April 2016

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.

April 13, 2016November 17, 2021

Girl Scout Camp Latonka

I’ve been scanning a lot of Boy Scout stuff recently. Dad, my brothers and I were members of the Anpetu-We lodge of the Order of the Arrow, the Boy Scout National Honor Society. I liked the Order better than the Boy Scouts because we were older boys, selected by our troops, and dedicated to service. We spent weekends building things and doing repairs at Camp Lewallen, for example; things that we could point to years later and say, “I built that.”

While doing a search, I ran across a note on Facebook saying that “as the Brotherhood of Cheerful Service, we have an opportunity to assist the local Girl Scouts at Camp Latonka again this year.” I hadn’t been on a work day since probably 1967, and I had never been to the Girl Scout camp located on Lake Wappapello in Wayne County. This was going to be a chance to kill two birds with one stone.

The worker bees

When I got to the camp, I saw several trucks and cars around the dining hall, but there was no sound of saws, hammers or other activity, so I just roamed around shooting mug shots of the facilities.

I finally ran into the group taking a lunch break before heading down to tear rotted boards off cabins, do some painting and general clean up. I shot this group photo of the Order of the Arrow members and The Friends of Camp Latonka in front of a stack of rotten wood that would be burned in a bonfire later.

A beautiful site

Without going into a lot of detail, some of which can be found here, a merger found the Girl Scouts with two camps in Wayne county. The Missouri Heartland board decided to retain Camp Cherokee Ridge at Patterson, and “divest” lands not needed, like Camp Latonka.

If I was cynical, I would say that the Latonka site, with waterfront access to Lake Wappapello and great overlooks of the lake, would be prime pickings for developers, with the proceeds going to support other Heartland activities. Fortunately, there was enough of an outcry that the camp has been given a new lease on life. It still depends heavily on donations and volunteer labor to keep going.

Camp mugshots

Pictures of people can be divided into portraits, which attempt to capture a person’s personality, and mugshots, which are merely records of facial features. Since I had never been to the camp before, I knew nothing of the “soul” of the place. What you see are merely mugshots that I hope will stir some memories for some of the hundreds of girls who have passed through the camp. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move around.