100-year-old news highlights from The Wilcox Progressive Era

Benjamin Meek Miller

What follows are 100-year-old news excerpts from the Oct. 18, 1917 edition of The Wilcox Progressive Era newspaper in Camden, Ala.

A Corkscrew With a Historical Record:

Editor Progressive Era:

I am sending you a clipping from the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel. A great many of my friends in Wilcox and adjoining counties will remember this old corkscrew.

Yours truly,

Mrs. Mollie Richardson

Nacogdoches, Texas

Mrs. Mollie Richardson, a lady well-known and admired for her many sterling traits of character and womanly ways, exhibited an old corkscrew at this office a few mornings ago which has quite a record of patriotic service, and if we should be “conscripted,” we would delight to take this utility of patriotic record along.

The corkscrew seems to be made of steel and is a little crude in its manufacture, but strong and perfectly preserved. The historical connection runs as follows:

W.B. Mims, a brother of Mrs. Richardson, served his country in the Civil War as a member of Co. H, Second Alabama Cavalry, and carried it with him throughout the war. Mr. Mims was with President Jefferson Davis when he was captured.

In the Spanish-American War, J.E. Richardson served his company in Co. H, Sixth U.S. Infantry. He is a son of Mrs. Richardson, and carried this famous old corkscrew through three years service in the Philippines, returning it to his mother at the close of the service.

Mrs. Richardson says that the old relic was registered for service on June 5, and that she hopes it will serve through the present trouble with the same good fortune that it has in the past.

Cotton Report: There were 3,256 bales of cotton, counting round as half bales, ginned in Wilcox County, from the crop of 1917, prior to Sept. 25, 1917 as compared with 1,746 bales ginned to Sept. 25, 1916. – C.S. Dale, Special Agent.

Col. Ed N. Jones, now a full colonel in the U.S. Army, is at present located in Michigan.

Wilcox County continues to hold the banner for the largest number of cattle – 42,000 head – in any county in the state. In September, there were in our county 866 head which had been dipped this year; 33 herds were in quarantine; five herds were inspected; eight herds were infected in which were only 30 cattle. Dr. W.K. McConnell is supervisor state inspector for Wilcox. The cattle, hog, grain and hay industry has made our county wealthy again. Let us keep up the tick eradication. It may be expensive, but it pays to do so.

Mrs. Katherine Orr died in Prattville recently, aged 87 years. Her husband, W.K. Orr, was the founder of Orrville in Dallas County.

Judge B.M. Miller held the fall term of Circuit Court in Hale County last week. He is making a fine record for rapid dispatch of business.

The home of Ed Peavy, who resides in the Grampion Hills, was accidentally burned last Friday night. It caught from a defective kitchen flue. He lost all his household effects and a bale of cotton. With characteristic charity, the Camden people helped him his loss.

The following Wilcox young men are at Camp Gordon, Ga.: Sam J. Albritton, Irby Savage, Ernest Blount, Everette Pritchette, Camden; Joe Irby, Lower Peach Tree; Carl Weatherly, Sunny South; Fred Henderson, Millers Ferry; Claude Pharr, Caledonia; -- Hall, Snow Hill; -- Street, Furman; Henry Thomas, Bob Autrey, Pine Hill; -- Horton and Will Bennett, Darlington. There are a considerable number of young men in the camps in the South and in the North. The Progressive Era would be glad for their relatives and friends to give us their names for publication, so that these brave and courageous young men can be properly honored by our home folks.