Old article says Hank Aaron was born at Pegnee's Landing, not in Mobile

Where exactly was Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron really born?

I’ve written about the controversy over Aaron’s birthplace a few times over the years in this space, and I bring it up again this week thanks to new information sent to me by one of the newspaper’s loyal readers.

It’s widely known that Aaron, who is currently Senior Vice President of the Atlanta Braves, was born on Feb. 5, 1934, and almost every available source says that Aaron was born in Mobile. However, others say that he was actually born in Wilcox County and moved to Mobile a short time after his birth. In fact, members of the Wilcox Historical Society say that Aaron was “most certainly” born in Possum Bend, which is just west of Camden.

Howard Bryant’s 2010 book, “The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron,” briefly mentions Aaron’s Wilcox County roots, saying that Hank Aarons’ family were indeed natives of Wilcox County. Another source, Charlie Vascellaro’s book “Hank Aaron: A Biography,” says that Hank’s father Herbert Aaron and his wife Estella moved from Camden to the “Down the Bay” section of Mobile, shortly before Hank’s birth there in 1934.

A few months ago, Progressive Era reader John Ferguson was at his father’s home in Atlanta and found a copy of an old newspaper article that provided more information about Hank’s Wilcox County birth. That article originally appeared in the Aug. 9, 1973 edition of The Wilcox Progressive Era under the headline, “Born at Pegnee’s Landing in Wilcox County… Will the homerun king ever come home?” The story carried no byline, so it’s not clear who wrote the article, but its contents are interesting nonetheless.

Much of the story is apparently based on information supplied by William Harris of Possum Bend, who said that Hank was born at Pegnee’s Landing. According to Harris, Pegnee’s Landing was located on the east bank of the Alabama River in the vicinity of the plantations of Marsh Tait and Jack Strother. Harris said that Hank lived there with his parents until he was about four years old, when the family moved to Mobile.

Even though the family moved to Mobile, Hank maintained ties with Wilcox County and “as a boy, he spent a lot of time in the home of his grandparents, Henry and Mariah Aaron out on the Strother Plantation.” Hank’s summers in Wilcox County also played an important part in his baseball career since, according to the article, he played on the “Free” team “out at the Camden Convict Camp each Saturday afternoon.” John Gates, who served as the camp’s warden from 1941 to 1945, recalled Hank playing baseball at the camp and remembered him being big for his age. Former Sheriff Lummie Jenkins also remembered watching Hank play baseball in and around Camden.

The article goes on to say that Hank began to lose touch with Wilcox County in the 1950s and at the time the 1973 article was written, Hank’s last visit to the county had been in 1955. As of 1973, the old Aaron home place at Pegnee’s landing had been torn down and a newer home stood where “little Hank once played and hit rocks with a stick.”

In the end, it would be interesting to know exactly where the old Aaron home place was located and what is on that site today. If Hank were to acknowledge that he was in fact born there, the location would no doubt be worthy of at least an historical marker. Local tourism would also receive a shot in the arm if Wilcox County could lay official claim to being the birthplace of arguably the greatest baseball hitter of all time.