Old newspaper excerpts from The Monroe Journal newspaper of Monroe County, Alabama

A.C. Lee

25 YEARS AGO
NOV. 20, 1997

Black to be promoted, Crowe moving on: Robert A. “Pete” Black Jr. has been promoted to executive vice present/general manager of Alabama River Pulp and Alabama Pine Pulp Companies. Black replaces John B. Crowe, who resigned to become site manager of wood cellulose manufacturing for the Buckeye Technologies plant in Mariana, Fla.
Black has spent 20 years in the pulp and paper industry, joining Parsons & Whittemore in May 1995. Parsons & Whittemore is the parent organization of ARP and APP.

MA girls cruise past Eagles: Monroe Academy’s varsity girls opened their basketball season Thursday in Jackson with a 66-27 victory over Jackson Academy.
Taryn Kilpatrick led MA’s offensive charge, scoring 14 points from her forward position. She also had eight rebounds and two assists.
(Other top MA players in that game included Misty Ivey, Crystal Sawyer, Cortney Robertson, Adrienne Lambert, Jennifer Johnson, Krista Smith, Jessica Ray and Elizabeth Lane. Ronnie Williams was MA’s head coach.)

Council honors Peters: James L. Peters, a member of Blacksher Lodge No. 593 at Uriah, has been honored by the Supreme Council of the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States.
In its biennial session, Peters was elected to receive the rank and decoration of Knight Commander of the Court of Honor. He was the only Monroe County Mason of the seven 32-degree Masons of the Mobile area to receive this honor.

50 YEARS AGO
NOV. 16, 1972

Allen accepts education superintendent’s position: The Monroe County Board of Education, meeting in special session last Friday, named James R. Allen, formerly of Monroeville, as the new county superintendent of education.
Allen, 41, assumed his new duties Wednesday, succeeding Charles M. Pouncey, who resigned to accept a position as consultant with the State Department of Education in Montgomery.
John Abbott, chairman of the board of education, said the appointment was for the remainder of Pouncey’s unexpired term, which runs until June 30, 1974.

Uriah Bulldogs end season with 8-2 record: The Blacksher Bulldogs wound up a successful season Saturday night, Nov. 11, before a large homecoming crowd when they handed the Pensacola Liberal Arts Spartans a 28-6 defeat. Captains for the Bulldogs were seniors Sylvester Cox, Chris Cumbie, Jimmy Hadley, Marvin Hayles, Howard Hilburn and Ricky Upton.
(Other top Blacksher players in that game included Jerry Ferrell, Ike Hadley and Mitchell Norris.)

Springhill has groundbreaking: Lee Bayles, 81 years old and oldest active member of the Springhill Baptist Church in Franklin, is shown breaking the ground when groundbreaking services were held Sun., Nov. 5. Plans are now underway for the construction of the approximately $39,000 church which will include the sanctuary and education building to be located across from the pastorium in Franklin on Highway 41. Money for the construction was raised from the sale of bonds. Pastor of the church is the Rev. Donald Johnson Kruse.

75 YEARS AGO
NOV. 27, 1947

U.S. Court Licenses Miss Alice Lee: Miss Alice F. Lee, Monroeville attorney, has been admitted to practice before the U.S. Court for the Southern District of Alabama. The action was taken in Mobile Wed., Nov. 18.
U.S. Court Clerk John Foscue said she is the third woman member of the Alabama state bar to be admitted to federal practice in this district. The other two are residents of Mobile.

Monroeville Ends Home Season With Ease, Defeating Flomaton High Eleven 33 to 14: Winding up their home season with apparent ease, the Monroe County High School Tigers coasted to a 33 to 14 victory over Flomaton High School last Thursday night on the local field before a crowd of about 800 persons.

Frisco City Forms New Scout Troop: Organization of a new Boy Scout troop in Frisco City, with George E. Hendrix as scoutmaster, was announced this week by M.L. Bergman, commissioner for the Alabama-Florida district.
Sponsored by the Frisco City Chamber of Commerce, the new Scout troop now has 21 members and has the Rev. A.B. Tanton and Prof. S.J. Casey as assistant scoutmaster. The troop committee is composed of G.H. Barnes, chairman; G.L. Galloway, George S. Williams, W.P. Long and the Rev. C.C. Pruette.
(Members of the troop included Joe Smith, Wiley Long Jr., J.B. Barnes, William Baas, Jerry Gulsby, Bobby Baas, Royce Byrd, Tollie Sawyer, I.D. Byrd Jr., Charles Pugh, Rayford Lancaster, Jack Busey, Ronnie Godwin, Charles Taylor, Charley Deer, Joe Long Bowen, Garland Byrd, B.B. Barnes, J.L. Simpson, Thomas Soloman and Leonard Watts.)

100 YEARS AGO
NOV. 16, 1922

A.C. Lee, Esq., is in Montgomery for a few days on professional business.

Messrs. A.T. Sowell, C.A. Baggett, E.J. Ward, K.J. Lazenby and C.V. Hines motored to Montgomery Saturday to see the Auburn-Tulane ball game. They report a good game and a most enjoyable time.

GOOD CROP FOR MONROE: There were 10,990 bales of cotton ginned in Monroe County prior to Nov. 1, 1922 as compared with 6,963 bales ginned to Nov. 1, 1921. – CHAS. N. NETTLES, Agent.

SUFFERED BROKEN LEG: Mr. J.T. Eure, an employee of the Hillside Lumber Co. at Tunnel Springs sustained a broken leg on Tuesday morning of last week while superintending the loading of logs on a truck. Mr. Eure was given immediate attention by a local physician and later moved to a hospital in Selma where he is reported to be making satisfactory progress toward recovery.

Recently, 18 boys (from the Coley-Blacksher School), accompanied by Prof. Vance and Register, took an outing to the Alabama River. Fishing and boat racing was indulged in by the boys. A fox race on last Friday night netted one large gray fox that had been feasting on Coley-Blacksher chickens.

Mrs. Kate Kitchen died at her home in Monroeville at 4 p.m. on Tues., Nov. 14, at the age of four score years and upward. The funeral was held in the Presbyterian church Wednesday morning, interment at the Baptist cemetery.

126 YEARS AGO
NOV. 19, 1896

Wreck on the L&N: A serious wreck of a fast train on the L&N occurred four miles south of Montgomery on Thursday night. The tender, mail and baggage car and smoker were thrown completely off the track, the last named being overturned. The first-class coach and sleepers escaped with a slight shaking up. No one was killed but several persons sustained serious injuries, among them being W.G. McCorvey, Esq., of Monroeville, and Mr. J.R. Latham of Atlanta, both of whom were at the time occupants of the smoker. Messrs. Latham and McCorvey were thrown partly through the windows as the car went over, one was fastened between the side of the car and the earth by the petitions between the windows. Mr. McCorvey had his leg caught and Mr. Latham his arm. They were thus imprisoned for more than an hour while as many trainsmen and passengers as could work were busy rescuing them. Their sufferings were intense. The only member of the train crew injured was the baggageman, whose hand was badly mashed.
A relief train was sent out from Montgomery and the passengers conveyed to Montgomery where the injured were given medical attention.
The wreck was evidently the work of a fiend. The end of one rail had been loosened, moved inward several inches and again spiked down.

The many friends of W.G. McCorvey, Esq., are gratified to know that he escaped the recent railroad wreck with only a severe shaking up and a few contusions, painful but not serious. He arrived home Friday evening.