Cape Girardeau History and Photos

January 29, 2015November 22, 2020

Nellie Vess Revisited

Back in 2012, I did a piece titled Turtles, Frogs, Dogs and Desperation where I explained how I come up with story ideas. (The key word was “desperation.) It’s worth a visit, even if I say so myself.

In it, I introduced Mrs. Nellie Vess, one of my favorite subjects. You can click on the photos to make them larger.

Rhonda and Patty Sue

It told the story of how an elderly woman found that puppy Patty Sue attracted the neighborhood kids like Rhonda Kay Judson, 5. The headline of my 1968 Athens Messenger Picture Page was Lonely No More.

‘Now I have lots of company,” Mrs. Vess told me.

Fast-forward to 2015

I love getting comments, but today’s mail brought one from Sheila Knott that was super-special:

“This is my sister and our neighbor years ago!!! It was such a joy to see this. I knew Mrs Vess very well and she was a wonderful woman. I was born a year and 5 days after these pics were takin! Thank you so much for sharing and I’ll have to show my sister (Rhonda) the second one, I don’t believe she has ever seen it!”

Speaking of desperation

I mentioned over the holidays that I had some stuff that I needed to get done and that I might slack off for a week. As it turned out, I produced rerun pages during that period that took almost as much time as if I had come up with fresh content.

My van buying / selling experience put me even further behind.

On top of that, I may have a chance to pick up some freelance work that may actually mean that Wife Lila and I won’t have to fight Bleeping Cat for dinner. (We haven’t bothered to name most of our feline parade over the years. Oh, yes, there is an official name on file with the vet, but we usually just call them “Brown Cat, Big Cat, Little Cat, Orange Cat or, in the case of the current resident, “Bleeping Cat.”)

So, don’t be surprised if I come up missing from time to time or all that gets posted is a photo gallery of what I happen to be editing at the time.

Of course, while I’m gone, don’t forget to click on the tiny yellow DONATE button at the top of the page to keep Phoebe the Bleeping Cat fed.

January 28, 2015

Turn Right to Downtown

This General Sign Company invitation to “Stop ‘n Shop – Turn Right Foot of Bridge to Downtown Cape Giardeau takes us back to the day when Main Street was THE shopping area for the region. The photo is part of the collection Terry Hopkins loaned me from his dad’s job at General Sign Company.

The sign must have been located in East Cape since that’s the only place a “Turn Right” would make sense.

See the smokestacks?

When the picture is blown up, you can see two smokestacks off to the right, one of them puffing black smoke.

The cement plant would have been way off to the left, so these stacks must belong to the shoe factory and the power plant north of it. I’m not sure what the white building off to the far right would be. Click on the photos to make them larger.

Here’s what they would have found

If our shopper had turned right, this is what they would have encountered. Follow this link to see other downtown stories. Here is a collection of links to stories about Main Street businesses and buildings.

January 28, 2015

Cairo: Turn Out the Lights

I think of the old cliche, “Will the last person leaving Cairo, please turn out the lights.”

This was shot July 25, 2014, through an opening in yet one more building being torn down in Cairo. Click on the photos to make them larger.

Didn’t look bad in 2012

The building didn’t look too bad from the front in November 2012.

Appearances are deceiving

Like with so much in Cairo, a second glance tells a vastly different story. The walls were getting ready to cave in, and part of the roof had already collapsed.

It’s all over

There wasn’t much left by the summer of 2014.

Some bricks being salvaged

I saw bricks stacked on pallets, so maybe the building will reborn somewhere else. I’m always happy to see things being recycled.

Speaking of recycling, I’ve photographed Cairo since the 1960s. Here are some older stories and photos.

January 27, 2015

Cato Cemetery Near Arab

While wandering and wondering around Bollinger County looking for the Bootheel’s once wild and wooly Dark Cypress and the cemetery containing the mass grave of Confederates killed in the Battle of Mingo Swamp, Mother, my cemetery-spotter extraordinaire, saw this sign for Cato Cemetery.

The Battle of Mingo Swamp was fought on the plantation of Simeon “Slim” Cato, who died in what some historians have called a “massacre.”

Peaceful today

I don’t know how far this is from the battlefield, but it’s a quiet place today. Large stumps show that it must have been dotted with big trees that have fallen to disease and old age over the years. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

Lots of Catos buried here

There are lots of stones marking the final resting places of Catos. I didn’t find one for “Slim.” I don’t know if his body was ever moved from the mass grave.

Burial records

I couldn’t find much history of the cemetery, but here are some partial listings of those interred there.

Narman E. Borders

Narman E. Borders, who is “at rest, ” died at only “8 years, 10 mos and 21ds.”

The UsGenNet site says the cemetery is located in the southern end of Bollinger County, section 10, township 28, range 9, one mile east of Arab off highway C.