Today in History for Jan. 22, 2019

U.S. military RF-4C Phantom fighter jet.

Jan. 22, 1837 - General Thomas Jesup, leading a combined force of Georgia irregulars, Georgia mounted volunteers, Alabama volunteers, Creek warriors, Marines and Alabama volunteers left Fort Armstrong in search of the Seminole.

  

Jan. 22, 1862 - Pioneering physician Luther Leonidas Hill Jr. was born in Montgomery, Ala. Hill is regarded as the first American physician to successfully repair a wounded heart in a surgery that the patient survived. In 1902 he saved the life of a 13-year-old stabbing victim.

Jan. 22, 1870 – The Monroe Journal reported that a “man was arrested and sentenced to ‘forty days’ at Natchez, Christmas week, for levying a dollar a wagon of toll from some movers from Alabama at the bridge over St. Catherine’s creek, which has been free since the memory of man.”

Jan. 22, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reprinted the following item from The Clarke County Democrat - “Some time last month, Dr. Lee and Percy Driesbach, living near the mouth of Little River, captured an alligator nine and one-half feet in length. It was in a torpid state and entirely harmless. We understand they intend sending it to the New Orleans Exposition.”

Jan. 22, 1886 – The Monroe Journal reprinted the following news item from The Pine Apple Enterprise in Wilcox County – “The men with the trained bears were in town yesterday and drew a bigger crowd than a Sunday School convention would have done.”

Jan. 22, 1888 – Rube Burrow and his brother, Jim Burrow, arrived by train in Montgomery, Ala. Jim Burrow was arrested and Rube Burrow escaped by shooting a 29-year-old Montgomery Advertiser compositor, Cornelius Hartford “Neil” Bray, in the left lung.

Jan. 22, 1904 - Alabama author John Beecher was born in New York, N.Y.

Jan. 22, 1911 – James P. “Jimmy” Andrews, 28, of Skinnerton, Ala. was killed by a train, his body being “literally ground to pieces.” His remains were buried in Skinnerton. Born on July 5, 1882, he was buried in the Midway Baptist Church Cemetery in Conecuh County, Ala. (Some sources say he died on Jan. 21.)

Jan. 22, 1911 - Alabama author John Hazard Wildman was born in Mobile, Ala.

Jan. 22, 1916 – Edward S. Robbins was killed between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. on this Saturday at the L.D. King Lumber Co. mill in Conecuh County, Ala. According to The Conecuh Record, Robbins stumbled, was caught by the saw, had both of his legs severed above the knee and bled to death before medical aid could reach him. Born in 1860, Robbins was buried in the Old Evergreen Cemetery.

Jan. 22, 1916 - Capt. W.A. Andrews of Perdue Hill visited Monroeville on this Saturday and “favored The Journal with a pleasant call. Capt. Andrews was a gallant Confederate soldier and regarded as one of the best drill officers in the service. He is pleasantly remembered by many who were members of the Monroe County Corps, a local military company which flourished some twenty-odd years ago and which was organized and commanded by him.”

Jan. 22, 1918 - The 100^th birthday of Emanuel Burkett was celebrated at his son’s house, the Rev. J. Burkett, on Cedar Creek. He was born on Jan. 22, 1818, a few miles southeast of Butler Springs in Butler County. According to The Evergreen Courant, “when (Burkett) was a boy, Greenville was about the only town anywhere near him and it had only one store and that was a log house. The country was full of wolves, bears and panthers, turkeys and deer were plentiful. He and his brother had to mind the field to keep the deer and turkeys from eating up the corn and peas. Everything was cheap – every day shoes sold for 75 cents a pair. Mr. Burkett is a Christian with strong faith in Jesus. We had a turkey dinner. Mr. Burkett can see and hear alright and has good use of himself. As our meeting closed, while he sat in his chair, we all shook hands with him as a token that we would meet him in Heaven.”

  

Jan. 22, 1923 – Milt Tolbert’s Big Tent Theatre, which featured a “repertoire of high class comedies and dramas” and included a band and orchestra, began a series of performances in Evergreen, Ala. Their performances, which began at 8 p.m. included a four-act comedy drama called “The Woman He Wanted.” Shows were held under their heated, “big, waterproof” tent.

Jan. 22, 1926 – Conecuh County Sheriff A.M. Barfield carried out Conecuh County’s last legal execution when he hung Murray Rankins, who’d been convicted of assaulting a white woman, from the gallows at the Conecuh County Jail in Evergreen, Ala.

  

Jan. 22, 1929 – Evergreen High School’s boys basketball team, led by Coach Abe Robinson, won their 13th straight game by beating Conecuh County High School, 59-10.

Jan. 22, 1942 - The Gleaves-class destroyer, USS Hobson, was commissioned in Richmond Pearson Hobson’s honor posthumously.

Jan. 22, 1952 - Teddy Gentry, bassist for the band Alabama, was born near Fort Payne.

Jan. 22, 1959 – The Evergreen Courant reported that “one of Conecuh County’s longest periods of service” had ended that week when Ann B. Salter left the office of Conecuh County (Ala.) Circuit Clerk, where she’d worked for nearly 15 years. Circuit Judge F.W. Hare appointed Salter to the office in June 1944 to fill the unexpired term of Margaret Wilson, who had resigned. Her husband Leon A. Salter was elected to a six-year term as Circuit Clerk in 1946, and she served as deputy clerk until her husband was called to active duty during the Korean War. When his term expired, he was still in Korea, so Ann Salter ran for the office and won without opposition. Her term in office ended at midnight on Jan. 19, 1959.

  

Jan. 22, 1966 – Mabel Amos of Brooklyn, Ala. qualified to run for Alabama Secretary of State becoming the first Conecuh County woman in many years to seek an office subject to statewide vote.

Jan. 22, 1971 - Two youths were arrested and charged with burglary and grand larceny in connection with a break-in at Deuel Ice Co. in Castleberry on Jan. 19. They were arrested on this Friday following an investigation conducted by Deputy Sheriffs Bill Kent, Horace Weaver and Marshall Jones and State Investigators Capt. A.G. Mitchell and R.C. (Pete) Taylor.

Jan. 22, 1971 - C.T. (Thad) Ivey, local Chevrolet dealer, outlined the importance of the United Fund to Conecuh County and the necessity of bringing the lagging fund drive to an early and successful conclusion when he addressed the Evergreen Kiwanis Club at their meeting on this Friday.

Jan. 22, 1981 – The Monroe Journal reported that Monroeville firemen that week answered a call to a house fire and one to a trailer, which was eventually destroyed by flames, while Frisco City firemen answered two house fire calls.

Jan. 22, 1982 - Monroe County Junior Miss Marsha King, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Carl King of Frisco City, got a pilot’s view of an Alabama Air National Guard RF-4C Phantom jet during a tour on this Friday of the Alabama Army and Air National Guard facilities. She and 47 other Junior Miss contestants made the tour while in Montgomery for the state pageant. The tour was conducted by Alabama Guard members at the Army Aviation support facility and the Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery.

Jan. 22, 1985 - Alabama author Borden Deal died in Sarasota, Fla.

Jan. 22, 1987 – The Ritz Theater in Brewton, Ala. closed. Its last feature movie was “Crocodile Dundee.”

Jan. 22, 1988 - Alabama author Carlyle Tillery died in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Jan. 22, 2001 – Marengo County, Ala. native Tommie Lee Agee suffered a heart attack while leaving a Midtown Manhattan office building and passed away later that day at the age of 58 at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City. He was a Major League Baseball center fielder most noted for making two of the greatest catches in World Series history, both of which occurred in game three of the 1969 World Series. He was buried in Pine Crest Cemetery in Mobile, Ala. He was posthumously inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 2002. During his career, he played for the Cleveland Indians, the Chicago White Sox, the New York Mets, the Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Jan. 22, 2009 – Mary Mims of Evergreen, Ala. was presented with the 2008 Billy G. McKenzie Evergreen Medical Center Employee of the Year Award during a ceremony at the hospital in Evergreen.

Jan. 22, 2009 – Sparta Academy’s varsity girls basketball team, ranked No. 2 in the state, beat Central Christian, 73-33, in Evergreen.

Jan. 22, 2014 – Alabama native Bo Jackson rejoined the Chicago White Sox as an ambassador to the team, joining the ranks of Frank Thomas, Minnie Minoso, Carlton Fisk, Ron Kittle, Carlos May, and Bill Melton.

Jan. 22, 2015 – Around 1:04 a.m. in Auburn in Lee County, Ala., a UFO witness walked outside to get a charger from his car when he looked up and saw a “pinkish, reddish light” move across the sky in a “smooth, fluid motion.” The light didn’t fly straight, but instead it moved in a very long S-shaped pattern. The light moved too fast for it to have been a plane, and the witness was only able to see it for around six seconds before it disappeared.