Chandler recounts the first airplane landing in Monroe County, Alabama

Chandler’s plane: still aloft (in 1976)

(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere in Time.” The column below, which was titled “First airplane lands here: 1925 special to L.J. Chandler” was originally published in the Jan. 29, 1976 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

The year 1925 held special significance for L.J. Chandler of Peterman. This was the year that the first airplane landed in Monroe County, and it was during this year that Chandler bought a new Model T Roadster.

Not a lot was happening in Peterman that day that word spread around that an airplane was going to land in Monroeville. So far as anyone knew, this was to be the first airplane to touch down in this part of the country.

Chandler, being like everyone else, wasn’t going to miss the chance of seeing this contraption that flew through the air with a man aboard.

So he closed his blacksmith shop on short notice and, along with three friends, headed toward Monroeville, new Model T and all.

This was quite a day for the surrounding communities, according to G.S. Chandler, son of the late L.J. Chandler. Several of the schools and quite a few of the local businesses shut down so that all could see the great event.

After all, it wasn’t every day that an airplane came to town.

After the event was over and everything had returned to normal, L.J. Chandler decided that, being the blacksmith that he was and the airplane still vivid in his memory, he would make a model or replica of what he had seen.

After finding suitable tin for the wings and the other parts, he fashioned all this to his liking.

For the propeller, he used an old fan blade from a Nash automobile. This he mounted on a stout, slender iron rod and placed it where one would expect him to put it: above the car shed that housed his beloved Model T.

Here, above the car shed, for 51 years, the model has weathered the seasons, turning this way and that, heading into the wind with its whirling propeller.

I asked G.L. Chandler – who, like his father, operates a machine and blacksmith shop nearby – if any maintenance was required for the old model. Chandler stated that he lubricates the old fan blade that is used for the propeller once a year.

Wings its way

Many changes have taken place in this area during the past 51 years. Few remember the day when the first airplane bumped to a stop on the grass that is now part of the golf course.

But through it all, the old handmade replica at Peterman still wings its way through the winds above the old car shed.

And the few who take time to inquire about this handmade replica come away smiling, and glad that they took time to stop and ask.

(Singleton, the author of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of 79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime resident of Monroeville, he was born to Vincent William Singleton and Frances Cornelia Faile Singleton, during a late-night thunderstorm, on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School in 1946, served as a U.S. Marine paratrooper in the Korean War, worked as a riverboat deckhand, lived for a time among Apache Indians, moved to Monroe County on June 28, 1964 and served as the administrator of the Monroeville National Guard unit from June 28, 1964 to Dec. 14, 1987. He was promoted from the enlisted ranks to warrant officer in May 1972. For years, Singleton’s columns, titled “Monroe County history – Did you know?” and “Somewhere in Time” appeared in The Monroe Journal, and he wrote a lengthy series of articles about Monroe County that appeared in Alabama Life magazine. It’s believed that his first column appeared in the March 25, 1971 edition of The Monroe Journal. He also helped organize the Monroe County Museum and Historical Society and was also a past president of that organization. He is buried in Pineville Cemetery in Monroeville. The column above and all of Singleton’s other columns are available to the public through the microfilm records at the Monroe County Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns are presented here each week for research and scholarship purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work and memory alive.)