Photos around Cape Archives

July 14, 2014

Immanuel Lutheran Church Cemetery

Mother is my eagle-eyed cemetery spotter. In the scores of times we had driven to Perry County, I had never looked to the left just south of County Road 524 off Hwy C to spot the cemetery on the hill. It turned out to be the Immanuel Lutheran Church Cemetery, established in 1918.

One of the first things that caught my eye was that there were four freshly-dug graves side-by-side. Had there been some kind of tragedy that wiped out a whole family all at once? No, the graves had different names on them and different, though recent, dates.

I quickly discerned the pattern: unlike most cemeteries I’ve visited, these graves weren’t grouped by families, they were in chronological order.

First grave dated 1919

It didn’t take long to confirm my suspicion. The first grave in the southwest corner of the first row was dated 1919, and all the graves to the right were in date order. The only other place I had run into that kind of order was in a cemetery in Frohna, another German community.

Meticulous details

I give the cemetery credit for keeping good records.

Plenty of room for expansion

There is no shortage of room for more arrivals. Later on, we’ll show you photos from a cemetery right across from the Immanuel Lutheran church in “downtown” New Wells.

Click on the photos to make them larger.

July 12, 2014

What’s Going On Here?

From time to time, I’ll go back looking at directories of photos I’ve run before to see if I missed anything. When I hit one containing photos of Terry Hopkins and Brad Brune smoking cigars on the riverfront and swapping lies, I was about to skip to the next one.

This thumbnail jumped out at me, though. What in the world is in this photo? What is that arm doing? What is he pointing to and why? Click on it to make it larger.

When I blew it up, it all became clear. Terry, whose dad had been in the sign business, was feeling where the lettering for Lang Jewelers had been scraped off the window when it closed after being in business since 1916. The buildings on the west side of Main street reflected just like I was shooting directly at them.

I’d like to call it art, but I have to confess to accident instead.

July 10, 2014November 1, 2023

Martin Temple C.M.E. Church

The Martin Temple C.M.E. Church is across the street from the Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church I wrote about a couple of days ago. It is located at the intersection of 25th Street and Poplar Street in Cairo.

I’m glad I shot these photos in January 2013 when all the vegetation (and critters) were dead. I struck dead end after dead end trying to find some references to the church.

The only story that popped up was a Southeast Missourian brief in the January 22, 1955, headlined “Woman Bass Singer Plans Final Series.”

“Mrs. Louise M. Braxton, Negro woman bass singer, will give her last series of concerts in this area this week. She will give a concert of sacred music at the Martin Temple Methodist Church in Cairo, Ill., this evening. A special concert, sponsored by the First Baptist, South Side Baptist and Red Star Churches, will be given at 7:30 Thursday evening at Red Star Church, and Mrs. Braxton will speak on “The Problem of the Colored People.”

Shot the correspondent

I was rooting through the back copies of The Cairo Citizen trying to find references to the Martin Temple Church when this story caught my eye:

Thursday, 3 Jan 1895: Shot the Correspondent. Howard Perdue, an alleged correspondent of the Kansas City Sunday Sun, at Paducah, was shot by an estranged Kentuckian named Monroe Bouyou, Sunday, whom the paper had maligned, and died Tuesday. Such is the fate of the correspondent of that disreputable sheet. By the way, it is sold on the streets of Cairo in the most open and flagrant fashion. Is there no way to rid our city of this miserable post?

I’m going to be more careful about what I write about Cairo citizens. They prove to be harsh critics.

Older Cairo stories

I’ve photographed Cairo since the 1960s. Here are some older stories and photos.

Martin Temple photo gallery

Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the images.

July 8, 2014August 17, 2021

Old Appleton Quarry

You don’t realize how many quarries there are in Southeast Missouri until you fly over the area in a small plane. When Ernie Chiles and I went on a photo mission that took us up to Perry County in 2011, we passed over Old Appleton on the way home.

There is one HUGE pit on the west side of Hwy 61 at the intersection of State Hway KK just south of Old Appleton. The brown water in the foreground is Apple Creek.

I couldn’t find much information on the quarry. There are still piles of gravel around, so it may still be active.

When I searched for quarries and Old Appleton, the only thing that popped up was a vague reference to Martin Marietta Aggregates, 224 State Hwy KK. A website not affiliated with the company (so far as I could tell) said that it has an estimated annual revenue of $2.5 to $5 million and employees 10 to 19 people.

Quarry photo gallery

Here some views of the quarry from other angles. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.