A story in the Nov. 29, 1926, Missourian said “High officials of the Marquette Cement Manufacturing Company and affiliated corporations, have arrived in Cape Girardeau for the dedication late today of the new $50,000 office building near the plant in South Cape Girardeau. The new building, one of the most ornate and substantial in Cape Girardeau, has been completed and is ready for occupation.”
Although the late afternoon sun makes the color much warmer than it really is, the building looks like it has been well-maintained. It IS ornate.
Abandoned oxbows of Cape LaCroix Creek
A view from atop the cement plant shows the headquarters building sitting near oxbows of Cape LaCroix Creek from the days when it used to join the Mississippi River close to the Diversion Channel instead of its present course north of the plant and south of what used to be Smelterville.
Other stories that day
I can’t just read what I was looking for. I always get sucked into reading the stories around my target. Here’s what else was being written about on Nov. 29, 1926.
- Bandit with mask and gun holds up the Kelso filling station on South Sprigg and makes off with $71 after forcing attendant Ray Ward into a closet and telling him, “Stay there for five minutes or I’ll blow your head off.”
- Will Rogers not comfortable with his Louisville automobile ride when it hits 60 miles per hour: “Say, we might all get killed.”
- KMOX in St. Louis to feature organ selections by William Shivelbine, the New Broadway Theater organist, and vocal selections by Dr. Jean Ruff, the Cape Girardeau baritone. The address on “Cape Girardeau,” to have been made by Julien Friant, “will not begiven, the time not being sufficient.”
- Ernest Wagner, 68, a blacksmith put out of business by the automobile, died.
- Two marriage licenses not returned to recorder (on the front page, with names, no less).
- King Solomon takes 40th wife. Says it’s his last wedding, “since this was really and truly a love match.”
- C. Hale, telegraph operator at Glenallen, writes The Missourian that he was not responsible for the error in a telegram which came here, which due to the transposition of the word “mother” and “motor” caused friends to believe Mrs. Max Weilputez had been drowned. It will be recalled that the message as received here said, “mother drowned,” but should have said “motor drowned.”
- Geraldine Wilson secretly married to school teacher: Miss Geraldine Wilson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Orren Wilson, 1325 Broadway, was married secretly to Frank Jones of Whitewater Sunday. According to Mrs. Wilson, mother of Geraldine, the ceremony took place in an Illinois town and was a complete surprise to her and Mr. Wilson. Mrs. Jones had attended College High School and was a senior at Central this year and would have graduated in voice in the spring. Mr. Jones has attended Teachers College here and is now teaching at Round Pond School near Allenville.
I spent many days as a kid running around the building. It was a “whirlwind of activity” in that building. I probably was a nuisance but everyone was good to me. The lab was upstairs on the west side. The guys in the lab were Lloyd Ervin, Joe Goeckel, Earl Lynn, Fred Sanford, Jack Burris, to remember a few, The east side of the upstairs were offices-Ralph Basler, A.J. Coombs, E.C. Mathews and Dad (Fred) were a few who had offices there that I remember. On the first floor in the center front of the building was the office-Frank Compas and E.B. Stone worked there. Doctor O.L. Seabaugh and later Dr Bill Seabaugh had a dispensary/office across the hall. The locker room/showers and time clock were on the east side of the building. There were more offices and another locker room on the west side. I guess I am still a little kid exploring the old building. When people ask me, I tell them I am part of the cement plant Stones as Father, uncles and cousins all worked at the plant. Today I have no relatives working there. Thanks for the memories.
I was just wondering if anyone remembered my great uncle Emory Linebarger who worked there.
MY GRANDFATHER ABE KING RETIRED FROM THER IN LATE 50’S OR EARLY 60’S. DON’T REMEMBER WHAT JOB HE HELD EXCEPT PROBABLY A LABORER. THAT BLDG. BROUGHT MEMORIES OF HIM WHEM=N I SAW IT.
I worked at the cement plant a little over a year , 1956-57, and my job was as a “swing” man, relieving men on 5 different jobs for their day off. I worked 5 different jobs; 2 different mill jobs, the scales, measuring out the different rock, gypsum, limestone ect., checking the silos, {can’t recall my 5th job. } I had gotten a call to go to work at the post office and had to make some heavy decisions on the job change since I had to take a pay cut to change, but but after considering the health risks of a career in those dust filled mills, I think I made a good move. Of course it would be different now in the way they do it now without all that dust.
Joe Whitright “45”
Parallel lives and not exactly. My dad, Thad Bullock was the pianist on KFVS Radio in the late 40s and early 50s. His 15 minute live radio show was sponsored by Hutson Furniture Co. Wm. Shivilbine Sr. was the organist in the story. From 1956 until 1964, I and my family resided at 1320 Broadway across the street from the secretly married young high school senior. In Cape, we seem to have 1 degree of separation from everything and everybody who lived there.