Century-old news highlights from The Evergreen Courant newspaper

Battle of the Argonne Forest in France

It’s that time of the month again, time to take a trip down memory lane and review all of the interesting things that took place in Conecuh County 100 years ago, way back in December 1918.

In the Dec. 4, 1918 edition of The Evergreen Courant, editor and owner George W. Salter Jr. reported under the headline “Centenarian Passes to Final Reward,” that Emanuel Burkett, “probably the oldest citizen of Alabama and certainly the oldest in Conecuh County, passed to his final reward at his home in the Cedar Creek community on Nov. 19. He celebrated his one hundredth birthday last January, an account of which appeared in The Courant. He enjoyed remarkably good health all his life and would doubtless have lived many months longer but for the fact that he sustained a broken collarbone caused by falling in his field a few days before his death. Had he lived until the 22^nd day of January, he would have been 101 years old.

“He resided in Butler County for many years before coming to Conecuh, and it is said that he has many times told of seeing the first house built in Greenville. He leaves one son, C.E. Burkett, with whom he has made his home for a number of years.

“Mr. Burkett contributed his longevity to hard work and leading an active life. In fact, he was in his field undertaking to do some work when he fell and sustained injuries that resulted in his death.

“His body was laid to rest in the family burying ground near the place of his late residence.”

In the Dec. 11, 1918 edition of The Courant, under the headline “Lt. Goodman Bethea Just Back From France,” it was reported that “Lt. Goodman Bethea, recently returned from France, who has been spending a few days with home folks at Brooklyn, spent Friday in Evergreen. Lt. Bethea passed through some of the fiercest fighting on the western front, but came out with only a slight wound. He was in the terrible engagement through the Argonne forest, which began in September and continued through October, where the American forces suffered the greatest casualties. How any of them came out of it now seems a miracle, he says.”

The big news in the Dec. 18, 1918 edition of the newspaper involved what was then a rare occurrence in the skies over Conecuh County.

“An airplane passed over Evergreen Monday afternoon going south, and yesterday three were sighted going in an easterly direction.”

In the Dec. 25, 1918 edition of The Courant, which was the last paper of the calendar year, Salter provided readers with a report of local rainfall during the previous 12 months.

“The rainfall during the year now drawing to a close has been below the average and unevenly distributed. According to the records of the local observer of the weather bureau, the rainfall for each month is given below: January, 6.25 inches; February, 2.39; March, 0.74; April, 7.55; May, 2.56; June, 3.27; July, 4.15; August, 4.99; September, 2.73; October, 6.87; November, 5.84; and December, 6.11.

“The average rainfall is a fraction more than five inches per month. In the above record, it will be seen that the average is less than 4-1/2 inches.”

Well, I guess that’s all that space will allow for this month. Next month, I plan to take a look at the events of January 1919 in Conecuh County. Until then, if you get the urge to research the county’s past yourself, take advantage of the Evergreen-Conecuh County Public Library’s excellent selection of old newspapers on microfilm and other resources. The library’s friendly and courteous staff will be more than happy to get you started.