Cape Girardeau History and Photos

September 27, 2010September 22, 2020

Cape’s First Car: 1904; First Crash: 1910

The first gas-powered automobile of record in Cape Girardeau was a Great Northern owned by George McBride, a stave manufacturer. The year was 1904. The Missourian’s 25th Anniversary edition has a fascinating history of the automobile from a 1929 perspective.

Other motorists in 1904

Dr. A.D. Blomeyer drove a Locomobile, a slow-moving, steam-powered vehicle.

The first gasoline bus was the “Red Devil,” bought by William Gockel. The paper said that “the Red Devil remained true to its name during the period Mr. Gockel was its owner and he finally gave it away for fear it may take a notion to return to the place from which, as its name indicated, it originally came.”

Buggy manufacturer considers Cape

Not everyone was so sure automobiles were going to be a permanent transportation fixture. Russell Gardner, a prominent St. Louis buggy manufacturer, came to Cape in October, 1904, to select a location for a buggy factory that was to be in operation by March of the next year. The factory was never built.

Cape automotive pioneers

Fred A. Groves and O.G. Edwards came to Cape in 1914 to start an automobile business. They had been in business together in Farmington, a Missourian story explained, when they decided to give Cape a go.

It took them three days to drive from Farmington to Cape Girardeau. One day from Farmington to Ste. Genevieve; one from Ste. Gen to Perryville, and one to cover the 35 miles from Perryville to Cape.

The two young men established an agency for Hudson and Hupmobile. Edwards went back to Farmington, but Groves stayed in Cape. He took over the Ford agency in 1914. Groves sold 5,526 Ford Model Ts and 500 Model As in his first 15 years.

Other early Cape car dealers

A Dodge franchise went to Thomas L. Harris.
Rudert and Sons started in the garage and automobile agency business in 1917.
Albert P. Rueseler and Walter Bohnsack organized the Rueseler-Bohnsack Auto Co. in 1923. The Rueseler Motor Co. was formed in 1925, and Bohnsack became a Studebaker dealer.

Significant dates in Cape automotive history

First car theft: Oct. 21, 1905. Salesman Vince Chapman left his car in front of the Broadway Mercantile Co. “Manufacturers apparently thought there was about as much temptation for the predatory criminal to steal an automobile as to steal a box car or a steamboat and had not provided locks,” The Missourian speculated. There is no indication that the car was recovered. It is estimated that there were perhaps 20 cars in Cape at that time.
Fastest time Cape to Jackson: July 9, 1906, Joe Wilson drove from Cape to Jackson in a record time of 25 minutes, “probably the shortest time in which the 10 miles had ever been traversed up to that time.”
First Tin Lizzie: George McBride (remember him) brought the first “Henry” into Cape in May of 1909.
First garage: A.J. Vogel opened the first garage on Jan. 10, 1910. It had a showroom big enough to hold six cars, a washing and cleaning shop and a repair shop. Vogel, a farm machinery salesman and experienced mechanic, placed the first display auto ad to run in The Missourian. The 4-inch, single column ad read: “The Vogel Motor Car Co., 419 Broadway, will be ready for business in 10 days. Come and see us.”
First auto license tax: Dec. 6, 1909. $5.
First car vs ped: July 21, 1910. Esaw Hendrickson, a Delta farmer, got off a street car between the H&H Building and the Idan-Ha Hotel and stepped in front of a car driven by City Councilman Joe T. Wilson. He was knocked down and run over, but his injuries were not serious.

(Cars were still bumping into each other at Broadway and Fountain in 1966. See more photos of this crash, plus read about Fred Kaempher, Cape’s song-writing policeman.)

First auto vs bicycle: the day after Mr. Hendrickson’s accident, a car driven by R.B. Oliver, Jr., and a bicycle ridden by Fred Frenzel, a Western Union messenger boy, collided at the corner of Broadway and Spanish. “The boy was not hurt much, but his brand-new wheel was demolished.”
First funeral procession: Oct. 30, 1916, when the body of Charles E. Booth, a Frisco fireman, was laid to rest. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and the Odd Fellows asked Booth’s friends to bring automobiles for the funeral procession.

Cars were big business in Cape in ’29

Ten garages were exclusively devoted to repair work; 14 others were dealerships in addition to their garage functions.
Two automobile accessory concerns.
Three automobile battery stations.
Seven exclusive tire and service stations, not counting garages and stores handling tires.
One vulcanizing shop.
At least 30 filling stations.
Cape automotive landmarks
First car theft: Oct. 21, 1905. Vince Chapman left the car in front of the Broadway Mercantile Co. “Manufacturers apparently thought there was about as much temptation for the predatory criminal to steal an automobile as to steal a box car or a steamboat and had not provided locks.” There is no indication that the car was recovered. It is estimated that there were perhaps 20 cars in Cape at this time.
Fastest time Cape to Jackson: July 9, 1906, Joe Wilson drove the 10 miles from Cape to Jackson in a record time of 25 minutes, “probably the shortest time in which had ever been transversed up to that time.”
First Tin Lizzie: George McBride (remember him) brought the first “Henry” into Cape in May of 1909.
First garage: A.J. Vogel opened the first garage on Jan. 10, 1910. It had a show room big enough to hold six cars, a washing and cleaning shop and a repair shop.
First auto license tax: Dec. 6, 1909. $5.
First Missourian auto ad: Oct. 15, 1909. A.J. Vogel, a farm machinery salesman and experienced mechanic placed a 4-inch single column ad: “The Vogel Motor Car Co., 419 Broadway, will be ready for business in 10 days. Come and see us.”
First auto crash: July 21, 1910. Esaw Hendrickson, a Delta farmer, got off a street car betwen the H&H Building and the Idan-Ha Hotel and stepped in front of a car driven by City Councilman Joe T. Wilson. He was knocked down and run over, but his injuries were not serious.
First auto vs bicycle: the day after Mr. Hendrickson’s accident, a car driven by R.B. Oliver, Jr., and a bicycle ridden by Fred Frenzel, a Western Union messenger boy, collided at the corner of Broadway and Spanish. “The boy was not hurt much, but his brand-new wheel was demolished.”
First funeral procession: Oct. 30, 1916, when the body of Charles E. Booth, a Frisco fireman, was laid to rest. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and the Odd Fellows asked Booth’s friends to bring automobiles for the funeral procession.

September 25, 2010March 18, 2021

Gary Schemel: Casualty of Vietnam War

A Facebook friend my age said she had been showing her teenage son her old yearbook. “As we went through it I had to say at several photos ‘this one is dead.’ It was sobering to us both to see those young faces and know that some of them are gone now, some for a long time. But then I remembered his yearbook had two in memory pages. Some die so young and never have a chance at life.”

Gary Schemel 1946 – 1965

While looking for something else, I ran onto an obituary photo of Pfc. Gary Leroy Schemel, who was No. 22 in the photo above of the 1963-64 Conference Basketball Champions.

I remembered that Gary had gone into the service right out of school, and I vaguely remembered that he was one of the first of our classmates to die in Vietnam, but I didn’t know any details.

The Oct. 8, 1965, Missourian story was equally vague. It just gave the date of the funeral and that military rites would be conducted at St. Mary’s Cemetery.

Gary’s name is on Freedom Corner

All of a sudden, it seemed like I was running into Gary’s name all over the place.

When I photographed Cape Girardeau’s Freedom Corner honoring the war dead from World War I onward, I noticed his name.

When Terry Kitchen was telling the story about ghosts at Central High school, he pulled out some of the yellowing championship team photos he had salvaged from the dumpster, Gary was in two of them: the Conference Basketball Champs above and on the 1964 Conference Track Champions.

1964 Track Champ

Gary is the fourth from the left in the top row.

I couldn’t find anything in the Google News Archives of The Missourian about Gary, but that’s probably because of errors in the index.

Schemel profile on www.virtualwall.org

I did find this profile at The Virtual Wall:

Gary Leroy Schemel

Private First Class

PERSONAL DATA

Home of Record: Cape Girardeau, MO

Date of birth: 01/04/1946

MILITARY DATA

Service: United States Marine Corps

Grade at loss: E2

Rank: Private First Class

MOS: 3500: Basic Motor Transport Man

Length Service: 01

Unit: SUBUNIT 3, H&S CO, H&S BN, 1ST FORCE SVC RGT, FORCE LOG CMD, III MAF

CASUALTY DATA

Start Tour: ——

Incident Date: 09/26/1965

Casualty Date: 09/26/1965

Age at Loss: 19

Location: Quang Tin Province, South Vietnam

Remains: Body recovered

Casualty Type: Non-hostile, died of other causes

Casualty Reason: Ground casualty

Casualty Detail: Drowned or suffocated

ON THE WALL Panel 02E Line 095

THE VIRTUAL WALL ® www.VIRTUALWALL.org

Remembrances on The Wall

The Virtual Wall says that two remembrances have been left on The Wall for Gary:

From his niece, Ramona Hobbs: Gary Leroy Shemel was the second oldest of six children, Barbra, Daniel, Donna, Joyce and Randy. He was also survived by his mother Anna. His father passed away from cancer when Gary was a child.
A 1932 poem by Mary Frye posted by Bob Ross, a fellow Vietnam veteran:

Do not stand at my grave and weep.

I am not there; I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sun on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there; I did not die.

September 24, 2010

Patricia Foster: St. Francis Hospital Mangler

Don’t let that sweet, innocent smile fool you. Patricia Foster was a real mangler. No, she didn’t wrestle, nor was she a roller derby queen, but she was a mangler in 1967 all the same.

St. Francis Hospital laundry

Instead of taking the summer off, Patricia decided to work in the St. Francis Hospital laundry before starting her freshman year of college at SEMO. Her duties included running the dried linen and clothing through the “mangle,” a big ironer, sorting material and folding mountains of sheets, she told The Missourian’s September 2, 1967, Youth Page.

(Actually, I think she told it to me. The story’s not bylined, but I recognize my style. I generally figured other people could tell the story better than I could, so most of my writing consisted of lots of quotes with a few transitions stuck in between.)

Work was monotonous

The work was monotonous, she said. “A lot of my friends said I was foolish to go to work in the summer instead of to school, but I figured that this was as good an education as I could get. Learning about people, I mean.”

Patricia was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Foster, 1625 Bloomfield. The story doesn’t mention which high school she attended.

Didn’t have to handle “wet wash”

“Once I got to know everybody, it wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated,” she said. “We didn’t have to handle the ‘wet wash’ – stuff that comes straight from the floors.” The routine nature of the work made it easy to slip into daydreaming, she observed.

Singing made the time pass

Good-natured give-and-take between the workers and singing helped make time on the job pass quickly.

“My specialty was singing,” she said. “We couldn’t have music, so we made our own music.

Photo Gallery from St. Francis Laundry

I’m going to include a gallery because some of the photos show other workers in the background. Some of the pictures show other angles of the laundry area that might mean something to someone who worked there. Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side to move through the gallery.

September 23, 2010

Full Moon Over Palm Beach

I debated whether or not to post an excuse like “my dog ate my latest Cape story” or to just skip a day, but I decided to fess up. I played hooky.

It was a perfect full moon night in South Florida. My riding partner, Osa, had just gotten back from six weeks in Sweden visiting family and I had been neglecting my bike blog. It was past time to pull the bike out of the shed. We made it over to Palm Beach just in time to see a family admiring the sun setting over West Palm Beach.

The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach

After watching the moon come up over the Palm Beach Inlet, we headed south with a stop at The Breakers Hotel.

How to shoot photos under low light

You can find more photos and some hints on how to shoot photos under low light on my PalmBeachBikeT0urs site.

We’ll get back to Cape stuff, I promise. There are some interesting, never-before-seen photos coming.