Frank Nickell

It seems like Almost Yesterday that the territory Americans know as Texas began – from its origins in Southeast Missouri.

It seems like Almost Yesterday that the landscape of Cape Girardeau featured a number of special places where residents could relax and enjoy a pleasant change of scenery. In the middle of the nineteenth century Franck’s Gardens on the hill along Jackson Road, now Broadway, was such a place.

It seems like almost yesterday that one of the great legends of Southeast Missouri was born.

It seems like Almost Yesterday that Miss Eliza Ann Carleton began a log cabin college north of Farmington, Missouri. Her goal was to establish a college of high quality for the young people of the region.

It seems like almost yesterday that a large weather front stalled over the Ohio Valley,covering much of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Heavy rain fell during thefirst three weeks of January, 1937, elevating the Ohio River to record levels from Pittsburgh to Cairo, and into the lower Mississippi.

It seems like Almost Yesterday that a contract was issued for the construction of the headwaters of the Little River Drainage District. The date was November 27, 1912.

At 7:52 a.m. on May 20, 1927, Lindbergh took off in his plane, “The Spirit of St. Louis,” barely clearing the trees surrounding Roosevelt Field in New York, and with two canteens of water, five sandwiches, 450 gallons of gasoline in five separate tanks, no windshield in his plane, only two small side windows and a periscope from which to see ----- he headed east towards France.

It seems like Almost Yesterday that Andrew Conway Ivy was one of the most well-known and celebrated physicians in the world. Born and raised in Farmington, Missouri, Dr. Ivy graduated from Southeast Missouri State Normal School in 1913, where his father, Henry Ivy, was a member of the science faculty.

It seems like Almost Yesterday that the city of Ironton, Missouri installed a series of historical markers to identify Civil War sites in the community. Of all the important historic sites in the Arcadia Valley, one that has great significance is where Ulysses S. Grant, on August 8, 1861, received notice of his promotion to the rank of brigadier general.

It seems like Almost Yesterday that a traveling salesman drowned in a drainage ditch along Highway 60 west of Sikeston, Missouri. The accident occurred at approximately 11:00 P. M., Friday night, May 17, 1946.