Cape Girardeau History and Photos

April 26, 2016April 10, 2021

Mill Street Bridge

When I’m not thinking about Cape, I hang out on the You Know You’re from Athens, Ohio, If… Facebook page. Folks there post memories of things I shot working for The Athens Messenger in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Someone brought up the old Mill Street Bridge this week.

This is a photo I took of the bridge the day it was destroyed on August 25, 1970, because the river was being relocated as part of a flood control project.

The bridge went splash close to deadline, so I rushed this photo in, only to be told, “Oh, I have that dummied in as a vertical. It’s too late to change, so go back and find a vertical.”

I told the editor to let me have his seat. I laid out the front page to give myself a nice horizontal ride, rewrote a couple of headlines, and said, “This’ll work.” That’s when I appreciated all the pages Missourian editor John Blue let me lay out and the hundreds of headlines I had written.

The biggest lemon in the world

The vehicle on the left is my 1969 VW Squareback, the biggest lemon ever to be squeezed out of Germany. I loved the car, but it loved the repair shop more. I ended up selling it with the engine in a cardboard box.

Wife Lila and I lived in a basement apartment a few blocks from the bridge and the river. The landlord showed us a big valve they’d have to close if the river got high; otherwise, we were going to find ourselves wading in sewage.

Hocking River gauge

The little square concrete structure on the far left is the river gauge. It was mentioned in a 1916 Water-Supply Paper talking about the Hocking River Basin. It was located “at a single span highway bridge at Mill Street, about three-fourths mile from business district of Athens, Athens County.” The left bank, it said, overflows at gage (their spelling) height 17 feet and the water passes around the bridge. The study noted there were ruins of an old mill dam 300 feet downstream.

Bridge was cut apart

The horizontal members of the bridge were cut, leaving only the sides and bed behind. I don’t recall what actually brought the bridge down. The crane has been moved well back, and I don’t see the guy with the cutting torch in the final photos.

I’m pretty sure they didn’t use dynamite, like Dad did with a bridge over the Black River in Wayne county, Missouri. In his case, he had to drop the bridge straight down to keep it from damaging the new bridge next to it on one side and a bunch of phone lines on the other. The blast part went great, but cutting it apart like these guys are doing went not so well. You can see a video of it here.

Bridge demo gallery

Here’s a collection of photos of the bridge’s final moments. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the images.

April 19, 2016

The Hanging Tree Is Gone

Americans have long recorded songs about justice being delivered at the end of a rope. The Kingston Trio sang the sad tale of Tom Dooley, the victim of the eternal triangle involving him, a Mr. Grayson and a beautiful woman. In the song, he laments, “This time tomorrow, reckon where I’ll be, down in some lonesome valley, hanging from a white oak tree.”

Toby Keith, in Beer for my Horses, takes a grittier tone, when he sings.

Grandpappy told my pappy, back in my day, son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he done
Take all the rope in Texas
Find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys
Hang them high in the street for all the people to see that

[Chorus:]

Justice is the one thing you should always find
You got to saddle up your boys
You got to draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we’ll sing a victory tune
We’ll all meet back at the local saloon
We’ll raise up our glasses against evil forces
Singing whiskey for my men, beer for my horses

Jackson’s Hanging Tree

I first heard about Jackson’s Hanging Tree in 2010, when MDOT proposed a roundabout on the north side of the Cape County Courthouse. Not only would it have eaten up a significant piece of the courthouse square, but it would also have endangered the tree where Cape County’s last hanging took place in 1899. The photo at the top of the page was taken in 2010. You can read the history of the tree here.

Every spring, Mother would want to drive by the courthouse to see if the old Mulberry tree had made it through another winter.

When I shot this in 2014, I thought maybe this was the last spring for it, but a closer look showed it was budding out for another go.

See something missing?

When I looked at The Missourian this morning, it had a story, “‘Hanging Tree’ in county courthouse square taken down.” Curiously, the photo was taken not by a staff photographer, but by the tree service that chopped the tree down.

In 2010, when the roundabout was being debated, Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said, “If these three commissioners agree to give up that much of our beautiful courthouse lawn, there would be a three-person hanging on that hanging tree, and I believe that would be us.”

The newspaper story said the tree was cut down Sunday after county officials “ordered it removed after determining that it no longer was healthy enough to remain standing.”

It must have been a decision that was kept really quiet, because I got an apologetic email this morning from a good county source who wrote, “My apologies that I didn’t give you a heads up on the hanging tree coming down. It was a surprise even to me.”

Wonder if another one will pop up?

I saw a bunch of seeds on the ground where the tree once stood. I wonder if any of them are mature or hardy enough to grow us another hanging tree? You just never know when you might need one to “fight evil forces.”

Preserving a few pieces

The fellow who cut the tree down was quoted as saying the wood would likely not be used for anything because it was severely rotted. The story continued, “the tree was part of local history, and he expects people to be sad to see it go.”

I couldn’t resist snagging a few pieces of bark for myself and the Cape Girardeau County History Center. I’m sure the center would liked to have had a bigger chunk for exhibit.

April 16, 2016

Ryan’s Steakhouse is Closed

After doing some business at the Verizon store, I drove around checking on some new construction of Vantage Drive. That took me into the parking lot of what used to be Ryan’s (we always called it Ryan’s Steak House, but I don’t know it that was ever its real name).

Closed with no warning

A March 9, 2016, Missourian story said the buffet / steak house closed unexpectedly on Sunday. Employees were notified by a sign on the door telling them to return Tuesday “for further instructions.”

The parent company, Buffets LLC announced it was filing for bankruptcy. They didn’t waste any time shuttering the place. The newspaper story said that an auction company announced that a preview would begin on March 9, and the complete contents of the restaurant, including equipment, furniture, decor and smallwares were on the block. They were one of nearly 100 restaurants that were closed, partially for “poor performance.”

I went to the website mentioned on the sign to find the location of the next nearest Ryan’s. If you have a craving, better fill up the gas tank. There are only three within 75 miles of Cape: Poplar Bluff, Union City, Tenn., and Mount Vernon, Ill. (And, that’s assuming the website is being updated.)

Maybe here’s a reason the closed

Ryan’s was a staple of ours for years. Then, about 10 or so years ago, I started begging off it it when Mother would suggest the place. I like buffets, but the food has to be fresh and have a lot of variety. As best as I can remember, it started slipping.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one to think that. I checked some online reviews. One on Tripadvisor, dated March 1, 2016. said “the food tasted like road kill dipped in fecal matter.”

An April 1, 2015, long review started by saying, “This is by far the worst restaurant I’ve ever been in,” and went on to list all the things he found wrong with it. Others, as recently as a month ago, said it was “disappointing,” and “on a downward spiral.”

Still, you have to feel sorry for the folks who worked there, like the woman who posted on the Ryan’s Family Steak House Facebook page, “Feeling sad. Well, my fellow former coworkers, it’s been real. I’m gonna miss you all! And miss working with everyone! Definitely had some good laughs and times! Wouldn’t change it! Keep in touch!”

April 15, 2016

Martin’s Bakery

Some days you can’t find what you were looking for, and some days you get turned around. I went searching for some addresses listed in The Green Book, only to find all the houses gone. (More about that in a future post).

While I was in the neighborhood, I took a swing by where I thought Martin’s Bakery used to be, since so many people have fond memories of it. I thought it was right behind Suedekum Hardware, near the intersection of South Frederick and Good Hope, right about here.

Maybe I was confused because the good smells drifted down the street to where Dad and I could smell them while coming out of the hardware store.

It was at 227 South Frederick

A check of the 1968 City Directory placed it at 227 South Frederick, almost at the end of the block on the right, according to Google Maps.

Wife Lila, when she proofed this, said, “The bakery was a little to the left of the green pipes in the picture. When we lived with my grandmother, we walked to church on Sunday. On the way home, she would stop for something from the bakery.” Despite where Google Maps puts it, that’s closer to where I remember.

There were surprisingly few references to it in The Missourian.

There was one line in a Sharon Sanders blog about Cape construction in the 1940s that said Gebhard Martin built a one-story bakery at that address in 1948.

Gebhard Martin

The February 26, 1981, Bulletin-Journal carried Mr. Martin’s obituary. He was born Oct. 30, 1907, at Eigeltingen, Germany, son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Martin. He was 73 when he died. He and the former Virginia Hoffer were married July 10, 1938, here. He came to the United States in 1929.

He worked at Illmo and with the Bauer Bakery prior to operating his own bakery at 227 South Frederick for 23 years. He was a member of St. Mary’s Cathedral.

Survivors include his wife; three sons, Gilbert Martin of Cape, Charles Martin of Columbia, Ill., Jerome Martin of Carlinville, Ill.; a daughter, Mrs. Annie Pluth of St. Louis; a brother and four sisters in Germany, and 10 grandchildren.

Martin’s Bakery in Illmo

Most of the references I found while searching for “Martin’s Bakery” went back to one in Illmo owned by “Gebb” Martin. The May 26, 1930, Missourian front page has a big story about a $50,000 fire that destroyed the Lightner building, which housed a movie theater with an interior designed to look like a river showboat; the Martin Bakery, and a residence.

I’m assuming that’s the same Illmo bakery mentioned in the obit, although if he arrived in this country in 1929, it didn’t take him long to establish a bakery that burned the next year.

Missourian copy editor Bill Meston would have sent that back for the reporter for clarification.