Cape Girardeau History and Photos

April 27, 2014

Taking Fencing Lessons

Curator Jessica sent me a text bragging about her time in a triathlon Saturday morning. We exchanged a couple of messages, then I texted her, “I’m busy taking fencing lessons, so I will probably be incommunicado.”

Mother has a porch on the east side of the house overlooking a woods that is the perfect place to sit and watch the birds and squirrels. Even on the hottest day, it’s usually shaded and comfortable. A few years back, Brother Mark cleared her a pathway to go from the front yard to the back and to get to her bird feeders and hanging plants.

The surface is a bit uneven and the hill is fairly steep, so we thought we’d put up a handrail to make her meanderings a little safer. Of course, we didn’t really know what we were doing, so don’t look to closely at our handiwork.

Since Mother’s age – 92-1/2 – and her weight are about the same, I don’t think there is much danger of her knocking it over.

The Rule of Threes

I wrote about the Rule of Threes when Kid Matt was building me a new computer. This project was worse that than. In 24 hours, I think I have been at Menard’s four times; Lowes five times and Ace Hardware at least five times. And, of course, when you are in the Big Box hardware stores, fencing materials and gardening supplies are on one side of the world and lumber is on the other.

One of the tasks Mark wanted to tackle was getting Mother’s fountain working again. We confirmed that the pump was getting power, so we deduced we were peering at a kaput pump. That was a trip to Lowes. Then, he wanted to replace a section of plastic hose with copper pipe for aesthetic reasons. That was Lowes and Ace, where he told a young worker that he was Frankensteining it and would welcome inspiration.

We got back to the house, installed the copper pipe, Gooped it in place so it wouldn’t leak, then turned on the juice. The water barely trickled out of the copper pipe. The pump was supposed to be able to handle a six-foot height, but Mark cut off about two feet of pipe to make the distance even shorter. The result wasn’t much better. He started to fill the fountain with a hose to make sure there was plenty of water for it to work with.

Leaking like a nursery school

That’s where the fountain base started leaking like a nursery school short of diapers. Water left in it at the end of the summer must have frozen during the winter and cracked the plastic.

We hit Menards again. The entrance is here, and the garden shop is waaaaaaaay over there at the far end. They didn’t have anything we liked at a price that we liked.

Back to Lowes. The entrance is here, and the garden shop is halfwaaaaaay over there. They didn’t have anything, either. And, of course, we also had to hit lumber at the far end, hardware in the middle and customer service at the entrance.

That’s just a small part of the day. My feet are killing me.

Mark went to bed three hours ago, which is where I’m headed as soon as I hit the Publish button.

Sorry for the iffy quality. I shot these with my cell phone because I didn’t have the strength to pick up a real camera.

April 26, 2014

Missing Tooth on Broadway

I’ve made a dozen or more trips down Broadway since I’ve been in town without noticing it, but some cleared land at the corner of Broadway and Sunset, just down the hill from Southeast Hospital, finally gave me that “missing tooth” feeling today.

The first person I asked said they hadn’t noticed anything missing, but they normally didn’t drive that way to work. Another said, “I saw something was gone, but I can’t remember what was there.”

While I was shooting this, some workmen showed up to handle erosion control. One of them said the building that was on the corner might have been a dentist’s office at one time, and had been used, he though, for the nursing school before it moved out on William.

Google Streetview showed a fairly large brick building with 1819 on the front of it. The 1968 City Directory lists Dr. Paul G. Wolff, physician and surgeon, at that address.

The worker thought the hospital was going to use the space to construct a new entrance. At least they spared the large tree to the right of the photo (for now). You can click on the photo to make it larger.

April 25, 2014

Dancing in the Trees

Brother Mark and I have been looking at the trees around Mother’s house for some time. There are a lot of dead branches that could cause problems. I cut up a big one that had fallen during the winter, but there were plenty more just waiting to fall on the power line or roof. Here’s a Before shot of a maple tree that was planted when we moved into the house over half a century ago. You can see the dead branches.

I was working in the basement when Mother hollered downstairs that the tree trimmers from the power company were there. To be honest, I expected the hatrackers usually associated with utility company trimmers, and I didn’t expect them to be very flexible.

Florida Power and Light delivered excuses

The power line running along our back property line in Florida had a lot of growth around it since the 2005 hurricane season, so we called Florida Power & Light this winter to see if they could trim it back before hurricane season. (We pay to have a mango tree on the line trimmed by an arborist just to keep it from being hacked up.)

When they showed up, they said that trimming the vegetation was our problem because it wasn’t a main line. “This isn’t our service loop,” I pointed out,” this line feeds every house in this block.” Several weeks went by and I figured we had lost the battle, but some guys with chain saws finally showed up.

Shade Tree Service Company

Much to my pleasant surprise, the guys working for The Shade Tree Service Company out of Fenton were super nice to deal with. They told Mother what they planned to do, assured her they weren’t going to do anything to harm the trees and told her they’d clean up any mess they made. They also had a sticker on the side of the truck that said they were Professional Utility Arborists and members of the National Arborist Association and the International Society of Arborculture.

What was better was that they said they’d trim the dead branches out of the maple tree because they could fall on her service loop if they blew down. When they started cutting, I told them they could leave the larger pieces for me to cut up for firewood. They not only agreed to do that, but they offered to stack it. Since I had to cut into shorter lengths, I said that wouldn’t be necessary.

Artists in buckets

The guys in the buckets were artists of weaving their way between the power, cable and phone cables. After watching them hold chainsaws at arms length and grapple with logs that made a heavy THUNKKK!! when they hit the ground, I decided I wouldn’t challenge any of them to arm wrestle.

A tip of my hard hat to them

It has long been established that lumberjack is not on my list of possible occupations.

Tree trimming photo gallery

Here are random photos of the tree trimming project, including an After shot of the maple tree. They did a nice job. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the sides of the photo or use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.

April 24, 2014

Altenthal-Joerns Post 158

Stories that you think are going to be so simple often turn out to have mysteries. While researching something else recently, I saw a brief about a local serviceman’s body being shipped home from France during World War I. I recognized the name as being on the Altenthal-Joerns American Legion Post 158 in Jackson.

Which name is right?

When I Googled Altenthal, a couple of Missourian stories about the WW I memorial at the Jackson Courthouse popped up. Both of them listed the war dead, including Clarence Altenthal and Clark A. Joernes.

“JoernEs?”

Thinking maybe The Missourian made a typo in the first story that was picked up in a follow-up, I dug out photos I had taken of the memorial and confirmed that the paper was right: it WAS spelled with an “e.”

Front page story uses “Joernes”

The April 3, 1919, Missourian had a Page 3 story headlined, “Oklahoma Woman Asks About Boy Killed in War.”

The story said, “Mrs. Kate Maybrey, wife of Major W.L. Mabrey, who has been designated as the official gatherer of data regarding boys in uniform from this county, is in receipt of a letter from Mrs. Louis Phillips of Oklahoma City, Okla., wherein she asks information regarding one Clark Joernes, who had written her and given Jackson as his home. Mrs. Phillips says in her letter that Clark Joernes is the only man who acknowledged receiving one of the many Christmas packages which Mr. and Mrs. Phillips had sent to soldier boys about Christmas last year, and she wanted to know more about the boy. He was at Fort Sill when he received the Christmas package.

“Sad to relate, however, the kind-hearted woman will never become better acquainted with the boy she befriended, and who acknowledged being the beneficiary of her kindness. Clark died the death of honor on the battlefield on September 28, 1918, when an enemy bullet laid him low in the fierce fighting in the Argonne Woods. He was a member of Co. L, 140th Infantry, 35th Division, in which so many of Cape County’s best young men covered themselves with glory. His sister, Mrs. Joe Headrick, lives here and Clark made his home here part of the time before induction into the army.”

Eyewitness to deaths

The May 28, 1919, Local News from the County Seat roundup had an item, “Otto Davis, who returned from overseas with the 140th and is at home now, has brought to relatives of Clarence Altenthal the first authentic news of the way Clarence made the supreme sacrifice during the fighting last summer. Davis saw Altenthal fall when hit by a piece of shrapnel, saw him reel and drop to the ground, mortally wounded. He was not more than twenty feet away from Altenthal when the latter received the death wound. Davis also saw Joerns, another Jackson boy, when that boy gave up his life for his country. Joerns received a ghastly wound, his head being shattered by shell fragments.”

Joerns’ mother’s obituary

Giving more evidence that the Legion post is named correctly and that the courthouse memorial has a spelling error, the March 3, 1932, Missourian carried a story, “Mrs. Minnie Joerns, Mother of Jackson War Hero, Succumbs.”

“Mrs. Minnie Joerns, 67 years old, died Wednesday night at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Mildred Robinson, in Jackson, death coming as a relief from long suffering from cancer.” At the end of the list of survivors, it said, “One son, Clark Joerns, was killed in action on September 28, 1918, in the World War in the battle at Argonne, and the local post of American Legion No. 158 honors his memory by bearing his name.”

(This story was overshadowed by news reports of Little Lindy’s kidnapping.)