It seems like Almost Yesterday that Elam Vangilder was playing baseball in the major leagues. “Big Elam,” was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri on April 23, 1896, and began playing baseball at an early age. Following service in World War I, Vangilder returned home, picked up his bat and glove and tried out with the St. Louis Browns. He was assigned to Tulsa of the Class A Western League and there on August 20, 1919, the 23 year old pitcher earned recognition by stopping the 69 game hitting streak

It seems like almost yesterday that the worst train wreck in Missouri history occurred. The date was August 5, 1922, and the location was on a bridge over Glaize Creek, beside the Mississippi river, between Herculaneum and Kimmswick. At this location a fast moving steel passenger train from Texas, train number 4, crashed into the rear of a local passenger train of wooden cars, coming into St. Louis from Hoxie, Arkansas, train number 32, with 190 passengers, including a large contingent of boy

It seems like Almost Yesterday that the transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Point in Utah. The year was 1869. Within a few months, Hiram Morgan Hill and his sister Sarah Althea Hill were on the new “Pacific Train” heading to California in search of fame and fortune. At the time, “Morgan” Hill was 22 years of age; Sarah was 20. They were the orphaned children of Samuel Allen Hill, an attorney and Missouri legislator, and Julia Sloan, daughter of Hiram Sloan, who had operated a

It seems like Almost Yesterday that the Cape Girardeau Writers' Guild was organized. The date was October 30, 1943, and the meeting was called by Dr. Earl A. Collins, a long-time professor of history at Southeast Missouri State College. The purpose of the meeting, according to Dr. Collins, was to regularly bring together anyone who had an interest in writing. Six people responded to the initial call, and provided early leadership for the group. Forest E. Wolverton was selected as the first

It seems like Almost Yesterday that the Reverend J. C. Berryman , founder and Superintendent of Arcadia High School in Arcadia, Missouri, received a report from a committee of observers who had visited the school in order to submit an overall evaluation. The distinguished observers, J. M. Kelly; John Hadlee; James Relfe; and William Newberry, were so impressed with what they found that they wrote a letter to the Western Eagle newspaper in Cape Girardeau for wide distribution. Here the Arcadia

It seems like Almost Yesterday that the largest tree in Charleston, Mo., was cut down. The giant cottonwood was said to be the largest and most loved tree in the city. Legend has it that the tree was fully grown when Missouri became a state in 1821 and that it witnessed the founding of the town in 1837. But by 1933, Charleston had expanded and grown around the mighty cottonwood and it stood squarely in the center of State Street, directly behind of the home of Edwin P. Deal, a prominent resident

It seems like Almost Yesterday that Ken Sisler of Dexter, Mo., received our nation’s highest award for valor: the Congressional Medal of Honor. Lieutenant Sisler was born in Dexter Sept. 19, 1937, graduated from Dexter High School in 1955, attended Arkansas State University, spent five years in the Air Force, and then returned to Arkansas State where he graduated in 1964. In 1963, he won the National Collegiate Skydiving Championship while competing with his leg in a cast. In 1965, Sisler

It seems like Almost Yesterday that a “crank-in” was held in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The motive that brought approximately eighty “Crankers” from across the United States and Canada together on the first weekend in April of 2011 was the unveiling of the Erlbacher - Gearhart hand-powered, knitting machine invented in the last half of the nineteenth century in Clearfield, Pennsylvania. The Gearhart knitting machine company was used primarily to knit socks, but the machine was capable of

It seems like almost yesterday that President William Howard Taft visited Cape Girardeau . His purpose was to promote the deepening and stabilization of the Mississippi River channel. President Taft was the first sitting President to ever visit the city and Cape Girardeau and the whole region prepared for his visit accordingly. A welcome arch was constructed over the entrance to the city at Themis Street, a commemorative badge was commissioned, a grand parade planned, and special excursion

It seems like Almost Yesterday that Congress passed the “Hospital Survey and Construction Act” which became Public Law 725. This act provided funds to hospitals, nursing homes, and chronic care facilities, which had declined during the Great Depression and World War II. By 1945 and the end of World War II, many American hospitals were obsolete – and approximately 50% of the nation’s counties had no hospital facilities at all. In early 1946 Senators Lister Hill, a Democrat from Alabama, and