
cultural organization of German immigrants. In
the late nineteenth century, this impressive
example of German vernacular style architecture
served as a social center of the German
community, hosting parties, political rallies,
weddings, and even sporting events.
Perhaps the Civil War’s most significant
enduring effect on Cape Girardeau actually came
during the post-war years of reconstruction in
Missouri. Missouri and Cape Girardeau politics
had been dominated by conservative Democrats
since the time of Andrew Jackson, but from 1864
to 1872 the radical wing of the Republican Party
seized control of the state. Like Radical
Republicans who came to power across the former
Confederacy after the war, Missouri Radicals
sought to “reconstruct” the “southern element” in
the state, but also advance their progressive
postwar vision of economic growth and social
progress for both whites and the newly freedmen.
And although their vindictiveness toward those
they considered disloyal ultimately brought them
down, the legacy of Radical Republican rule is
rich in Cape Girardeau.
28 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

The establishment of one of Missouri’s first
Freedmen’s Bureaus in Cape Girardeau by the
Radical Republicans in 1865 attracted many
African Americans to town. Created in the former
slave states to facilitate the adjustment of blacks
into freedom, the Freedmen’s Bureau supplied
food, shelter, and clothing to African Americans.
In addition, it helped start schools, legalized
marriages, and arranged for labor contracts. The
Freedmen’s Bureau served as a catalyst for the
further development of the free black population
in Cape Girardeau, a community that had already
formed the St. James African Methodist Episcopal
Church by 1863. This local congregation of the
national AME church, founded in the antebellum
years by blacks denied the ability to worship in
white churches, built their present house of
worship in 1875 and it has remained the heart of
the African-American community in Cape
Girardeau ever since.
Another area of progressive Radical
Republican leadership, public education,
impacted the history of Cape Girardeau in a
decidedly positive way. Believing public schools
helped break down class distinctions, aided
immigrant assimilation, trained valuable citizens,
and promoted social mobility, Radicals laid the
foundation for a comprehensive free public
school system in Missouri. Their 1865 state
constitution and subsequent legislation created a
state board of education, established a funding
plan that included state and local tax support,
and formed the state’s normal school system.
By 1870, the number of schools, and
students, in Missouri nearly doubled, but the
transition to public education was far from
painless. In places like Cape Girardeau, the timehonored
“southern attitude” concerning
education persisted. Preferring to send their
children to academies like St. Vincent’s and
Trinity Lutheran School or private subscription
schools, many folks considered free public
education a “Yankee idea,” nothing more than a
state philanthropy paid for by their taxes. Vocal
opponents, mostly businessmen, fought mightily
against establishing such a system in town.
Senator George H. Greene, considered the
“Father of Cape Girardeau’s Public School
System,” rallied support for the cause however,
and pushed for an election to decide on a tax
supported public school in 1867. But even after
voters approved a bond issue to build Cape
Girardeau’s first public school, almost five years
passed before Lorimier School, on Independence
Street where City Hall is today, finally opened.
On the first day of school in September 1872,
armed supporters scuffled with die-hard enemies
of public education on the steps of the building.
As Cape Girardeau’s public education system
grew slowly in the latter half of the nineteenth
century, with Greene serving as the first board of
education president and his daughter, May
Greene, teaching in the schools, the re-written
Missouri constitution called for separate schools to
be established for “children of African descent.” In
Cape Girardeau, the school system remained
segregated until 1955. A former slave from
Tennessee, John Cobb, took the lead in educating
the town’s African-American students. Cobb
taught, and later served as principal of Lincoln
School, for almost forty years. Out of respect and
admiration, the African-American community in
the 1930s renamed the school, built in 1890 on
Merriwether Street, The John Cobb School.
The Radical Republican education system also
located normal schools around the state to train
teachers for the newly created public schools.
Since it was necessary to distribute these schools
geographically across Missouri, much debate arose
regarding where exactly to place the one for the
southeast region. After earlier efforts to bolster
Cape Girardeau’s failing economy by attracting a
❖
John Cobb, a former slave,
promoted education for African-
American students and became
principal at Lincoln School.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR REGIONAL HISTORY.
Chapter III ✦ 29

❖
Above: Congressman William Duncan
Vandiver of Cape Girardeau coined
the state’s “Show Me” motto.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
Below: Academic Hall, built in
1875. This illustration appeared in
Wilson’s History and Directory of
Southeast Missouri and Southern
Illinois, 1875.
state prison failed, prominent local businessmen
and politicians, including lawyer and developer
Louis Houck, lobbied the state to establish the
area’s normal school in town instead. In one of the
most important events in the city’s history, the local
group outbid rivals from the Arcadia Valley, and
during an informal meeting in the lobby of the St.
Charles Hotel in October 1873, finally convinced
lawmakers to designate Cape Girardeau as the
home of the Third District Normal School. Later
that same year the state legislature made it official.
For the first years, classes were held at Lorimier
School, while construction progressed on a
permanent institution at the site of old Fort B on
the hill north of town. In April 1875 the first
Academic Hall, an eclectic mix of Victorian era
architecture designed by the St. Louis architect
J. B. Clarke, opened as the self-contained campus
of what was informally known as Southeast
Missouri Normal School.
While the locals teasingly referred to it as “an
old maid factory” because the vast majority of
students were young women who were often later
required to stay unmarried while teaching in
country one-room schoolhouses, it can be said that
the inconspicuous little school helped give birth to
Missouri’s signature slogan. Before becoming a
United States Congressman in 1896, Willard
Duncan Vandiver served as president of Southeast
Missouri Normal School during the 1890s. As the
story goes, during a speech in Philadelphia,
Congressman Vandiver proclaimed, “I come from a
state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs
and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither
convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri.
You have got to show me.” In his folksy manner,
the one-time Cape Girardean succinctly articulated
the state’s distinctive character for the rest of the
nation: plain, straightforward, no-nonsense,
pragmatic, unpretentious, and demanding of
something with substance.
30 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

CHAPTER IV
A TWENTIETH C ENTURY T OWN:
T HE B OOM Y EARS, 1906-1931
In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Cape Girardeau languished, an isolated and
economically depressed river town. Though the city boundaries continued to push out gradually
from the Mississippi, to roughly Minnesota Street on the west, New Madrid and Amethyst in the
north, and today’s Southern Expressway in the south, the population increased only slightly. In 1870,
3,585 individuals called Cape Girardeau home, in 1880, 3,889, and by 1890 only 4,297. The river
still connected the town to the larger world, but that lifeline was becoming uncertain as the age of
the steamboats passed and their economic benefits diminished. For one, steamboat travel along the
Mississippi remained painfully slow compared to the roaring locomotives. At the time of the Civil
War it took twenty-two hours to reach St. Louis and twelve hours to get back. The river also tied
Cape Girardeau into national economic boom and bust cycles that brought hard times in 1873 and
1893, reshuffling Cape Girardeau’s commercial deck each time. The town tried its hand at railroad
building, but that failure only left the community in debt and without a line of its own. The Normal
School also declined. No wonder Louis Houck’s first choice to boost the area economy had been a
state prison. At least, in Houck’s mind, the enrollment would be steady.
In spite of this, by the turn of the twentieth century, nothing short of an economic revolution swept
across the United States and Missouri. Industrialization, in the form of thousands of centralized factories
❖
The riverfront at the foot of Broadway
along Water Street.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Chapter IV ✦ 31

churning out machine-made, mass-produced
goods in every shape and size, transformed the
American economy and laid the roots of modern
industrial capitalism. The railroads were the
prime engine driving the revolution, not only
physically linking the continent, but also
integrating local businessmen and farmers into a
national market economy. Producing for
potentially millions worldwide, instead of just
thousands locally, the size and shape of Missouri’s
economy expanded dramatically. Hungry for
labor, the state’s population tripled between 1860
and 1900, with Kansas City and St. Louis the
prime beneficiaries. Mines in southeast and
southwest Missouri furnished nearly eighty
percent of the nation’s lead and zinc by 1900
while mills in the bootheel and Ozarks sawed
lumber at an amazing rate. The value of Missouri’s
agricultural output swelled from $96 million in
1879 to $953 million in 1919, just as the value of
the state’s manufacturing rose from $165 million
to $1.5 billion.
Cape Girardeau tapped into this economic
revolution, and another try at building a railroad
did it. Trains revitalized the town, reversed its
generation-long malaise, and re-established it as
a regional center. At the same time that logging
and the Little River Drainage District were
making “Swampeast Missouri” land productive,
the railroad positioned Cape Girardeau as the
transportation, distribution, and service hub
❖
Above: North Main Street toward
Broadway. A street vendor offers Red
Hot Frankfurters for 5¢.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Right: The steamer Cape Girardeau,
the third and last of the steamboats
named for the city.
COURTESY OF JIM HAMAN.
32 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

❖
Left: Roberts, Johnson, and Rand Shoe
Factory on North Main Street.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Below: The Himmelberger-Harrison
office building, at Broadway and
North Fountain Streets.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
connecting the entire region to the growing
national market. From roughly 1906, when the
boom began in earnest, until the opening years of
the Great Depression in 1931, Cape Girardeau’s
re-emergence as a regional center fueled the most
dramatic period of growth, expansion, and
development in the city’s long history.
The population surged from 4,815 in 1900, to
8,475 in 1910, and to 10,252 by 1920. After the
rebuilding of Academic Hall silenced talk about
moving the normal school away from town, the
student population at Southeast Missouri State
Teacher’s College, as it was officially designated in
1919, increased nearly eightfold. The city limits
also stretched with the annexation of the Red Star
and Smelterville neighborhoods. Many of the
construction projects between 1906 and 1931
gave Cape Girardeau much of its modern
commercial and residential architecture including
the Marquette and Idan-Ha Hotels; Red Star,
Centenary and First Baptist Churches; the
Himmelberger and Harrison Building; Carnegie
Library; Broadway Theater; Farmers and
Merchants Bank; old St. Francis and Southeast
Missouri Hospitals; the International Shoe factory;
JCPenney; Montgomery Ward; Hechts; the
Marquette Cement plant; Sunset neighborhood;
and Mississippi River traffic bridge. Likewise,
besides Academic Hall, construction on the
campus produced the Science Building, Houck
Chapter IV ✦ 33

❖
Above: Leming Lumber Mill, along
Aquamsi Street in South Cape.
COURTESY OF JIM HAMAN.
Below: The Fire and Police Station,
Independence Street at North
Frederick Street. Horses Joe and Alex
pulled the fire wagon.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Field House and Stadium, and Manual Training
Building. The public school system expanded as
well with the additions of Washington, Jefferson,
Lincoln, May Greene, and Franklin Schools.
The boom era also brought many “firsts” to
Cape Girardeau such as the first mail carrier
service in 1903; street cars in 1905; regular
electric, water, and gas service by 1906; sewers in
1909; an automobile accident that same year; and
concrete streets and side walks in 1912, followed
by a concrete flood wall in 1915 to name just a
few. For good measure, Cape Girardeau also gave
Missouri its official state flag, designed and
created by the town’s own Marie Watkins Oliver.
34 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

❖
Left: The Edward Hely Crushed
Stone plant.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
Below: Workers installing sanitary
sewer lines.
COURTESY OF ROGER LANG.
The coming of the “Houck Lines,” as
railroads in the area were locally known, marks
one of the most significant events in Cape
Girardeau’s history. No single force changed the
lives of Cape Girardeans in the last years of the
nineteenth century more than the railroad. The
“iron horse” replaced the river boats as the
central feature of Cape Girardeau’s economy
and began a symbolic turning away from the
river that lasted over a century. Stimulating
commercial development, it also dramatically
altered notions of time, space, and distance.
Cape Girardeau’s long, strange trip in railroad
building bears a striking resemblance to that of
Missouri as a whole: a tangled web of corruption,
mismanagement, state generosity, controversy,
reorganization, and inconsistent development.
Following Missouri’s highly suspect practice of
using state money to bail out bankrupt private
railroads after the Civil War, the burden of funding
railroad construction fell to county and municipal
governments by the 1870s. Since railroads meant
economic life or death to small towns like Cape
Girardeau, fierce competition erupted between
communities seeking to attract a line through their
town. Many local governments sold millions of
dollars in bonds to finance often unscrupulous, or
incompetent, railroad developers, who more often
than not never completed their work as promised.
Bitter struggles broke out across the state, both
physical and legal, in towns where railroad
development left taxpayers saddled with millions
Chapter IV ✦ 35

❖
Right: Federal Building on Broadway
at Fountain Street, razed in the 1960s
for the current building.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Below: The interior of the power plant
on North Main Street.
COURTESY OF ROGER LANG.
in debt and still no railroad. According to historian
William Parrish, by the end of 1870, Missourians
had paid $16,626 per mile for the 1,540 miles of
track in the state.
Desperate to acquire a spur on the St. Louis
and Iron Mountain Railroad, Cape Girardeau was
also burned by their first experience in railroad
development. After the railroad bypassed the city,
36 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

unning its line through Delta instead, voters in
1869 approved $150,000 in bonds to build a
connecting line. These bonds were turned over to
the owners of the Cape Girardeau and State Line
Railroad Company, which, for a variety of reasons,
laid very little track. Angry county taxpayers
refused to pay for services not rendered, and
defaulted on the bonds. It eventually took Cape
Girardeau County until 1919 to pay off the last of
these railroad bonds, and then only after special
legislation allowed the proceeds from local saloon
licenses to be used for that purpose.
Into this fray stepped Louis Houck, the
colorful local lawyer, entrepreneur, developer,
philanthropist, historian, and would-be railroad
builder. Convinced that railroad development
held the key to the economic future of Cape
Girardeau and southeast Missouri, the savvy
renaissance man devised a plan to jumpstart the
stalled Cape Girardeau and State Line Railroad
Company while making money for himself. In
the summer of 1880, Houck struck a simple
deal with the owners of the defunct local
railroad. If he, Houck, could complete the
remaining fifteen miles of track to connect Cape
Girardeau to the Iron Mountain line in Delta, he
would get clear title to the railroad’s properties
after the mortgage was paid off. The only catch:
all work had to be completed by January 1,
1881, less than five months away. Short of
money, supplies, and time, Houck had another
major obstacle to overcome, he knew virtually
nothing about railroads. Undaunted, Houck
took leave of his law practice, bought four
books about railroad engineering, and started
laying track toward Cape Girardeau. Working
fast and furiously, Houck overcame each of his
obstacles to meet the deadline. Down the
stretch, when a lack of supplies threatened the
whole operation, Houck even cheated a bit,
instructing his men to take up track they had
already laid behind them and re-lay it in front of
them. It worked. At 2:00 a.m. on January 1,
1881, Houck’s first train rolled into Cape
Girardeau from Delta, right on schedule.
From the 1880s to the 1920s, Louis Houck
constructed roughly five hundred more miles of
❖
Above: The city’s new water plant
was erected on Cape Rock Drive
during the Depression. It was
expanded in 2003.
PHOTOGRAPH BY GORDON NEUMEYER.
Below: Local entrepreneur
Louis Houck.
COURTESY OF JIM HAMAN.
Chapter IV ✦ 37

❖
Right: A train derailment, which was
a common occurrence on the Houck
railroad line.
COURTESY OF JIM HAMAN.
Below: The Houck Railroad Depot on
Independence Street at Middle Street.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
track in southeast Missouri from the Arkansas line
to St. Francis County. In time, his little empire,
headquartered at the stone depot on
Independence Street, consisted of three networks.
By 1900 his Missouri and Arkansas line connected
various shorter lines south of town into one
railroad system, while the Cape Girardeau and
Northern line expanded into Perry County in
1905. To help tie into larger lines across the
Mississippi, Houck also operated a railroad
transfer boat between Cape Girardeau and Illinois
with specially built inclines on each bank for
loading railroad cars and ferrying them across.
Many small towns in the region got their start
along these Houck Lines, and he often named
them after employees and backers, such as
Zalma, Laflin, Blomeyer, and Perkins.
The Houck Lines faced numerous legal,
financial, and logistical challenges over the years
which only served to enhance his folk hero
status among southeast Missourians. In his
eagerness to complete railroads quickly and
cheaply, and owing to his own lack of
experience in engineering, Houck’s railroads
were legendary for their shoddy quality and
frequent derailments. In evaluating Houck’s
work, the 1891 Annual Report of the Railroad
and Warehouse Commissioners of Missouri
described one particular stretch of track that
“was known locally as the ‘peavine’ because it
38 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

was so crooked, and sometimes for days at a
time there would be no trains, because the one
engine and coach would jump the track…. At
one place just south of Benton, Houck had
felled two trees and laid them across a small
creek, building his track on this structure
instead of the regulation trestle. This caused the
track to rise up in order to get on the trestle, and
we recall the warning which the conductor
always gave the passengers: ‘Look out, she’s
going to jump!’ in order that they might prepare
themselves for the sudden change in the
roadbed.” But make no mistake, these
adventurous Houck Lines were the major
impetus for the region’s population, agricultural,
lumbering, and commercial growth, and for
making Cape Girardeau the center of it all.
The Houck Lines also attracted the attention
of the era’s “robber barons” like Jay Gould, who
tried unsuccessfully to buy Louis Houck out
over the years. Finally, Houck did sell his
interest in the lines through Cape Girardeau to
the Frisco Railroad in 1902.
The relationship between the Frisco and
Cape Girardeau proved stormy, with broken
deals, relocations, and lawsuits, but the town
continued to prosper along the Frisco’s main
line. In fact, one can point to the arrival of
Frisco’s regular passenger train service in 1904
as the event that perhaps more than anything
helped launch Cape Girardeau’s boom years.
The Frisco Railroad also contributed to the
architecture of the downtown. As part of their
franchise agreement in the 1910s, the railroad
maintained shops and offices in the city. They
also built the first flood wall in 1915 and a
passenger depot on South Main Street in 1921.
This beautiful new depot, replacing the older
one on the east side of Water Street near the
Broadway intersection, featured gardens at each
end with a promenade along the seawall and
new fangled electric lighting. Later, in 1927, the
Missouri Pacific Railroad bought Houck’s Cape
Girardeau and Northern lines and built their
freight depot at Frederick and Independence.
Passenger train service lasted for over sixty
years in Cape Girardeau, hitting its peak in the
1920s and 1930s before ceasing for good in the
1960s. Some of the city’s railroad track actually
ran down the middle of Independence Street.
But trains were not the only vehicles moving
Cape Girardeans along tracks in the street.
Beginning in 1905, electric street car lines
❖
Above: A streetcar turning from
Broadway onto North Main Street in
front of the Boston Grocery.
COURTESY OF JIM HAMAN.
Below: The Frisco Railway Station
was built along South Main Street by
local contractor J. W. Gerhardt.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Chapter IV ✦ 39

❖
Above: Edward Regenhardt, who
built Academic Hall and other
buildings on campus.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
Below: Academic Hall, built by
Edward Regenhardt in 1905 for less
than $200,000.
COURTESY OF TOM NEUMEYER.
operated around the “big square”: Broadway to
Sprigg to Good Hope to Spanish, and back.
Following the path first plied by the “muley
cars” of the 1890s, the electric street cars
eventually extended out to make “the loop”:
Broadway to Henderson, Normal, West End,
William, Good Hope, Spanish, Independence,
Main, and back to Broadway. The tree-lined
boulevards along Normal and West End are all
that remain of this chapter in Cape Girardeau’s
growth as a twentieth century city.
Besides the railroad, another key, but often
overlooked, ingredient in Cape Girardeau’s
economic revolution involved the
reconstruction of Academic Hall in 1905.
Another one of the town’s most significant
events, the decision to rebuild Academic Hall
after it was destroyed by fire affirmed the city
and state’s commitment to the Normal School
system in general and to Cape Girardeau as the
permanent location of the region’s college.
When old Academic Hall burned on April 7,
1902, virtually wiping out the school as the
building housed nearly all its operations, talk
resumed about moving the Normal School to
the Arcadia Valley or Farmington. Faced with
the very real prospect of losing the institution,
the swift leadership of the school’s president,
Washington Dearmont, and the political
initiative of newly elected State Representative
R. B. Oliver secured nearly $250,000 from the
state General Assembly to rebuild. This
appropriation, thought to be the largest in state
history for education at that time, covered
$200,000 for the actual reconstruction and a
little over $46,000 for staffing and maintenance.
The Southeast Missouri Normal School would
stay put in Cape Girardeau.
In the summer of 1903, local builder Edward
Regenhardt began work on architect J. B. Legg’s
ambitious neo-classical design. Combining
elements of Greek and Roman architecture,
obviously influenced by the Chicago and newly
completed St. Louis World’s Fairs, the new
Academic Hall soon rose up from the ashes of
40 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

the old using limestone quarried on the site and
other area quarries. Though hard feelings
developed between Regenhardt and President
Dearmont during construction, resulting in the
builder never getting his due credit, the result of
their collaboration remains impressive. Costing
slightly less than Regenhardt’s original bid of
$174,840, Academic Hall opened for a huge
public inspection in December 1905. The state
accepted it the next month, at the time the
largest public building in Missouri. Just as it
does today, the magnificent dome of Academic
Hall dominated Cape Girardeau’s changing
landscape, standing as a beacon of higher
education across all of southeast Missouri.
Three years later, on Academic Hall’s grand
steps, President William Howard Taft further
solidified Cape Girardeau’s status as a regional
focal point. The first sitting president to visit the
city came as part of a sixteen boat flotilla
carrying cabinet members, senators,
congressmen, and governors down the
Mississippi to bring awareness to the need for
deepening the river’s channel. The entire
community mobilized for Taft’s arrival on
October 26, 1909, with Regenhardt chairing the
President’s Day organizing committee. The
Frisco scheduled special excursion trains to
bring crowds of people in from across the
region, the town commissioned a special
commemorative badge, and the Miller Brothers
Wild West Show, in Cape Girardeau for a
performance, agreed to provide horses for the
president’s parade from the river to festivities at
Academic Hall. In the wee hours of the morning
on October 26, Cape Girardeau Bell Telephone
Company gave the signal that the president’s
flotilla, which included the packet boat Cape
Girardeau, had passed Neely’s Landing and was
headed toward Cape Girardeau. By the time
President Taft made it ashore at 6:00 a.m., nearly
twenty-five thousand people lined the streets to
get a glimpse of the President as he made his way
to the Normal School: an impressive turn out for
a town of just over eight thousand. On the steps
of Academic Hall, Missouri Governor Herbert
Hadley introduced the president, who spoke
briefly and planted an elm tree on campus. Taft
told the huge crowd that he would always
remember the beautiful sunrise over Cape
Girardeau that morning. He also good naturedly
commented that this occasion marked the only
time he had ever shared a platform with a man
larger than himself. The over three-hundredpound
Taft, the heaviest man to ever occupy
the White House, was referring to the equally
rotund Regenhardt.
While President Taft entertained southeast
Missouri, workers undertook a mammoth
engineering project to the south that would
❖
President Taft’s flotilla leaving Cape
Girardeau October 26, 1909 after his
visit to the city.
COURTESY OF TOM NEUMEYER.
Chapter IV ✦ 41

evolutionize the region. The Little River
Drainage District, the largest project of its kind
in the world, drained over one million acres of
swamp and wetland in the bootheel and within a
generation turned it into one of the most
productive agricultural regions of the state, if not
the nation. With the Ozark foothills in the north,
the Benton-Commerce hills and Sikeston Ridge
to the east, and Crowley’s Ridge to the west, the
bootheel region of Missouri is a natural catch
basin for the overflow of the Mississippi and the
streams, creeks, and rivers to the north. This
phenomenon left the region with rich and fertile
land. But nearly impenetrable cypress and
hardwood swamps covered over ninety percent
of “Swampeast Missouri,” making the land
unsuitable for agriculture. In the late 1800s, land
in the bootheel went for just a few cents an acre
and its lack of productivity impeded the region’s
economic development. There had been talk of
draining the swamps before 1900, but aside
from a few individual efforts, little had been
accomplished until the Little River Drainage
District incorporated in 1907. The project,
headquartered in Cape Girardeau, grew out of
efforts by lumber companies, large landowners,
real estate speculators, and outside investors
committed to promoting transportation,
lumbering, and commercial farming in the
region. Chief among these were the lumber
companies, many times also the largest
landowners, who were looking for a southern
source of timber after the construction of the first
dam on the Mississippi at Keokuk, Iowa, ended
the log runs down river from the north.
Actual construction on the Little River
Drainage District began in 1914. Some of the
brightest engineering minds in the country
oversaw the work, including Otto Kochtitsky,
the district’s first chief engineer, and others who
had worked on the recently completed Panama
Canal. Taking advantage of the natural
boundaries, the massive project drains the
bootheel using an elaborate network of ditches,
canals, and levees. First, a forty-five mile
headwater diversion channel extends from
Bollinger County east to the Mississippi River.
As the name implies, the channel protects
southeast Missouri from water running off the
Ozark foothills by diverting it into the river
below Cape Girardeau. A levee and three
holding basins north of the diversion channel
make sure that no water enters the region from
the north. Below the diversion channel, the
lower district then drains the bootheel through
a series of parallel floodway ditches.
The statistics are impressive. At an original
construction cost of $11.1 million, the drainage
system runs some one hundred miles long, from
Cape Girardeau to the Arkansas line, and is ten
to twenty miles wide. There are 957 miles of
ditches and 304 miles of levees. Between 1914
and 1928, when initial construction concluded,
electric and steam draglines, floating dredge
boats, and back breaking labor moved over one
million cubic yards of earth, more than the
Panama Canal. Said to be the largest privately
financed drainage project in the world, the
district today encompasses 540,000 acres over
seven counties, but drains 1.2 million acres,
some as far north as Fredericktown.
The results are even more impressive. Before
the project, less than ten percent of the region’s
land was cleared of swamps. Afterwards, nearly
❖
Swamplands south of the city prior to
being drained. The Little River
Drainage District project is the largest
of its kind in the world.
COURTESY OF LITTLE RIVER DRAINAGE DISTRICT.
42 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

ninety-six percent was clear and relatively free
of water. Lumber companies quickly deforested
the region and by the 1920s the introduction of
cotton accelerated the economic and population
growth of the bootheel. Between 1890 and
1910, the overall population of the region
swelled by ninety-five percent, with
communities like Caruthersville growing from
203 to almost 4,000, and Kennett from 302 to
nearly 3,000. The Little River Drainage District
remade “Swampeast Missouri” into one of
the most productive areas of the state, and no
town benefited from the makeover more than
Cape Girardeau.
Well positioned as the transportation,
educational, and commercial center of a now
vibrant region, Cape Girardeau prospered as
never before. Along the increasingly concrete
streets of the downtown area that ran parallel to
the river along Main and Water, and in the
Haarig District around Good Hope and Sprigg, a
healthy array of businesses thrived: warehouses,
steamboat lines, mills, hardware stores, bakeries,
confectionary shops, blacksmiths and harness
makers, breweries, cobblers, tobacco merchants
and cigar makers, automobile dealers, furniture
stores, haberdashers, barber shops, grocers,
saloons, mercantiles, and small factories.
The economic boom years of 1906 to 1931
nurtured a growing and increasingly diversified
economy in Cape Girardeau, as some older
industries declined and new ones took shape.
Mills, historically one of Cape Girardeau’s
earliest and leading industries dating back to
Lorimier, continued strong until after World
War I with the largest being the Union Milling
Company on north Water Street and the
Planters Mill on Main and Independence.
Lumber mills, such as the Leming mill on the
river near the present dry docks, took advantage
of increased demand in the construction and
farm implement industries and the ample
supply of timber in the newly drained swamps.
The Himmelberger-Harrison Lumber Company
actually operated their mill in Morehouse,
Missouri, but moved the corporate offices to
their H&H Building on Broadway in 1907. The
H&H Building also housed the corporate offices
of the Little River Drainage District.
To the south of the city, the Cape Girardeau
Portland Cement Company, brought to town by
❖
Above: Basin construction in 1925.
Between 1914 and 1928, the Little
River Drainage District moved more
Southeast Missouri earth than the
Panama Canal construction.
COURTESY OF THE LITTLE RIVER
DRAINAGE DISTRICT.
Below: Workers preparing to pave
Main Street.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Chapter IV ✦ 43

❖
A street musician on Good Hope
Street in the Haarig neighborhood.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
William Harrison of Himmelberger-Harrison
Lumber, operated a plant on a site rich in native
limestone. By the 1920s, the plant, the second
largest employer in town, was sold to the
Marquette Cement Manufacturing Company
which ran it for almost sixty years. Several
quarries, such as Dittlingers, the site of presentday
Houck Stadium, produced limestone for
projects ranging from the Washington Monument
in Washington, D.C., to Academic Hall. River
sand dredged by the Cape Girardeau Sand
Company also fueled the local boom. While
shipping some of their sand away, much of it went
into constructing the city’s buildings, streets, and
eventually Highways 67, 61, and I-55.
Several distributors quenched the thirst of
Cape Girardeau, like the Green Tree Brewery
and Cape City Bottling Works, while other
businesses, such as the Pure Ice Company and
Riverside Ice and Fuel, kept those libations
cold. The Cape Brewery and Ice Company did
both. I. Ben Miller ran a mini-ice cream empire
downtown. Not satisfied with just running the
first electrified ice cream plant between St. Louis
and Memphis, Miller expanded into dairy
farming too, operating the Lila Drew Farm
(named after his daughters) on north Sprigg.
Less delicious, but still highly profitable, the
International Shoe Company, formally the
Roberts, Johnson, and Rand Shoe Company,
turned out Red Star Shoes for its parent
company in St. Louis. The neighborhood
around the factory, which employed almost
fourteen hundred people by 1931, the largest
single employer in Cape Girardeau, probably
took its name from the footware.
No fewer than six hotels, some quite grand,
accommodated travelers, railroad employees, and
permanent boarders in the bustling downtown
area. Like the St. Charles Hotel at Main and
Themis, the newly “modernized” Riverview
Hotel, at the intersection of Broadway and Water
across from one of the first Frisco passenger
depots, stood as a city landmark recognizable
from both the river and the rails. A beautiful
example of French-influenced Second Empire
architecture, the Riverview burned in a 1916 fire
that wiped out the crowded commercial area on
both sides of Broadway between Water and Main.
The fire, the worst in the history of Cape
Girardeau, originated in the Houck Building,
which housed Buckner-Ragsdales, jumped
Broadway, and then destroyed the Riverview and
Terminal Hotels, a couple of saloons, and several
other businesses. A decade later and a few blocks
to the west, the majestic Marquette Hotel, opened
in response to an increase in automobile travel to
the city in the 1920s. Capturing Cape Girardeau’s
Spanish heritage in its architecture, the six-story,
eighty-room hotel took its name from the
Marquette Cement Company in honor of their
considerable role in booming the town.
Developing alongside the downtown, the
Haarig District flourished as a more easily
accessible commercial, social, and residential hub
for the working-class population living in the
southwest part of town near Good Hope and
Sprigg Streets. Germans had been concentrating
in the area since the antebellum years, and
although there is some disagreement on its exact
origins—either a town in Germany or an
unusually hairy early settler—it is from them that
the name Haarig came. By the late nineteenth
century a noticeable number of African
Americans moved into the district, attracted by
work at nearby Hely’s Quarry. To serve the
increasingly diverse population, a wide variety of
businesses opened in the area. Breweries and
saloons multiplied. Saloons in particular held a
central place in the life of Haarig, providing an
assortment of goods and services ranging from
public toilets, clean water, food, warmth, check
44 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

cashing, mail pickup, employment information,
gossip, and female companionship. Many of the
businesses were “mom and pop” enterprises,
while others, like the Farmers and Merchants
Bank, Orpheum Theater, and Hirsch Brothers
Store, were more substantial. In fact, Hirsch
Brothers, in the heart of Haarig at the corner of
Good Hope and Sprigg, operated the first
exclusive grocery store in the city and remained a
fixture in Cape Girardeau for nearly a century.
The Haarig District also served as the medical
center for the entire region until the 1920s thanks
to St. Francis Hospital. The hospital opened its
modest doors in 1875 under the direction of
three Franciscan sisters—Philomena, Engelberta,
and Felicitas. From their original twelve-bed log
structure, St. Francis steadily expanded its
services and facilities at the northwest corner of
Sprigg and William between 1879 and 1914. The
statue of St. Francis currently located in the
fountain at the present hospital watched over
these endeavors. In 1914, faced with a rapidly
growing population and periodic epidemics, the
only regional hospital outside of Cairo, Illinois,
❖
Above: Looking east along Good Hope
Street from South Sprigg Street.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Below: St. Francis Hospital, built in
1914 on Good Hope Street.
COURTESY OF TOM NEUMEYER.
Chapter IV ✦ 45

❖
Sturdivant Bank, on North Main
Street at Themis Street.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
built a larger, state-of-the-art facility on the site of
the Civil War Fort C. Moving to this new Good
Hope location spurred continued expansion and
growth for St. Francis Hospital in terms of staff,
patients, and services including the addition of a
pathology lab, obstetric ward, x-ray department,
orthopedics unit, and by the end of the 1920s an
ear, nose, and throat center.
A burgeoning economy like Cape Girardeau’s
required banks to transact the city’s business. The
Sturdivant Bank, one of the oldest and most
important in the region, and the First National
Bank helped anchor local commerce from their
offices on Main Street. In the Haarig District, the
Farmers and Merchants Bank on Good Hope
steadily established itself. In the fluid market, a
number of banks and savings and loans were
incorporated only to be absorbed into stronger
institutions. For instance, the Southeast Missouri
Trust Company, with offices in the H&H Building,
bought out the German-American State Bank. But
after changing its name to the Bank of Southeast
Missouri in the late 1920s, the institution faltered
at the onset of the Depression and gave up control
to the more established Sturdivant Bank.
The Southeast Missourian, Cape Girardeau’s
first sustained newspaper, kept track of these
financial matters and other important community
goings-on. Throughout the nineteenth century,
papers came and went, usually with a decidedly
political bent. But in 1904, brothers George and
Fred Naeter bought the defunct local newspaper
and began printing the Daily Republican. As the
paper got off the ground, the Naeters, joined by a
third brother Harry, had a difficult time finding a
permanent home for it. Forced to leave their
original location in the Opera House on
Broadway, because the presses drowned out the
performances, they moved operations several
times before taking up their current residence in
a Spanish-revival style building on Broadway in
1925. By that time the paper had undergone two
name changes, first renamed the Cape Girardeau
Southeast Missourian in 1918, and later shortened
to the now familiar Southeast Missourian in 1923.
The Cape Girardeau Commercial Club made
headlines during these boom years tirelessly
promoting the city. Founded in 1888 to attract
business to the area and support better
government, the civic organization changed its
46 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

❖
Left: Linotype machine operators at
Southeast Missourian newspaper.
COURTESY OF JIM HAMAN.
Below: The construction of the
Mississippi River Bridge coincided
with the disastrous 1927 flood.
COURTESY OF ROGER LANG.
Chapter IV ✦ 47

❖
The construction of the Mississippi
River Bridge concluded in 1928 at a
cost of $1.6 million.
COURTESY OF ROGER LANG.
name to the present Chamber of Commerce in
1926. Over the years the Chamber played an
instrumental role in bringing such vital
industries as the Frisco and Missouri Pacific
Railroads and International Shoe Company to
town. In addition to the jobs and tax revenues
generated from their efforts, the Chamber also
served as a catalyst for ideas and projects for the
improvement of the city ranging from the
building of the Marquette, expanding city
services, and the construction of good roads.
Looking to capitalize on the awesome
economic potential of automobile traffic and
tourism by the 1920s, the Chamber of
Commerce also led the campaign for the
Mississippi River traffic bridge. Construction of
the bridge began in early 1927, the same year as
Charles Lindbergh’s famous flight and one of
the worst floods in the history of the Mississippi
valley. Hundreds of men of various nationalities
descended on the area looking for work and
even during these years of prohibition, they
proved a rough and colorful bunch when not on
the job. When the $1.6-million structure
opened in 1928, erected in slightly more than
one year, it was one of only seventy-five bridges
across the river at the time. Billed as the
“Gateway to the Ozarks,” more importantly it
was also the only traffic bridge between St.
Louis and Memphis. This put Cape Girardeau in
an advantageous position. Not only would
tolls conceivably pay off the bonds and city
investments spent on construction, it was
assumed that some of the millions of automobiles
plying the nation’s new highways would
drive right into the Haarig District and maybe
bring needed revenue.
The Mississippi River traffic bridge proved to
be the last piece of the puzzle for Cape
Girardeau’s economic resurgence in the years
1906 to 1931. The first quarter of the twentieth
century had seen an amazing comeback, from
depressed and isolated to the undisputed
transportation, education, and commercial
heart of southeast Missouri and southern
Illinois. Although few probably recognized it at
the time, the bridge also heralded a new
direction for Cape Girardeau. While it
undoubtedly maintained the community’s
historic tie to the river, the bridge brought with
it the modern era of the automobile. For the rest
of the twentieth century, the city would turn
away from the Mississippi and look west to the
concrete highways.
48 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

CHAPTER V
G ROWING P AINS: LIFE & CULTURE IN THE T WENTIES
Just as the city matured economically, Cape Girardeau also came of age culturally and socially
during the decade of the 1920s. New libraries, schools, hospitals, neighborhoods, recreations, and
civic institutions accompanied the move west as the town committed itself to matching commercial
progress with community development. In 1922 the last Carnegie Library in the United States opened
on a corner of Courthouse Park, giving Cape Girardeau its first significant and permanent public
library. The culmination of years of hard work to build a library befitting the city, much of it by
women’s groups such as the Wednesday Club which played a vital role in the enhancement of life in
the community for a hundred years, the Carnegie Library housed thousands of books purchased
mainly through local donations.
Six years later, a second hospital began caring for Cape Girardeans on the hill overlooking the
fairgrounds. Southeast Missouri Hospital satisfied the need for a non-denominational, not-for-profit
hospital to take care of a population that continued to grow by another thirty-eight percent in the
1920s. Construction was financed in part by selling residential lots to the public in the picturesque
Sunset Terrace area surrounding the hospital.
Cape Girardeau forged its modern appearance and identity during the 1920s. But there was a great
deal of tension. Like the nation as a whole, the town found itself torn between two centuries and
asking the basic question, “Who are we?” On one hand, the twentieth century and the powerful
forces of modernization, technology, automobiles, popular culture, and changing lifestyles beckoned.
Was Cape Girardeau fast becoming the region’s modern cultural and entertainment center on top of
❖
A biplane barnstorms over the
clubhouse at Fairground (now
Capaha) Park.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Chapter V ✦ 49

❖
Right: Carnegie Library opened in
1922 along North Lorimier Street
behind the Common Pleas
Courthouse. It was the last Carnegie
library built in the U.S.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Below: Southeast Hospital was built
on farm land on the west edge of town
in 1928.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
being its commercial and transportation core?
On the other hand, the nineteenth century and
the powerful forces of tradition, rural
family values, religion, and morality remained
very comforting. Was Cape Girardeau at
heart still a small, isolated, southern river
town? These questions had been asked since the
late nineteenth century, but the rapid economic
and physical growth of the early twentieth
century forced the issue. Drawn to the
responsibility of being a modern regional hub,
but insecure in that role, the town struggled
to reconcile its identity crisis in the 1920s,
a process that in large measure continues into
the twenty-first century.
Cape Girardeau roared during “the Twenties”
as the forces of modernization plugged the city
into an electrifying mass national culture based
on consumption, leisure, and amusement. The
automobile was central to this new way of life.
In 1900 people got their first look at a gasoline
powered car in Cape Girardeau, within a few
years they were everywhere. By 1915, 76,000
cars motored around the state of Missouri, by
1920 297,000, and by 1930 there were
762,000. Nationally, 26 million cars were on the
road at the end of the 1920s. Fred Groves sold
the first Ford Model T’s in Cape Girardeau from
his showroom in the H&H Building. But soon
he, and Ford, faced stiff competition from
50 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

Overland, Maxwell, Chrysler, Chevrolet,
Oldsmobile, Essex, Hupmobile, Buick, EMF
Flander, RCH White Steamer, Stutz Bear Cat,
Metz, and Pierce Arrow. In response to the new
problem of automobile traffic, Cape Girardeau
passed ordinances designating the right side of
every road for car travel, requiring drivers to
honk at all intersections, and setting the speed
limit at 12 m.p.h. on all city streets and 9 m.p.h.
around corners.
❖
Above: Switchboard operators working
in the Southeast Missouri Telephone
Company office on Broadway at
North Ellis Street.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
Left: Groves Ford was located on
North Sprigg Street at Themis Street
for many years.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
Chapter V ✦ 51

❖
Crew members from Regenhardt
Construction prepare a roadbed
for paving.
COURTESY OF ROGER LANG.
More cars demanded better roads and an
integrated highway system. In 1920, few
Missouri roads were hard surface, and most
streets in Cape Girardeau were still dirt or
cobblestone. Although the Cape Girardeau
Special Road District had been coordinating the
construction and maintenance of county roads
since 1912, only three macadam roads led out
of town: the toll road to Jackson that started on
Pacific and Broadway and went all the way to
Burfordville; the Scott County Road which
headed south out of town from Sprigg; and the
old Bloomfield Road. Across southeast Missouri,
roads made driving an adventure. In hilly areas
where roads were semi-solid and graveled,
enormous pot holes devoured wheels and axles
while dust blinded drivers in dry weather and
mud sucked them down when it rained. In
sandy areas deep parallel ruts replaced potholes
as the major obstacle. It is said that on these
roads an industrious driver could simply turn
loose of the wheel and let the grooves guide the
wheels for the remainder of the trip.
But the federal, state, and local governments
were committed to building a system of hard
surface city and farm-to-market roads that
would be integrated into a national highway
system. Spurred by the Federal Highway Act of
1916 and the grassroots “Get Missouri Out of
the Mud” campaign led by the Missouri Good
Roads Federation, the state spent $125 million
on road construction and maintenance between
1923 and 1928. Although fully half of all state
expenditures over that time, it was money well
spent. During the 1920s, Missouri created a
modern statewide highway system, where
thousands of miles of hard surface roads linked
every county, and a state highway department
supervised it.
From the Chamber of Commerce to the city’s
bicyclists, many in Cape Girardeau worked
diligently to secure good roads. Two in
52 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

particular are of note: the Reverend James A.
Murtaugh and Dennis Scivally. Murtaugh, of
St. Vincent’s College, took the lead in early
efforts to pave all of Main Street and ultimately
extend it to the growing highway system south
of town. His vision of a parkway did not
materialize, but because of him, the city paved
Main Street south of Independence. This
allowed for improved travel downtown, but
also allowed parishioners at St. Vincent’s to
finally use the front doors of the church instead
of the side doors they had used for years
to avoid tracking in mud. A monument to
the community-minded priest at Murtaugh
Park is a reminder of his contributions and
proposed parkway. Scivally left an even larger
legacy. After serving the county as its first
highway engineer, Scivally worked for the new
state highway department as the project
engineer for Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Scott,
and Wayne Counties from 1920 to 1930.
Among his many contributions to Cape
❖
Above: The tollgate bridge over Cape
LaCroix Creek on Rock Levee Road,
now South Sprigg Street.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Below: The Ten Mile Rose Garden on
Kingshighway was initiated by county
highway engineer Dennis Scivally.
COURTESY OF TOM NEUMEYER.
Chapter V ✦ 53

❖
Above: Oscar Hirsch, founder of
KFVS radio in the 1920s and
television in the 1950s.
COURTESY OF MARGIE HIRSCH DEIMUND.
Below: The new Broadway
Theater opened December 24, 1921.
A newsreel highlights the
Sulphur Springs train wreck in
Jefferson County.
COURTESY OF JIM HAMAN.
Girardeau’s roads and parks, Scivally developed
Cape Rock Drive, Cape Rock Park, and the Ten
Mile Rose Garden between Cape Girardeau and
Jackson. He too is remembered with a park,
albeit much larger than Murtaugh’s.
Through these and other efforts, the city’s
streets became paved, as did many county
roads. By 1925, Routes 25, 9 (later Highway
61), and 74, all hard surface roads, crisscrossed
the county. The paved Federal Highway 61
connected Cape Girardeau to St. Louis and by
mid-century became the major route between
Minneapolis and New Orleans. The impact of
the automobile and highways proved dramatic.
In addition to complicating law enforcement
and challenging the railroads, automobility
stimulated local construction and revenue in the
form of roadside businesses such as gas stations,
restaurants, road houses, hotels, and tourist
courts. It also brought new people, new tastes,
and new ideas to town.
Another powerful force of modernization
shaping Cape Girardeau in the 1920s, mass
media, specifically advertising, radio, and motion
pictures integrated locals into America’s
developing mass culture. Lured by advertisements
promising everything from sex appeal to
longevity, Cape Girardeans patronized national
chain stores like Montgomery Ward, F. W.
Woolworth Company, known locally as just the
“dime store,” and JCPenney. Perhaps more than
anything though, radio helped break down social
isolation and exposed the town to American
popular culture, spreading not only advertising,
but music, news, and slang. Radio began in
Missouri in the early 1920s in Jefferson City,
Kansas City, St. Louis, and Columbia, and came to
Cape Girardeau in 1925 by way of Oscar C.
Hirsch’s living room.
Hirsch, considered the father of media in the
region, learned to operate radios in World War I
and after studying electronics, opened the Hirsch
Battery and Radio Company in Cape Girardeau.
Grasping the amazing potential of the new
medium, the visionary Hirsch built a transmitter
at his house on Frederick Street and applied for a
radio broadcasting license. His homemade
station, KFVS, went on the air in July 1925 with a
live broadcast of local musician “Peg” Meyer’s
orchestra. Reversing the terminals on the speakers
to make a microphone, Hirsch’s first broadcast
reached radios as far away as Kelso. From those
humble beginnings, Hirsch’s media empire grew.
Moving out of his house, the KFVS studios
relocated to the H&H Building and the mezzanine
floor of the Marquette Hotel before settling in
their Broadway Street location in 1928. After the
transmitter on KFVS hill along Highway 61 went
up in 1930, the station’s range improved
considerably from that first broadcast, even
reaching ships in the Atlantic Ocean when
weather conditions were just right. Hirsch later
started other radio stations in Illinois and
Missouri, but KFVS remained Cape Girardeau’s
54 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

only commercial radio station for twenty-seven
years, establishing the town as the media focal
point of the region.
Motion pictures strengthened that position
while further drawing Cape Girardeau into the
popular culture of the times. Like many smaller
towns where the first movies were shown in
makeshift venues before full-size theaters could
be built, Cape Girardeau glimpsed its first
“moving picture” at a downtown nickelodeon in
1907. Shortly thereafter, the modest Dreamland
Theater opened on Main. By the 1920s,
hundreds of Cape Girardeans thrilled each week
to celluloid heroes such as Rudolph Valentino,
John Barrymore, Lillian Gish, and Clara Bow at
their own small-town versions of big city “movie
palaces.” From the Broadway Theater, which
opened with Valentino’s The Sheik in 1921, to
the Orpheum in Haarig, the first in Cape
Girardeau to show “talkies” starting in 1927, the
town supported a surprising number of theaters
in the early years of motion pictures, including
the Park, Grand, Royal, Lyric, Gem, and later
Rialto and Esquire. Given Missouri’s racial
sensibilities at the time, some of these theaters
had sections for African Americans, but the
Black Masonic Hall on Sprigg operated its own
theater for a while as well.
The 1920s are known as the “Jazz Age”
because this uniquely American form of music
played as the soundtrack for a generation of
younger people committed to kicking up their
heels and having fun. Often their celebration of
music and youth came over the loud objections
of parents who found the new music risqué and
bawdy. Missouri played a central role in the
history of jazz music, in particular St. Louis and
Kansas City, where legendary performers like
Bennie Moton, Ma Rainey, and later Count Basie
flourished in the wide-open town. But Cape
Girardeau and southeast Missouri nourished a
thriving jazz scene of its own. Led by talented
local musicians like Raymond “Peg” Meyer and
Jess Stacy, who played together in bands such as
The Agony Four and Peg Meyer’s Melody Kings,
young Cape Girardeans reveled to the new
sound of “riverboat jazz.” Gyrating and
swinging wherever and whenever they could,
jazz became a way of life, with the dance floors
at the fairground’s Clubhouse, West End Hall,
Idan-Ha Hotel, Elk’s Hall, and Cape Girardeau
Country Club filled nearly every weekend. In
this era before air conditioning and nightclubs,
many towns in the region also held open-air
dances under the stars in sometimes rather
secluded rural spots. These remote locations
❖
The Rialto Theater, featuring Bob
Hope and Virginia Mayo in The
Princess and the Pirate.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
Chapter V ✦ 55

❖
Above: Peg Meyer’s Original Melody
Kings Orchestra played on riverboats
and throughout the area.
COURTESY OF ROGER LANG.
Below: Schuchert Concert Band, May
10, 1901, in a horse-drawn wagon.
COURTESY OF JIM HAMAN.
attracted countless young revelers, often
unchaperoned in their parent’s cars, and gained
the sites names like the probably much deserved
“Mother’s Worry.”
The twentieth century undoubtedly changed
Cape Girardeau. There were now more exciting
places to go, interesting people to see, and
stimulating things to do. But for many Cape
Girardeans this was not such a good thing. Like
many rural Americans clinging to tradition in the
1920s, they longed for the Cape Girardeau of the
nineteenth century—a little river town with a
slightly slower pace, a little less bustle, and a lot
fewer modern seductions. Perhaps nowhere
was this more evident than in the excitement
generated every Wednesday and Saturday when
the packet boats docked on the levee.
Although the railroads dominated Cape
Girardeau’s boom years, steam-powered packet
boats remained a part of every river town’s
commercial and social life in the first quarter of
the twentieth century. With names like the
56 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

Tennessee Belle, Piasa, and Cape Girardeau,
packet boats still hauled a share of the region’s
freight, livestock, mail, merchandise, cotton,
produce, and passengers. And their regular
comings and goings continued to set the normal
routine along Cape Girardeau’s levee. During the
packet boat season, ships from the Eagle Packet
Company left St. Louis headed south on
Tuesdays and Fridays at 5:00 p.m. That usually
put them in Cape Girardeau around 10:00 a.m.
the next morning. Each packet boat announced
its arrival with its own distinctive signal, a
combination of long and short blasts from the
steam whistle. Eagle packets, for instance, were
known for their two long and three short blasts
upon landing and one long whistle when
departing. These signals, heard all over town,
sent merchants and citizens swarming to the
levee to pick up merchandise, greet passengers,
or simply enjoy the spectacle.
After tying the big boats up at the steel rings
embedded in the levee’s cobblestone,
“roustabouts” jumped off the gangplanks to
unload merchandise stacked on the first deck
and load local produce and commodities
waiting for them by the river. These
roustabouts, most always African-American men
hired in St. Louis, sang as they worked and
since few could read, created an elaborate
system of nicknames for local merchants to help
them remember what cargo went where. Calling
out names like “Oh My,” “Mike and Ike,” “Dirty
Shirt,” and “Sloppy Molly,” roustabouts knew
that “Sky Rocket,” for instance, meant the John
Scortino Fruit Store and they would deliver that
freight accordingly. Amongst the crates and
bundles, the curious milled about to check out
what new merchandise local stores would soon
be offering and if their neighbors had made any
major purchases. Within three hours of
docking, the packet boats shoved off and
headed south again toward Commerce,
Missouri, and Thebes, Illinois.
As many as six packet boats could be tied
to the levee at any time, including those offering
excursions. Most river cities offered excursion
boat service during the summer, giving the
wealthier populace the opportunity for
sightseeing during the day and dancing at night.
Like the freighters, excursion boats announced
their presence loudly, but with a festive calliope
and multi-colored lights along the decks
instead of a whistle. In a carnival-like
atmosphere, the riverfront teamed with
humanity whenever the huge vessels arrived.
The sound of orchestra music, or increasingly
“riverboat jazz,” wafted across the downtown
while passengers in their Sunday best clamored
to get on board so they could wave from the top
deck to those less fortunate who were left
behind. There was something almost quaint and
comforting about scenes like this by the 1920s,
harking back to a bygone era in Cape
Girardeau’s history. Though still popular, the
❖
The Cape Girardeau, Tennessee
Belle, and Bald Eagle steamboats
dock together on the riverfront.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Chapter V ✦ 57

❖
The municipal swimming pool at the
Fairground (now Capaha) Park was
replaced in 1960.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
packet boats were quickly disappearing, giving
way to the onrush of the twentieth century.
The last of the packets ceased operations in
the 1930s.
Other forces of tradition remained strong in
Cape Girardeau. National prohibition, in part a
reaction to immense European immigration,
found many supporters in town. It sure made
life for the brewers and saloon keepers in the
Haarig District difficult though. Likewise, Cape
Girardeans embraced the religious revival
underway in the United States. Condemning
excessive materialism and modern values, not to
mention the local dance halls and open-air
parties that created unsavory environments for
young girls, local churches waged a concerted
campaign to save souls and combat the wages of
sin. New congregations of the Assembly of God
and Church of the Nazarene formed while
traveling preachers frequently came to town to
spread the word. All paled in comparison to the
arrival of Billy Sunday, the most renowned
evangelist of his day. For five weeks in the
spring of 1926, the Cape Girardeau Ministerial
Alliance hosted Sunday in a specially
constructed “tabernacle” on the corner of
Bellevue and Middle Streets. Billy Sunday filled
the wooden hall’s five thousand seats day after
day. It is estimated that 250,000 souls came to
hear him all together, including 20,000 on his
grand Easter Sunday finale. After moving on to
the next town, Sunday drew lavish praise for
helping to clean up Cape Girardeau and
increase local church membership.
Still another comforting force of simpler rural
life thrived in Cape Girardeau: the Southeast
Missouri District Fair. While other traditional
forms of entertainment in rural Missouri, such
as vaudeville, political gatherings, box suppers,
literary societies, trials, hangings, and
Chautauquas, faded in the twentieth century,
the annual district fair actually grew. After
suffering a bumpy period after the Civil War,
including a brief relocation to a site south of the
Gordonville Road and financial troubles, the fair
moved at the turn of the century to forty acres
that is now Capaha Park. The newly formed
Cape Girardeau County Fair and Park
Association christened the new location
Fairground Park and set about building a
grandstand, a pavilion for displaying crafts,
music, baked goods, and flowers, a
sulky track, baseball diamond, pond, and a
clubhouse overlooking the pond. The city
eventually purchased the park from the
association in 1915 and leased it to the
Chamber of Commerce to continue the fair.
Though hard economic times in the 1930s
interrupted the Southeast Missouri District Fair,
its years at Fairground Park reveal a very real
desire in Cape Girardeau to hang onto and
preserve a more uncomplicated, slower, and
perhaps more meaningful way of life in the face
of rapid economic and social change.
58 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

CHAPTER VI
F LOODS & C ONTROL, DEPRESSION & P ROGRAMS,
W AR & CHANGE
Similar to the 1850 tornado that seemed to foreshadow the devastation of the Civil War, in 1927
the greatest natural disaster in American history served as both a harbinger of the coming Great
Depression and the federal response to that economic calamity. During the “Great Flood of 1927,”
the swollen Mississippi River overwhelmed levees throughout the lower Mississippi valley, leaving
thousands of acres across parts of seven states, including Missouri, underwater. The merciless flood
paralyzed agriculture and commerce in the region, leaving some 700,000 Americans homeless while
killing as many as 1,000 from drowning, disease, and exposure.
Like so many river towns in the Mississippi valley, the 1927 flood besieged Cape Girardeau. The
community had long understood the dual nature of its relationship with the river. While the
Mississippi had given birth to the town and made it a regional center, the river inflicted serious damage
on a regular basis. But like the economic hard times of the next decade, the force of the 1927 flood
was unprecedented, ravaging the areas north of the shoe factory, downtown, and to the south around
Smelterville. And even though citizens tried to persevere behind a small sea wall, sand bags, plank
boardwalks, and boat taxis, the flood crippled travel, wiped out businesses, and bankrupted owners.
As a result of this tragedy, the response of the federal government was equally unprecedented. In
1928, Congress authorized the Jadwin Plan, later known as the Mississippi River and Tributaries
Project, which set up comprehensive flood control plans and gave the Army Corps of Engineers firm
responsibility for managing the Mississippi River. Correcting the mistakes of the discredited “levees
❖
A fisherman shows off his catch near
the Frisco Depot on South Main Street
during a flood.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Chapter VI ✦ 59

❖
Above: Several youngsters float along
South Main Street in front of the F. W.
Woolworth’s 5 & 10 Store.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Below: Three fishermen display their
catch of the day at the corner of South
Main and Independence Streets in the
April 1922 flood.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
only” policy that had dominated previous flood
control thinking, the Jadwin Plan initiated the
construction of a system of levees, floodways and
various control structures, channel stabilization
and improvements, as well as upgrades to
tributary basins along the Mississippi from Cape
Girardeau to New Orleans. With subsequent
Flood Control Acts, the Jadwin Plan began a new
era of flood protection and improved navigation
on the Mississippi River.
But just one year later, in November 1929,
the stock market crash set off a ripple effect that
unleashed a new catastrophe: the Great
Depression. Missouri experienced the economic
tragedy and human misery felt by the rest of the
nation during the nearly decade-long decline.
Almost every segment of the state’s economy
crumbled, leading to hunger, cold, material
want, shock, bewilderment, anguish, and
emotional strain. Unemployment in Missouri
reached a staggering thirty-eight percent in the
darkest year, 1933, and was well above the
national average of twenty-five. Mining virtually
stopped in the Lead Belt region while the state’s
60 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

❖
Top: A paddle wheeler and a
locomotive at the foot of Themis Street
during a flood.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Middle: Young folks venture across a
frozen Mississippi River.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR REGIONAL HISTORY.
Bottom: A Frisco train plows
through the 1909 floodwaters along
the riverfront.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Chapter VI ✦ 61

manufacturing fell from $777 million in 1929 to
$383 million in 1933. Retail sales evaporated by
fifty percent, and more than three hundred
banks in the state failed. Bootheel farmers
waited in vain for prices to rise while sweltering
in the heat and intense droughts of 1930, 1934,
and 1936. When not praying for rain, they
battled swarms of grasshoppers. Only eight
percent of Missouri farms had running water
and precious few had electricity.
Yet even without a dominant political figure
to shield them, like Tom Pendergast’s political
machine that kept Kansas City above water with
massive public works programs, comparatively
speaking, Cape Girardeau fared much better
than the state as a whole. The rapid commercial
expansion that began in 1906 carried over into
the early years of the Great Depression and more
or less sustained Cape Girardeau’s economy
through the rest of the 1930s. The city was not
completely untouched however. The economic
boom certainly ended and population growth
leveled off. At the onset of the Depression
16,227 persons resided in the city, in 1940
19,426. The First National Bank and Farmers
and Merchants Bank survived, but the venerable
old Sturdivant Bank, organized in 1866, did
not. To help pay off mounting debts, the
Mississippi River Bridge was sold to a company
in Ohio. At Southeast Missouri Hospital, the
Depression brought an increase in “charity
cases” and left the institution in default of its
bonded indebtedness. After requests to the
county court and Missouri Baptist Hospital to
assume control failed, the hospital worked out a
deal to pay only on the interest still owed. This,
along with creative community efforts, kept the
hospital afloat during lean years. The Southeast
Missouri District Fair shut down between 1929
and 1939. Still, the continued draining of the
swamps and sheer economic momentum kept
unemployment at bay. And while Cape
Girardeans survived the Great Depression by
cutting back, making due, and trying to keep up
appearances, the most severe aspects of the
national disaster were less pronounced.
In 1932 the crippled nation turned to a man
in a wheelchair to lead them, electing Franklin
Delano Roosevelt based on his charisma and
promise of a “New Deal” for the country. In a
testament to how hard the Depression hit
Missouri, the state gave Roosevelt the biggest
election victory in its history. Over one million
Missourians went to the polls in 1932,
including 14,000 in Cape Girardeau County, a
record turnout in both places up to that time.
Virtually every identifiable political faction in
Missouri voted for Roosevelt and the
Democrats, with the party carrying all but seven
Missouri counties, including fourteen that had
never voted for a Democratic presidential
candidate before. Only Roosevelt’s home state of
❖
The Works Progress Administration
built a stone building and recreated
the earthworks at Fort D in 1936.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
62 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

New York gave the president a higher margin of
victory. In Cape Girardeau County, Roosevelt
outpolled the Republican Herbert Hoover 8,394
to 5,796, becoming the first Democratic
presidential candidate to carry the county since
Woodrow Wilson in 1912.
Missouri participated in most of the major
New Deal initiatives—an alphabet soup of
organizations like the RFC, FERA, NRA, PWA,
WPA, AAA, CCC, and FSA—with most directly
touching Cape Girardeau. The state supported
an early New Deal initiative, the repeal of
Prohibition, voting 503,000 to 156,000 for the
twenty-first amendment to the constitution.
Anheuser-Busch, in St. Louis, swiftly reclaimed
its title as the country’s largest brewery, even
sending Roosevelt a case of Budweiser beer to
say thank you. Local brewers and saloon
keepers, in the Haarig District particularly, got
back into the beer business as well after years of
being “creative” with what they poured.
Hundreds of Cape Girardeans found
employment during the Depression thanks to
several New Deal work programs. The Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC) enrolled over
102,000 young men statewide and put many of
them to work in southeast Missouri planting
millions of trees and creating state parks and
national forests like the Mark Twain. The Public
Works Administration (PWA) supplied federal
money to complete local roads, sewer lines, and
public buildings. The 1937 construction of new
Lorimier School, which has served since 1978 as
Cape Girardeau City Hall, used PWA funds and
labor. PWA workers also built Kent Library on
the college campus. Completed in 1939, the new
library could not be named for Sadie T. Kent, the
school’s long-time librarian, until after the PWA
disbanded during World War II because of the
federal agency’s regulation against naming a
building after living people. A renovation in the
1960s gave the library a “modern” appearance,
but the top of the original structure is still visible
above the present façade.
The Works Progress Administration (WPA)
also paid out millions to put Missourians back
to work constructing various public buildings,
restoring historic structures, painting murals
like the one in the Jackson post office, and
writing books such as the historical Missouri: A
Guide to the Show Me State. The local Louis K.
Juden Post of the American Legion took
advantage of WPA funds to recreate the earth
works surrounding Fort D and erect the stone
meeting house there in 1936. Likewise, the
WPA built the stone Campster School on
Bloomfield Road and produced the terracing at
Courthouse Park. Long a community meeting
place from the time of Lorimier, the area around
the courthouse occupies a distinctive footnote
in Cape Girardeau’s Depression experience.
During the 1930s, a small number of Americans
toyed with socialism and more radical solutions
to the apparent failure of industrial capitalism.
❖
Campster School was erected in
1940 by the Works Progress
Administration on Bloomfield
Road, west of Cape Girardeau.
COURTESY OF JIM HARMAN.
Chapter VI ✦ 63

❖
Above: The Works Progress
Administration built the Art Deco-
Style Arena Building from 1939 to
1940. It was one of several WPA
projects in the area.
PHOTOGRAPH BY GORDON NEUMEYER.
Below: Completed in 1940 by the
Works Progress Administration, the
Arena Building and Arena Park
projects converted a dump and a
landfill into a beautiful park.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
While never numbering more than a handful, a
group in Cape Girardeau gathered for a time on
weekends at Courthouse Park to listen to H. H.
Lewis, the self-professed “Poet Laureate of the
Bootheel,” and other like-minded socialists
discuss alternative politics.
Far more recognizable to most, the Ten Mile
Rose Garden between Jackson and Cape
Girardeau was also maintained by the WPA in
the late 1930s, about the time the city adopted
the rose as its official flower. Several other PWA
and WPA projects improved navigation on the
Mississippi River, including the development of
a series of low dams and locks along with a
nine-foot channel above St. Louis, and the
continual removal of snags by dredging. One of
the largest WPA projects in the state—the Arena
Building and surrounding Arena Park—turned
what until recently had been a landfill and
dump into the new home of the Southeast
Missouri District Fair by 1940. After a fire
destroyed the clubhouse at Fairground Park, the
moribund Fair Association, in collaboration
with the city and county, purchased the new
land at Arena Park and contracted with the WPA
to lay out and build the new fairgrounds there.
The move invigorated the fair and after another
brief interruption during World War II, the
64 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

❖
Left: A World War II vintage postcard
extends greetings from Harris Field,
which was used for Navy training. It
evolved into the Cape Girardeau
Regional Airport.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Below: College Navy V-12
participants as shown in the 1944
Sagamore college yearbook.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
district fair has run continuously every year at
Arena Park since 1944. Interestingly, the
clubhouse fire also led to the construction of the
B’Nai Israel Synagogue on Main Street in 1937
after Cape Girardeau’s Jewish community, who
had been meeting in the clubhouse, lost
everything in the blaze.
The New Deal’s Agricultural Adjustment Act
(AAA) impacted the region’s farmers with its
allotment program that paid them to not grow,
but the Farm Security Administration (FSA)
probably took the most active role in regard to
agriculture in the bootheel. The FSA placed a
great deal of emphasis on helping the region’s
rural poor including the development of La
Forge, an experimental bi-racial farming and
living cooperative in New Madrid County. The
La Forge community improved the standard of
living for hundreds of dispossessed bootheel
farmers, but because it was integrated,
opposition to it grew. At the same time that La
Forge came under fire, many bootheel
landowners were cashing their AAA allotment
checks for not planting and evicting the poor
sharecroppers who worked their land without
passing any of the government’s money on to
them. The condition of the region’s destitute
sharecroppers became critical by the late 1930s
and led to one of the most poignant events in
the entire history of the American Great
Depression: the bootheel sharecropper’s strike
of 1939. In one of the few instances of
Chapter VI ✦ 65

❖
A Navy V-12 participant and friend
enjoy a social affair on the college
campus, as shown in the 1944
Sagamore college yearbook.
organized protest by farmers nationwide during
the Depression, 250 area sharecropper families,
both black and white, camped along Missouri
Highways 60 and 61 near Sikeston in January
1939 to call attention to their atrocious living
conditions and recent evictions. Led by Owen
Whitfield, a sharecropper and minister, the
protesters, over one thousand strong including
men, women, and children, endured bitter
winter conditions, the threat of Jim Crow
violence, and government intervention to make
their powerful and dignified statement. In the
end, the sharecropper’s strike made national
news, gaining the attention of First Lady Eleanor
Roosevelt and compelling the FSA to build ten
segregated communities for the displaced
workers called Delmo homes.
From that December morning in 1941 when
Cape Girardeau’s own Lloyd Dale Clippard died
aboard the USS Utah in Pearl Harbor to that
September day in 1945 when Japan signed a
formal surrender aboard the battleship USS
Missouri, the United States was locked in the
mortal combat of World War II. A global
watershed event in human history, the Second
World War brought important political,
economic, and social changes to the United
States. And because no battles were fought here,
but rather in the hearts and minds of the people,
Americans experienced the “Good War” in
countless personal ways.
Hundreds of Cape Girardeans, men and
women, spent World War II in the service, many
overseas in the European and Pacific theaters
where youthful enthusiasm gave way to grim
determination. Those left on the home front
witnessed the United States harness the might of
the republic for total war and felt a unity and
singleness of purpose as Americans not matched
even by the Revolution. Like those in every
town across the land, Cape Girardeans bore the
cost of the war in their daily lives. Some moved
away to big cities and the lure of jobs in the
defense industry, never to return. Families
waited to hear from loved ones in the military
and over seventy in Cape Girardeau County,
with names like Bohnsack, Burgfeld, Landgraf,
Southard, and Vandivort, felt the terrible
sting of loss when bad news arrived from a
far away battlefield. Everyone rationed
fuel, tires, and food for the war effort, with
many raising Victory Gardens. Young women
danced with dashing pilots training at nearby
Harris Field. Some invited the flyers home for
dinner occasionally and in a few instances even
agreed to marry them. People bought war
66 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

❖
Above: A banner headline announces
the beginning of the end of World
War II with the D-Day Invasion on
June 4, 1944.
COURTESY OF MARY NEUMEYER..
Left: Pearl Harbor survivor Melvin
Bacon of Cape Girardeau, with John
“Doc” Yallaly, places a memorial
wreath in the river during Pearl
Harbor Day in 2002. Bacon was
stationed on the USS Utah.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM NEUMEYER.
Chapter VI ✦ 67

❖
The White Cross Company, which
manufactured surgical dressings at
its South Aquamsi Street facility,
urged buying war bonds in this
WWII-era advertisement.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
bonds, a number of which were donated to
Southeast Missouri Hospital to help raise much
needed funds. The town as a whole felt
comforted by the guards stationed at the
Mississippi River traffic bridge and diversion
channel. Due to wartime travel restrictions,
Cape Girardeau even got a taste of major league
baseball when the St. Louis Browns held spring
training at the new Arena Park instead of Florida
in 1944, the year they won their first and only
American League championship.
Although World War II lifted the nation out
of the Depression, the war years were actually a
period of relatively sluggish economic growth in
Cape Girardeau. The population grew at its
slowest rate since the 1880s and 1890s as
material and labor became increasingly scarce.
With no major political figure in the region to
bring in big government defense contracts, one
of the largest areas in the nation without one,
Cape Girardeau did not really benefit from the
billions of dollars spent by the federal
government during the war. A cargo ship, the SS
Cape Girardeau was launched in 1943 and took
part in the D-Day invasion under a British flag,
but it had been constructed in California.
One modest wartime contract did pay big
dividends for Cape Girardeau though. Since
Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 trans-Atlantic flight,
and subsequent interest in commercial aviation,
there had been talk in Cape Girardeau about
establishing an airport. World War II finally got
it off the ground. In 1940, Clyde and Ralph
Primo and Howard Hawkins relocated the
Consolidated School of Aviation from East St.
Louis to farmland along Highway 74, giving
Cape Girardeau its first private commercial
airport with small-scale passenger service.
During the war, Consolidated trained pilots for
Civil Pilot Training and the Naval Reserve. In
1942 the Army opened another flight training
base in Cape Girardeau for both civilian
and Army Air Corp pilots. At its height
during the war, the fifty-three acre Harris Field
housed over 1,000 planes and 40 buildings
including barracks, a mess hall, infirmary,
PX, and hangars. Before closing in the spring of
1944, Harris Field trained some 2,500 pilots
for service.
After World War II, support grew for a
municipal airport in Cape Girardeau.
Accordingly, the Chamber of Commerce and
other concerned citizens led a campaign that
culminated in voters approving a bond issue in
1947 to purchase and renovate the largely
unused Harris Field. Consolidated School of
Aviation moved to Harris Field and took over
operations of the new endeavor that same year.
Some of the hangars were immediately rented
to area Reserve and National Guard units for
use as armories, while other major improvements
helped lay the foundation of what
became Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport in
the postwar years.
68 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

CHAPTER VII
Y EARS OF T RANSITION: T HE 1950S , ’60S & ’70S
In the years after World War II, Americans pursued the good life. But they did so under the
constant shadow of a communist threat. This Cold War reality hit home for Missourians in particular
because one of their own, Harry S. Truman, a man who had been to Cape Girardeau many times as
senator, now led the United States in a protracted struggle for world power with the Soviet Union.
In this time of promise and fear, Cape Girardeau rebounded from the economic doldrums of the
1930s and 1940s and entered into a period of renewed growth and expansion. The population rose
from 21,578 in 1950 to 31,282 in 1970. While many eyes were on college campuses during the
turbulent 1960s and 1970s, Southeast Missouri State College, as it had been known since 1945,
entered the most dynamic period in its history. Geographically, the city continued its march west,
reaching Mount Auburn and Silver Springs Roads by the late 1950s and out to the new I-55 highway
by the 1970s. The balance of power in the city was further shifting away from the downtown and the
Haarig District with population and businesses moving toward the greener pastures along the
highways. By the 1960s, not only had Cape Girardeau turned away from the Mississippi River, an
imposing flood wall kept the town from even looking at it.
❖
The American Legion Drum and
Bugle Corps, seen here in the 1955
Christmas parade, won many state
and national awards. Color guard
member Gordon Neumeyer can be
seen in the foreground.
COURTESY OF JIM HAMAN.
Chapter VII ✦ 69

❖
A map of Cape Girardeau from 1947
shows the beginning of the city’s post
World War II expansion.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR REGIONAL HISTORY.
The 1950s were a transitional decade for
Cape Girardeau, from the years when shortages
of materials and labor impeded development, to
a time of steady and gratifying progress. Yet,
things certainly did not begin smoothly. In May
1949, another deadly tornado tore a path from
Gordonville Road to the Mississippi just south
of Cape Rock. The twister left nearly $4 million
in damages, destroying two hundred homes,
injuring over one hundred, and tragically killing
twenty-two. But Cape Girardeau rebuilt, just as
it had after the 1850 tornado. Not only that, the
sound of new construction projects echoed all
across town. On campus, a new Houck Field
House replaced the original that had been
destroyed by fire. Workers completed the
National Guard Armory in 1954, the same year
as the Star Vue Drive-In Theater between Cape
Girardeau and Jackson. The largest drive-in in
Missouri at the time, the spacious Star Vue sat
on almost 20 acres, giving over 700 cars on
any given weekend a clear view of its 86-by-44-
foot screen.
A year after the landmark Supreme Court case
Brown vs Topeka Board of Education desegregated
America’s schools in 1954, white and black
students began attending classes together at the
newly completed Cape Girardeau Central High
School on Caruthers. The segregated John Cobb
School burned in 1953, but construction on a
new school for African-American students had
been wisely delayed until the Supreme Court
announced its much anticipated verdict. St.
Francis Hospital and Southeast Missouri
Hospital continued to expand their services and
facilities. Owing to the town’s increased
population and national “baby boom” then
underway, Southeast doubled in area with its
70 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

first major addition in 1957. For a time between
1949 and 1968, the town actually supported
three hospitals with the opening of the Cape
Girardeau Osteopathic Hospital.
Despite a fire in 1956 that destroyed the
flight control building and restaurant, the Cape
Girardeau Municipal Airport enjoyed continued
success throughout the 1950s.
In 1950, a group of local businessmen
bought out Consolidated Aviation and launched
Cape Central Airways at the facility, offering a
wide range of services including airplane rental
and sales, chartering, flight lessons, and
crop dusting. After the fire, Cape Girardeau
passed a nearly $300,000 bond, which the
Federal Aviation Administration matched, to
rebuild and upgrade the facility, including the
construction of a new terminal building.
Along the river, one of the most significant
construction projects in Cape Girardeau’s history
at long last offered protection from the often
formidable Mississippi River while at the same
time altering the very look of the town. In 1956
the Army Corp of Engineers, responsible for
flood control and maintaining the river’s channel,
began work on the mammoth flood wall along
the riverfront to hold back the Mississippi.
Completed in twelve stages over a period of eight
years, the roughly one-mile-long concrete flood
wall rises as high as sixteen feet above the
ground. In addition, a seven-thousand-foot levee
system, two pumping stations, and five gates,
most prominently at Broadway and Water, and
Themis and Water Streets, help shield the city
from flood waters to a river reading of fifty-four
feet. Local merchants and property owners, along
with the federal government, picked up the $4-
million cost of the wall, and although many still
criticize the stark edifice for blocking out the
town’s scenic view of the river and ruining the
❖
Above: The May 21, 1949 tornado as
it crossed Gordonville Road toward
the city.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Below: The May 1949 tornado took
twenty-two lives and caused millions
of dollars of property loss.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Chapter VII ✦ 71

❖
Above: The Red Star neighborhood
was one of the areas devastated by the
1949 tornado. This view is along
North Water Street.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Below: The Mississippi River
floodwall, completed in 1964,
provides protection from periodic
floods. The “five-hundred-year” floods
of 1993 and 1995 proved the
floodwall’s worth and strength.
COURTESY OF JIM HARMAN.
charm of the riverfront, the flood wall has been
worth every penny. Since 1964, every time the
river rises and the huge gates are closed, unlike
many of its neighbors along the river, Cape
Girardeau is safe. This was never more
comforting than in 1973 when the Mississippi
River broke its nearly one hundred and thirty
year old record by cresting at over forty-five feet.
Well, maybe in 1993 and again in 1995 when
catastrophic floods broke that record by almost
three feet, compelling downtown merchants to
hang a sign on the clock proclaiming “We Love
Our Floodwall.”
While nervous Americans scanned the night
skies in search of the Russian satellite Sputnik
in 1957, the good life continued in Cape
Girardeau. Construction on the flood wall was
underway, Missouri Dry Dock and Repair began
operations south of downtown, and to the
north the state opened the 3,256-acre Trail
of Tears Park. The town also held its “Big
Bridge Freeing Celebration” complete with a
parade, queen crowning, contests, fireworks,
and a crowd of twenty thousand who gathered
to commemorate the end of tolls on the
Mississippi River traffic bridge.
Covering the big event on the new medium
of television was KFVS-TV Channel 12, the
pioneering station in the region. Just as he had
with radio, once again Oscar Hirsch proved to
be a broadcasting visionary. At the very
beginning of the television revolution in the
early 1950s, folks in Cape Girardeau and the
surrounding area missed out on the excitement
because the few big city television stations in the
north could not penetrate the hilly region. A
lucky handful occasionally glimpsed the fuzzy
images of professional wrestling from St. Louis
on Saturday nights when the weather was just
right, but that was about it. Seeing the potential
of an untapped market, Hirsch fought to secure
a license for KFVS-TV in 1951. Three years
later, in another one of the most important
events in Cape Girardeau’s history, the station
finally went on the air. So excited were Cape
Girardeans about the prospect of television
coming to southeast Missouri that local
72 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

❖
Above: The flood of 1973 was the first
trial for the floodwall, which was
completed nine years earlier.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
Left: The flood of 1973 and other
floods have inundated the area north
of Sloan’s Creek, which is not
protected by the floodwall.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
Chapter VII ✦ 73

❖
Right: The Missouri Pacific Railroad
entry in the 1956 sesquicentennial
parade, in the first block of South
Sprigg Street.
PHOTOGRAPH BY GORDON NEUMEYER.
Below: The Cape Girardeau
Municipal Band, during the
sesquicentennial celebration, in 1956.
COURTESY OF THE CAPE GIRARDEAU
PUBLIC LIBRARY.
merchants allowed customers to purchase
television sets long before KFVS began
broadcasting in October 1954 with no payments
until it actually did.
To reach even more viewers, in 1960 KFVS
constructed a two-thousand-foot transmitter
tower north of town, at the time said to be the
tallest man-made structure in the world. This
increased the station’s broadcasting range to
almost twenty-three thousand square miles
covering parts of Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky,
Tennessee, and Arkansas. Not only did KFVS-
TV bring The Ed Sullivan Show into nearly one
million area homes, it brought Cape Girardeau
with it. The station, airing from the thirteenstory
Hirsch Tower on Broadway, exposed the
74 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

egion as never before to Cape Girardeau’s
attractions, amusements, sports, personalities,
businesses, and advertising. Oscar Hirsch and
KFVS-TV solidified the town’s place as the
region’s media center. At the same time they
helped draw countless people to the city and
positioned Cape Girardeau as a recreation and
shopping destination in southeast Missouri.
Shoppers had even more places to hunt for
bargains in Cape Girardeau by the 1960s. The
Town Plaza Shopping Center opened in the
summer of 1960 with the national Kroger
store anchoring the new strip mall. Other
retail shops and businesses followed the Town
Plaza west, extending down Broadway toward
Kingshighway. The growth continued all over
town. Procter and Gamble came to Cape
Girardeau, as did Florsheim Shoes, bringing
hundreds of jobs. Residential real estate
development flourished especially along the
newly widened Cape Rock Drive. At the Cape
Girardeau Municipal Airport, the FAA
established its flight service station while
another bond in 1968 led to the construction of
a new sixty-five-hundred-foot runway, control
tower, and instrument landing system. The
lively little airport also served Cape Central
Airways and Ozark Airlines with daily flights to
St. Louis, Louisville, and Nashville.
Southeast Missouri State College entered a
substantial period of growth as well after
welcoming Mark Scully as its tenth president in
1956. Known around the region as simply Cape
State since the 1920s, the college, under Scully’s
leadership, underwent significant enrollment
increases, dynamic changes in its curriculum,
and a spirited building program. Lured by low
tuition and aggressive recruiting, not to
mention easier accessibility thanks to the new I-
55 highway, enrollment grew dramatically from
1,600 students in the 1950s to 7,000 by the
mid-1970s. Matching this expansion in the
student body, an academic expansion moved
the college away from its traditional role of
simply training teachers and introduced many
new programs and degrees, including graduate
study in nursing, business, computers, and the
liberal arts. Reflecting these changes in its
educational mission, the region’s institution of
higher education officially became Southeast
Missouri State University in 1972. Naturally, the
❖
Above: A 1963 ad for the Star Vue
Drive-in Theater includes Drums of
Africa with Frankie Avalon and
Mariette Hartley.
COURTESY OF MARY NEUMEYER.
Left: The KFVS-TV broadcasting
tower is said to have been the
world’s tallest structure at the time
of its construction.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Chapter VII ✦ 75

❖
Above: Mark Scully, president of
Southeast Missouri State College from
1956 to 1975.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
Below: The University Center, at
North Henderson Street and Normal
Avenue, was built in the mid-1970s at
the site of Leming Hall.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
university needed to grow physically as well,
and under Scully’s tenure millions were spent on
new facilities including Magill, Brandt, Grauel,
and Memorial Halls, Parker Physical Education
Building, the Dearmont Quadrangle, the Towers
Dormitory Complex, University Center, and a
college farm north of campus. When Mark
Scully became president there were ten
buildings on campus. When he left nineteen
years later there were twenty-two.
College campuses occupied center stage
during much of the profound social and
political change taking place during “the
Sixties.” Southeast Missouri State University was
no exception, and like their counterparts across
the nation, students questioned the Vietnam
War, racism, lifestyles, and the state of higher
education. A small handful of genuine “hippies”
roamed the university while a few students and
faculty occasionally came together to voice their
displeasure with university actions such as
president Scully’s campus-wide ban on kissing
and the abrupt firing of eight untenured faculty
members in 1968. A somewhat belated protest
took place in 1977 when a group of concerned
students calling themselves “Leestamper’s
Campers,” a name aimed at then-university
President Robert Leestamper, lived in tents for a
while in front of the Social Sciences building to
draw attention to the need for more liberal
visitation policies in the dormitories.
The war in Vietnam touched a nerve in and
around campus by the late 1960s and early 1970s.
During his presidential campaign, Senator Bobby
Kennedy spoke to over six thousand people at the
Town Plaza in the spring of 1968. The charismatic
Kennedy thrilled the crowd, which included
hundreds from Southeast Missouri State,
Southern Illinois University, and Cape Central
High School, with his criticisms of the war and
the draft. Four years after Kennedy was gunned
down shortly after speaking in Cape Girardeau,
over two hundred students staged a peaceful
candlelight march on campus in objection to
America’s agonizingly slow withdrawal from
Vietnam. The war certainly came to southeast
Missouri in other very profound ways, most
76 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

❖
Left: Senator Robert F. Kennedy
campaigned in Cape Girardeau on
April 25, 1968. An assassin took
Kennedy’s life two months later.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM NEUMEYER.
Below: The construction of Interstate
55, looking north from the Route FF
overpass at Fruitland in July 1970.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM NEUMEYER.
significantly in how it changed the lives of
hundreds of young men and their families. One
particularly poignant story is that of Harry Spiller,
who after serving a tour in Vietnam, became the
region’s Marine Corp recruitment officer. From his
office in Cape Girardeau, Spiller not only enlisted
new Marines bound for Vietnam, he also notified
their families when those same men did not make
it home. Casualties were high in this workingclass
region, especially in little towns like
Marquand and Gordonville, where a joyful
mother once mistook Spiller for her son, whom
Chapter VII ✦ 77

❖
Above: In this photograph from 1970,
Interstate 55 stretches north along
Cape Girardeau, with South
Kingshighway in the foreground.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM NEUMEYER.
Below: The Town Plaza area was a
busy district in 1989, and continues
to grow.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM NEUMEYER.
she expected back from Vietnam any day.
Arriving at the house in his Marine dress
uniform, Spiller was actually there to inform her
of the death of her son. In the end though, men
like Spiller and the vast majority of Cape
Girardeans, as well as the student body at
Southeast, wrestled with any personal misgivings
about Vietnam privately, lacking the tradition,
inclination, or avenue to really speak out against
the controversial war.
While the national economy stumbled in the
1970s, the era of disco dancing, polyester
leisure suits, and the American Bicentennial saw
slow, but stable growth in Cape Girardeau.
Fueling that growth, I-55 highway north to
St. Louis opened in 1972, replacing old
Highway 61 and accelerating the town’s western
migration. Like many businesses and services
flocking toward the new interstate, the Doctor’s
Park complex began receiving patients in 1971,
and five years later, St. Francis Hospital moved
from its long-time home in the Haarig District to
St. Francis Medical Center adjacent to William
Street and close to I-55. To the north of town,
Procter and Gamble substantially expanded its
facilities while to the south a major industrial
park and trucking operation took shape, further
positioning Cape Girardeau as an important
regional distribution center.
But economically and socially speaking, the
1970s were an age of limits and frustration for
the country and so too for Cape Girardeau. At
Southeast Missouri State University, enrollment
began to level off and frequent turnovers at the
top disrupted the institution’s long-term vision.
Between 1933 and 1975, the university had two
presidents and this stability and continuity in
leadership trickled down to the entire
institution. But between 1975 and 2004,
“SEMO” has had seven presidents, roughly one
every four years. Cape Girardeau also lost
municipal bus and regular air service during the
1970s. Even Mother Nature got in on the act,
wiping out Smelterville in the 1973 and 1993
floods, the latter forcing the relocation of 140
families. The Red Star area was also altered as
the high waters damaged dozens of small
working-class homes. The decade ended with a
huge blizzard. Twenty-four inches of snow fell
on Cape Girardeau over two days in February
1979, closing businesses, stopping traffic, and
paralyzing the city.
78 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

CHAPTER VIII
B ACK TO THE R IVER? 1981 & THE R OAD A HEAD
For most of the twentieth century, the story of Cape Girardeau has been one of consistent and steady
migration toward the interstate and away from the traditional anchors of the Mississippi River,
downtown, and Haarig. While the population grew modestly in the last quarter of the century, reaching
35,349 in 2000, the core of Cape Girardeau clearly shifted west. At the same time, it has also been a
story of regional prominence. Despite competition from towns like Jackson, Sikeston, Poplar Bluff, and
Farmington, Cape Girardeau solidified its position as the commercial, shopping, entertainment,
❖
West Park Mall opened in 1981 at
Route K and Mt. Auburn Road.
COURTESY OF WESTFIELD SHOPPING TOWN.
Chapter VIII ✦ 79

❖
POPULATION OF CAPE GIRARDEAU
Year Population Increase % of Increase
2000 35,349 911 1.02%
1990 34,438 77 0%
1980 34,361 3,079 9.8%
1970 31,282 6,335 25.4%
1960 24,947 3,369 15.6%
1950 21,578 2,152 11.1%
1940 19,426 3,199 19.7%
1930 16,227 5,975 58.3%
1920 10,252 1,777 21.0%
1910 8,475 3,660 76.0%
1900 4,815 518 12.1%
1890 4,297 408 10.5%
1880 3,889 304 8.5%
1870 3,585 922 34.6%
1860 2,664 0 0%
1800: 500
1900: 5,000
2000: 35,000
The population trends of Cape
Girardeau. Currently, the daytime
population of up to seventy-five
thousand includes workers, shoppers,
and others.
recreation, medical, judicial, legal, retirement,
media, transportation, distribution, education,
and cultural center of southeast Missouri and
southern Illinois. If people between St. Louis and
Memphis need something, they frequently come
to Cape Girardeau to get it. Just as in 1909,
presidents of the United States, this time Ronald
Reagan and later Bill Clinton, acknowledged this
regional importance by gracing the “City of
Roses” with visits.
West Park Mall, opened in 1981, played a key
role in facilitating both Cape Girardeau’s move
west and its place as a regional attraction. Built by
May Centers, Inc. and Drury Industries on some
sixty acres near I-55, the sprawling West Park
Mall, with over eighty national stores and shops,
is a destination unto itself. But it also paved the
way for the veritable smorgasbord of motels,
restaurants, national franchises, and retailers that
soon emerged along the highway. Cape Girardeau
capitalized on this drawing power, increasingly
identifying itself as the region’s entertainment and
recreational center with the vast Shawnee Sports
Complex, the Southeast Missouri District Fair,
the annual Riverfest and later City of Roses Music
Festival, and frequent parades celebrating
everything from Christmas to Peter Bergerson
Day. Additionally, the $13.5-million Show-Me
Center attracts thousands to town each year for
sporting events, circuses, truck pulls, boat shows,
and concerts. Although the university and
community partnership that financed the Show-
Me Center remains controversial, since opening
in 1987 the massive venue has brought to the
region such national performers as Bob Hope,
who drove golf balls off the roof at the grand
opening, George Jones, Tina Turner, Tom Petty,
Aerosmith, Randy Travis, Neil Diamond, Bob
Dylan, Toby Keith, the Harlem Globetrotters, and
southeast Missouri’s own Sheryl Crow.
As a result of continued expansion and
innovations at St. Francis Medical Center,
Southeast Hospital, and Doctor’s Park, Cape
Girardeau continues as the regional medical
center. Entering the twenty-first century, Cape
Girardeau’s first hospital, St. Francis Medical
Center, has grown from 12 beds in 1875 to a
249-bed facility featuring a nationally recognized
neurosciences institute, orthopaedic services,
heart institute, and comprehensive Womancare
program. During the 1980s and 1990s, Southeast
Hospital grew as well opening its regional cancer
center, cardiac care center, college of nursing, and
initiating emergency helicopter service. Partly as
a result of Cape Girardeau’s strong commitment
to health care, the town is also establishing itself
as a great place to retire with large-scale
communities for senior citizens like Chateau
Girardeau and Saxony Village.
Cape Girardeau remains a judicial and legal
center, operating one of only two common pleas
courts still open in Missouri and sustaining
distinguished law firms with names like Oliver
and Limbaugh. Carrying on those traditions,
attorney Rebecca McDowell Cook became the
community’s first woman to hold statewide
political office when she served as secretary of
state. And although KFVS and the Southeast
Missourian were sold to national holding
companies, their broadcasting and circulation
maintain the town’s position as the region’s
media focal point. Likewise, Cape Girardeau
continues as the central transportation hub of
southeast Missouri and southern Illinois with
the completion of the Bill Emerson Memorial
Bridge in 2003. The awesome 4,000-foot-long,
100-foot-wide, cable-stayed structure, named
for the eight-term congressman who worked to
80 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

secure federal funding for the roughly $100-
million project, replaced the 1927 bridge which
was 1,000 feet long with a 20-foot-wide
roadbed. Towering over the river, the cable
bridge dominates the city’s twenty-first century
landscape, even at night when it is illuminated
by 140 lights.
A leader in primary, secondary, and higher
education since shortly after the Civil War, that
tradition continues in Cape Girardeau. Starting
with old Lorimier School in 1872, the public
school system now operates five elementary
schools—Alma Schrader, Clippard, Jefferson,
Franklin, and Blanchard—along with Central
Junior High and Central Middle, the Alternative
Education Center, and the new Central Senior
High School and Career and Technology Center
which opened in 2002. Parochial schools still
thrive too with the Eagle Ridge Christian School,
St. Mary’s Cathedral School, Saxony Lutheran, St.
Vincent de Paul, Trinity Lutheran, and Notre
Dame Regional High School. Southeast Missouri
State University is establishing enrollment records
annually, approaching ten thousand students with
branch facilities in Kennett, Malden, Sikeston,
and Perryville. Always committed to its mission as
the region’s university, Southeast draws the vast
majority of those students from the neighboring
twenty-five county area.
What is more, a bold university and
community initiative could position Cape
Girardeau as a legitimate cultural and artistic
center in the new century. Since the late 1990s,
plans have been underway to rehabilitate and
❖
Above: The construction of the new
bridge over the Mississippi River,
adjacent to the old span that opened
in 1928.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LARRY MCHENRY.
Below: A twenty-eight-barge towboat
heads downstream on the Mississippi
River past the city.
COURTESY OF THE CAPE GIRARDEAU CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE.
Chapter VIII ✦ 81

❖
Top: The new Central High School
was dedicated in September 2002.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM NEUMEYER.
Middle: The new Career and
Technology Center, next to Central
High School on Interstate 55.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM NEUMEYER.
Bottom: The new Notre Dame
Regional High School is located on
Route K.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM NEUMEYER.
renovate St. Vincent’s Seminary, vacant since
1979, and re-open it as the Southeast Missouri
State University River Campus. The proposed
new facility would be Cape Girardeau’s home for
the visual and performing arts, a regional history
museum, and Missouri tourism center. Making
the River Campus a reality has not been easy.
Similar to the Show-Me Center controversy, the
partnership between the University, City, and
State sparked criticism from some in the
community. After several legal delays, ground was
broken in 2003 and the project is moving ahead,
with Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri State
University coming together once again, in the
words of Mayor Jay Knudtson, “to dance.”
Without question, Cape Girardeau owes
much of its modern place as a regional center to
KFVS radio and television and an expansive,
82 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

and expanding, highway system. But a good
deal of the town’s growth in the last decades of
the twentieth century actually came via a quiet
renewal of river commerce. In fact, if recent
events are any indication, Cape Girardeau may
once again figuratively, and literally, be
returning to its roots along the river bank. Cape
Girardeau still struggles with an identity crisis,
perpetually trying to reconcile its modern
economic growth, physical expansion, and
regional status with the traditional values of a
rural, river town. But after years of turning its
back on the Mississippi, now on the threshold
of the twenty-first century, Cape Girardeau is
openly embracing its river heritage.
This “back to the river movement” can be seen
in a variety of places. Through the hard work of
the Chamber of Commerce, Convention and
Visitors Bureau, Old Town Cape, Downtown
Merchants Association, and a growing number of
citizens dedicated to historic preservation there is
renewed interest in the Historic Riverfront
District. In 2002, students from the university
came together with the community to save the
Marquette Hotel from demolition and breathe
new life into the local landmark. In 2003, work
began on a new floodwall mural and an esplanade
along the river side of the wall. Nearby, volunteers
constructed a model of Louis Lorimier’s Red
House to commemorate the bicentennial of Lewis
and Clark’s Corps of Discovery and Cape
Girardeau’s role in it. The Bill Emerson Memorial
Bridge refocuses attention on the Mississippi.
Moreover, Highway 74, the route to the bridge,
ties the southern areas of the city, where
expansion has been driven by the industrial park
and new Cape Central High School and Career
and Technology Center, into the riverfront. The
Fountain Street extension from Highway 74 will
also allow easy access from the bridge to the
downtown area and River Campus.
Perhaps nowhere is Cape Girardeau’s return
to the river better reflected than the River
Campus. Architects initially assumed the college
faced Morgan Oak and planned accordingly for
the new facility’s main entrance to open onto the
street. But historically St. Vincent’s College faced
the Mississippi, providing a grand entrance to
Cape Girardeau for travelers on the river. After
realizing this, plans were revised and when the
River Campus complex opens in 2007, it will
once again face the river. Maybe this
reorientation is a metaphor for Cape Girardeau,
a modern town with bold ambitions for the
future returning to whence it came, once again
on the river and of the river.
❖
Above: The River Campus, a joint
venture of Southeast Missouri State
University and the City of Cape
Girardeau, will bring economic,
cultural, and academic benefits to
the region.
COURTESY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI
STATE UNIVERSITY.
Below: An artist’s rendering of
the new federal courthouse in
Cape Girardeau.
COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF SENATOR
CHRISTOPHER BOND.
Chapter VIII ✦ 83

TIMELINE OF CAPE GIRARDEAU
1673 French missionairies Marquette and Jolliet pass through the river valley.
1765 The name “Cape Girardot” appears on a French map of the Mississippi bend north of the present town of Cape Girardeau.
1793 Louis Lorimier establishes a small settlement on the west bank of the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau. The community
was established in Spanish territory.
1803 Lorimier’s “Red House” constructed.
1805 The first court of justice established (March 19, 1805).
1806 The town of Cape Girardeau was founded and platted.
Old Lorimier Cemetery was established.
1808 The City of Cape Girardeau was incorporated (July 23, 1808).
1812 Don Louis Lorimier dies (June 26, 1812).
1813 Cape Girardeau County was incorporated by an act of the territorial legislature.
1817 The first steamboat passes by Cape Girardeau.
1819 The first weekly mail service begins.
1836 The first newspaper in Cape Girardeau, The Patriot, begins publication.
1838 The original Old St. Vincent’s Church is constructed.
1838-39 The Cherokee Indian relocation “Trail of Tears” passes through the Cape Girardeau area.
1839 The first Protestant church in Cape Girardeau, a Baptist church on Lorimier Street, is founded.
St. Vincent’s Young Ladies Academy is established.
1843 The Cape Girardeau Academy is incorporated (February 1843).
St. Vincent’s College and Academy is organized.
1846 The Sherwood-Minton House is constructed at 444 Washington Street.
1847 Two ships, the Talisman and the Tempest, collide on the Cape Girardeau waterfront, killing fifty-one people (November
19, 1847).
1849 The steamboat Sea Bird explodes on the Cape Girardeau waterfront. It had been carrying fifteen hundred barrels
of gunpower.
1850 A severe tornado hits Cape Girardeau, and destroys Old St. Vincent’s Church (November 27, 1850).
1852 The New St. Vincent’s Catholic Church is dedicated and opened.
1854 Trinity Lutheran Church is organized.
1857 The Reynolds House is constructed on North Main Street.
The Riverview Hotel opens.
1859 The Cape Girardeau Police Department is established (March 25, 1859).
1861 The Cape Girardeau Military Post is established at the beginning of the Civil War (July 10, 1861).
1863 The Civil War battle of Cape Girardeau is fought (April 26, 1863).
St. James A.M.E. Church is organized.
1865 The Marble City News newspaper began publication (and lasted until 1888)
1866 Sturdivant Bank opens for business with Robert Sturdivant as bank president.
1868 Turner Hall (Old Opera House, N’Orleans) is constructed as the German Turnverein Hall.
1872 Old Lorimier School, the first public school in Cape Girardeau, opens (September 1872).
1873 The state legislature authorizes the establishment of Southeast Missouri Normal School, the Third District Normal School
(March 22, 1873).
The first classes meet at Southeast Missouri Normal School (December 10, 1873).
Walther Furniture & Undertaking Company is established by August Walther.
Longview, home of Colonel George C. Thilenius, is constructed.
1874 Trinity Lutheran School opens (November 12, 1874).
1875 The first St. Francis Hospital is established on Themis Street. It is a twelve-bed facility.
1876 The new St. Francis Hospital is dedicated (October 3, 1876).
Hirsch Brothers’ Mercantile Company is established.
Lucius H. Cheney, president of Southeast Missouri Normal School, is killed in Virginia (July 1876).
84 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

1880 The Cape Girardeau Railway Company is organized.
The volunteer fire department is organized with Henry Astholz as chief.
1881 The Houck railroad reaches Cape Girardeau from the west.
1883 The Glenn House is constructed for David and Lulu Deane Glenn.
1886 The steamboat La Mascot explodes near Neely’s Landing.
1894 Leming Lumber Company is organized.
1896 The first telephone switchboard is established in the Sturdivant Building.
1898 Joseph McElroy established McElroy Electric Company, the city’s largest electrical contractor.
Bell Telephone Company is incorporated in Cape Girardeau.
1901 The steamer War Eagle is refurbished and named Cape Girardeau.
1902 The Academic Hall of the Third District Normal School burns (April 7, 1902).
1903 The first mail carrier service begins.
The first gasoline automobile is purchased in Cape Girardeau.
1904 The Lorimier Hotel burns (December 10, 1904).
The St. Louis-San Francisco Railway extends to Cape Girardeau. Train service is established between Cape Girardeau and
Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri.
The first railroad passenger train arrives in Cape Girardeau.
Naeter Brothers purchase the Daily Republican and begin publication.
1905 The electric street car company begins service (December 27, 1905) and runs until 1934.
1906 Southeast Missouri Trust Company opens for business.
Regular daytime electrical service begins (April 20, 1906).
The new Academic Hall is dedicated at Southeast Missouri Third District Normal School (May 24, 1906).
1907 The International Shoe Factory begins operation in Cape Girardeau (September 9, 1907).
Little River Drainage District is established and incorporated.
1909 U.S. President William Howard Taft visits Cape Girardeau (October 26, 1909).
Cape Girardeau’s first high school is established.
The first sewers are installed.
The first automobile accident occurs in Cape Girardeau.
1910 The first Cape Girardeau steamboat sinks near Chester, Illinois.
1911 Fred Groves establishes the first automobile agency (March 1911).
The steamer Spread Eagle is refurbished and becomes the second Cape Girardeau steamboat.
1912 The first concrete street is poured.
1913 Capaha Park is acquired by the city.
1915 A concrete river wall, six hundred feet long, is built along the Cape Girardeau waterfront.
1916 The Buckner-Ragsdale Store, the Riverview Hotel, and the Terminal Hotel burn (March 15, 1916).
1922 The Carnegie Library opens in Cape Girardeau (April 1, 1922).
1924 The third Cape Girardeau steamboat is dedicated on the Cape Girardeau waterfront (April 1924). The boat is later sold to
the Greene Line of Cincinnati in 1935, and renamed the Gordon C. Greene. The Gordon C. Greene sinks on the St. Louis
waterfront in 1967.
Riverside Lumber Company burns (December 3, 1924).
1925 St. Mary’s High School opens (September 1, 1925). Its name would later be changed to Notre Dame High School.
KFVS Radio goes on the air (June 22, 1925).
1926 Billy Sunday revival (and again in 1933).
1927 The Flood of the Great Mississippi results in the Jadwin Plan, which initiated the construction of levees on both sides of
the Mississippi River from Cape Girardeau to New Orleans, Louisiana.
1928 The opening of the Mississippi River Bridge (September 3, 1928).
Southeast Missouri Hospital is established.
The Marquette Hotel is dedicated (November 17, 1928).
1934 The street car company ceases operation (August 10, 1934).
1937 The clubhouse at Fairground (Capaha) Park burns (February 11, 1937).
The city council adopts the rose as the city’s official flower.
Timeline of Cape Girardeau ✦ 85

1939 Kent Library is dedicated on the Southeast Missouri campus.
1948 The original Houck Field House burns.
1949 A tornado kills 22 people and injures 112, and destroys 202 houses and damages 231 more (May 1949).
1951 Houck Field House is reconstructed.
1953 John C. Cobb School burns (March 17, 1953).
1954 KFVS-TV goes on the air.
The Star Vue Drive-In Theatre opens. It is the largest drive-in theater in the state.
1957 The Mississippi River Bridge changes from a toll bridge to a free bridge (June 29, 1957).
Missouri Dry Dock and Repair Company is incorporated.
1960 The Town Plaza Shopping Center opens (August 1960).
St. Mary’s High School changes its name to Notre Dame High School.
1963 The Cape Girardeau Country Club burns (December 11, 1963).
1967 The Towers Complex and Grauel Hall are dedicated on the Southeast Missouri campus.
1968 Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy campaigns in Cape Girardeau.
The Idan-Ha Hotel burns (June 29, 1968).
1972 Interstate 55 north to St. Louis is completed (August 30, 1972).
1980 The new Cape Girardeau Public Library opens (June 23, 1980).
1981 West Park Mall opens (May 1981).
1988 The Show-Me Center opens with entertainer Bob Hope.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan visits Cape Girardeau.
1993 The Mississippi River floods.
1995 The Mississippi River floods.
1996 U.S. President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore make their first stop of their 1996 presidential campaign in
Capaha Park.
2002 A groundbreaking ceremony for the new federal courthouse.
2003 A groundbreaking ceremony for the River Campus.
The completion of the new Mississippi River Bridge.
The bicentennial commemoration of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
86 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

❖
Trinity Lutheran Church and Grade
School, at the corner of North
Frederick and Themis Streets.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
Timeline of Cape Girardeau ✦ 87

❖
The $100-million Bill Emerson
Memorial Bridge spanning the
Mississippi River replaced the 75-
year-old span with a 100-foot-wide,
seismic-resistant structure.
COURTESY OF RED LETTER COMMUNICATION.
88 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

SHARING THE HERITAGE
Historic profiles of businesses,
organizations, and families that have
SPECIAL
THANKS TO
contributed to the development and
economic base of Cape Girardeau
Missouri Barge
Line Company
Quality of Life .............................................................................90
The Marketplace.........................................................................114
Thomas L. Meyer
Realtors
Building a Greater Cape Girardeau................................................148
Sharing the Heritage ✦ 89

❖
St Mary’s Cathedral and Grade
School, at the corner of South Sprigg
and William Streets.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
90 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

QUALITY OF LIFE
Healthcare providers, school districts and
universities, and other institutions that
contribute to the quality of life in
Cape Girardeau
Cape Girardeau County Association for Retarded Citizens
Cape Girardeau Community Workshop dba VIP Industries
VIP Vocational Services, Inc. dba Heartland Industries
Regency Management.......................................................................92
St. Mary’s Cathedral School .............................................................96
St. Vincent de Paul Grade School ......................................................97
Notre Dame High School ..................................................................98
Lutheran Home for the Aged .............................................................99
Cape Girardeau Doctors’ Park, Inc. .................................................100
KFVS-TV .....................................................................................102
Cape Girardeau Public Schools........................................................104
Saint Francis Healthcare System .....................................................106
SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence, Incorporated ...................108
Southeast Missouri Hospital............................................................109
Southeast Missouri State University .................................................110
Show Me Center............................................................................111
Edwin “Eddie” Alvin Erlbacher ........................................................112
Quality of Life ✦ 91

CAPE GIRARDEAU
COUNTY
ASSOCIATION FOR
RETARDED
CITIZENS
CAPE GIRARDEAU
COMMUNITY
SHELTERED
WORKSHOP
DBA
VIP INDUSTRIES
VIP VOCATIONAL
SERVICES, INC.,
DBA
HEARTLAND
INDUSTRIES
REGENCY
MANAGEMENT
Development of programs for persons with
mental retardation in Cape Girardeau County were
fostered by a concerned group of parents and
citizens who held an organizational meeting on
August 15, 1958, at Jefferson School in Cape
Girardeau. The Cape Girardeau County
Association for Retarded Children was born that
night in hopes that the voices of persons with
mental retardation would be heard and changes
that would improve their lives could be made. The
purposes of this organization were declared to be
the following: to promote the general welfare of
persons with mental retardation, to foster the
development of programs on their behalf, to advise
and aide parents in the solutions of their problems,
and coordinate their efforts and activities, and to
develop a better understanding of the problems of
mental retardation to the general public.
The first officers elected included President
Hilary F. Schmittzehe, Vice-President Ralph L.
Chitty, Secretary Jane Bodine, Treasurer Alfred
Jones, and board members included Mrs. W. A.
Owenby, Vernice Baumstark, Ruth Evans, Mrs.
C. W. Suedekum, and Harold Davis. The ARC was
the grandparent organization to many programs
in Cape Girardeau County for persons with
mental retardation, including:
• An organization for a state school for the
severely handicapped children;
• The opening of a pre-school for children with
mental retardation;
• The formation of the Cape Girardeau
Community Sheltered Workshop, Inc.;
• Passage of Senate Bill #40 tax levy in
Cape County;
• Opening of a group home for persons with
mental retardation;
• Formation of Heartland Industries;
• Formation of Regency Management, Inc.;
• Opening of a respite care home for persons
with mental retardation;
• Opening of an adult activity center;
• Community recreation programs;
• Supported living arrangements;
• Individualized supported living arrangements
(apartments);
• Mini-tours;
• Transportation;
The purpose of the workshop was defined
to provide a satisfying and productive daily
occupation to persons sixteen years and
older, with mental retardation and
developmental disabilities who could not
function in competitive industry. Through the
efforts of very concerned parents and citizens
VIP Industries opened its doors on October 1,
1968, providing jobs to seventeen persons
with disabilities.
In 1971 expansion became necessary
so the old Bamby Bakery building was
purchased at 535 Good Hope Street. This
building was purchased because VIP Industries
had a request from Ste. Genevieve and
Perryville to allow their handicapped
population the opportunity to work at VIP
Industries. Ste. Genevieve and Perryville began
92 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

transporting their population to VIP Industries
on January 1, 1972.
Executive Director Hilary F. Schmittzehe was
hired in July 1972. He had previously served as
a member of the Board of Directors. Schmittzehe
and his wife had experienced the birth of two
mentally retarded, cerebral palsied children. He
could remember seeing his wife Marge over the
stove crying, dropping tears into a skillet saying,
“Hilary, what is there going to be for our girls?”
Schmittezehe came to work with a dream for his
children, sharing the same dream held by many
other parents to create a place for their children
that would promote self-esteem, and provide a
social outlet and meaningful and dignified place
of employment for them.
Growth continued for the Sheltered Workshop
and, in 1972, a grant was awarded to purchase
two buses for transportation of the employees
back and forth to work. Fifty-eight handicapped
individuals were now employed.
In 1973 a satellite workshop was established
in Lutesville, Missouri. This workshop opened its
doors in January 1973, with thirty handicapped
individuals eager and willing to work. Also in
1973, the City of Cape Girardeau approached the
workshop with a proposal for a recycling center.
A baler was purchased and the 605 Good Hope
location was turned into a recycling center. It was
processing 30,000 pounds of paper and 8,000
pounds of glass each month. The community was
very supportive of this endeavor, and our
employees enjoyed providing them with curbside
service and a smile.
The 1975 passage of Senate Bill 40 Tax was
monumental for sheltered workshops. With the
aide of Senator Al Spradling, the bill passed and
a taxing authority was created to provide funds
for sheltered workshops, residential facilities,
and other related programs. The original board
consisted of the following individuals: Norman
W. Copeland, Edward L. Downs, James
Hendrickson, June Hilpert, Robert Landgraf, Dr.
Leroy Parsons, Robert Phalen, Mae Sherwood,
and Howard Teeters.
In 1976 the Senate Bill 40 Tax Board built a
new, twenty-five-thousand-square-foot building
at 1330 Southern Expressway. The workshop
now employed 179 employees and was the
largest Sheltered Workshop in the state of
Missouri. Also in 1976, a satellite workshop was
opened in Perryville, Missouri with twenty-nine
handicapped individuals eager, willing, and
ready to go to work.
In 1979, VIP Industries was presented the
“Employer of the Year” Award from the
Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. This
was the first time a sheltered workshop had ever
been honored by the Missouri Rehabilitation
Counselor Association for displaying an effort to
hire handicapped employees.
In 1980 a special tour and recognition came
to VIP Industries when Nancy Reagan, wife of
GOP presidential hopeful Ronald Reagan,
visited the program to learn about sheltered
workshops and ancillary programs being offered
to handicapped persons. Mrs. Reagan held a
press conference at VIP Industries and fielded
questions from supporters and reporters.
In 1984, VIP Industries sought funding and
help from the Senate Bill 40 Tax Board for the
expansion of another forty-five-thousand-squarefoot
workshop facility that would serve residents
❖
Opposite: The first VIP workshop at
605 Good Hope Street in Cape
Girardeau, c. 1968.
Above: The VIP Fruitland
production facility.
Below: The VIP Industries Cape
Girardeau Production Facility.
Quality of Life ✦ 93

❖
Above: Employees hard at work at the
VIP workshop.
Below: The Regency House of Cape
Girardeau independent supported
living apartments.
from the Fruitland area of Cape Girardeau County.
This facility held its open house on Sunday,
October 13, 1986. The plant opened with twentyfive
handicapped employees with anticipated
growth to fifty within the first year of operation. In
the year 2000, another fifty thousand square feet
was added onto this building.
The Cape County ARC formed a corporation
known as VIP Vocational Services, dba Heartland
Industries in 1986. Heartland Industries would
provide a sales department to procure work for
the sheltered workshop, as well as provide a
graduation component for individuals in the
sheltered workshop. Heartland Industries also
provided a work-training component for
chronically unemployed persons and the elderly.
In 1988 The Cape County ARC formed
another corporation known as Regency
Management, Inc., that would provide housing
and other ancillary programs to persons with
mental retardation and developmental disabilities.
VIP Industries sponsored their first four housing
projects in partnership with The Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD). VIP
Industries was successful in submitting three
housing proposals with budget authority from
HUD in the amount of $4,702,840.00. Regency
Management is currently responsible for 59 units
of housing, which can include up to twenty-four
hour staffing requirements for certain individuals.
The housing units were part of a dream of the
parents to have a place for their sons and
daughters to reside, as independently as possible,
with minimal risk, for the rest of their lives.
94 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

In the past forty-five years, Cape County ARC
and VIP Industries have helped to improve the
quality of life and enriched the lives for
approximately 3,550 individuals with mental
retardation. The major focus is still the same
today as it was in 1958, to provide meaningful
work, a social environment, and to build a stable
financial base so that the Sheltered Workshop
program would remain a viable option for the
most vulnerable segment of our society for years
to come. One of the major evaluation tools used
to judge the success of their programs, is the
smile on the faces of the people they serve.
Cape County ARC, VIP Industries, Regency
Management, and Heartland Industries all will
continue to be a large part of the non-stop public
awareness and education campaign that the
Missouri Association for Retarded Persons and
Jerry Ford conducts in Jefferson City to protect this
fragile population and their rights and benefits.
They will continue to fight for legislation that will
help care for their special needs.
VIP Industries realized that in order to stay in
business their sheltered workshop operation
would need to expand, and be able to turn
products quickly in order to compete with the
just-in-time methodology being used by most
businesses. VIP Industries continues to purchase
tractors, trailers, vans, and buses to accommodate
their growing population. VIP Industries presently
has 12 tractors, 77 trailers, and 47 other
transportation vehicles. The current transportation
system operates in an area 40 miles wide and 60
miles long, and runs approximately 318,718 miles
per year just providing transportation to the
handicapped employees.
The purchase of automated machinery was
essential to the survival of VIP Industries. The
workshop employees complete all of the support
labor to keep the machines busy. They have a sales
force that travel three days per week to procure
additional contract work. It takes all of the
financial resources they can tap to keep VIP
Industries in sound financial condition. It has been
through the support of dedicated board members,
staff personnel, and handicapped employees that
VIP Industries has remained on the cutting edge.
❖
Above: Dinner at Regency Terrace
Group Home.
Below: VIP Industries employees
and their families gathered for a
company picnic.
Quality of Life ✦ 95

❖
ST. MARY
CATHEDRAL
SCHOOL
Above: St. Mary Cathedral at Sprigg
and William in Cape Girardeau.
Below: St. Mary Cathedral School.
COURTESY OF MICHAEL WELLS, CAPE GIRARDEAU
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
St. Mary Parish was born from the need to
provide a German-speaking parish in Cape
Girardeau. Archbishop Peter Kenrick gave
approval for the parish in 1858 and property was
purchased on the southwest corner of Ellis and
Themis. Construction of the new church was put
on hold during the Civil War and plans were
revived in 1867.
In 1868 a more suitable site for the church
was purchased on the corner of Sprigg and
William Street for $650. While the Church was
still being built, Father Herde hired Mr. Wolf as a
teacher, rented a room on Broadway, and thus
began St. Mary’s School.
After completion of the Church in 1869, a
part of the organ loft served as a classroom for
the children of the parish. Classes were later
held in an addition to the old rectory and
subsequently in the convent. Father Eberhardt
Pruente built the first school building in 1882
which consisted of a meeting hall in the
basement and two spacious classrooms. The
Sisters of St. Francis Wheaton served as teachers
in the school from 1875 to 1903, when the
Sisters of Notre Dame replaced the Sisters of St.
Francis Wheaton. The Sisters of Notre Dame
served in the school until the departure of Sister
Jeanne Goessling in 1993.
A new school building (currently housing the
K-8 school) was built in 1912 to accommodate
the growing student population. The front
addition facing Sprigg Street was added to the
school in 1937. A gymnasium, parish hall, and
kindergarten were added in 1978.
St. Mary Cathedral School offers a Catholic
elementary education for students in
Kindergarten through eighth grade, in which
the whole child is formed and challenged to
reach his or her potential through gaining an
understanding of one’s faith in the culture and
the world in which we live.
96 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

ST. VINCENT
DE PAUL
GRADE SCHOOL
St. Vincent De Paul Parish began in April
1836. Father John Mary Odin, C.M., came from
St. Mary of the Barrens Seminary in Perryville to
be the first pastor. He dedicated the parish to St.
Vincent De Paul, and church services for the
parish began in a warehouse. The parish moved
into a new church in 1839, which was later
destroyed by a tornado in 1850. The current
church on Main Street was built in 1853 and
served the parish until they moved west. In
1877 the parish started St. Vincent De Paul
Grade School and it was located next to the
church on Main Street. The Sisters of Loretto
operated the school from 1877 to 1978.
In 1956 the school moved to its present day
location at Ritter Drive and Forest Avenue. Father
Joseph Dyra, C.M., who was pastor of the church
from 1949-1964, started moving the parish
westward. The Sisters of Loretto were moved into
a new convent constructed near the new school in
1961. Later the convent was converted for use by
the school and other parish activities.
The school needed more space and in April
1991, ground was broken for a new school
addition. When Notre Dame High School
moved to its new location on Route K, the old
high school property became available. Due to
its proximity to St. Vincent De Paul Grade
School, the old high school built in 1953 was
purchased and was put to use by the grade
school for art and music classes, sport teams,
Scouts, Sunday School classes, Christian service
and other parish functions.
This was made possible financially in 1999
when Wanda Drury donated $300,000 to
St. Vincent De Paul Parish to purchase the old
Notre Dame High School building from the
diocese. Today, this K-8 school, serves, shares
and personifies Christ to all people, evangelizing
the poor in the spirit of St. Vincent De Paul.
❖
Above: St. Vincent De Paul Grade
School, 2003.
Below: De Paul Center, former Notre
Dame High School.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF INTER-STATE STUDIO,
CAPE GIRARDEAU.
Quality of Life ✦ 97

NOTRE DAME
REGIONAL
HIGH SCHOOL
❖
Above: Artist rendering of Notre
Dame High School on Ritter Drive.
Below: Notre Dame High School.
Before 1925, as Catholic youth progressed
beyond grade school in their studies, boys went
on to study at the historic college of St. Vincent’s
and girls went to the Loretto Academy. Father
Eberhardt Pruente, V.F., saw the need for a
Catholic high school in 1925. The old St. Francis
Hospital on Sprigg Street was purchased for that
purpose and became St. Mary’s High School. The
school served children in grades 7 through 9. The
University of Missouri accredited the school. On
June 9, 1929, the first eight students graduated
from the new St. Mary’s High School. The School
Sisters of Notre Dame, who had taught at St.
Mary’s Elementary School since 1904, also taught
at the new high school.
The Depression almost wiped the school out,
but Mother Jolendis gave permission to the
School Sisters of Notre Dame to teach in the
school “gratis” in 1931. Later the school would
be too small to handle all the students and a
new location was needed.
In 1948, Father Theon Schoen started to plan
a new high school on Ritter Drive, and by 1953,
he had the money for the new school. Archbishop
Joseph Ritter dedicated the Greater Cape Catholic
High School on October 31, 1954, and the school
had an initial enrollment of 211 students. The
name would officially change to Notre Dame High
School in 1960. In 1962, Notre Dame became a
part of the North Central Association of Colleges
and Secondary Schools.
The school enrollment, technology capacity
and gymnasium facilities were pressures leading
to the need for a new facility. In 1995 a capital
campaign began to raise money for the new
school. A 47.92-acre tract of land was
purchased on Route K and in August 1998,
Bishop John J. Leibrecht dedicated the school.
Today, Notre Dame Regional High School is
the largest private high school between St. Louis
and Memphis. It serves children throughout
southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois.
98 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

LUTHERAN
HOME FOR
THE AGED
An executive committee was formed in 1965
to determine the feasibility of a nursing home for
the elderly in the community. A survey was
conducted in twenty-one Lutheran congregations
to determine the needs of the aged. In 1967
representatives from seventeen of those
congregations met at St. Paul Lutheran Church in
Jackson and formed the nonprofit Lutheran
Home for the Aged and its charter was granted.
The present day, thirty-six-acre site on
Bloomfield Road in Cape Girardeau was
purchased in 1968. The estimated cost of
construction was $600,000. A contest to name
the future facility was won by Flora Suedekum
of Cape Girardeau in 1971. Her winning entry,
“The Lutheran Home.”
The first 60-bed unit opened on January 24,
1972, and three individuals were admitted that
day. By July, the facility had reached one
hundred percent occupancy.
Michael Fleming was the first administrator.
Reverend Oscar A. Gerken was the Pastoral
Advisor and Norman Weiss was president of the
board of directors. The building had three
resident wings with 26 semi-private rooms,
eight private rooms, a chapel, barber/beauty
shop, two living rooms, kitchen and a dining
room. On March 21, 1972 the Lutheran Home
Auxiliary was formed.
In late 1974, construction on the second
sixty-bed unit began, spearheaded by Walter
Moeller. This expansion would have a beauty
shop, handicraft room, and new chapel.
Janice Unger became the administrator
in January 1979. The fourth addition opened
in 1989, and twenty-two of the new beds
were designated as a secured special care
unit for Alzheimer’s Disease and related
dementia patients. It was the first of its kind
in the area.
Plans for constructing Saxony Village were
announced in 1994 and it opened for business in
1996 as independent living apartment complex.
Today the facility employs more than
450 people. There are 274 skilled nursing beds,
105 residential care beds, 48 independent
living apartments, 44 independent living
duplexes, an adult day care program and a
home health agency.
❖
Above: The Lutheran Home Saxony
Manor was constructed in 2001.
Below: Present day site of
The Lutheran Home skilled
nursing facility.
Quality of Life ✦ 99

CAPE
GIRARDEAU
DOCTORS’
PARK, INC.
❖
COURTESY OF MICHAEL WELLS, CAPE GIRARDEAU
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
A series of meetings of area doctors and
dentists in the late 1960s led to the creation of
Cape Girardeau Doctors’ Park. What was a
wheat field in the late 1960s would be turned
into a multispecialty medical complex by 1971.
It began as a 20-acre complex and grew to more
than 50 acres over the years.
Doctors began looking at land for the
complex in 1967. Ideas of how the complex
would be built consisted of a high rise, a medical
mall with offices branching off a central hallway,
and a park setting. Dr. Charles McGinty started
the quest for the complex at a 1968 meeting of
the Cape Girardeau County Medical Society. At
that meeting, 29 people signed up to form a
study group, and they each donated $100 for the
study. Stan Grimm and William Rader wrote the
bylaws and articles of incorporation.
Dr. Charles Bahn was the president of the
newly formed corporation and the first order of
business was the purchase of a twenty-acre tract
bordering Interstate 55 and the Holiday Inn for
$150,000. The corporation also made a deal
with Bud Blattner to buy more land if it was
needed. More land was indeed needed.
Peckham-Guyten, a St. Louis architecture
firm, designed the plan for the first twenty
acres. Dr. Gordon Nunnelly played a key role in
the construction of the complex. He oversaw the
construction and also designed the Doctors’
Park logo. In 1971 the first 20 occupants moved
into their new medical complex. Among the
doctors were Melvin Kasten, Harold Rapp,
Bob Hunt, Milton Shoss, C. John Ritter, and
Jerry Kinder.
In order to pay for the construction of the
complex, members bought lots for as much as
five times the value of the land and for a number
of years members paid dues of $150 a month.
Drs. McGinty, Jean Chapman, Edwin Noffel,
and Nunnelly were the original directors of
Doctors’ Park. David Berry, a retired Army major,
was hired as the first executive director of the
park. In 1978 Ron Wittmer became the president
100 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

of Doctors’ Park, Inc., and he later took the role as
president of Doctors’ Park Surgery. Dr. Thomas
Sparkman then took over as president of Doctors’
Park. Doctors’ Park, Inc. is made up of an
executive committee of stockholders who oversee
the operations of the park. The Covenant Board is
a group of landowners that oversee maintenance
and appearance in the park, and the Doctors’ Park
Association is a group of stockholders,
landowners, and tenants that allow everyone a
voice in the operation of the medical complex.
Sarah Holt is now the Doctors’ Park
Administrator. The Park today has more than 100
physicians, several dentists, and more than 200
healthcare professionals. Total employment at the
medical complex exceeds one thousand. About
3,500 patients visit the Park daily, and the facility
serves a population of 350,000 in the region.
The park now has thirty buildings offering
X-ray services, MRI, surgery, physical therapy,
numerous specialized medical facilities
and orthodontics to name a few of the
occupant specialties.
Since the mid-1990s, several businesses have
renovated their property; Orthopaedic Group,
Saint Francis Medical Center has added the
Cancer Institute, Doctors’ Park Surgery has
renovated and added Endoscopy Associates,
Urology Associates renovated and Cape
Radiology has built a totally new facility offering
all imaging services to the community.
Doctors’ Park will continue to provide
economies of scale for the offices within the
park in the future so they can operate more cost
effectively and have efficiencies that can be
provided to the entire group.
One important way Doctors’ Park provides
efficiencies is by doing OSHA (Occupational
Safety and Health Act) and HIPAA (Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
training. The Doctors’ Park Association also
meets monthly to share information on
regulatory issues. They do all of this with the
dual purpose of having successful healthcare
facilities that provide the best possible
healthcare for their clients.
❖
COURTESY OF MICHAEL WELLS, CAPE GIRARDEAU
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
Quality of Life ✦ 101

KFVS-TV
❖
Above: The KFVS-TV news team in
1979. Today the news team consists of
more than 40 journalists.
Below: 50-year KFVS Radio and TV
veteran Don McNeely who retired in
1994. McNeely was affectionately
known as “Mr. KFVS.”
For 80 years the KFVS call letters have been
part of the fabric of America’s Heartland. In
1924, one of America’s true broadcast pioneers,
Oscar Hirsch, founded KFVS radio in the parlor
of his home on Frederick Street in Cape
Girardeau. Through the years, the station had
several homes including the old Marquette
Hotel and in the current Zimmer Radio studios
on Broadway.
In the early ’50s, Hirsch turned his attention
toward a new invention. On October 3, 1954,
KFVS Television signed on the air for the first
time forever changing the leisure habits of
people in this area.
In 1961, Hirsch finished construction on a
brand new transmitting tower near Oriole,
Missouri. At the time, this “miracle of physics”
was the world’s tallest man-made structure.
Towering 2,000 feet above average terrain, the
new KFVS-TV tower pumped 316,000 watts of
high quality signal to viewers in parts of six states.
In 1966 Hirsch moved KFVS-TV from the current
Zimmer Radio studio location to its present
facility at 310 Broadway. This state-of-the-art studio
building stood 13 stories above downtown Cape
Girardeau, and remains today as one of the most
significant features of historic downtown Cape.
KFVS-TV was sold in 1979 to the AFLAC
Broadcast Division, part of AFLAC, Inc. in
Columbus, Georgia. While Hirsch laid the foundation
for quality broadcasting, AFLAC was able
to allocate the additional resources necessary to
take KFVS-TV to its current dominant position.
Under AFLAC management, the station won
numerous industry awards including Emmy’s,
Telly’s, Addy’s, Missouri and Illinois Broadcasters’
Awards, the CBS Service to Community Award,
the National Association of Broadcasters’ Service
102 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

To Children Award, the Missouri State Teachers’
Association Media Award for covering education,
the prestigious IRIS Award for local children’s
programming, and the coveted Griffin Award for
Community Service.
In 1998, AFLAC sold their broadcast group
of seven stations, including KFVS-TV, to
Raycom Media, Inc. in Montgomery, Alabama.
Currently Raycom Media owns more than thirty
broadcast stations throughout the country. The
award-winning work continues and being
owned by a true broadcast company means the
future of KFVS12 looks brighter than ever.
Several other recent events have helped
shape the future of KFVS12:
• In 2000, KFVS12 entered cyberspace,
launching the official KFVS12.com website.
Through intense on-air promotion, the
website quickly became a regional favorite for
local news, sports, live radar, weather
coverage, programming information, contests,
and giveaways.
• On May 1, 2002, KFVS12 met the FCC
mandate to broadcast a digital, high-definition
over-the-air signal. They were the first local
station to begin broadcasting in full-power
“hi-def.”
• In Fall 2002, Raycom Media purchased the
local UPN Network affiliate, WQWQ-TV, and
the staff of KFVS12 began preparations to
operate this new station. Currently UPN The
Beat offers a wide variety of syndicated
programming along with the UPN Network
line-up, hourly local weather updates, and
the region’s first local prime time newscast.
• On April 30, 2003, the KFVS12 signal
became part of the DISH Network satellite
service. Due to the extremely high satellite
penetration in this area, being on DISH is
important for increased audience delivery of
their local signal.
Through the years and ownership changes, the
KFVS call letters have consistently stood for quality
broadcasting at the local level. Most of the staff
are local to the market and are integrated in their
communities. The management at KFVS12 knows
to be successful in broadcasting means providing
the best local news and weather coverage, quality
entertainment, and intense, ongoing community
service efforts. The addition of UPN The Beat is a
sign of growth and increased opportunity for
additional viewers. And www.KFVS12.com has
become one of this area’s most used local websites
with access to local news, weather, sports, entertainment,
and more twenty-four hours a day.
KFVS-TV has been part of life in the
“Heartland” for nearly fifty years. The broadcast
industry has changed more than most ever
thought possible, but with loyal viewers and
employees, they’ll be entertaining and informing
people for many years to come.
❖
Left: The KFVS-TV Studios and
thirteen-story Hirsch Tower on
Broadway in Cape Girardeau.
Below: The current KFVS-TV News
set was built in 2001. Nearly thirty
hours of local news originates from
this studio each week.
Quality of Life ✦ 103

❖
Above: Lorimier School, Cape
Girardeau’s first public school
building, opened in September 1872.
Below: Lincoln School was built for
African-American students in 1890 at
731 Merriwether and renamed John S.
Cobb School on September 29, 1915.
CAPE GIRARDEAU PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Judge George Greene could not have
dreamed that the school he helped start in the
basement of a local church in 1867 would grow
into the Cape Girardeau School District No. 63
of today. Known as “the father of Cape Public
Schools,” he arranged for an election on January
24, 1867 to establish a tax-supported school.
The first term opened April 7, 1867 in the
basement of the Presbyterian Church. As the
school grew, other rooms were soon rented
on Good Hope Street, and more teachers
were employed.
Cape Girardeau’s first public school building,
Lorimier School, 401 Independence, cost
$15,000 and opened in September 1872. With a
bond issue for $85,000 and $57,000 from a
Public Works Administration grant, a new wing
opened in 1937 containing eight rooms, a
gymnasium/auditorium, and a cafeteria.
Lincoln School (renamed John S. Cobb
School on September 29, 1915) was built for
African-American students in 1890 at 731
Merriwether. Board minutes for October 1898
show the total District student population at
482 white students and 200 African-American
students with 2 principals and 11 teachers.
Six years later, Board minutes recorded a
student population of 1,792. In 1904 a $10,000
loan and a ten-cent tax were approved to build
Jefferson School on the southeast corner of Ellis
and Jefferson Streets. One year later, at 937
Broadway, on a $3,000 lot and costing $15,500,
West Broadway School was built.
A 1913 bond issue provided funds to build
Cape Girardeau’s first public high school,
Central High School, on land donated to the city
in 1810 by Louis Lorimier. Located at 101 South
Pacific, classes began in October 1915.
Three additional elementary schools were built
during the next twelve years: Washington
Elementary School (1914) at 621 North Fountain;
104 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

May Greene Elementary School (1921) at 1000
Ranney Avenue; and Franklin Elementary School
(1926) at 215 North Louisiana.
No new buildings were constructed for
nearly thirty years before the “new” $2-million
Central High School at 205 Caruthers opened in
1955. The previous high school on South Pacific
became Central Junior High School.
Two additional elementary schools were built
in quick succession, with Jefferson Elementary
School (520 Minnesota) opening in 1957 and
Alma Schrader Elementary School (1360 Randol
Avenue) opening in 1959. Six years later, the
District opened Hawthorn School (later
renamed Clippard Elementary School) at 2880
Hopper Road.
A new Central Junior High School opened in
1963 on the site of “the Civil War Battle of Cape
Girardeau” (1900 Thilenius). The old junior high
on South Pacific became Schultz Middle School
(seventh grade). The Vocational-Technical School
at 301 North Clark opened in Fall 1967.
Due to structural and safety concerns, the
District closed May Greene Elementary and
Washington Elementary in 1999 and Schultz
Middle School in 2002. Simultaneously, Alma
Schrader, Clippard, and Jefferson Elementary
Schools experienced substantial renovations.
Blanchard Elementary opened its doors in
January 2000.
In 1995 the District, in conjunction with the
Juvenile Office, established an Alternative
Education Center (AEC). Beginning with twelve
students attending a half-day program, it now
supports over eighty students with full-day
programming and graduated thirty-four
students with high school diplomas in 2002-03.
In 2001 the new $14-million Career and
Technology Center at 1080 South Silver Springs
Road opened offering training for the entire
region. The next year, a new Central High
School (206,000 square feet, $20,519,157)
opened its doors at 1000 South Silver Springs
Road. This state-of-the-art facility houses 1,295
students, 89 instructional staff, and over nine
miles of computer cable.
Restructuring prior to the 2002-03 school
year transformed K-6 elementary schools into K-
4 buildings, created completely new 5-6 middle
and 7-8 grade junior high schools, and
transformed the 10-12 high school into a 9-12
comprehensive program that Judge Greene
could not have imagined. It is easy to see that the
best is yet to come for Cape Girardeau Public
Schools, and it truly has all the right ingredients
to make and keep courageous commitments to
meet community needs for the new century.
❖
Above: Cape Girardeau Career and
Technology Center at 1080 South
Silver Springs Road opened in 2001.
Below: An artist’s rendering of the
new Cape High School.
Quality of Life ✦ 105

SAINT FRANCIS
HEALTHCARE
SYSTEM
❖
Above: From early on, residents
throughout the surrounding
countryside relied on the Sisters at
Saint Francis for the finest medical
care in the area.
Below: While technology has
improved since Saint Francis was
founded in 1875, the Medical Center’s
commitment to care for all patients
with compassion and dignity has
not changed.
Saint Francis Medical Center today is one of
the region’s leading centers for specialized
healthcare; a medical facility where innovative
technologies and advanced procedures go handin-hand
with a mission of caring and enhancing
the health of the community.
Despite many changes in facilities and
services over the years, the concept of human
caring at Saint Francis remains as relevant today
as it was when the founding Franciscan Sisters
established the hospital in 1875.
From the very beginning, life proved
challenging for the Sisters. Residents from miles
around flocked to the small 12-bed hospital
on Themis Street. Rooms at the first hospital
in southeastern Missouri were soon overflowing
with patients.
Because funds were almost nonexistent during
the post-Civil War era, the Sisters cared for the
sick with almost no medicine. Even though local
citizens began donating food, clothing and other
supplies, it was a daily struggle to keep patients
and staff fed. With little money to purchase wood
or coal, there was little heat in the hospital during
cold weather. Still, the Sisters valiantly carried on
with their healing ministry.
It was not long before they realized their
cramped quarters were not adequate for the
increasing flow of patients. In March 1878 the
Sisters purchased property across the street from
St. Mary’s Church at the corner of Sprigg and
William and the Franciscan Sisters assisted in
building a new hospital. It would be the first of
many additions, expansions, and new facilities
for Saint Francis Hospital as it continued to meet
the growing healthcare needs of the community.
The history of Saint Francis Medical Center is
marked with a number of significant patient
care milestones and accomplishments:
• Received American College of Surgeons
accreditation in 1920;
• Opened region’s first obstetrical unit in 1925;
• Established an orthopaedics unit in 1927;
• Established the School of Practical Nursing
in 1950s;
106 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

• Opened a nuclear medicine department and
coronary care unit in 1966;
• Constructed a heliport next to the hospital’s
ER for airborne patient transfers in 1978;
• Open heart surgery was performed at Saint
Francis for first time in 1991, coinciding
with establishment of the Heart Institute;
• Convenient Care, the first urgent care service
of its kind in Cape Girardeau, opened in 1991;
• Opened the region’s first Diabetes Center in
1996;
• Saint Francis was the first facility in the region
to perform total joint replacement, minimally
invasive heart surgery and neurosurgery;
• Opened the Family BirthPlace with the
region’s only neonatologist-staffed Level III
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in 2001;
• Opened the region’s first Wound Healing
Center in 2001;
• Saint Francis was the first area medical
center to use positron emission tomography
(PET) for oncology, neurology, and cardiology
diagnoses.
From humble beginnings, Saint Francis
Medical Center has grown to become a 249-bed
facility serving more than 250,000 people in a
five-state region. A full-service tertiary care
Medical Center, it has a history of enviable
assets–nationally recognized leadership positions
in the areas of orthopaedic and neurological care;
a Heart Institute that has brought leading-edge
procedures to the region; and a reputation for
relentlessly pursuing innovative technology
whether it be in orthopaedics, neuroscience,
cardiac care, emergency care, rehabilitation or
any of the other medical programs the Medical
Center offers.
Today, the Saint Francis Healthcare System
includes Saint Francis Medical Center and Saint
Francis Health Development Services, a
corporation currently comprised of two
physician partnerships. The first is the state-ofthe-art
Cancer Institute of Cape Girardeau, LLC.
The second is a partnership with Poplar Bluff
Medical Partners in Poplar Bluff, Missouri,
which operates a diagnostic imaging center,
ambulatory surgery center and an outpatient
cardiac catheterization lab. Both of these
strategic developments emphasize Saint Francis’
focus on enhancing high-acuity services and
expand inpatient and outpatient services.
Conveniently located on an eighty-acre
campus in west Cape Girardeau, near the junction
of Interstate 55 and Route K, Saint Francis
Medical Center is currently in the midst of a fiveyear
master facilities plan that will yield expanded
improvements and additions to services including
surgery, diagnostics, orthopaedics, the Family
BirthPlace, outpatient care, as well as a new
Health and Wellness Center.
“Our vision of local healthcare today is more
than intervening when a medical problem arises,”
says Saint Francis Healthcare System President
and CEO Steven C. Bjelich, FACHE. “It’s about
providing health resources for life. As a Catholic
healthcare provider established on Judeo-
Christian principles, we continue the heritage of
our founding Franciscan Sisters, providing these
resources through services that save lives, enrich
lives, and give hope.”
❖
Below: Saint Francis Medical
Center has the region’s only Level III
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
(NICU) for critically ill and
premature newborns.
Bottom: Because of the Saint Francis
Level III NICU, families in the
region can stay close to home and
still receive advanced medical care
for their newborns.
Quality of Life ✦ 107

SEMO
ALLIANCE FOR
DISABILITY
INDEPENDENCE,
INCORPORATED
❖
Right: SADI opens its first office on
January 2, 1993. Present were (from
left to right) Michael H. Maguire,
Sherry Brown, Miki Gudermuth,
Amanda Glasscock, Lonnie Brown,
Secretary of State Judy Moriorty,
Ken Emmons, Leemon Priest, Alice
Koerber, Tanya Harper, and
Thomas M. Meyer.
Below: Chuck Martin of Easter Seals,
awards SADI’s Miki Gudermuth a
personal achievement award on
October 21, 1994.
Maryann “Miki” Gudermuth contracted polio
during the summer polio epidemic of 1949. Due
to all the concerns of Post-Polio Syndrome,
she decided to organize what was the first postpolio
support group in southeast Missouri
in 1984. The group met in her home
and evolved to include people with other
types of disabilities. The group provided
community outreach, information and referral,
and peer support to persons
living in the City of Cape
Girardeau and outlying areas
of the county.
Gudermuth founded the
SEMO Alliance for Disability
Independence (SADI) as a
non-residential independent
living center along with
board members Leemon
Priest, Amanda Glascock,
Sherri and Lonnie Brown,
Ken Emmons, Thomas M.
Meyer, Michael H. Maguire,
and Sharon Williams on
July 1, 1987. SADI received
501 (c) 3 status September
23, 1993.
In 1988, SADI hosted the
first Disability Talent and
Resource Fair at West Park
Mall, which demonstrated
the talents of people with disabilities along with
area resources available to persons living in
southeastern Missouri.
From 1984 through 1993, most of SADI’s
activities were carried out from Miki’s dining
room table on a MacIntosh128k computer and
an old used copier that her husband, Chuck,
had to keep in running order until the center
was funded and an office could be located.
SADI opened its office at 1029 North
Kingshighway on January 2, 1993. It had a staff
of three employees and two volunteers at the
time in the 1,256-square-foot office. In 1995,
SADI moved to its current location at 121 South
Broadview because the staff was growing and it
needed more space. In 1998 it expanded its
office space. Today, SADI employs twenty
people and operates a shuttle service for the
elderly and people with disabilities.
Today, SADI provides comprehensive
information and referral services for the
counties of Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Perry,
Scott, Mississippi, and the City of Sikeston. The
center provides peer support, independent
living skills training, personal care assistance
services, advocacy, assistive technology services,
transportation, and community education on
ADA and other issues involving persons with
disabilities and the elderly.
SADI is looking to expand its shuttle service
to other cities in the five county service areas.
108 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

SOUTHEAST
MISSOURI
HOSPITAL
As early as 1923 civic-minded citizens
promoted the idea of a nondenominational,
nonprofit hospital. Just a year later, a group of
twenty businessmen and physicians whose
vision and faith reached beyond the present and
into the future stepped forward to sign
individual promissory notes for the development
of a new residential subdivision on the city’s
westernmost edge. The concept was a simple
one—sell lots to help finance construction of the
new Southeast Missouri Hospital.
A 52.5-acre tract of land was purchased for
$8,250. Moving westward attracted hundreds of
potential homeowners, with 213 lots in the new
“Sunset Terrace” being sold in just one week at
an average price of $347 per lot.
The drive to raise the additional $100,000
needed to build Southeast extended beyond Cape
Girardeau and into the region, with committees
in thirty other communities stepping forward to
assist with the fund drive. Further assistance
came from the Southeast Missouri Hospital
Association, incorporated in August 1926 with
twenty-three members. Today, the Association
includes more than 750 men and women
interested in supporting Southeast and from that
membership the Board of Trustees is elected to
guide and direct this community-based, locally
operated medical center.
Opened on January 9, 1928, with 90 beds,
Southeast Missouri Hospital, through the vision of
its leaders, has evolved into a 269-bed regional
medical complex with a strong commitment to
excellence in patient care. In addition to five outstanding
centers of medical excellence, Southeast
offers many other specialized patient care services
as well as vast educational and wellness services.
Exciting medical advances and state-of-theart
technology and facilities will continue to be
planned for and developed to provide the region
with excellence in patient care for generations
to come.
The Southeast Missouri Hospital Mission:
Commitment to Excellence. Trusted Care.
❖
Above: Southeast Missouri Hospital,
located on the hillside overlooking
Capaha Park in Cape Girardeau, has
been providing this region with
medical services since 1928.
Below: Entire generations of many
area families claim Southeast
Missouri Hospital as their birthplace
and healthcare team for life. Pictured
are members of the Popp-Schoen-
Dixon family of Oak Ridge, Missouri,
all of whom were either born or gave
birth at Southeast. Kenneth Popp
(second row, third from left) was
the sixteenth baby born at Southeast
in 1928.
Quality of Life ✦ 109

SOUTHEAST
MISSOURI
STATE
UNIVERSITY
❖
Above: Academic Hall was completed
in 1903 and is still used today.
Below: Normal School was completed
in 1875 and served as the school’s
main building until 1902.
The journey from the Third District Normal
School to Southeast Missouri State University
began with a nationwide movement to establish
normal schools for teacher education. Through
the work of local financiers and political leaders,
Cape Girardeau was able to outbid Jackson and
Arcadia and became the site of the Third District
Normal School. In 1873 Missouri Governor
Silas Woodson signed the bill that established
the school, which began its first year with five
faculty members and 57 students.
Property for the school was purchased from
Joseph Lansman. The Normal Building was
completed in 1875 and served as the school’s
main building until it was destroyed by fire in
1902. Construction on Academic Hall, which is
still in use today, began in 1903.
The school’s first principal was Professor L.H.
Cheney. Later the title was changed to president.
Willard D. Vandiver, the school’s fifth president,
was the first to be elected from the faculty.
During his tenure, the school was in danger of
being closed due to low enrollment, but he
fought to save it. Vandiver later went on to serve
in Congress and coined the phrase “I’m from
Missouri, you’ve got to show me.”
In the late nineteenth century there was a
movement to abolish normal schools in the
state. However, the school remained open and
continued to grow. Enrollment increased from
500 to 1,500 between 1910 and 1920. In 1919
the school’s name changed to Southeast
Missouri State Teacher’s College and the students
were able to obtain four-year degrees.
In 1945 the State Legislature changed the
school’s name to Southeast Missouri State
College and it was recognized as a liberal arts
institution. In 1972 the college became
Southeast Missouri State University, gaining the
authority to confer post-graduate degrees and
offer a greater variety of undergraduate degrees.
Today the University serves more than 9,500
students and employs 1,100 people.
110 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

SHOW ME
CENTER
What was to become the facility that offers
entertainment, cultural, social, and educational
events to the region began with an agreement
between the City of Cape Girardeau and
Southeast Missouri State University on October
31, 1984. Key individuals in the process were
Mayor Howard Tooke, University President Bill
Stacy, U.S. Senator John Dennis, and Missouri
Representative Marvin Proffer. Funding for the
multipurpose arena was provided by a $5
million general obligation bond approved by
Cape Girardeau voters and $8.5 million from the
State of Missouri through Southeast Missouri
State University. The university also supplied the
thirty-acre tract of land. Disagreements over the
proposed location of the multi-purpose facility
led to a lawsuit that was decided before the
Supreme Court of Missouri before the proposed
project could be completed.
A board of managers for the Show Me Center
was established as the governing body of the
facility. The City Council and the Board of
Regents appoint three members each to the
Board of Managers. Their role, along with the
building director, is to create the facility’s
operating policy and ensure compliance to all
agreements between the University and City.
During the dedication ceremonies, a time
capsule was placed in the exterior wall of the
facility to be opened for public display every
twenty-five years.
On August 21, 1987, the Show Me Center
held its first concert featuring George Jones and
Tanya Tucker. Bob Hope came to the Show Me
Center one week later. Midwest Forest Products
Association was the first date contracted for the
new facility with the event occurring eighteen
months later. In October 1987, Tina Turner
gave an electrifying performance. U.S. President
Ronald Reagan spoke to the largest crowd
(7,719) ever assembled in the Show Me Center
in September 1988.
In its first 15 years, over 4 million people
attended events at the center. Southeast
Missouri State Indians and Otahkians basketball
are the main draws each winter. The center has
also welcomed the St. Louis Symphony, Bill
Cosby, Garth Brooks, George Straight, Kiss,
Aerosmith, Guns ‘n Roses, David Copperfield,
the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus,
and many other renowned entertainers through
the years.
❖
Above: The Show Me Center is
located at 1333 North Sprigg Street in
Cape Girardeau.
COURTESY OF LUEDORS STUDIO.
Below: The Southeast Missouri State
Indians and Otahkians basketball
teams are the Show Me Center’s main
draws each winter.
Quality of Life ✦ 111

EDWIN “EDDIE”
ALVIN ERLBACHER
❖
Above: Eddie Erlbacher, prominent
Cape Girardeau businessman, posed
alongside his new 1934 Ford.
Below: The Mokita possessed
numerous original design features. It
was powered with twin Superior
Marine diesels with 500 H.P. each and
turned three blades, 68 inch by 42
inch steel propellers up to 400 R.P.M.
Edwin (Eddie) Alvin Erlbacher (1902-1961)
was a pioneer in river transportation. Erlbacher
designed and built four towboats, of which the
longest was sixty feet between 1927 and 1934.
In 1935 he designed and constructed the M/V
Mokita. It was 107.8 feet long with two 560-HP
diesel engines. The Mokita was one of the fastest
and most powerful boats on the river at the time,
earning her the nickname River Greyhound.
His brother, Robert, joined him in 1936 to
form a partnership. The partnership built four
towboats: Owassa, Shawnee, Mishawaka, and the
Papoose. They also owned six petroleum barges
and several large petroleum storage tanks north
of Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi River.
Eddie saw the need for communication for
their boats. He built a 175-foot tower and base
station known as radio station KMP. The radiophone
was capable of reaching any vessel from
New Orleans, Louisiana to St. Paul, Minnesota
and east to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In 1943 the partnership sold their major
interest in their towboats and barges to JD Street
Towing Company. After liquidating their partnership,
Eddie devoted his energy to the
Eddie Erlbacher Machine and Transportation
Company which included real estate, a towboat,
a machine shop, and a gravel plant.
He was prominent in civic affairs until his
death. Eddie was a member of the Cape Chamber
of Commerce and served as president. He was a
member of Cape Special Road District, becoming
chairman in 1953. During his tenure, the board
was instrumental in securing the purchase of the
Mississippi River toll bridge. This was accomplished
by selling revenue bonds that freed the toll
on the bridge. He also presented a fill plan to raise
the main business section of the city out of high
floodwater. Some believe the method superior and
more economical than the present floodwall.
Eddie was married to Grace Kinder. He was
blessed with four children: Jean E. Wilson,
Joyce E. Blattner, Jerry E. Erlbacher, and David
W. Erlbacher.
112 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

❖
Kent Library was built on the
Southeast Missouri State campus in
1939 by the Public Works
Administration, and subsequently
expanded in 1968.
PHOTOGRAPH BY GORDON NEUMEYER.
Quality of Life ✦ 113

❖
The Riverview Hotel, at the foot of
Broadway, was built in 1857 and
burned in 1916.
COURTESY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION.
114 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

THE MARKETPLACE
Cape Girardeau’s financial
institutions, service industries, and
retail and commercial establishments provide
the economic foundation of the city
The Drury Family .........................................................................116
Midamerica Hotels Corporation
Northwest Development Company
Trans Am Industries, Inc. ...............................................................120
Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce.............................................123
Cape Paint & Glass, Inc. ...............................................................124
Plaza Tire Service, Inc...................................................................126
Cape GMC Pontiac, Inc..................................................................128
Old Bavarian Sausage....................................................................130
Rust and Martin ...........................................................................132
Stanley, Dirnberger, Hopper & Associates, LLC..................................134
El Torero, Inc. ..............................................................................136
Sandy Donley ...............................................................................137
Knaup Floral Company ..................................................................138
BioKyowa, Inc. .............................................................................139
Limbaugh, Russell, Payne & Howard ................................................140
Chateau Girardeau........................................................................141
Bluff City Beer Co., Inc. ................................................................142
Coldwell Banker Hamilton Realty ....................................................143
Havco Wood Products, LLC .............................................................144
Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company ......................................145
W. E. Walker Company...................................................................146
Auto Tire & Parts .........................................................................147
The Marketplace ✦ 115

THE DRURY
FAMILY
❖
Above: The early days. Part of the
Lambert Drury family poses for a
rare snapshot.
Right: Bob Drury by the brick
outhouse, Drury’s first
construction project.
The Drury family has prided itself in doing
things differently since Lambert Drury and his
sons started a small plastering business in the
1940s. Lambert believed that success was
achieved only by delivering a top-quality
product at an excellent value. His philosophy
was passed on to his sons, Charles, Bob, Jim,
and Jerry, as they worked side-by-side with their
father to build their fledgling company. As time
went by, they used the knowledge they had
gained to continue on with other ventures.
The Drury success story began in Kelso,
Missouri, shortly after World War II with
the formation of a small family-operated
construction company. The business steadily
grew from plastering cisterns, houses, and
schools to installation of ceramic tile, drywall,
and terrazzo, and erection of structural steel and
roof decks. The first building the Drury family
built was a brick outhouse on the family farm in
Kelso, which still stands today.
Profits earned from the construction projects
formed the seed capital to continue to expand.
In 1959, Drury Development Corporation was
founded as the brothers moved into general
construction projects and real estate
development. The family’s emphasis on hard
work, integrity, patience, and persistence laid a
good foundation for growth and expansion into
new areas of opportunity.
The Drurys entered the hotel business as a
side venture, springing from their venture into
commercial real estate in the 1960s. In 1962 the
family built its first hotel—a 108-room Holiday
Inn in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Nine years
later they opened a pair of Ramada Inns in
Nashville, Tennessee.
All of these hotels were well-run, quality
operations that offered guests the traditional fullservice
array of amenities, including lounges,
dining rooms, meeting rooms and banquet
facilities. The hotel accommodations were well
received by guests and financially successful, but
the food and beverage divisions were difficult to
manage and were not profitable.
The quest for a simpler, more profitable
approach led the Drury family to pioneer its
own limited service brand. The concept
involved locating the hotel on a “cow path”
corner, which is a highly accessible site near a
major interstate intersection. Rooms were to be
equal in quality to full service hotels, but
without conventional restaurant, lounge, and
116 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

meeting facilities. By not including these
elements, Drury was able to reduce its rates to
the customer by 20 to 30 percent below
prevailing full-service hotel prices and make an
excellent return on investment.
The first Drury hotel, which opened in 1973,
was located in Sikeston, Missouri. The original
plans listed the hotel as “No Name Motel.” Two
weeks prior to opening and after much
discussion among family members, the Drury
Inn name was selected. The room rate was
$7.50 per night, and with the strategy of
providing high quality accommodations,
combined with the right amenities, superior
service, and competitive rates, helped Drury
compete in the market. The success of the new
concept with the traveling public led to a chain
of hotels, which today includes 110 hotels in
17 states.
The original concept developed by the Drury
family continues to form the basis for new
development. Their commitment to quality,
value, and guest satisfaction is a trademark
religiously followed. Attention is paid to every
detail at a Drury Hotel, beginning with the right
location, construction, furnishings, and fixtures,
to well trained employees. Hotels are generally
located along interstate highways at prime “cow
path” corners or at major airports or in
downtown markets. Drury enhances the
marketing appeal of its inns by locating most
hotels adjacent to quality chain restaurants,
such as Applebee’s, Bob Evans, Outback
Steakhouse, and others.
Hotels are constructed of reinforced concrete
and masonry or drivet. Minimal wood is used,
except for trim. Each Drury Hotel is designed to
be virtually fireproof and soundproof. Drury has
also established a reputation for quality
restorations of historic buildings, with three
historic Drury Hotels open in St. Louis, one in
San Antonio, and one in New Orleans.
The Drury organization is different from big
franchised chains, as it builds, owns and
❖
Above: The first Drury Inn was built
in 1973 in Sikeston, Missouri.
Below: The historic restoration on San
Antonio’s famous Riverwalk,
constructed by Drury Southwest.
The Marketplace ✦ 117

operates all of its hotels. Drury maintains very
high quality standards for cleanliness,
maintenance of equipment, and general
operating efficiencies. Routine quality assurance
inspections are conducted, and the hotel
management staff is held accountable for
maintaining consistent lodging standards.
Renovations are conducted regularly giving
Drury Hotels a “like new” appearance.
Drury guests can depend on a consistent
experience, a very clean room, friendly service,
and more value for the dollar than at
competitors. Drury Hotels consistently rank
highly in national guest satisfaction surveys.
Guests enjoy a package of amenities, which
includes free QUIKSTART breakfast, free evening
beverages on weekdays, free high-speed
Internet access, and much more. Free hot
breakfast will be in place at all Drury Hotels by
the end of 2004.
The company’s success is directly related
to its team of thirty-five hundred well-trained,
long-term team members. The Drury culture
offers a sense of belonging and opportunities
for career advancement. The hotel team is
well trained to guarantee guest satisfaction on
the spot.
The primary Drury brand is Drury Inn &
Suites, which gives the guest a choice of
standard or king deluxe rooms, as well as tworoom
suites. Other Drury brand hotels include
Drury Inn, Drury Suites, Drury Lodge and
Drury Plaza Hotel.
In addition to hotels bearing the Drury
name, the company owns and operates a
small chain bearing the name, Pear Tree Inn
by Drury. Typically, a Pear Tree Inn by Drury
is located in the same geographic location as
a Drury Hotel but caters to a more rate-sensitive
guest. In many instances, the Pear Tree Inn
by Drury was formerly a Drury Inn and was
re-flagged when a new Drury Hotel was built in
the market.
Drury has also purchased franchises for
Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge,
and Best Western hotels for selected market
areas. Franchised hotels are located in an area
where there is already a Drury Hotel and it is
determined the market can support a similar
product without adversely affecting the
performance of the Drury Hotel.
Drury Inns, Inc. is headed by Chuck Drury,
who oversees the operation of all hotels, as well
as development of hotels in selected markets.
The company maintains corporate offices in
both St. Louis and Cape Girardeau. Drury Inns,
Inc. is supported by D. I. Supply Company
based in Cape Girardeau, which handles
❖
An example of today’s
Drury Inn & Suites.
118 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

purchasing and supplies for selected new
construction and all operational supplies.
In recent years, the founders of the company
have formed individual corporations, which
allow them to experiment with new ideas and
pursue independent ventures. Charles Drury is
the founder of Drury Development Corporation
and DDI Media, which are located in St. Louis.
Robert Drury heads Drury Southwest, Drury
Southwest Signs, Weiss Park Mobile Home
Community, and other commercial property
ventures located in Cape Girardeau and San
Antonio, Texas. Jerry Drury and his family own
Drury Properties, based in Springfield,
Missouri. Columbia Construction Company,
established by the late Martin Jansen and
managed by John and Greg Jansen, is
responsible for furniture manufacturing and
selective millwork for the hotels.
The Drury family has always taken pride
in doing things just a little bit differently.
And that concept has led to a unique system of
over 110 hotels with an outstanding record of
guest satisfaction and top performance. At the
core, however, remain the simple homespun
values that the Drury brothers learned on the
family farm and adapted to the hotel
business...success comes as a result of hard
work, integrity, persistence and patience. And
these values remain firmly in place at Drury
Hotels today.
❖
Above: Bishop Leibrecht (left), and
Ann and Bob Drury at the ground
breaking for the new Notre Dame
Regional High School.
Below: The Drury Family today. Back
row (from left to right): Charles, Jim,
Robert, and Jerry. Front Row: Patricia
Schlosser, Mary Jane Jansen, Nancy
Pfeiffer, and Victoria Hahn.
The Marketplace ✦ 119

MIDAMERICA
HOTELS
CORPORATION
NORTHWEST
DEVELOPMENT
COMPANY
TRANS AM
INDUSTRIES, INC.
Midamerica Hotels Corporation as we know
it today began in 1976, but its roots can be
traced back to the 1940s when family patriarch,
Lambert Drury, formed Drury Tile and
Plastering Company. Three sons, Charles, Jim,
and Bob brought their drive, ambition and old
fashioned work ethic into the business during
the late 1940s and brother Jerry followed a few
years later. Those early dynamic crews’ specialties
included plaster, ceramic tile, marble, and
terrazzo, along with an extra helping of good
plain labor, grit, and determination.
From that beginning, several companies were
spawned in the evolutionary development of the
Drury Empire. The first venture into the hotel
industry came in 1962 with the opening of the
Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau, a business that
was to become a local legend over the next forty
years. The years that soon followed brought the
Ramada Inn and Burger King systems into the
rapidly expanding business and found the company
spreading its operations into five states.
Recognition and awards, resulting from the
intense drive and desire to excel were to soon
come from the Holiday Inn and Ramada Inn systems.
Subsequently to follow was the Drury Inn
operational concept, founded under the principles
of quality construction, an affordable pricing
structure to the guests, and relative simplicity
of operations. Corporate-wise, the business
had evolved into a group that had become
known as Drury Industries, Inc. by 1974.
The various properties of the young Drury
Industries empire were divided when Jim
Drury left Drury Industries in 1976, and took
with him what was to become Midamerica Hotels
Corporation. His holdings included the Holiday
Inn at Cape Girardeau, the Ramada Inn at
Sikeston, the Drury Lodge at Springfield,
Missouri, the Best Western Inn St Louis, and
Burger Kings located in Cape Girardeau, Sikeston,
Bowling Green, Kentucky, Carbondale, Illinois,
and Jonesboro, Arkansas. (It is interesting to note
that Midamerica Hotels Corporation still resides
in the same office building that it first moved into
in 1976, although substantial expansion and renovation
has occurred during that period).
As Midamerica’s CEO, Jim retained several
employees from the Drury Industries group
including David Kimes, interim controller and
auditor; Ed Radetic, Burger King operations
director; Russ Richards, hotel operations director;
Tom Lappe, construction manager; Ron Kruep,
public relations manager; Betty Francis, executive
secretary; and Laverne Rosenquist in accounting.
Soon to join the company after the initial reorganization
were: Harold Hale, CPA, and Verna
Hoffman, Elvira Urhahn, and Imogene Sebek in
accounting. Charlotte Mansell, who came to
work for the company as an eighteen-year-old
waitress at Holiday Inn in 1976, would return to
handle the early computer operations in the
1980s after earning a degree in computer technology
from Southeast Missouri State University.
120 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

Along with Jim, there are a number of
employees who began in the late ’70s who are still
with Midamerica today. Laverne Rosenquist and
Harold Hale continue to be full time employees,
and the now semi-retired Betty Francis, Elvira
Urhahn, and Imogene Sebek assist during peak
business periods. Chuck Bell began as a Burger
King crewmember after school in 1973. Thirty
years later, he is a regional manager responsible
for nineteen Burger Kings in a three-state area.
Two key employees, Bob Hahn and Ken
Augustyn, joined the company in 1984. Hahn had
operated his own professional engineering
business in Cape Girardeau and has played a
major role in the development of the company’s
real estate activities. Augustyn became director of
Burger King operations at a time the company had
six Burger King stores. Augustyn left the company
in 1996, leaving a twenty-store Burger King
operation. In 1997 another key employee, Joel
Neikirk, joined the Midamerica family; today he is
director of operations for both the hotels and
what is now a thirty-eight-store Burger King
operation, and is the company vice-president.
Joel’s technology background has resulted in
providing the company with a critical liaison role
between the operations and accounting areas.
Jim Drury has advocated, been actively
involved, and encouraged the involvement of
those around him in participation in the
bettering of the community and in charitable
activities. He personally spearheaded efforts that
resulted in the development of a vitally
important vo-tech program in the local school
system and he continues to be an advocate at
the grass roots level for the best interests of the
average citizen. He is motivated by the desire to
give back to the community that gave him his
own start toward success in the business world.
Jim’s children began working for the business,
starting in the early 1970s, and today occupy
key roles in the company. Dan, Jim’s oldest son,
is president of Midamerica Hotels, and John and
Diane are both vice-presidents. Dan heads up the
hotel and restaurant operations, John oversees
The Marketplace ✦ 121

all construction activities of the Jim Drury
Construction Division, and Diane manages the
company’s billboard operations, and rental
properties, as well as décor projects for the four
hotels and 38 Burger Kings.
In the twenty-seven years since Jim set out to
form his own company, there have been numerous
changes. Midamerica no longer owns the Ramada
Inn in Sikeston, the Drury Lodge at Springfield,
the Burger King in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and
the Best Western Inn St Louis became the Holiday
Inn St Louis (South) many years ago. The
organization has also grown over the years from 5
Burger Kings to 38 (with the latest addition in
West Frankfort, Illinois) and has added, in
addition to its two Holiday Inns, a Holiday Inn
Express and Victorian Inn. The Holiday Inns and
Holiday Inn Express are consistently awardwinning
hotels. The property in Paducah,
Kentucky, a Holiday Inn Express, won six
consecutive Torch Bearer awards and in 1999 was
named the best Holiday Inn Express in the world.
In an independent study performed by a local
university team, local residents (aged 40 to 55)
ranked the Victorian Inn the best hotel in the area.
Cape Girardeau’s Holiday Inn has become a
local icon during its forty years and has made its
place in the history of the city. It is “the place”
for business meetings and family events. People
converge from miles around to celebrate weddings,
anniversaries, birthdays, and other special
events. Both Presidents Reagan and Ford
have stayed at the hotel while visiting the
region. Celebrities, some nationally recognized
like Chubby Checker, some locally recognized
like Vi Keys, have entertained there. The annual
District Rodeo has brought many well-known
entertainers to the hotel, such as singer Dottie
West, Ray Stevens and Kenny Rogers.
Midamerica Hotels Corporation and related
companies employ approximately 1,550 people
in the four-state region. The hotel division has
shown an annual average sales growth rate of
6.75 percent. The Burger King division has
grown at an average annual sales growth rate of
about twenty percent, resulting from a
combination of new development and business
growth. The organization plans to continue on a
controlled growth path in light of the present
economy. Midamerica Hotels Corporation will
continue to have an open ear to strategic new
business opportunities that can complement its
business resources and activate its land and
business assets.
122 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

When the Cape Girardeau Commercial Club
was informally organized in 1888, the members
went to work immediately for the community.
Among its accomplishments were convincing the
Frisco Railroad to open a line from St. Louis to
Cape and securing Cape’s first major employer,
the International Shoe Company of St. Louis.
The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce
was formally established in 1917, making the
Chamber the second oldest in the state. Around the
turn of the century, less than forty communities in
the United States had a chamber of commerce.
Cape’s Chamber has continuously worked for this
community since its birth. A little more than eighty
years ago the Chamber was striving to promote
good roads, to build a bridge over the Mississippi
River, and to help Cape Girardeau grow.
Those efforts have turned into tremendous
accomplishments and goals the Chamber is still
working to improve on today. The area that had
three industries, three poultry farms, six lumber
companies, three cigar manufacturers, three filling
stations, two flour mills, and a broom maker in
1920, today has more than 150 industries
employing more than 10,000 workers. Those
industries are some of the largest in the country—
Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company,
BioKyowa, Inc., DANA Corporation, and Nordenia
U.S.A. What was flat farmland on Nash Road some
three decades ago is now a thriving Industrial Park.
The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce
does not only work with the area’s industries.
Cape’s other businesses are growing as well. More
than twenty-seven thousand people are employed
in professional, government, construction, service,
and retail businesses. And, Cape’s annual retail
sales exceed $1.2 billion.
The goals the Cape Girardeau Chamber of
Commerce strives to work for today are a
continuation of the goals of the Chamber
initially—to foster economic progress, create
jobs, and improve the quality of life. The
Chamber does this through several hard
working committees made up of volunteers.
These committees seek out projects to improve
both the area’s economy and its community.
Cape Girardeau ranks sixteenth in
population among Missouri cities. Cape
Girardeau’s Chamber of Commerce, however, is
the fourth largest in the state of Missouri. This
extraordinary figure is possible because of the
dedicated twelve hundred business people who
have worked ceaselessly for this Chamber and
this community for nearly a century.
With the recent addition of the Convention
and Visitors Bureau, the Chamber is now
poised to better secure the economic future of
Cape Girardeau.
CAPE
GIRARDEAU
CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE
❖
Above: The Chamber of Commerce
was housed in the 200 block of
Broadway, next to the First
Presbyterian Church.
COURTESY OF ROGER LANG.
Below: The Cape Girardeau Chamber
of Commerce offices at 1267 North
Mount Auburn Road.
The Marketplace ✦ 123

CAPE PAINT &
GLASS, INC.
❖
Above: Cape Paint & Glass at 501
Broadway, 1958.
Below: Albert Baker, founder of Cape
Paint & Glass.
The world was full of turmoil when Albert
“AB” Baker and Audrey Baker bought Luckman
Glass Company from Bill Luckman and
renamed it Cape Paint & Glass Company in
1941. The business was then located in the rear
of 418 Broadway. Customers looking for
automotive paint and glass or the installation of
commercial, residential, or automotive glass
found a reliable partner at Cape Paint & Glass
Company. The company’s mission to provide the
best service and materials possible for its
customers would have its beginnings on
Broadway in the early 1940s.
In 1951, Albert Baker passed away and
the management of the business was left to
Audrey. Loel “Cotton” Lowes purchased half
of the business from Audrey shortly thereafter.
The two managed the business together
until 1969.
The business was growing in the early 1950s
and due to space demands Cape Paint & Glass
Company would take over the entire building at
418 Broadway. A shift in the market in the late
1950s brought a change of products being
offered at Cape Paint & Glass. The store started
selling commercial steel doors and frames, and
the commercial hardware for these doors. It also
discontinued automotive paint sales. But it
began selling Pittsburgh house paint. It would
eventually become a distributor in southern
Missouri and southern Illinois of Pittsburgh
house paint.
In 1957 the business moved to 501
Broadway in the building vacated by Auto Tire
& Parts. Cape Paint & Glass Company would
incorporate in the state of Missouri, which
changed the name to Cape Paint & Glass, Inc.,
in 1957.
Tom Baker, Albert’s son, began working at the
business in the mid-1960s. The mid-1960s
would also see a new venture for the business in
Sikeston, when Southeast Missouri Glass,
another glass company, was started.
124 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

Cotton Lowes sold his interest in Cape Paint &
Glass to Audrey in 1969 and took over Southeast
Missouri Glass in Sikeston, which he still operates
today with his son, Joe Lowes.
John Baker, another son, would join the
business at about this time. Cape Paint & Glass,
Inc. would add another family member in 1974,
when John’s wife Karen joined the business.
After managing the business for more than
forty years, Audrey decided to retire in the mid-
1980s. John and Karen would assume control of
Cape Paint & Glass, Inc.
In 1992 the business would change direction
and location. Paint sales, automotive glass, and
residential work were discontinued and the
company concentrated on commercial glass,
steel doors and frames, and hardware. It also
moved from 501 Broadway, its location for the
past thirty-five years, to 501 Independence and
15 North Middle Street.
The administrative office is located at 15
North Middle Street. Customers can purchase
doors and frames at the 501 Independence
location. Cape Paint & Glass operates an
aluminum and glass fabrication shop at 20 North
Frederick and a warehouse at 730 North Spanish
Street. The business employees fifteen people
and serves customers that include building
contractors, lumber yards, schools, universities,
manufacturing facilities, banks, and hospitals
from as far away as St. Louis to the north,
Arkansas to the south, Marion and Carbondale,
Illinois, and Paducah, Kentucky to the east, and
Poplar Bluff to the west.
Today the business supplies and installs steel
doors and frames, aluminum storefront doors
and frames, finish hardware, toilet accessories
and partitions, fire extinguishers, and cabinets,
wood doors, and handrails.
Cape Paint & Glass, Inc., has supported
Southeast Missouri State University athletic and
academic activities, Boy Scouts, and local
hospitals over the years.
Continuing the family tradition, John and
Karen’s sons, Kevin and Matt, are also associated
with the business. “We plan to stay about the
same size as we are now and continue to service
the same area. The future for Cape Girardeau
and Cape Paint & Glass looks pretty good for
the next 5 to 10 years,” John said.
❖
Above: Cape Paint & Glass at 15
North Middle Street, 2003.
Below: Cape Paint & Glass installing
glass windows on the New Residence
Hall at Southeast Missouri State
University in the summer of 2002.
The Marketplace ✦ 125

PLAZA TIRE
SERVICE, INC.
❖
Above: The original Plaza Tire
Service building and crew in the
early years.
Below: A road sign in the county in
the late 1960s.
Vernon “Peewee” Rhodes came to Cape
Girardeau in March 1963. Rhodes and his
brother, Edwin “Pete” Rhodes, purchased a gas
station on North Kingshighway. A few months
later, Jack Lewis, owner of Bunny Bread,
approached Peewee and his wife Carole, who
was expecting their second child, with a
business deal. As a result of this deal, Peewee
became co-owner of Plaza Car Wash, which
opened on the corner of William and Christine
Streets in June 1963.
During the 1960s, Peewee worked towards
expanding the company’s business with Carole,
who served as the company bookkeeper. Pete
joined Peewee as co-owner of the car wash. The
business soon included a wholesale and retail
tire business. It also consisted of a tire retreader
and a full-service car wash and gas station.
Space was a problem for Plaza Car Wash;
therefore, the only tire changer was mounted on
the sidewalk outside the main building. City
ordinances required Plaza Car Wash to remove
the tire changer. At that time, the decision was
made to close the car wash and focus strictly on
tire sales. The company’s slogan “The Quick
Change Artist” was introduced soon thereafter.
On Memorial Day 1968, the car wash
equipment was removed from the building, and
Plaza Car Wash reopened the following Tuesday
as Plaza Tire Service. Plaza Tire Service
originally sold and retread tires, but the retread
business was sold in the mid-1970s.
Plaza Tire Service has suffered various
setbacks during its forty-year history. In 1975
and 1986, up to forty-two inches of water
inundated the William Street complex. In 1994
a fire destroyed approximately ten thousand
square feet of warehouse. The company
recovered from these disasters quickly and
continued with business as usual.
126 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

The overall story of Plaza Tire Service is one
of success and growth. New locations were
consistently opened during the 1980s and
1990s. In the early 1980s, the company
purchased L&W Tire Company, which operated
two retail stores. Plaza Tire Service purchased
the three stores of Crystal Tire Company in
1986. Five stores in St. Charles County were
bought from the Tire Factory in 1998.
Plaza Tire Service has continuously
diversified its business portfolio throughout the
years. A Mighty Auto Parts franchise was
purchased in 1996. The Performance Quick
Lube division was established in 1998. Both of
these additions are still thriving today.
Plaza Tire Service continues to reinvest in its
organization. A new, twelve-bay service center
was built on the car wash’s original site in 1982;
two 10,000-square-foot warehouses were built in
the 1970s; and an eleven-thousand-square-foot
warehouse was built in 1994. The corporate
office was built adjacent to the William Street
location in 1996. The company bought a tire
shredder, which allows the company to comply
with Department of Natural Resources guidelines
by shredding junk tires in 1994. Plaza Tire
Service has also expanded and remodeled several
of its retail stores in recent years. All of these
improvements and additions have been made so
Plaza Tire Service can best accommodate its
customers’ needs.
Plaza Tire Service remains a family-owned
business. Pete retired in 1986, and Peewee now
serves as founder and chairman of the board.
Peewee’s sons—Mark, president, and Scott,
vice-president—came on board in 1984 and
1995 respectively. Peewee’s daughter Kelly
Rhodes Holloway is also involved in the family
business, though she does not live in the area.
The hard work and dedication of 300 fulltime
employees, has the company ranked in the
top 20 independently owned tire stores. The
company’s great leadership and loyal employees
have produced consistent growth in all divisions
and markets. The company currently operates
forty tire stores throughout Missouri, Illinois,
Kentucky, and Arkansas, a wholesale tire
division, two Performance Quick Lube
locations, and a Mighty Auto Parts franchise.
Plaza Tire Service’s history would be
incomplete without mentioning the relationships
it has built with the communities in which it
operates. These communities support the
company so it can continue operating while Plaza
Tire Service provides jobs that have a lasting effect
on local and regional economies. The company
continues to reinvest in its communities by
assisting local charities and participating in local
chambers of commerce. This partnership between
community and company is Plaza Tire Service’s
investment in its own future.
❖
Above: Vernon “Peewee” Rhodes,
founder and chairman.
Below: The warehouse fire in 1994.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN.
The Marketplace ✦ 127

CAPE GMC
PONTIAC, INC.
❖
Above: B&W Transport, 1940s.
Below: Oscar and Ruby Brown.
A car dealership on South Kingshighway
today, had its beginnings as a coal retailer at
306 North Main in 1931. The Main Street Coal
Company was the business started by Oscar
Brown, wife Ruby Brown and her brother
Reverend E. D. Winstead. Both families moved
to Cape from Providence, Kentucky. They had
experience working in the mining community
and chose Cape Girardeau to begin a retail
business delivering coal. To supply the business
with coal, Ruby remained in Providence a few
months to buy and ship the coal to Cape
by rail.
In 1935 the company obtained several dump
trucks and expanded the business for general
hauling. They hauled stone from the Ste.
Genevieve area for construction at Southeast
Missouri State College and a few private homes.
In 1939 the company built a garage and
named it Eastside Garage. They acquired the
128 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

GMC truck franchise in March of that year. The
business was later renamed Cape GMC.
The business expanded to hauling gasoline
after Eddie Erlbacher, a close friend, built the first
river terminal north of Cape Rock. The gasoline
transport business operated under the name of
the J. D. Street Company until 1941 when the
name was changed to B&W Transport Company.
Both companies were incorporated in 1957.
Along the way, Reverend Winstead sold his
portion of the business to devote his time to
full-time ministry. In 1959, Darrell Brown, son
of Oscar and Ruby, joined the business. Wilford
(Bill) Back, the Browns’ son-in-law, also joined
the business in 1964. Bill became president of
the company in 1968.
The company acquired a Pontiac franchise
from Roscoe Wring in 1965. Wring Pontiac was
located on Broadway just west of Pacific Street.
Cape GMC Pontiac, Inc., (as it was later named)
and B&W Transport moved to South
Kingshighway in September 1965, just in time
to showcase the 1966 model Pontiacs, especially
the hot selling GTO model. A body shop was
added in 1970.
The Brown’s son-in-law, Timothy J. Singleton,
joined the company in 1969. He left the company
in 1982 to establish a business of his own.
In 1970, Cape GMC Pontiac was one of only
three dealerships in the state of Missouri that
provided a car to their local chambers of
commerce. This program continued for the next
thirty years.
In 1990, Darrell Brown became president of
Cape GMC Pontiac. He has watched many
changes occur in the automobile business over
the years. The Grand Am became a popular
model in the 1980s and 1990s as well as the
GMC Suburban and Yukon. But as some things
change, some things come full circle, too.
Pontiac will release a new GTO for model
year 2004.
In 1998, B&W Transport was sold. Cape
GMC Pontiac continues to sell and service all
models of Pontiacs and GMC trucks.
Today the company is owned by the Darrell
Brown family and the Charleen Brown Back
family. This makes Cape GMC Pontiac the oldest
original family-owned dealership in Cape
Girardeau. It employs thirty-two people at its
755 South Kingshighway location, and has four
departments: sales, parts, service, and a body
shop. They continue to be involved in
community service, including furnishing
vehicles to Southeast Missouri State University
Athletic Department and Cape Central High
School’s driver education program.
Cape GMC Pontiac strives to provide the best
customer service to Cape Girardeau and the
surrounding community.
❖
Cape GMC Pontiac, Inc. is located at
755 South Kingshighway in Cape
Girardeau since 1965.
The Marketplace ✦ 129

OLD
BAVARIAN
SAUSAGE
❖
Above: Henning and Brigitte Bollerslev.
Below: The little Bavarian Bratwurst
House can be seen serving lunch on
Fridays at North High Mall and at
many area events.
In the beginning, even though not born in the
United States, Henning and Brigitte Bollerslev
and their son, Daniel Herzog found a new home
in Jackson, Missouri. Henning, who was born in
southern Denmark, came from a line of three
generations of master sausage makers, grew up
working in the family’s slaughterhouse business.
Brigitte, born in Munich, Germany, also an
experienced sausage maker, met Henning in
Germany and they were married there.
Brigitte has family in the United States and
friends in southeastern Missouri, whom they
visited often. They discovered the Heartland and
became attached to it. Since there are many
people of German heritage in the region and the
Bollerslevs were looking for new opportunities,
Jackson seemed to be the perfect place to start
their lives together. So in 1996, Henning,
Brigitte, and Daniel moved to Jackson and set
out to build a company based on their combined
experience in the sausage industry.
Henning works as a consultant for the meat/
sausage industry, and he works closely with
sausage makers in the company helping to solve
problems, using the latest in technology and the
finest spices to give consumers a better product
for their dollar. He also writes recipes and labels
for USDA approval, based on the individual
needs of the sausage producer and helps the
companies meet the USDA standards in their
production plants. His efforts help build bridges
between Missouri meat processors and
processors from other states. Henning serves on
the board of directors of the Missouri and
Louisiana Meat Associations.
Brigitte set out to create products with the
traditional German seasonings and standards of
quality. Only the best spices and best meats are
used in the manufacturing of Old Bavarian
Sausage products; nothing goes into the product
that doesn’t need to be there. Currently, the line
consists of bratwurst, braunschweiger, ring and
German Bologna, knackwurst, leberkäse,
thuringer, wieners, and bockwurst.
Since 1996, OBS has been selling its products
to military commissaries in the Midwest.
These meat products have been a big hit
with the military families who have been
stationed in Germany and miss the taste of
German sausages.
130 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

November 2001 marked the opening of the
Old Bavarian Sausage store in the North High
Mall, at 2370 North High Street in Jackson,
Missouri. With the popularity of the bratwurst,
which has been served at various picnics and
functions, it seemed to be a great idea to open a
small outlet store to offer Old Bavarian Sausage
products to the general public on a daily basis.
Friends and customers immediately began
requesting other hard-to-find food products to
accompany the sausages to recreate an authentic
German meal, and naturally Brigitte was glad to
be able to fulfill their needs.
Since Labor Day Weekend 2002, the little
Bavarian Bratwurst House has been seen at various
area events, offering a simple but tasty fare. The
little house can also be seen serving lunch on
Fridays at North High Mall, weather permitting.
The future for Old Bavarian Sausage includes
a new deli restaurant opening in the fall of
2003. Upon the opening, a complete line of
luncheon meats will be offered and lunch will
be served for sit-down dining and carryout. This
will offer the customer the chance to try before
they buy. In addition to the current line of Old
Bavarian Sausages and German food products,
German souvenirs, and other interesting objects
will be available to people who can’t make it
to Germany to do their shopping and enjoy
the “Gemuetlichkeit.”
But that’s not all. During travels around the
country Brigitte and Henning come across
interesting and unusual products that she
promotes in her business. The line is always
expanding and with the new deli, there will be
many more opportunities to offer the area these
hard-to-find products.
Son Daniel Herzog is continuing the dream by
working in the business through his high school
years and is hoping to combine his university
studies in international business and German at
Southeast Missouri State University, and then join
the family business after completing his education.
Brigitte and Henning are also actively involved
in many organizations. They are members of the
Meat Associations of Wisconsin, Illinois,
Missouri, and Louisiana, the American Meat
Association, Rotary International, and are
members of the Jackson and Cape Girardeau
Chambers of Commerce.
The Bollerslev family is very happy to be a part
of this community. Old Bavarian Sausage is
located at 2370 North High Street in Jackson,
Missouri, and can be found on the Internet at
www.oldbavariansausage.com, and by telephone
at 373-243-6999.
❖
Daniel Herzog with some of the
delicious items that can be seen at Old
Bavarian Sausage.
The Marketplace ✦ 131

RUST AND
MARTIN
❖
Above: (From left to right) Gary Rust,
Harry Rust, and Basil Conrad.
Below: The three generations of the
Rust family involved in Rust and
Martin. Back row (from left to right):
David Rust, Stephen Rust, and
Michael Rust. Front row (from left to
right): Harry Rust and Wayne Rust.
Rust and Martin began as a small re-upholstery
shop during the height of the depression in 1933.
Wayne Rust and Bud Martin began the business in
a garage. Martin was killed in an accident five
years later, and Rust purchased his interest and
continued the business under its original name.
The business expanded to include draperies and
curtains and was located at 615 Broadway. On
Christmas Day, 1950, the store burned to the
ground. Wayne rebuilt the store at the same
location, opening in May 1951. Harry Rust, the
oldest son, joined the firm full-time in 1956. He
was a graduate of Southeast Missouri State
University with a degree in business
administration, holds a degree from the New York
School of Interior Design, and has been a longterm
member of the American Institute of
Designers. Gary Rust joined the first in 1957. In
1970, Gary resigned from the firm to go into
politics and subsequently into the newspaper
business. James Rust, the youngest son, joined the
firm in 1967. He left in 1974 to establish R&M
Enterprises, a wholesale distributor for drapery
fabrics and manufacturer of customer draperies.
In 1958, Rust and Martin added furniture and
accessories for a total decorating service, opening a
furniture store at 420 Broadway. In 1966 the
business continue to expand, and the furniture
store moved in a forty-five-thousand-square-foot
store at 760 South Kingshighway. The 615
Broadway store was now a fashion store with bridal
gowns and dress materials operated by the senior
Rusts, Wayne and Eva. In 1966, Rust and Martin
received the Chicago Market Daily Award for the
highest honors in furniture merchandising for cities
132 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

under one hundred thousand population. At this
time, Cape Girardeau had a population of twentysix
thousand. In 1970, House Beautiful magazine
chose Rust and Martin as one of its Pace Setter
Stores. They were on of seventy-nine furniture
stores in the United States to be so honored.
In 1973, Rust and Martin opened a store in
Columbia, Missouri. In 1977, Stephen Rust
became manager of the Columbia location, which
he now presently owns. Rust and martin also
opened a store in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1987,
which was managed by David Rust. The
youngest son, Michael Rust joined the firm after
completing a degree in business administration
from SEMO and the New York School of Interior
Design in 1983. He and his father are both past
board members of the National Home Furnishing
Association and members of the American
Society of Interior Designers. Michael Rust is a
past Missouri Board member of the American
Society of Interior Designers and president-elect
of the Interior Design Society based in North
Carolina. In 1995, Rust and Martin received the
ARTS Award for outstanding achievement in the
the retailing of decorative accessories. They were
one of three retailers to receive this award in the
entire United States. The other two awards went
to retailers in cities with populations of over one
hundred thousand people.
Rust and Martin moved to its current
location on Tanner Drive in 1992. Michael
Tanner Furniture was incorporated in 1998 to
offer fashion merchandise in a popular price
range. In 2002, Michael Rust became sole owner
of Rust and Martin.
Rust and Martin, from its beginning, has
endeavored to provide the finest quality
merchandise of good design with excellent
service to its customers and to the community.
❖
Above: Michael Rust at his
drawing board.
Below: The Rust and Martin
reupholstery shop in 1993 (from left
to right): Dan Haupt, Don Stevens,
John Welker, and Bob Borchelt.
The Marketplace ✦ 133

STANLEY,
DIRNBERGER,
HOPPER &
ASSOCIATES,
LLC
The Mission Statement
of Stanley, Dirnberger,
Hopper & Associates:
To provide superior quality accounting
services by turning knowledge into
value to assist clients with their
personal and business objectives, and
insure the transition of their
prosperity to future generations,
while contributing to the growth and
prosperity of the community.
❖
Seated (from left to right): Don
Hopper, Gary Stanley, and Steve
Dirnberger. Standing (from left to
right): Amy Klund, Brenda Randol,
Frank Dietiker, Julie Zwosta, Carolyn
Stokes, Sandy Deprow, Don Priest,
Vicki McLemore, and Greg
Laurentius.
Gary G. Stanley, Steve K. Dirnberger, and
Donald J. Hopper founded the accounting firm
Stanley, Dirnberger, Hopper and Associates,
LLC in 1988.
Stanley, Dirnberger, and Hopper began
their professional careers with the same firm
in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, which dated
back to 1947. Stanley joined the prior firm
in January 1969, Hopper in November 1965,
and Dirnberger in September 1978. Stanley
left the firm to serve his country in the military
and returned in 1972. In 1988, with the
retirement of two of the long-term practioners,
including the senior partner, a division of
the firm was mutually agreed to and hence the
formation of Stanley, Dirnberger, Hopper,
and Associates, LLC.
The firm’s eighty-five-hundred-squarefoot
facility was constructed within 100
days and occupied 30 days into its initial
tax season as a separate group. Stanley,
Dirnberger, Hopper & Associates pioneered the
concept of a drive-thru window and night
depository for the convenience of its clientele.
The firm’s workload and initial staff of seven
literally required all employees to work sixteen
hours a day, seven days a week; during its initial
tax season.
The firm provides audit, review, compilation,
tax, trust, and estate-planning services for
individuals and corporate clients geographically
encompassing seventeen states. It has been very
fortunate to have the opportunity to serve a
broad base of quality clients.
Stanley, Dirnberger, Hopper & Associates’
mission is to provide superior quality
accounting services by turning knowledge into
value to assist clients with their personal and
business objectives, and insure the transition of
their prosperity to future generations, while
contributing to the growth and prosperity of
the community.
Since its inception, the firm has been blessed
with dedicated and loyal key individuals,
who have literally gone beyond the call of
duty on a regular basis to exceed the firm’s
high expectations. Four of these individuals
are still doing that today—Don Priest, Julie
Zwosta, Vicki (Reed) McLemore, and Sandy
(Hicks) DeProw.
On January 1, 2003, Greg Laurentius, CPA
who began his accounting career with the firm
in December 1994, became the firm’s fourth
partner. Laurentius brings youth, energy, and
the ability to facilitate the continued growth of
the firm.
134 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

In addition, the firm’s youngest CPA, Frank R.
Dietiker, Jr., who joined the firm in October 1999,
has already exhibited the attributes and qualities
essential to carry on the high standards of the firm
and the expectations of its clientele.
The accounting profession has been
drastically changed by technology, increased
regulation in auditing standards, and a more
complex tax code. Private industry has offered
more lucrative opportunities for accountants
and the profession is presently experiencing a
decrease in the number of individuals entering
the field of public accounting.
In the future, growth through e-commerce
and more small businesses becoming globalized
will force public accounting firms to broaden
their knowledge of international accounting and
tax issues. Small firms will search for areas
of specialization.
Stanley, Dirnberger, Hopper & Associates is
located at 1441 North Mount Auburn Road in
Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
❖
Above: The Stanley, Dirnberger,
Hopper & Associates offices are
located at 1441 North Mount Auburn
Road in Cape Girardeau.
Below: Stanley, Dirnberger, Hopper &
Associates pioneered the concept of
a drive-thru window and night
depository for the convenience of
its clientele.
The Marketplace ✦ 135

EL TORERO, INC.
❖
El Torero’s flagship store on William
Street in Cape Girardeau.
COURTESY OF MICHAEL WELLS, CAPE GIRARDEAU
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
Daniel Alvarez was a shareholder in the
authentic Mexican restaurant business in
Douglas, Georgia in the early 1990s.
Competition for this type of restaurant was
picking up there and Alvarez was looking for a
new place for an authentic Mexican restaurant
with an authentic atmosphere.
He found a suitable building in Cape
Girardeau on January 1, 1993 while driving
through several states. He called the owner of
the building and arranged to see the place. On
January 15, he signed the lease for the location
on William Street in Cape Girardeau.
It took two months to get the building ready.
On March 17, 1993, El Torero began serving
authentic Mexican food in Cape. Daniel had help
from his brother Juan and Juan’s sons Pedro,
Juan Jr., Rojelio, and Raul. It was pretty tough in
the beginning. Business tapered off from the first
weeks and everyone was wondering if the
authentic Mexican cuisine was too spicy for the
Cape market. Daniel then tried bringing
Mariachi bands each week. Nobody wanted to
eat, but they did come to see the bands each
week. Eventually the customers tried the food
and the business started to grow. Milder recipes
also began to make their way into the menu and
more people frequented the restaurant.
In 1997, Daniel expanded and opened a
restaurant in Memphis, but he sold it within a
year. He also opened El Torero in Jackson and
placed his very first waiter, Antonio Trejo, in
charge of the new restaurant. El Torero’s success
made it possible to open a restaurant in
Perryville in 2000. In 2002 Daniel’s brother
Rafael opened a restaurant in Farmington and
Gregory Castorena, a nephew-in-law, opened an
El Torero in Ste. Genevieve.
The company employs more than forty
people in the area, and with its expansions
under its belt, is now focused on providing the
cleanest and best service possible. They also
donate to the local police department and many
charitable organizations in the area.
136 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

Divine Homes Realty started in 2001 with a
vision from God, not just about real estate, but
also about God’s word and touching people’s
lives for the better, not just the money. Donley
lists and sells homes, home sites, real property,
and commercial real estate nationwide. She
owns and leases more than five hundred
thousand square feet of retail shopping centers
in southeastern Missouri, owning property in
Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff and Festus. Donley
is currently developing two subdivisions—
McLane Subdivision in Poplar Bluff and
Windwood Lake Estates in Cape Girardeau.
Sandy Donley was the first female in
commercial real estate in southeastern Missouri.
“I was told it was a man’s profession. But as I
proved, they were all wrong. I was very
successful because God blessed me with integrity
and sent mentors into my life that gave me great
wisdom,” Donley said.
Donley’s Commercial Real Estate Specialists,
Inc., was founded in 1989. In 1991 Sandy and
Crystal Walker sold more than $15 million in
commercial sales.
Dr. Jerry McLane founded McLane Investment
Company in 1965. Sandy married Dr. Jerry F.
McLane in 1993 and began managing that
company in 1994. They formed McLane
Development Corporation and started developing
Windwood Lake Subdivision in four phases. Jerry
and Sandy had already purchased West Broadview
Centre and Broadview Plaza in Cape Girardeau.
Many other local ventures were undertaken
as well. Don Mercer, Sandy’s brother, flew into
Cape each week to teach them how to run their
company on Biblical principles. “We praise God
for all he taught us.” Jerry passed away in 1998.
Don passed away in 2001 when his plane
crashed and took his life and his wife, Edith.
Sandy married David Donley in 2000. “I
praise God for David and my children Tammy
and Chris for standing by me to run our
company on Biblical principles.” They helped
Sandy implement her vision from God and in the
future Divine Homes Realty is to be franchised.
The future looks bright as they work to
develop Osage Grove Townhomes, Gold’s Gym,
the franchising of Divine Homes Realty, and
opening Phase 3 of Windwood Lake Estates in the
fall of 2003 and Phase 4 in 2005.
“Our future is where God leads us.”
❖
SANDY DONLEY
Left: Sandy Donley
The Marketplace ✦ 137

KNAUP FLORAL
COMPANY
❖
Above: The Knaup Floral delivery
truck, c. 1920.
Below: Knaup Floral is located at 838
William Street in Cape Girardeau.
When this business began, orders were sent
and received by telegraph. Telephone and
computer orders came much later. Charles
Gelven built the building in 1916, but soon
became disenchanted. He was fond of
Springfield, Missouri so he sold his shop to John
Knaup, a neighbor and employee, in 1920 on a
handshake and a promise of “pay me when you
can.” Gelven moved to Springfield and started an
identical facility there.
Knaup Floral and Greenhouses began in 1920
on the western edge of town. John did most of the
growing and designing. In 1927 he married Clara
Stehr, who began helping out in many ways.
The Great Depression almost ruined the
business. Due to illness, John relied upon the
rest of the family to run the business while he
recuperated. Despite hard times, they were able
to pay off the loan balance of the shop in 1937.
What wasn’t grown in the greenhouses was
supplemented from floral wholesalers in St.
Louis. John’s son, Richard, recalled his father
purchasing scissors, “The wholesaler would cut
John’s tie off to prove the value of the scissors,
then John would help himself to a handful of
cigars for the tie!”
It became evident in the late 1940s, that it
was less expensive to ship flowers in than it was
to grow them locally. This allowed for more
varieties from growers in California, Colorado
and other states. Richard Knaup purchased the
business in 1955. His brother, John F. Knaup
opened up a greenhouse in Jackson, Missouri in
1976. As the industry grew and diversified,
Knaup Floral Company began importing from
Colombia and other Central and South
American countries in the 1970s.
A new building was constructed in 1995,
which turned the storefront to face William Street.
Kathryn Knaup-Landewee and her husband, John
Landewee, purchased the shop from Richard, her
father, in 1998. The shop serves its main customer
base in Cape Girardeau, Jackson, and Scott City
but the email ordering has created a new market
throughout the country. Richard and Kathryn have
both served as officers on the local FTD district
board. The business is located at 838 William
Street and currently employs fifteen people.
138 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

BIOKYOWA, INC.
BioKyowa, located on Nash Road, was the first
major plant investment by a Japanese company in
the state of Missouri. When Kyowa Hakko Kogyo
Company Ltd., the parent company, was looking
for a location to build their lysine amino acid
plant, it was Cape Girardeau that they chose.
The facility was built during 1982 and 1983.
During that time local personnel were hired to fill
supervisory positions and those individuals were
sent to Japan for training. Upon their return, they
trained operators and maintenance men in the
complex and technical amino acid process.
In May of 1984 the first commercial lysine
producing plant in the United States began
operations. In the next nineteen years, the
company went gone through several expansions
of the facility with an increase in the number of
employees. The Cape Girardeau Chamber of
Commerce presented the “Commitment to
Excellence” Award to BioKyowa in 1991 and
again in 2001.
Today BioKyowa has a new and different
look. The facility that started off producing one
feed grade amino acid has grown to a multipleplant
facility producing high quality, value added
amino acids, supplying both the United States as
well as world markets. Production is even more
technically based, and the skill level of their
employees is even more demanding than before.
Dr. Benzaburo Kato, a pioneer in industrial
fermentation, founded BioKyowa’s parent
company, Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Company Ltd.
in 1949. Hakko is Japanese for the word “fermentation”
and Kogyo means “industrial.” The
parent firm’s many products include pharmaceuticals,
biochemicals, and fermentation ingredients,
utilizing advanced biotechnology.
Known as an exemplary corporate citizen,
BioKyowa funds a scholarship program and
supports other civic and charitable organizations.
In conjunction with Southeast Missouri
State University and the University’s Center for
Faulkner Studies, BioKyowa sponsors the
Visiting Japanese Scholar Program. Through this
program, one Japanese scholar per year is
brought to the Faulkner Center to conduct
research and participate in various types of
cultural exchanges.
The Marketplace ✦ 139

❖
Rush H. Limbaugh, Sr.
LIMBAUGH,
RUSSELL,
PAYNE &
HOWARD
Rush H. Limbaugh, Sr., began practicing law
in 1916. He rented desk space in the office of
Hardesty & Davis. That firm dissolved and a
partnership of Hardesty & Limbaugh was
formed in 1923. In 1932 the firm dissolved, and
Limbaugh practiced alone until 1945, when
his son, Rush H. Limbaugh, Jr., joined him as
a partner.
As a member of the legislature from 1931 to
1932, Limbaugh represented the Missouri House
of Representatives in impeachment proceedings
of the then state treasurer. Appointed as a Special
Commissioner by the Missouri Court of Appeals,
he heard the Muench baby case (Ware v. Muench,
89 S.W.2d 707, Mo. App. 1935). Limbaugh
served as president of the Missouri Bar from 1956
to 1957 and actively practiced law until his death
in 1996 at the age of 104. He was recognized as
a leading authority in probate law.
Rush Jr., a fighter pilot with the United States
Air Force in World War II, was an active member
of the Cape Girardeau Airport Board and was
instrumental in the development of the Cape
Girardeau Airport into a leading regional airport.
He was chairman of the Cape Girardeau County
Republican Committee for several years.
Joseph J. Russell and Stephen N. Limbaugh,
Sr., joined the firm in 1949 and 1951,
respectively. From this nucleus, the firm has
grown to its present size.
Both Russell and Stephen Limbaugh were
also active in community affairs. Russell served
twelve years on the Cape Girardeau Board of
Education, six as president. He served as
chairman of the Missouri Bar Education
Committee and continues in an active role on
that committee. Stephen N. Limbaugh, Sr.,
following in his father’s steps, became president
of the Missouri Bar. Subsequently, he was
appointed as a United States district judge for
the Eastern District of Missouri
Members of the firm have continued to provide
outstanding service to clients and to the
community. Five have become judges: Stephen N.
Limbaugh, Sr., William L. Syler, Stephen N.
Limbaugh, Jr., (now on the Missouri Supreme
Court), John W. Grimm, and Don U. Elrod. Four
have served as prosecuting attorney; two have
been appointed assistant United States district
attorneys. David Limbaugh has become a
well-known political columnist and provides
representation for his brother, Rush H. Limbaugh
III, as well as other nationally known figures in the
entertainment world.
Currently, the firm continues in the general
practice of law with thirteen lawyers: Joseph J.
Russell, David S. Limbaugh, J. Michael Payne,
Diane C. Howard, R. Michael Howard, John D.
Harding, Curtis O. Poore, John W. Grimm,
Nancy L. Browne, Robyn H. Edwards, Patricia L.
Ray, J. Brian Baehr, and Gerald W. Jones II.
The firm has been instrumental in much of
the commercial and industrial progress of the
area, including the change of ownership of the
“Big Inch” and “Little Inch” pipelines from
government to private ownership, acquisition of
land for Procter & Gamble, acquisition of land
for the Nash Road Industrial Park area and
many other ventures. Southeast Missouri State
University, the Cape Girardeau School District,
and numerous other private and public entities
are among the firm’s clients.
140 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

CHATEAU
GIRARDEAU
The First Presbyterian Church of Cape
Girardeau developed the idea of a full-service
retirement community in the Cape Girardeau area.
At the time, there were no retirement facilities of
this nature between St. Louis and Memphis. In
1974 the church sponsored a feasibility study in
southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois. The
First Presbyterian Church of Cape Girardeau
formed Cape Retirement Community, Inc.
Chateau Girardeau was selected as the name
for the facility at a Board meeting in 1975 and
the model apartment was built the same year.
Construction on the residential apartments
began in 1977 and was financed through the
national sale of first mortgage revenue bonds.
Carl Wilkins was hired as the first administrator
in 1979 and served in that position until
December 15, 1984, at which time Barbara
Calvin became the administrator and served
until June of 1998. Robert V. Strickland is the
present administrator. A thirteen-member board
of directors elected from the community are the
governing body of Chateau Girardeau. Residents
first occupied the facility on July 2, 1979. Its
first six residents moved in that day, and by
1981, 86 employees worked for the organization.
Today it employs 165.
The Chateau has a four-story residential
building with studio, one-bedroom and twobedroom
apartments. Assisted Living and
Health Center are housed in a separate onestory
building. Thirty-seven individual single
dwelling homes comprise the Chateau Estates
located on the Chateau’s forty acres.
Chateau Girardeau is a nondenominational,
not-for-profit continuing care retirement
community dedicated to providing at reasonable
cost or on a charitable basis, housing, healthcare
and an environment which ministers not only to
the physical needs but the needs of the whole
person. Chateau Girardeau’s mission is to
combine sound business and management
principles with the sole motivation of providing
lifetime service to its residents, regardless of
their financial status.
Chateau Girardeau is located at 3120
Independence Street in Cape Girardeau. You
may also find them on the Internet at
www.chateaugirardeau.com.
The Marketplace ✦ 141

BLUFF CITY
BEER CO., INC.
Bluff City Beer Co. began as W. H. Bess and
Sons in 1928 in Poplar Bluff. The name
changed to Bluff City Beer and Produce
Company in 1933 at the repeal of Prohibition.
The produce section of the company was
divested in 1976 and the name changed to Bluff
City Beer Co. Inc.
William and Joda Bess founded the company
and Herschel Bess joined the firm in 1931. The
company received its first load of beer on
December 22, 1933. In 1938 a branch was established
at 11 South Spanish Street in Cape
Girardeau. Other branch locations were established
in the Kennett market in 1941, Bonne
Terre in 1958, Jefferson County in 1967, and
Sikeston in 1997. The company moved to its
present location on Siemers Drive on June 8,
1992. The firm was named the Chamber of
Commerce’s “Small Business of the Year” in 1993.
Herschel retired from the business in 1955 to
pursue other interests. William H. Bess died in
1962 followed by his son, Joda, in 1968, leaving
the business to Joda Lee and Alvin H.
“Buddy” Bess.
Bluff City Beer Co. distributes the Miller
Brewing Company portfolio of products to 20
counties in southeastern Missouri. In 1987 the
company achieved the status of “Million Case
Distributor” for the Miller Brewing Company.
Bluff City Beer Co. distributes 1.4 million cases
of beer annually.
In 2001 the company enjoyed the fastest rate
of growth among all Miller
distributors in Missouri.
In 2002 the Poplar Bluff
and Cape branches placed
first and second in sales
increases in Missouri.
Today, seven family
members are involved in
the company. Kathy Bess
Holloway, William Bess,
and J. David Bess share
the ownership and management.
Jane Bess and
Margaret Bess Guetterman
are sales and information
systems associates. Joda
and Alvin Bess continue
to serve the company as
consultants.
142 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

COLDWELL
BANKER
HAMILTON
REALTY
Coldwell Banker Corporation was convinced
the Cape Girardeau market would support an
office and in July 1982 a franchise was sold to
Betty Lou Ryan Vogel. The office became one of
the first Coldwell Banker franchises outside
large metropolitan areas. The franchise was
named Coldwell Banker Ryan Realty.
The company quickly became a leader in real
estate sales in the Cape Girardeau market. Real
estate in the earlier days did not have technology
as a tool, and every week, realtors in the area met
on Thursday mornings to exchange information
on properties for sale. Each office reported its new
listings, price changes, and sales, and speedwriting
was a must as each agent handwrote this
information. Agents soon got to know other agents
in the business. After the meetings, they would
tour the new listings. Returning to the office, they
then made all the changes in their Multi-listing
Service Books to make them current.
The company was sold to Carl Blanchard,
Ronn Unterreiner and Herb Graetz in 1988. The
name was changed to Coldwell Banker
Blanchard and Associates and the office moved
to its current location at 1223 North
Kingshighway. In April 1995 Martha Hamilton
purchased Blanchard’s interest in the office and
the company became Coldwell Banker Hamilton
Realty. Hamilton, Unterreiner, and Graetz
remained partners until 2002 when Hamilton
bought out the other partners interest.
Sales have grown to over $22 million, and, in
the past year, seven new sales associates have
come on board. Currently, there are eighteen
licensees with Coldwell Banker Hamilton Realty.
The company is consistently among the top four
in sales in southeastern Missouri.
Coldwell Banker Hamilton Realty plans to
increase services to homeowners in the area by
expanding its concierge service making it a onestop
shop for all your homeownership needs.
The company will continue to expand its lead in
technological advances by taking advantage of
changes that help make “Real Estate Real Easy”
for clients and customers.
❖
Above: Martha Hamilton and
Darlene Broadbent after setting up
the Home Show booth.
Below: Coldwell Banker Hamilton
Realty chaired the first area St. Jude
Dream Home Giveaway. The
committee toured the St. Jude
Research Hospital in Memphis.
The Marketplace ✦ 143

HAVCO WOOD
PRODUCTS,
LLC
❖
Havco Wood Products’ plant in
Cape Girardeau.
During the late 1970s, Charles Harris and
James Vangilder knew there was a shortage of
wood flooring for trailers in the trucking
industry. Dorsey Corporation advised Harris,
who was a Dorsey dealer at the time, that they
needed quality flooring for the trailers they
were manufacturing. Harris and his son-inlaw,
Vangilder, went to work developing the
business plan for what was to become Havco
Wood Products, LLC. Havco was the acronym
for Harris And Vangilder Company. Harris
provided the financial plan, while Vangilder put
together the engineering plan for the
manufacturing facility. Construction began on
the plant in March 1978. Havco produced its
first commercial laminated oak flooring in
April 1979.
Havco’s ability to get its high-quality product
to customers on time while providing
outstanding customer service quickly earned
the company a reputation throughout
the industry that would help the company
become the market leader in manufacturing
laminated truck, trailer, and container wood
flooring today.
The company developed strong relationships
with truck trailer manufacturers including: Great
Dane, Trailmobile, and Stoughton Trailers. These
relationships continue to this day.
In 1990 Havco’s largest competitor, TODCO,
who was the industry’s largest producer of
laminated hardwood flooring for truck trailer
applications, fell on rough financial times and
was bought by Havco in September 1990. The
addition of TODCO’s Vonore, Tennessee plant to
Havco’s Cape Girardeau facility secured Havco’s
position as the leader in the industry.
Over the years, the company has tinkered
with alternative wood species, but has learned
that red and white oaks are the best wood for
the product.
Havco Wood Products, LLC, has become
what its founders started out to be: the market
leader, the very best manufacturer of laminated
hardwood flooring for trailers, truck bodies, and
containers. This goal could not have been
accomplished without a total commitment to
quality. From its quality control technicians to
its defect saw and assembly operators, Havco’s
dedication to quality is unsurpassed in its field.
At Havco, quality is not an accident. Havco
Wood Products is located at 3200 East Outer
Road in Scott City and can be found on the
Internet at www.havcowp.com.
144 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

PROCTER &
GAMBLE PAPER
PRODUCTS
COMPANY
Procter & Gamble’s Cape Girardeau plant, a
paper products facility, began manufacturing
Pampers disposable diapers in 1969. The plant is
located 15 miles north of Cape Girardeau at the
junction of Highway 177 and State Route J on a
1,225-acre site just north of Trail of Tears State
Park, along the Mississippi River.
The plant has undergone several major
expansions since the original construction in
1968. The size of the Pampers manufacturing
area was expanded in 1972. Another disposable
diaper, Luvs, was added in 1979. Raw materials
and packaging are shipped to the Cape plant
from many sources. Through a converting
process, the finished product is made and
packaged ready for shipment.
In April 2000, the Procter & Gamble
Company added a new tissue and towel
production facility at the Cape plant. Two paper
machines and associated converting and utilities
equipment were installed in the facility. Each are
estimated to produce sixty-five thousand tons
annually. The paper from these machines is
converted into Bounty paper towels and Charmin
toilet tissue for shipment to trade customers. In
2004 the plant will start up a third paper
machine and about twenty acres of buildings.
The Procter & Gamble Paper Products
Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the
Procter & Gamble Company with corporate
headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Cape facility includes approximately
2,178,000 square feet of building space under
roof (50 acres) consisting of production areas,
warehouses for raw material and finished
product, office space, cafeteria, medical area,
employee locker rooms, service boiler, utilities
area, and maintenance and training facilities.
The plant has rail service and ships about 150
trucks per day.
Approximately, 1,400 people staff the Cape
Girardeau plant. P&G’s local payroll exceeds $89.4
million per year, making it the largest payroll in the
southeastern Missouri. The company spends an
additional $300 million in annual purchases from
Missouri suppliers for goods and services such as
raw materials, contractor services and office
supplies for use at this and other P&G locations.
❖
Above: Construction site for the new
Procter & Gamble Plant, circa 1968.
Below: P&G Cape Girardeau plant
today.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SEMOPHOTO.COM.
The Marketplace ✦ 145

W. E. WALKER
COMPANY
❖
W. E. Walker Company’s current
location at 117 South Broadview built
in 1992.
W. E. Walker Company was founded in 1915
by William Ernest (Ernie) Walker. W. E. Walker
Company was located at 127 North Main, and
then moved to 32 North Spanish. In 1947
Maurice T. (Dunk) Dunklin joined the W. E.
Walker Company and became a partner in the
business. Walker died in 1959 and Maurice T.
Dunklin purchased the remaining portion of the
business. Charles H. Brune was associated with
W. E. Walker Company for approximately 25
years. In 1968 W. E. Walker Company built a
new building at 238 North Fountain.
During the 1960s and 1970s, W. E. Walker
Company represented three property/casualty
insurance companies. Commercial Union Insurance
Company and USF&G Insurance Company started
with the agency in 1923, then in the 1970s, the
agency added Transamerica Insurance Company.
Joe Stahly joined W. E. Walker Company in
September of 1980. Dunklin retired on October
31, 1986 and passed away March 23, 1988. On
October 31, 1986, Stahly took over the
ownership of W. E. Walker Company.
In the 1980s and 1990s the agency grew from
three property/casualty insurance carriers to
approximately twelve insurance companies. The
agency represents some of the finest insurance
companies such as: Ohio Casualty, Hawkeye
Security, Hartford, Chubb, Bituminous, St. Paul,
Zurich, CNA, and One Beacon. Today, Joe Stahly
is joined by account executives William Talley and
Scott Stanfield and a professional staff totaling
over one hundred years insurance experience.
W. E. Walker Company is a professional,
locally owned insurance business. With several
companies to choose from, it looks to the one
that can offer the best coverage and service to
suit your individual needs.
Because insurance is its only business, it
takes the time to keep abreast of all changes in
the industry and how these changes will affect
its customers and their insurance program. The
care with which it serve its clients indicates its
pride in contributing to their success.
W. E. Walker Company specializes in Property,
Casualty, Home, Auto, and Marine Insurance
Coverages. W. E. Walker Company is a member
of two professional associations: Independent
Insurance Agent Association and Trusted Choice.
W. E. Walker Company is also involved in the
Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce as one of
its original members, joining in 1925. The agency
has always supported the local United Way, Boy
Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of America, and
involvement in local civic organizations.
The most important aspect of W. E. Walker
Company’s business is you: its customer. With
this in mind, it accepts the responsibility for
your insurance program and puts together an
insurance package that’s just right for you.
W. E. Walker Company has grown over the
years due to its reputation for providing
excellent service to all of its clients for their
insurance programs. It plans to continue serving
its clients and providing the best possible
insurance available.
146 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

AUTO
TIRE &
PARTS
Auto Tire & Parts was founded in 1909 and
was the first auto parts store between St. Louis
and Memphis. The original store consisted of a
parts counter and a machine shop and was located
at the corner of Broadway and Spanish Street.
In the early days, the company sold wagon
wheels and tires along with parts. During the
1920s, the business moved to Middle Street and
stopped selling tires. The owners kept the name,
which was already well known throughout the
area for quality parts and professional service.
Pat Tlapek bought the business from the
original owner, Barrett Cotner, in 1948. Tlapek
soon began expanding the operation, adding a
second store in Sikeston in 1950, a third store in
Charleston in 1954, and a fourth store in
Perryville in 1959.
In 1954 the main location in Cape moved to
Merriwether Street where it would remain until
1973, when it moved to its present day location
at 212 South Kingshighway.
In the 1960s, Auto Tire & Parts opened
stores in Chaffee and Advance. In the 1970s,
new locations were added in New Madrid and
Marble Hill. In the 1980s, Tlapek’s son John
joined the business and helped add four new
stores. John bought the business from his dad in
1989 and continued to focus on the company’s
rich tradition of long-term employees and professional
personal service to customers.
By its 90th anniversary in 1999, Auto Tire &
Parts had grown to 25 stores in Missouri, Illinois
and Western Kentucky and was widely recognized
as the leading parts company in the region.
Today, Auto Tire & Parts continues to provide its
customers with top quality NAPA parts, DuPont
automotive paint,brand name body shop supplies,
and complete machine shop services from
the best shop in the Heartland.
As the company nears 100 years, Auto Tire &
Parts remains dedicated to its founding vision of
being the best parts company in the business.
With hometown employee and customer
relationships spanning five generations, Auto
Tire & Parts has become a landmark business in
Cape and has built a solid reputation as the
Heartland’s parts professionals since 1909.
❖
Above: Pat Tlapek and Barrett Cotner
helping customers at the Merriwether
store in Cape Girardeau, 1952.
Below: Recent photo of Auto Tire
& Parts professionals serving
customers at the main store in Cape
Girardeau.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHAEL WELLS
The Marketplace ✦ 147

❖
In 1957, ceremonies marking the end
of tolls for the bridge included a street
dance, beauty contest, and fireworks.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
UNIVERSITY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS.
148 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

BUILDING A GREATER
CAPE GIRARDEAU
Cape Girardeau’s construction industry
shapes tomorrow’s skyline, providing
working and living space for
Cape Girardeans and fuel for the state
Penzel Construction Company, Inc. ..................................................150
Columbia Construction Corporation .................................................154
The McDonald Company, Inc...........................................................156
B. W. Birk & Associates, Inc. ..........................................................158
Kenneth E. Foeste Masonry, Inc.......................................................160
Delta Companies, Inc. ...................................................................162
Lone Star Industries, Inc................................................................164
Standley Batch Systems, Inc............................................................166
Electrical Contractors, Inc. ............................................................168
Building a Greater Cape Girardeau ✦ 149

PENZEL
CONSTRUCTION
COMPANY, INC.
❖
Above: A Penzel road crew in
the 1930s.
Below: Linus Penzel, founder of
Penzel Construction Company.
When your family’s carpentry roots can be
traced back to the sixteenth century you might
expect to find traces of your ancestors along the
way. That’s exactly what happened when
workers for Penzel Construction Company, Inc.,
discovered a time capsule at St. Paul Lutheran
School, while preparing to build a new school.
Inside the capsule were copies of every local
newspaper printed the week of May 9, 1935,
some coins, an English Bible, a German Bible,
other religious items and memorabilia from
Penzel Construction Company.
Linus Penzel, who started Penzel Construction
in 1910, built the original school in 1935. Phil
Penzel’s company of today built the new school in
1999. In between and beyond, is a story of a
company that has led the region and the industry
in innovation.
The business began its rich history building
houses and structures in the Jackson area. In
1915 the company expanded to build bridges in
Cape Girardeau County.
The Penzel family immigrated to the United
States from Germany in 1853. John Penzel came
to America to practice his trade of carpentry and
cabinetmaking. His son Gustav Penzel worked
in construction in Jackson, as did, his son Linus.
Linus left the area for a while but came back to
Jackson after a brief stint of building in San
Antonio, Texas. While in San Antonio, Carl Penzel
was born. When Linus returned, he started the
company that continues today. Carl joined the
company in 1930. In 1937, Linus and Carl formed
Penzel Construction Company, a partnership.
In 1954, Carl acquired full ownership of the
company. The business operated again as a sole
proprietorship until December 1958, when the
company was incorporated with stockholders
Carl; his wife, Mettie; his son, Gene; and his
daughter, Carol Jane Ellington, as stockholders.
In 1959, Gene joined the company fulltime,
after being discharged from the Navy as a
flight instructor.
In the mid-1970s the Jackson Industrial
Development Company was formed with Gene
as a charter board member. In 1982 the board
150 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

wanted to attract industry, and a speculation
building was built as a tool to attract industry.
The building eventually became the home of
American Railcar Industries.
In 1980, Gene served as president of the
Associated General Contractors of Missouri,
and, in 1981, he took over as president of the
construction company.
As the company continued to provide quality
work, it was time for the construction industry to
stand up and take notice. It did in 1984, and Gene
traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January
30 of that year to accept the Construction
Professional Development Award of the National
Society of Professional Engineers. The award was
based on the company’s professional career
development and employment practices.
Gene’s son Phil joined the company full-time
in 1987 after graduating from the University of
Missouri-Rolla with a civil engineering degree.
In October 1988, Penzel Construction
Company became a registered engineering firm.
The company does things a little differently today
than in the past, but it has only augmented the
company’s ability to provide quality work. In 1990
Penzel became a member of the Jack Miller
Network, an elite group of five hundred
professional construction firms from the U.S. and
Canada that practices win/win sharing of successes
and failures, best practices, new methods and
techniques, benchmarks, and more. This
networking has led to increased opportunities
for Penzel and all those participating in the
network, as well as added benefits to customers of
network members.
Phil became a registered civil engineer in 1992
and served as president of the Southeast Chapter of
the Missouri Society of Professional Engineers from
1993 to 1994. In 1995, Phil also went through two
10-day advanced management programs and an
executive leadership forum in Dallas, Texas, hosted
by the Associated General Contractors of America.
In 1996, Penzel Construction Company, Inc.
won the Mississippi Valley Family Business of the
Year Award. The award was based on proven
business success, positive family/business linkage,
multigenerational and family business involvement,
contribution to industry and community,
and innovative business practices or strategies.
Some notable early works of the company
were the Jackson High School in 1920, Jackson
Shoe Factory in 1922, eight highway bridges in
1936, and the first completely architectural
concrete building in southeastern Missouri in
1937. That building, the Marquette Natatorium,
is still in use today.
❖
Left: The KFVS Tower under
construction in downtown Cape
Girardeau in 1967.
Right: Construction of the Interstate
155 Bridge at Caruthersville,
Missouri, over the Mississippi River.
Building a Greater Cape Girardeau ✦ 151

❖
Above: Lynwood Baptist Church in
Cape Girardeau was completed
in 1998.
Below: An early model gasoline
powered concrete Mixer, in the
background, and power buggy in
the foreground.
Highway construction was shutdown during
World War II, so Penzel Construction shifted to
building homes at the Kentucky Ordinance
Works and entered the field of soil conservation.
In 1957, Penzel Construction built a fireproof
factory with a 24-acre floor space factory building
in Dexter at a cost of $3.25 per square foot,
including heating, plumbing, and sprinkler
work. It was the lowest cost in Dodge Reports for
the Midwest.
The company also changed some of the
projects it pursues. It left the business of
residential construction and focused on
industrial, heavy and highway construction
projects. It began bidding as bridge subcontractor
on Interstate and highway projects.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the
company was very active. Penzel Construction did
most of the bridge, culvert and paved ditch work
on Interstate 55 from Arkansas to Bloomsdale.
They built the Hirsch Building in Cape
Girardeau (1961), the original Lee Rowan
building (now Rubbermaid), and twelve
subsequent additions. They built the Jackson
Shoe Factory in 1964 and in 1965 built the
Cape Supply Company Building.
In 1967, Carl oversaw the construction of the
KFVS Television Building in downtown Cape
Girardeau. This was a poured-in-place reinforced
concrete structure; a 50-foot-by-80-foot clear
span post tensioned concrete roof over the studio;
with exposed aggregate concrete panels for the
structure. The panels were built on site by company
forces. In 1969, Penzel built the Florsheim
Shoe Company Building and the Central Packing
Company Building in Cape Girardeau. In 1971,
the company built the Missouri approach to the
river bridge at Caruthersville, Missouri, and
Dyersburg, Tennessee.
Penzel worked on the original Procter &
Gamble Plant in the early 1970s and again in
the late 1970s. It constructed a 440,000-squarefoot
warehouse to store paper products in 1987
and played a major role in the Bounty Paper
Towel expansion in the late 1990s.
Penzel built the bridge over Lake Taneycomo
near Branson (1974) and a bridge deck for the
152 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

Interstate 57 bridge over the Mississippi River
near Cairo, Illinois (1976). They were the first
contractor to pump concrete for a bridge deck
in Illinois. The company built Chateau
Girardeau Retirement Community in 1979.
In 1982 a speculation building was leased
to ACF Industries (now ARI). Penzel went on
to build another industrial building for Coca-
Cola, which was one of several in a long history
with the bottling company. The idea of
constructing speculation buildings caught on.
Other area industries took advantage of
speculation buildings, including TG (USA) a
division of Toyota in Perryville; General Sign
Company in Cape Girardeau; and Columbia
Sportswear in Chaffee.
In 1983, Saint Francis Medical Center
Critical Care Unit was built and many additions
to Southeast Hospital in the 1970s and 1980s.
Penzel Construction Company, Inc.,
continues to construct the landscape. They built
the Jackson Exchange Bank in 1984, which they
later renovated into Jackson City Hall in 1995.
Midwest Sterilization Corporation was built
in Jackson (1990); the Centenary Family Life
Center (1991); River Eagle Distributors (1995);
the Lutheran Home (1996); the Osage Center
and Shawnee Soccer Complex (1997); Lynwood
Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau (1998); the St.
Francis Power Plant, Unit No. 2 in Glennonville,
Missouri (2001); Immaculate Conception School
(2002); the Bank of Missouri branch offices in
Jackson, Cape, and Marble Hill (2001–2003);
and ten schools in Jackson and the surrounding
area during the 1990s, and many others.
As of press time, Penzel is a major contractor
for the new federal courthouse in Cape Girardeau,
scheduled to be completed in late 2005.
The reins of Penzel Construction Company,
Inc., were placed in Phil Penzel’s capable
hands in 1996 and the company continues
its commitment to its customers to provide
quality work as it approaches its hundredth
anniversary in 2010. That’s the same promise
Linus Penzel was making to his customers in
Jackson in 1910.
❖
Above: Osage Center in Cape
Girardeau opened in April 1997.
Below: Construction in progress on
Bank of Missouri in Cape Girardeau.
.
Building a Greater Cape Girardeau ✦ 153

COLUMBIA
CONSTRUCTION
CORPORATION
❖
Above: Martin L. and Mary Jane
Jansen, c. November 1997.
COURTESY OF STEVE ROBERTSON,
ROBERTSON’S PHOTOGRAPHY.
Below: The employees of
Columbia Construction.
Columbia Construction Corporation was
founded in 1983 when two already established
divisions of the Drury Industries organization were
merged. The first of the two divisions was Drury
Construction, which was established in 1971.
Drury Construction was established due to the
need within Drury Industries for a subsidiary
company to build quality buildings for owning
and leasing as well as projects for the local
community. The second division was established
in 1982 as the Furniture Division to supply the
Drury Hotels. This was formed because of the
ongoing need for higher quality furniture than
what was being supplied by outside vendors.
In 1983, Charles L. Drury, Jerry M. Drury,
Robert A. Drury, and Martin L. Jansen, merged
the Furniture and Construction Divisions
together and incorporated them under the name
Columbia Construction Corporation. These
divisions were separated from the Drury
Industries organization in order to devote more
attention to this part of the business. Martin L.
Jansen was the president, originator, and guiding
force in growing the company into one that is
regionally known as a general contractor of
commercial and industrial buildings and a
company with a well-respected reputation. Today
Columbia employs 60 to 65 employees with an
annual payroll at approximately $2 million.
In the early years, Drury Construction worked
on numerous local projects. Past projects such as
Saint Francis Hospital, West Park Mall and the
old Cape Central High School are landmarks to
all and examples of the craftsmanship that
Columbia has continued to offer. Some of the
more recently completed projects include Notre
Dame Regional High School, Wehrenberg 14
Cinema, Pavestone Concrete Products Plant,
Drury Inn in Sikeston, Hampton Inn in Cape
Girardeau, and numerous office, medical, retail,
church, and school buildings, as well as many
additions and renovations.
Custom cabinetry is no new concept for
Columbia. Drury Inns first front desk and lobby
cabinets were built by Drury Construction thirty
years ago and it was with this valuable experience
and the owners creative thinking that stirred the
crafty idea of expanding into building their own
hotel furniture. The Furniture Division was
established with quality and durability being a
top priority. This new division also allowed the
furniture to be built to coordinate with the design
of the various hotels. The furniture built by
this new division proved to be all that the owners
had hoped for and more. In fact, the first
furniture built by the company in 1982 is still
being used today in one of the hotels. This is a
true testament to the quality and design of
Columbia’s Furniture Division.
As a major support group to Drury Industries,
Columbia’s Furniture Division is involved in the
manufacturing of furniture, producing specialized
cabinetry, and has automated the process of door
hardware installation in a manufacturing setting.
Columbia’s Furniture Division has grown hand in
hand with Drury Inns and their architectural
154 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

department to supply and design some of the
highest quality furniture, cabinetry, and door
assemblies available in the hotel industry today.
The custom cabinetry that Columbia produces has
also become an integral part of the new construction
and renovation work of other commercial
projects within the Construction Division.
Martin Jansen’s family values and strong work
ethic provided the inspiration and leadership for
a company with a family atmosphere and a strong
feeling of loyalty among its employees. A number
of employees began their working careers with
Columbia and are still with the company today.
Martin Jansen was the president of the
company from its inception until his death on
October 24, 2000. Two of his sons, John M. and
Gregory L. Jansen, have followed in his footsteps
and are upholding the strong traditions and
reputation of the company as they continue to
expand the business.
Its mission is to provide excellent construction
service to its many valuable customers through
the successful and consistent operation of a
growing organization. Columbia continues to
improve business relations with their clients by
offering assistance from the design stage to the
completed construction project.
Columbia Construction’s main office is located
at 3630 Exchange Drive, while the Furniture
Division is located at 111 South Minnesota.
❖
Left: Notre Dame Regional
High School.
Below: New hot breakfast cabinetry
installed in a Drury Suites hotel.
Building a Greater Cape Girardeau ✦ 155

THE MCDONALD
COMPANY, INC.
❖
Above: Clyde McDonald, Sr.
Below: The McDonald Company, Inc.,
Circa 1947.
If you’ve spent any amount of time in southeastern
Missouri chances are you have driven
over, or been in a building that has used concrete
from The McDonald Company, Inc. The
McDonald Company, Inc., was founded in 1945
and incorporated in July of 1946.
Clyde McDonald, Sr., worked for McCarthy
Brothers Construction in the continental United
States, Alaska, and Panama. After being out of
the country for seven years and World War II,
Clyde returned to Cape and saw that ready mix
concrete was beginning to be widely used.
McCarthy and McDonald decided to open a
plant. Clyde’s wife, Mary Lee McDonald, would
come to work for the company, as well.
The first plant was at South Main Street and
College. For twenty years, this location served
the business, but, in 1965, the company had
outgrown the location. It moved to 55 North
Broadview with new and updated equipment to
serve the growing business.
Right after the war there was a lot of building
going on that kept the ready mix business busy.
The first trucks were old Army trucks. Concrete
trucks were in short supply and there was a
three-year waiting list for them. The company
started with four trucks that could haul two
yards each. Today they have 16 trucks hauling
eight yards each. Concrete was $9.50 a yard
when The McDonald Company began.
Clyde Jr., began working at the company
while still in high school. In 1963 he was made
president. Two years later, Clyde Sr., died. Mary
Lee McDonald stayed with the company until
her death in 1974. Clyde Jr., is the president
and general manager of the company today.
Dorothy McDonald, office manager, came to
work for the company in 1982, and then went to
work part-time in 1998. David McDonald, the
third-generation to work there, came to work in
1982. Today, he is vice president of the company
and a batcher of the computerized plant. Susan
Allee (1987) and Marti Wingo (1998) other thirdgeneration
McDonald family members also work
156 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

there. Today, Susan is the office manager and
secretary/treasurer of the corporation and Marti is
the secretary. Clifton Allee, who started working
for the company in 1993, is the sales manager.
The company has a customer base of a 30-
mile radius with 20 to 25 employees. In 1987 a
second batch plant was added. The newer plant
is computerized, which allows the operation to
be faster and more accurate.
One of the first commercial buildings to be
built with The McDonald Company concrete
was Houck Field House. In 1950 they built the
first all concrete house in Cape Girardeau at 711
Terrace Drive, which was the McDonald home.
During the 1960s, McDonald Company supplied
the concrete for the Towers Complex at
Southeast Missouri State University, which was
the first of many buildings with which they were
involved and continue to be involved.
In 1986, The McDonald Company supplied the
concrete for the construction of the Show Me
Center. They would also get the job to supply the
concrete for the present-day St. Francis Medical
Center and the additions. The McDonald Company
was also called upon to supply the concrete for
expansions to Southeast Missouri Hospital.
When the Cape Girardeau Public Schools
were building the new Career & Technology
Center and the new Cape Central High School
at the Silver Springs campus in southwestern
Cape Girardeau, The McDonald Company supplied
concrete for the construction of each site.
The McDonald Company is also involved in
a joint venture with Delta Concrete to supply
concrete for the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge
slated to be open at the end of 2003. This cablestay,
four-lane bridge with shoulders will be a
vast improvement over the bridge in use from
1927 to 2003 and The McDonald Company
played a major role in its completion.
A true family business through and through,
The McDonald Company is poised to continue
to provide quality concrete and the best service
in the Cape Girardeau area.
❖
Above: Clyde McDonald, Jr.
Below: The McDonald Company, Inc.,
2003.
Building a Greater Cape Girardeau ✦ 157

B. W. BIRK &
ASSOCIATES, INC.
❖
Above: Robert Hirsch presenting B. W.
Birk with the “Outstanding
Workmanship and Cooperation
Award” from Southeast Missouri
Hospital in April 1974.
Below: Noranda Aluminum, New
Madrid, Missouri, 1999. B. W. Birk &
Associates did dust control and
ductwork on the project.
When B. W. Birk purchased the Parham
Plumbing & Heating Company in April 1951,
the B. W. Birk Plumbing, Heating & Cooling
Propriety Company was born. Birk would enter
the Army in June 1952, which effectively shut
the business down until his return from the
Korean War in June 1954. He worked primarily
as a house plumber in those days.
Birk applied his firsthand knowledge of the
trades as a journeyman pipefitter and his academic
and military background in civil engineering
to grow the business from joint ventures with
general contractors with little success and scant
profits in the early days to expand into light commercial
work and municipal sewer projects. The
business has evolved to work in heavy industrial,
institutional and waste and water treatment.
In the early days, pipe was threaded by hand,
ditches were dug with a pick and shovel and
cast iron pipe joints were lead and oakum. Birk
employed one secretary and 4 to 6 field people.
Birk worked the business from the office and in
the field in those days, with David Lange and
Ray Kern as estimators and designers in the
mid-1960s.
By the 1970s, the staff peaked at 4 to 6 office
staff and 150 field personnel. Today, Birk
employs Ron Seabaugh, 1976; Chuck Roberts,
1980; Cindy Bollinger, 1989; and Jason Watson,
1998; and 28 pipefitters and plumbers.
Seabaugh and Roberts hold degrees from
Southeast Missouri State University in Industrial
Technology. Watson has an agribusiness degree
with a minor in industrial technology from
Southeast Missouri State University.
Seabaugh started after college as a pipefitter
apprentice. Today Seabaugh is the office
manager, project manager, and project estimator.
Roberts first taught industrial arts at Jackson R-2
School, and then he joined Birk as the assistant
project manager. Today, Roberts’ duties include;
project estimating, project management and
design work. Watson started after college as a
shop hand and is currently estimating projects.
All along the way, the company received great
awards for its work. In 1957 the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers presented the company with
the Certificate of Merit Safety Award. In 1971
Southeast Missouri Hospital presented the
158 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

company with its Outstanding Workmanship &
Cooperative award. In 1983, B. W. Birk
Plumbing, Heating & Cooling ranked 142nd
out of the top 200 mechanical companies in the
U.S.A. in the Domestic Engineering Book of
Grants. And in 1992, the company received the
Mechanical Contractors Association Award for
Outstanding Mechanical Installation Project:
Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District-Bissell
Point Waste Water Treatment Plant.
B. W. Birk Plumbing, Heating & Cooling
changed its name to B. W. Birk & Associates,
Inc., in 1983.
The company has had several locations over
the years. It was located on Sprigg Street,
Broadway, Good Hope, and Enterprise in Cape
Girardeau and currently Birk is located at 5191
Birk Lane in Jackson.
The company has an annual volume of $4.5
to $5 million. The company serves the St. Louis
area to southeastern Missouri and southern
Illinois. Janet Birk is the chairman, Nancy
Buchanan is the vice-president and Cindy
Bollinger is the secretary/treasurer.
B. W. Birk & Associates, Inc., plans to continue
working plan and specification projects, as well as
Design & Build projects in the southeastern
Missouri market as well as the St. Louis Area. The
company will continue its affiliation with AFL &
CIO Union organizations in this area and nationally.
And the company continues to support its local
union affiliations with Plumbers & Pipefitters
Local 562 and Mechanical Contractors Association
of America (Eastern Missouri Chapter).
The company’s mission is to continue to grow
and evolve to meet the demands in a highly competitive
market, driven by increased application of
high technology, economy, and specific needs of
ots customer base. The company has been
involved with the community by its membership
in the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, the
Southeast Missouri Hospital Foundation, the Semo
Contractor Association, and as a gold sponsor of
the annual golf tournament of the Saint Francis
Medical Center Foundation. The company also
contributed to the St. Jude’s House Project.
B. W. Birk & Associates, Inc. is a mechanical
contractor working in commercial, industrial
and institutional plumbing, HVAC Piping and
Process Piping.
❖
Above: The Bissel Point Waste Water
Treatment Plant, St. Louis, Missouri.
B. W. Birk was awarded the
“Outstanding Mechanical Installation
Award” for its work on the project.
Below: Ron Seabaugh, B. W. Birk, and
C. A. “Chuck” Roberts.
Building a Greater Cape Girardeau ✦ 159

KENNETH E.
FOESTE
MASONRY, INC.
❖
The Ed Foeste Farm north of Cape
Girardeau in 1964.
Kenneth E. Foeste worked for other masonry
contractors, but in 1973 he decided to start his
own company. He started with two employees, an
office in the basement of his home, and his wife,
Judy, taking care of the books. Kenny and Judy
(Koch) Foeste were married in August 1963.
Kenny laid the brick, and continued to do so
until about ten years ago. In 1995, an office for
the business was built next to his home in rural
Cape Girardeau County.
Mark Foeste, their son, began working for the
company in high school in the early 1980s. He is
now the project superintendent overseeing the
daily operation of their jobs. Their daughter, Jackie
Payne, CPA, came to work for the company in the
early 1990s as the controller. Their youngest
daughter, Jenny Brune, works as an assistant
director in the Department of Recreational Sports
at Southeast Missouri State University.
This medium-sized, regional contractor has a
loyal staff including several foremen that have
been with the company for twenty years. The
company has four full-time office employees, one
shop employee, and employ 25 to 50 people in
the field. It works with customers in a 150-mile
radius of Cape Girardeau and have become the
largest masonry contractor between St. Louis and
Memphis.
The mason contracting business includes
laying brick, block, stone and setting precast.
The company has worked on several major
projects in southeastern Missouri and southern
Illinois. In the early 1980s, Foeste Masonry
worked with Kiefner Brothers, Inc. on the
Rhodes Science Building at Southeast Missouri
State University. It has since worked on many of
the University’s projects, including Dempster
Hall and, most recently, the New Residence Hall.
In the 1990s, the company completed the
Tamms SuperMax Prison. It also worked on the
Procter & Gamble expansion in the late 1990s.
Throughout the years, Foeste Masonry has
worked on expansions at Southeast Missouri
Hospital and Saint Francis Medical Center. In
2000 it installed the mural in the prayer garden
at St. Francis Medical Center. Jackson Schools
have long known the quality of Foeste Masonry’s
work. The company has worked on Orchard,
South, and North Elementary Schools, Jackson
Middle, Junior and Senior High Schools and the
Multipurpose Building.
During the past few years the company has
worked in Southern Illinois on Carbondale’s
Middle and High Schools, Unity Point
Elementary, additions at Southern Illinois
University, Carbondale Hospital, and additions
to John A. Logan College.
Foeste Masonry is committed to absolute
quality. Kenny and Judy are both hands-on
managers and are involved in all phases of
the business. The company uses a quality
control committee comprised of Kenny, Judy
and Mark Foeste, Greg and Rob Hengst, and
Jackie Payne, to take action on problems that
may arise. Employees are paid based on
performance giving them incentive to produce
quality workmanship.
In the future, the day-to-day operations of
Foeste Masonry will be turned over to their
children as Kenny and Judy enter retirement.
160 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

Kenco Enterprises, Inc., and Kenny Jo
Trucking, Inc. are two other businesses started by
Kenny and Judy Foeste.
Kenco Enterprises, Inc. was started in 1993
as a supplier of masonry supplies. Jackie Payne
now owns Kenco Enterprises, Inc., and sells to
area contractors. Kenco recently obtained a
distributorship for Pavestone concrete pavers
and is specializing in mechanical installation of
pavers. The company will install driveways,
parking lots, streets, and retaining wall blocks.
Kenny Jo Trucking, Inc., a haul for hire
business, was started in August 2002 with one
truck. It was started as a way to keep the trucks
busy between masonry jobs. The operation has
grown to three trucks, with two trucks being
used to haul Pavestone, steel, lumber and hay
throughout the United States.
Kenneth E. Foeste Masonry is involved in
the community through its membership and
support of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of
Commerce, sponsorship of the March of Dimes
and work with Project Charlie through the
Excelsior Optimists. Kenny and Judy are very
active at Trinity Lutheran Church in Egypt
Mills, Missouri, where Kenny is currently
the head Elder and Judy is the organist.
They enjoy spending time with their six
grandchildren—Ashley, J.T., Jakob, Madison,
Emma, and Jack.
Even though, throughout the years, receiving
payment for services has at times been a struggle,
the masonry business has been good to the
Foeste family. They feel very blessed to have had
a prosperous career in the masonry industry,
completing over a thousand projects. They are
proud to be a part of such a wonderful
community to live, work, and raise a family. They
have enjoyed the friendships and relationships
they have cultivated over the last thirty years and
look forward to the future.
Kenneth E. Foeste Masonry, Inc. is located at
347 County Road 649 in Cape Girardeau. You
may also visit Kenneth E. Foeste Masonry on the
Internet at www.foestemasonry.com.
❖
Above: In 1994 and 1996, Mark
Foeste was the national champion of
the Fastest Trowel on the Block.
Contestants had 20 minutes to build a
24-foot long wall. The contestants
were judged on overall workmanship
and the number of blocks laid.
Below: The Kenneth E. Foeste
Masonry, Inc., offices at 347 County
Road 649 in Cape Girardeau.
Building a Greater Cape Girardeau ✦ 161

DELTA
COMPANIES
INC.
❖
Above: An aerial view of the
Southeast Missouri Stone quarry in
Cape Girardeau.
Below: Delta Companies’ corporate
offices are located at 114 South Silver
Springs Road.
A partnership in 1920 between Edward F.
Regenhardt and William H. Harrison led to
what is today Delta Companies Inc. The
partnership worked on jobs throughout the
states of Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky,
including building roads and crushing rock.
William Harrison’s sons—Arthur, Charles,
and Edward—and Regenhardt’s sons—Ted,
Edward, and William Sr.—took over ownership
of the company in the 1930s. In the early 1950s,
ownership passed to Donald L. Harrison,
William Regenhardt, Jr., Thomas Regenhardt,
and Joe Regenhardt.
The company became one of the largest
concrete paving companies in the Midwest
between 1952 and 1966 due to its work on
many miles of interstate highways in Missouri
and Illinois. In August 1959 the company paved
over a linear mile in one day on Interstate 57 in
Scott County, Missouri, becoming only the
ninth highway-paving contractor in the nation
to accomplish this feat.
In 1962, Delta Asphalt, Inc. was formed to
provide the Missouri market with asphalt and
contracting services. Southeast Missouri Stone
Company was established in 1964 to provide
aggregates for this and other operations. During
the mid-1960s as the interstate program came to
an end in the Cape Girardeau area, the company
began converting from predominantly concrete
construction to the construction, asphalt, and
material supply business it is today.
From 1966 to 1980, a division of the Delta
Companies, the D. L. Harrison Company, built
five sections of the Pan American Highway in
the republics of Guatemala and El Salvador.
Terrorism activities in El Salvador prompted the
sale of the company to a local business in 1980.
New Orleans needed the company’s services in
the 1980s. The streets in the city’s famed French
Quarter needed resurfacing before the World’s Fair
and the Delta Companies did most of the work.
Delta Concrete was formed in 1987 and the
Delta Companies entered the ready mix business.
In 1998 the business added another ready mix
plant in Fruitland.
162 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

In 1993 the companies were sold to COLAS,
Inc., based in Morristown, New Jersey. Since
then, the Delta Companies have grown
significantly starting with the purchase in 1997 of
Baughn Construction in Arkansas, which added
asphalt plants in Tuckerman and Black Rock.
Clinton Companies were purchased in 1999,
which added six ready mix plants in southeastern
Missouri, a limestone quarry in Williamsville,
Missouri and Brown Sand & Gravel in Dexter.
Clinton Materials, Inc. has since grown to eleven
ready mix plants.
In 2002, Delta Asphalt of Arkansas
purchased two additional asphalt plants in
Searcy and Heber Springs and the construction
operations of Vulcan Materials.
Delta has played a key role in a joint venture
supplying concrete for the Bill Emerson Memorial
Bridge project. The joint venture was involved
in the largest continuous concrete pour in
the history of the Missouri Department of
Transportation supplying nearly five thousand
cubic yards. The bridge has required about
60,000 yards of concrete for the structure and
about 5,000 yards of silica fume surface mix over
pre-stressed deck panels.
Today you cannot enter Cape Girardeau on
any interstate that the Delta Companies did not
play a significant role in its construction.
Delta employs 325 to a seasonal high 600
employees in southeast Missouri, southern
Illinois and northeast and central Arkansas.
Revenues exceed $100 million annually. Its
customer base includes the state highway
departments of Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas
as well as area cities, counties, and hundreds of
contractors and businesses.
A further testament to the local significance of
Delta Companies Inc., is in its continued
commitment to local civic projects such as YELL,
Riverfest, youth baseball, softball and soccer,
United Way, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Special
Olympics, and the Cape Girardeau Chamber
of Commerce.
The business college at Southeast Missouri
State University, the Donald L. Harrison College
of Business, is named for Donald L. Harrison,
who served as president and majority owner of
Delta Companies for nearly forty years and
served on the university’s Board of Regents, with
five years as president.
❖
Above: Apex Paving improves
Broadway with a fresh layer
of asphalt.
Below: Delta Concrete delivering
another load of ready mix to the Bill
Emerson Memorial Bridge.
Building a Greater Cape Girardeau ✦ 163

LONE STAR
INDUSTRIES,
INC.
❖
Above: Lone Star Industries, Inc.,
manufactures Masonry, and
Type I and Type II Portland
Cement products.
Below: Marquette Cement Company
as it appeared in the 1920s.
In 1904 the president of the St. Louis Portland
Cement Company, French Rayburn Bissell, contacted
F. L. Smidth & Co., a Danish maker of
cement producing machinery, to get help with
basic equipment problems in the St. Louis plant.
Holger Struckmann, one of F. L. Smidth’s best
engineers, was whom Bissell was referred to at the
time. Struckmann was vacationing at the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition in St. Louis at the time. The
two became friends and thus began their partnership
that would last twenty-nine years.
Bissell was born at Fort Bellefontaine, near St.
Louis. When his father died, he left college at
Central College in Fayette and took charge of his
father’s real estate business. He then went into the
sand and gravel business. This led to a natural
transition into the cement business as president of
the St. Louis Portland Cement Company.
Struckmann was born in Aalborg, Denmark,
the home of the F. L. Smidth & Co. Struckmann
designed several plants for F. L. Smidth & Co.
Struckmann came to America in the early 1900s
and worked briefly for the Nazareth Foundry
Company in Pennsylvania. In 1930 the king of
Denmark knighted Struckmann.
The operations skill of Struckmann and the
financial skill of Bissell proved to be an excellent
combination in reviving and constructing a
number of cement plants throughout the United
States and Latin America. After successfully
returning the St. Louis plant to solvency, the two
were invited to a financially stressed cement plant
in Dallas, Texas. They rebuilt the plant and a
couple of years later they arranged a group of
associates to buy the Dallas facility. It was renamed
the Texas Portland Cement Company and the new
brand of cement was introduced—“Lone Star.”
During its first decade, the company had
grown to thirteen plants in the United States and
Latin America, and the domestic subsidiaries
adopted the Lone Star operating name in 1919.
In 1971, Lone Star Industries, Inc. was adopted.
In 1906, C. J. Crawford, a world-renowned
geologist, discovered abundant limestone
reserves in Cape Girardeau. These reserves and
proximity to the Mississippi River led to the construction
of a cement manufacturing facility in
1910. The Cape Girardeau Portland Cement
Company, operated by the Harrison Interests,
began production at that time.
164 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

The Marquette Company acquired the Cape
Girardeau facility in 1923. They immediately
made improvements to the facility, increased
production and employment.
Marquette constructed a new wet process
plant on the same Cape Girardeau site in 1957
because of broadened market areas accessed by
the Mississippi River and the increased production
capacity that became a necessity.
In 1977, design for a new plant, the present
day plant, was initiated and production began in
1981. This new facility included new crushing
and stockpiling facilities as well as equipment to
provide for faster and more efficient loading of
the company’s barge fleet. In 1982 Lone Star
Industries, Inc. acquired the Marquette
Company, including the Cape Girardeau facility.
The pre-calciner, dry process manufacturing
facility produces 1.43 million tons of cement
annually, using raw materials mined on site or
nearby. The only source of fuel for this energy
intensive process had been coal until 1992,
when it became certified by the EPA to burn an
alternate source of fuels. These new fuels
included post manufacturer/consumer waste
fuels or tires previously allocated to landfills.
Several process upgrades have taken place since
1990 to increase production and improve the
operation efficiency.
In 1999, Dyckerhoff AG, a world leader in
cement and concrete manufacturing based
in Germany, acquired Lone Star Industries, Inc.
In 2000, Lone Star’s corporate headquarters
were moved to Indianapolis, Indiana.
This facility manufactures masonry, and Type
I and Type II portland cement products. The
product is shipped by truck, rail and barge.
Barges handle the largest portion of cement and
ship it to distribution terminals in St. Louis,
Memphis, Paducah, and Nashville.
Cement from the Cape Girardeau plant was
used on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge which
was completed in 2003. Through the years, the
Cape plant has provided cement for a number of
construction projects vital to the city and region.
The Cape facility has been a member of the Cape
Girardeau Chamber of Commerce since January
1, 1945. Each year the company makes
contributions to the American Heart Association,
American Cancer Society, and the American Red
Cross organizations as well as Boy Scouts, Girl
Scouts, MADD, Special Olympics, National
Guard, Sheriff’s Associations, Area Wide United
Way, Toy Box, Shriners, and the Salvation Army.
“Consistent quality products are our number
one priority. Our employees reflect the
reputation of our company. We will be a
customer-focused company, sensitive to his
needs and requirements. The safety and welfare
of our employees and the physical facilities are
an important part of our operations. Profits are
necessary to sustain and grow the business. We
will be responsible corporate citizens in
communities where we live and work. We are
committed to maintaining excellence in
production and efficiency of our operations.
Our operations will be managed in a responsible
manner for the protection of the environment.”
❖
Lone Star Industries, Inc., Cape
Girardeau plant in 1996.
Building a Greater Cape Girardeau ✦ 165

STANDLEY
BATCH
SYSTEMS, INC.
❖
Above: Guth Brothers Block was built
in 1945.
Below: Kasten Masonry was built
in 1996.
Standley Batch Systems, Inc. is a nationwide
leader in the design and fabrication of material
handling systems for the concrete industry.
These systems are installed in concrete
manufacturing plants and are responsible for
moving materials throughout the plant.
Elements may include hoppers, a conveying
system, a weighing system, and the automatic
controls to operate the overall system.
Founded as Standley & Company in 1940 by
Elmer Standley, the company began in St. Louis
as a builder of steel crates used to ship large
rock crushers to China. During World War II,
the company assisted the war effort by building
crates for International generators sent overseas,
as well as producing milk coolers for delivery
trucks back in the United States.
In 1945, Standley and Company became
involved with concrete batching. Soon after
Elmer Standley came to Cape Girardeau, he
built Guth Brothers Block plant. Standley
moved his business to Cape Girardeau in 1957
and in the same year built the Kasten Block
plant. In 1960, Standley bought ground from
McDonald Concrete. Standley built a new plant
for the McDonald Company, and sold his land
to Kasten. After completing the McDonald
Company plant, the newly named Standley Bin
and Conveyor moved to its present location on
Aquamsi Street near the Mississippi River. In
1975, Standley bought the White Cross
Company and acquired the White Cross
building and four additional acres.
In the 1980s, Standley Bin and Conveyor
would emerge as one of the most innovative
companies in the material handling industry. In
1986, Ted Holzum developed a system that
would automatically disperse color into the
concrete mixer within one hundredth of a pound
accuracy. The new system not only made adding
color by hand obsolete, it also allowed
manufacturers the ability to easily transform gray
concrete into virtually any earthtone color.
Although sales started slowly for this innovation,
about one a year, today more than seventy are
sold each year. Elmer Standley also invented the
weigh conveyor belt and was one of the first to
offer the unique Flexwall conveyor. The Flexwall,
with its cleated compartments, saves space by
166 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

conveying materials over a shorter area and at a
much steeper angle.
In 1987, Elmer Standley sold the business to
Richard Griffith, who changed the name to
Standley Batch Systems. During the 1990s,
Standley Batch began a physical expansion and
purchased three acres from neighboring St.
Vincent’s Seminary. Unfortunately, during
construction of a new warehouse, a cemetery
was discovered on the property. The State shut
the operation down while it was determined
that the graveyard wasn’t Civil War or Native
American related. The cemetery was actually the
Seminary’s from 1840 and the nine people
buried there were moved to the seminary
cemetery in Perryville.
In 2000, Ted Holzum who had been with
Standley Batch since 1976, along with Shapley
Hunter and Sally Strickland (both with the
company for over ten years) purchased Standley
Batch Systems. In recent years, Standley Batch
has grown on a national level but has still
maintained its commitment to the local
community. Standley Batch has built all
seventeen Pavestone plants and was
instrumental in Pavestone's decision to locate in
the Cape Girardeau area. The relationship with
Pavestone also helped increase business for both
SEMO Stone and Lone Star Industries. In 1996
Standley Batch supplied all new material
handling equipment for Kasten Masonry’s Cape
Girardeau location. Standley Batch Systems
provides maintenance support for Lone Star each
year, has furnished bins for the city, built
platforms for Procter & Gamble, and supplied
material handling for CPI of Memphis, who
furnished the concrete bridge deck panels for the
Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge.
Today, this company of forty employees
continues to grow. The increased use of consumer
concrete products such as paving stones and
retaining walls, combined with Standley Batch’s
pursuit of multiple colored concrete, ensures that
its growth will continue. Standley Batch Systems
proudly proclaims they’ve never built two
identical concrete plants. And because they
design them with the customer’s needs and land
in mind, they never will.
❖
Above: Pavestone Company was built
in 1999.
Below: Standley Batch Systems’
present-day building is located at 505
Aquamsi Street in Cape Girardeau.
The company can be found on the
Internet at www.standleybatch.com.
Building a Greater Cape Girardeau ✦ 167

ELECTRICAL
CONTRACTORS,
INC.
❖
Above: Electrical Contractors, Inc.,
located at 2620 East Outer Road
North in Scott City, is an industrial
contractor that began operations
in 1989.
Below: Electrical Contractors, Inc.,
has twenty utility bed vehicles in
its fleet.
Tom Moreland along with two electricians
and three apprentices started Electrical
Contractors Inc. (ECI) in 1989. Over the years,
the company has steadily grown.
ECI primarily does industrial electrical work.
It employs highly qualified industrial
electricians who are very conscientious about
the quality and productivity of their work. It is
considered one of the top industrial electrical
contracting companies in the area.
Services provided by ECI vary depending on
the needs of the customer. The company’s
capabilities include programming, PLC’s, controls,
and calibration. Its work ranges from designing,
to building, installing, and maintaining all aspects
of industrial electrical work. ECI makes every
effort to meet all the electrical needs of its
customers with efficiency, and expedience.
Through the years ECI has worked in a
variety of places such as aluminum plants, grain
elevators, rock quarries, bottling companies,
water treatment facilities, and cotton gins to
name a few. At times the employees had to work
in adverse conditions to meet the demands of
the job. One memorable situation occurred as a
result of the 1993 flood. ECI’s electricians
arrived at the facilities in boats to unhook power
and equipment.
Safety is as important to ECI as the quality of
their work. The company has a fully developed
and implemented safety program that is
compliant with OSHA and MSHA standards and
includes drug and alcohol screenings.
ECI has also taken an active part in the
community by sponsoring various sports
leagues, Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity,
Camp Wonderland and by helping local
churches with all aspects of electrical work.
The belief that its customers are its highest
priority along with its high standards and history
of first class service has led to ECI’s outstanding
reputation and continued success.
168 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

INDEX
A
Academic Hall, 25, 30, 33, 40-41,
44, 85
Agony Four, The, 55
Agricultural Adjustment Act, 65
Alma Schrader Elementary School, 81
Alternative Education Center, 81
American Legion Louis K. Juden Post, 63
Arcadia Valley, 30, 40
Arena Building, 64
Arena Park, 64-65, 68
Astholz, Henry, 85
B
B’Nai Israel Synagogue, 65
Bacon, Melvin, 67
Bank of Southeast Missouri, 46
Battle of Cape Girardeau, 27
Benton, 39
Benton, Thomas Hart, 8
Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge, 2-3, 80,
83, 88
Black Masonic Hall, 55
Blanchard Elementary School, 81
Blomeyer, 38
Bloomfield, 23, 26
Bob Hope, 7, 80, 86
Boston Grocery, 39
Brandt, 76
Broadway Theater, 33, 54-55
Buckner-Ragsdale Store, 44, 85
Burfordville, 52
C
Camp Frémont, 24
Campster School, 63
Capaha Park, 49, 58, 85-86
Cape Brewery and Ice Company, 44
Cape Central Airways, 71, 75
Cape City Bottling Works, 44
Cape Girardeau Academy, 84
Cape Girardeau and State Line Railroad
Company, 37
Cape Girardeau Bell Telephone
Company, 41, 85
Cape Girardeau Central High School,
70, 76
Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce,
48, 52, 58, 68, 83
Cape Girardeau Commercial Club, 46
Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors
Bureau, 83
Cape Girardeau Country Club, 55, 86
Cape Girardeau County Fair and Park
Association, 58
Cape Girardeau Downtown Merchants
Association, 83
Cape Girardeau Eagle, 28
Cape Girardeau Military Post, 84
Cape Girardeau Ministerial Alliance, 58
Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport, 68,
71, 75, 173
Cape Girardeau Municipal Band, 74
Cape Girardeau Osteopathic Hospital, 71
Cape Girardeau Police Department, 84
Cape Girardeau Portland Cement
Company, 43
Cape Girardeau Public Library, 86
Cape Girardeau Railway Company, 85
Cape Girardeau Sand Company, 44
Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian/
Southeast Missourian, 46-47, 80
Cape Girardeau Special Road District, 52
Cape LaCroix Creek, 53
Cape Rock, 5, 9-10, 14, 70, 75
Cape Rock Park, 54
Career and Technology Center, 81-83
Carnegie Library, 33, 49-50, 85
Carter, George, 26-27
Caruthersville, 43
Centenary Baptist Church, 33
Centenary Methodist Church, 21-22
Central High School, 28, 83
Central Junior High School, 81
Central Middle School, 81
Central Senior High School, 81-82
Chalk Bluff, 27
Chateau Girardeau, 80
Cheney, Lucius H., 84
Christ Episcopal Church, 22
City of Roses Music Festival, 80
Civil Pilot Training and the Naval
Reserve, 68
Civil War, 7, 16, 21, 23, 26, 28, 31, 35,
46, 58-59, 81, 84
Civil War Memorial Fountain, 25
Civilian Conservation Corps, 63
Clark, George Rogers, 13-14
Clark, William, 14, 83, 86
Clarke, J. B., 30
Clinton, Bill, 7, 80, 86
Clippard Elementary School, 81
Clippard, Lloyd Dale, 66
Cobb, John, 29
Columbia, 54
Commerce, 57
Common Pleas Courthouse, 18-19, 25, 50
Consolidated School of Aviation, 68, 71
Cook, Rebecca McDowell, 80
Coronado, Francisco Vasquez de, 10
Corps of Discovery, 14, 83
Courthouse Park, 23, 49, 63-64
Cousin, Barthelemi, 12, 15
Crowley’s Ridge, 6, 23-24, 26, 42
D
Daily Republican, 46, 85
de La Salle, Robert, 9
de Soto, Hernando, 10
Dearmont Quadrangle, 76
Dearmont, Washington, 40-41
Delaware, The, 11, 13
Delta, 26, 37
Dittlinger, Michael, 25
Doctor’s Park, 78, 80
Dreamland Theater, 55
Drury Industries, 80
E
Eagle Packet Company, 57
Eagle Ridge Christian School, 81
East St. Louis, 68
Elk’s Hall, 55
Emerson, Bill, 8
Engelberta, 45
Enrolled Missouri Militia, 24
Esquire Theater, 55
F
Fairground Park, 49, 58, 64, 85
Farm Security Administration, 65
Index ✦ 169

Farmers and Merchants Bank, 33, 45-46,
62
Farmington, 40, 79
Federal Building, 36
Federal Highway Act of 1916, 52
Felicitas, 45
First Baptist Church, 33
First Military District of Missouri, 23
First National Bank, 46, 62
First Presbyterian Church, 22
Fort A, 24-25
Fort B, 25, 27, 30
Fort C, 25, 46
Fort D, 25, 62-63
Fort Hope Apartments, 25
Franklin Elementary School, 81
Franklin School, 34
Fredericktown, 42
Freedmen's Bureau, 29
Frémont, John C., 24
French and Indian War, 10
G
Gem Theater, 55
Gerhardt, J. W., 39
German Turner Society, 28
German-American State Bank, 46
“Get Missouri Out of the Mud”, 52
Girardot, Jean Baptiste, 9-10
Glenn House, 85
Glenn, David, 85
Glenn, Lulu Deane, 85
Gore, Al, 7, 86
Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, 21
Grand Theater, 55
Grant, Ulysses S., 18, 24
Grauel, 76
Grauel Hall, 86
Great Depression, 33, 37, 46, 59-60,
62-63, 65-66, 68
Great Flood of 1927/Flood of the Great
Mississippi, 59, 86
Green Tree Brewery, 44
Greene, George H., 29
Greene, May, 29
Groves Ford, 51
Groves, Fred, 50, 85
H
Haarig District, 21, 43-46, 48, 58, 63,
69, 78
Hadley, Herbert, 41
Hanover Lutheran Church, 21
Hardee, William, 23
Harris Field, 65-66, 68
Harrison, William, 44
Hawkins, Howard, 68
Hely’s Quarry, 35, 44
Himmelberger-Harrison Building, 33,
43, 46, 50, 54
Himmelberger-Harrison Lumber
Company, 43-44
Hirsch Battery and Radio Company, 54
Hirsch Brothers’ Mercantile Company,
45, 84
Hirsch Tower, 74
Hirsch, Oscar C., 54, 72, 75
Historic Riverfront District, 83
Houck Building, 44
Houck Field House and Stadium, 33-34,
44, 70, 86
Houck Lines, 35, 38-39, 85
Houck Railroad Depot, 38
Houck, Louis, 6, 13, 30-31, 37-39
I
Idan-Ha Hotel, 33, 55, 86
International Shoe Company, 44, 48, 85
J
Jackson, 16, 18, 52, 54, 63-64, 70, 79
Jackson, Andrew, 8, 28
Jadwin Plan, 59-60, 86
James, Edwin, 5, 15
Jefferson City, 54
Jefferson Elementary School, 28, 34, 81
John C. Cobb School, 70, 86
John Scortino Fruit Store, 57
Jolliet, Louis, 9, 84
K
Kansas City, 32, 54-55, 62
Kennedy, Robert, 7, 76-77, 86
Kennett, 43, 81
Kent Library, 63, 86, 113
Kent, Sadie T., 63
KFVS, 12, 54, 72, 74-75, 80, 82, 86
King, Henry, 22
Knudtson, Jay, 82
Kochtitsky, Otto, 42
L
Laflin, 38
Lansmon, Joseph, 18-19, 25
Laramie’s Station, 13
Leestamper, Robert, 76
Leestamper’s Campers, 76
Legg, J. B., 40
Leming Hall, 76
Leming Lumber Company, 85
Leming Lumber Mill, 34
Lewis, H. H., 64
Lewis, Meriwether, 14, 83, 86
Lila Drew Farm, 44
Lincoln School, 28-29, 34
Little River Drainage District, 32, 42-43,
85
Longview, 84
Lorimier Hotel, 85
Lorimier School, 28-30, 63, 81, 84
Lorimier, Agatha, 14
Lorimier, Louis, 12-15, 43, 83-84
Louisiana Purchase, 13-14
Lyric Theater, 55
M
Magill, 76
Malden, 81
Manual Training Building, 34
Marble City News, 84
Mark Twain National Forest, 63
Marmaduke, John, 26, 27
Marquette Cement Company, 44
Marquette Cement Manufacturing
Company, 33, 44
Marquette Hotel, 44, 48, 54, 83, 86
Marquette Theater, 33
Marquette, Jacques, 9, 84
May Centers, Inc., 80
May Greene School, 34
McElroy Electric Company, 85
McElroy, Joseph, 85
McNeil, John, 26-27
Memorial Halls, 76
Meyer, Raymond, 54-55
Miller, I. Ben, 44
Mississippi River and Tributaries
Project, 59
Mississippi River Bridge, 47-48, 62,
86
Missouri Baptist Hospital, 62
Missouri Dry Dock and Repair Company,
72, 86
170 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

Missouri Good Roads Federation, 52
Missouri Home Guard, 24
Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, 39,
48, 74
Missouri State Militia, 24
Missouri Volunteers, 24
Missouri: A Guide to the Show Me State, 63
Moribund Fair Association, 64
Mother’s Worry, 56
Murtaugh Park, 53
Murtaugh, James A., 53-54
N
Naeter, Fred, 46
Naeter, George, 46
Naeter, Harry, 46
Neely’s Landing, 41, 85
Neumeyer, Gordon, 69
New Deal, 62-63, 65
New Madrid, 11, 16, 23, 26, 31
Notre Dame High School, 86
Notre Dame Regional High School, 81-82
O
Old Lorimier Cemetery, 84
Old Opera House, 84
Old Town Cape, 83
Oliver, Marie Watkins, 34
Oliver, R. B., 40
Orpheum Theater, 45, 55
Ozark Airlines, 75
P
Park Theater, 55
Parker Physical Education Building, 76
Parrish, William, 36
Patriot, The, 16, 84
Peg Meyer’s Original Melody Kings, 55-56
Pendergast, Tom, 62
Perkins, 38
Perryville, 19, 81
Philomena, 45
Pillow, Gideon, 23
Pilot Knob, 27
Planters Mill, 43
Poplar Bluff, 79
Prentiss, Benjamin, 24
Price, Sterling, 27
Primo, Clyde, 68
Primo, Ralph, 68
Public Works Administration, 63, 113
Pure Ice Company, 44
R
Ramsey, Andrew, 17
Reagan, Ronald, 7, 80, 86
Red House, 12-13, 83-84
Red Star, 33, 72, 78
Red Star Baptist Church, 33
Red Star Shoes, 44
Regenhardt Construction Company, 52
Regenhardt, Edward, 40-41
Revolutionary War, 13
Reynolds House, 84
Rialto Theater, 55
Riverfest, 80
Riverside Ice and Fuel, 44
Riverside Lumber Company, 86
Riverview Hotel, 23, 44, 84-85, 114
Roberts, Johnson, and Rand Shoe
Company, 33, 44
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 7, 62-63
Round Pond Massacre, 26
Royal N’Orleans Restaurant, 28
Royal Theater, 55
S
Saxony Lutheran High School, 81
Saxony Village, 80
Schuchert Concert Band, 56
Science Building, 33
Scivally, Dennis, 53-54
Scully, Mark, 75-76
Shawnee Sports Complex, 80
Shawnee, The, 11, 13
Shelby, Jo, 26
Sherwood-Minton House, 84
Show-Me Center, 80, 82, 86
Sikeston, 66, 79, 81
Sikeston Ridge, 42
Sisters of Loretto, 21
Sloan’s Creek, 73
Smelterville, 33, 59, 78
Southeast Hospital, 50, 80
Southeast Missouri District Fair, 16, 58,
62, 64, 80
Southeast Missouri Hospital, 33, 49, 62,
68, 70, 86
Southeast Missouri Normal School,
30-31, 40, 84
Southeast Missouri State College, 69,
75-76
Southeast Missouri State Teacher’s
College, 33
Southeast Missouri Telephone Company,
51
Southeast Missouri Trust Company, 46,
85
Southeast Missouri State University,
75-76, 78, 81, 83, 86, 113
Southeast Missouri State University River
Campus, 2, 82-83, 86
Spiller, Harry, 77, 78
St. Charles, 11
St. Charles Hotel, 18, 30, 44
St. Francis Hospital, 33, 45-46, 70, 78, 84
St. Francis Medical Center, 78, 80
St. Francis River, 5, 27
St. James African Methodist Episcopal
Church, 29, 84
St. Louis, 6, 8, 10-11, 16, 18, 24-25, 27,
30-32, 44, 48, 54-55, 57, 63-64, 72,
75, 78, 80, 86
St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad,
36, 37
St. Louis Browns, 68
St. Louis World’s Fair, 40
St. Louis-San Francisco “Frisco” Railway,
39, 41, 44, 48, 59, 61, 85
St. Louis-San Francisco “Frisco” Railway
Station, 39
St. Mary’s Cathedral School, 81, 90
St. Mary’s Cathedral, 21, 90
St. Mary’s High School, 86
St. Vincent de Paul Church, 19
St. Vincent de Paul School, 81
St. Vincent’s Academy, 29
St. Vincent’s Church, 6, 12-13, 20,
22, 84
St. Vincent’s College, 19-20, 22, 26, 53,
83-84
St. Vincent’s Seminary, 21, 82
St. Vincent’s Young Ladies Academy, 19,
21-22, 84
Stacy, Jess, 55
Star Vue Drive-In Theater, 70, 75, 86
Ste. Genevieve, 10-11
Sturdivant Bank, 46, 62, 84
Sturdivant Building, 85
Sturdivant, Robert, 84
Sunday, Billy, 58, 86
Sunset, 33
Sunset Terrace, 49
Index ✦ 171

T
Taft, William Howard, 7, 41, 85
Ten Mile Rose Garden, 53-54, 64
Terminal Hotel, 85
Thilenius, George C., 24, 84
Third District Normal School, 30, 84, 85
Thompson, Jeff, 23
Timon, John, 19
Towers Dormitory Complex, 76, 86
Town Plaza Shopping Center, 75, 86
Trinity Lutheran Church, 21, 84, 87
Trinity Lutheran School, 29, 81, 84, 87
Truman, Harry S., 7, 69
Turner Hall, 84
Turnverein Hall, 28, 84
U
Union Milling Company, 43
University Center, 76
V
Vandiver, Willard Duncan, 30
Vietnam, 76, 77, 78
W
Walther Furniture & Undertaking
Company, 84
Walther, August, 84
Washington School, 28, 34
Wednesday Club, 49
West Broadway School, 28
West End Hall, 55
West Park Mall, 79-80, 87
White Cross Company, 68
Whitfield, Owen, 66
Windmill Hill, 25
Works Progress Administration, 62-64
World War I, 43, 54
World War II, 63-66, 68-70
Yallaly, John, 67
Zalma, 38
Y
Z
172 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

❖
An aerial view of Cape Girardeau
Airport in 1971.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM NEUMEYER.
Index ✦ 173

SPONSORS
Auto Tire & Parts ......................................................................147
B. W. Birk & Associates, Inc......................................................158
BioKyowa, Inc. ..........................................................................139
Bluff City Beer Co., Inc..............................................................142
Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce ...................................123
Cape Girardeau County Association for Retarded Citizens..........92
Cape Girardeau Community Workshop dba VIP Industries .......92
Cape Girardeau Doctors’ Park, Inc. ...........................................100
Cape Girardeau Public Schools .................................................104
Cape GMC Pontiac, Inc.............................................................128
Cape Paint & Glass, Inc. ...........................................................124
Chateau Girardeau.....................................................................141
Coldwell Banker Hamilton Realty .............................................143
Columbia Construction Corporation.........................................154
Delta Companies, Inc. ...............................................................162
Sandy Donley ............................................................................137
The Drury Family......................................................................116
El Torero, Inc.............................................................................136
Electrical Contractors, Inc. ........................................................168
Edwin “Eddie” Alvin Erlbacher..................................................112
Havco Wood Products, LLC ......................................................144
Kenneth E. Foeste Masonry, Inc. ...............................................160
KFVS-TV ...................................................................................102
Knaup Floral Company .............................................................138
Limbaugh, Russell, Payne & Howard........................................140
Lone Star Industries, Inc. ..........................................................164
Lutheran Home for the Aged.......................................................99
The McDonald Company, Inc....................................................156
Midamerica Hotels Corporation ................................................116
Missouri Barge Line Company.....................................................89
Northwest Development Company ...........................................116
Notre Dame High School ............................................................98
Old Bavarian Sausage ................................................................130
Penzel Construction Company, Inc. ..........................................150
Plaza Tire Service, Inc................................................................126
Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company ............................145
Regency Management..................................................................92
Rust and Martin.........................................................................132
Saint Francis Healthcare System................................................106
SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence, Incorporated.......108
Show Me Center........................................................................111
Southeast Missouri Hospital ......................................................109
Southeast Missouri State University...........................................110
St. Mary’s Cathedral School .........................................................96
St. Vincent de Paul Grade School................................................97
Standley Batch Systems, Inc. .....................................................166
Stanley, Dirnberger, Hopper & Associates, LLC ........................134
Thomas L. Meyer Realtors ...........................................................89
Trans Am Industries, Inc. ..........................................................120
VIP Vocational Services, Inc. dba Heartland Industries ...............92
W. E. Walker Company .............................................................146
174 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
TOM
NEUMEYER
Tom Neumeyer is a native of Cape Girardeau who has a long interest in the history, culture, and politics of the community. He and
his wife, Terri, own and operate two businesses in Cape Girardeau, Neumeyer Photography and Neumeyer’s Bed and Breakfast. A
graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, Neumeyer has served as a journalist and a photographer, and as a member of many
civic improvement projects. He served two terms as a member of the Cape Girardeau City Council.
FRANK
NICKELL
Frank Nickell serves as the director of the Center for Regional History at Southeast Missouri State University. A graduate of Eastern
Illinois University and holder of a Ph.D. in American history from the University of New Mexico, Dr. Nickell and his wife, Gynel, have
lived in Cape Girardeau for thirty-four years. His teaching and research interests are the Civil War, military history, Vietnam, and the
Mississippi River, folklore, and southeast Missouri.
J OEL
P. R HODES
Joel Rhodes is an assistant professor in the Department of History at Southeast Missouri State University, and serves as the assistant
director of the Center for Regional History. His teaching and research interest are in modern United States political and social history,
historic preservation, and southeast Missouri. Dr. Rhodes’ articles have appeared in the Missouri Historical Review and he has written
The Voice of Violence: Performative Violence as Protest in the Vietnam Era. He and his wife, Jeanie, have three children—Alex, Olivia,
and Ella.
ABOUT THE COVER
M ARILYN K AY S INGLETON
Marilyn Kay Singleton is a native of and life-long resident of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. She is a self-taught artist, specializing in
oil paintings of historic scenes of southeast Missouri, and also does many portraits. Marilyn and her husband, Tim, have four children
and three grandchildren. They are active members of Cape Bible Chapel.
About the Authors and About the Cover ✦ 175

For more information about the following publications, please call 800-749-9790 or visit www.lammertinc.com.
Historic Abilene: An Illustrated History
Historic Amarillo: An Illustrated History
Historic Anchorage: An Illustrated History
Historic Austin: An Illustrated History
Historic Beaumont: An Illustrated History
Historic Brazoria County: An Illustrated History
Historic Charlotte: An Illustrated History of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County
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Historic Erie County: An Illustrated History
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Historic Gainesville & Hall County: An Illustrated History
Historic Houston: An Illustrated History
Historic Kern County: An Illustrated History of Bakersfield and Kern County
Historic Laredo: An Illustrated History of Laredo & Webb County
Historic Louisiana: An Illustrated History
Historic Midland: An Illustrated History
Historic Montgomery County: An Illustrated History of Montgomery County, Texas
Historic Oklahoma: An Illustrated History
Historic Oklahoma County: An Illustrated History
Historic Omaha: An Illustrated History of Omaha and Douglas County
Historic Pasadena: An Illustrated History
Historic Passaic County: An Illustrated History
Historic Philadelphia: An Illustrated History
Historic Richardson: An Illustrated History
Historic Rio Grande Valley: An Illustrated History
Historic Scottsdale: A Life from the Land
Historic Shreveport-Bossier: An Illustrated History of Shreveport & Bossier City
Historic Texas: An Illustrated History
Historic Victoria: An Illustrated History
Historic Williamson County: An Illustrated History
Iron, Wood & Water: An Illustrated History of Lake Oswego
Miami’s Historic Neighborhoods: A History of Community
Old Orange County Courthouse: A Centennial History
Plano: An Illustrated Chronicle
176 ✦ HISTORIC CAPE GIRARDEAU

ISBN: 1-893619-39-7