The Monroe Journal's News Flashback for Nov. 27, 2023

Harper Lee of Monroeville

37 YEARS AGO
NOV. 27, 1986

First Baptist Church of Monroeville celebrated its 160th anniversary with two services and dinner Sunday. More than 600 people attended, including former staff members and church workers who came out of First Baptist.

The Monroe County High School Tigers were eliminated from the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s Class 5A football playoffs Friday when they were upended 7-0 at Eufaula High.
(MCHS head coach Howard) Busby commended the defensive play of Mark Williams, Steve Ramer, Jerome Betts, Robert Howard, Art Owens, Manning Williams and George Coker.
(Other outstanding MCHS players in that game included Sidney Carmichael, Willie Kidd, Torey Kimberl, Cale Lindsey, Tony McPherson, Allen Richardson and John Tomlinson.)

A committee will be appointed by the Monroe County Commission to oversee and raise money for the renovation of the old courthouse.
Probate Judge Otha Lee Biggs told the commission Tuesday, during its regular meeting, that he would like for each commissioner to recommend two persons from his district to serve on the “blue ribbon” panel. He also said he would ask the county’s municipal governments to recommend one member each. With four districts and five municipalities, the committee would have 13 members.
“When this building is restored, I want it to be the showplace of Monroe County,” said Biggs.

61 YEARS AGO
NOV. 22, 1962

Harper Lee Receives Honorary Degree At Mount Holyoke College: Harper Lee, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” was one of 13 women who received honorary degrees commemorating the day 125 years ago, Nov. 8, when Mary Lyon opened an institution for the higher education of young women, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass.
Miss Lee was the first woman to receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the college since 1942.
Best known of the 13 women who assembled at the Founder’s Day convocation were Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, now well into her third Senate term, and Harper Lee.

The Monroe County High School Tigers have won county and Pine Belt Conference titles for the third straight year after finishing the 1962 season with eight won, one tied and one game lost.
Leading the attack this year were five seniors and a host of juniors and sophomores who performed above the call of duty.
(Players on Monroe County’s team that year included Andy Andrews, Shelton Black, Calvin Brown, David Falkenberry, Louie Hayles, Tommy McMillon, Rudy Nettles, Ray Owens, Rick Ramer, Coy Tatum and Eugene Wilson.)

Monroe Mills’ new Drewry Road plant will be dedicated in special ceremonies here Thurs., Dec. 6, observing the 25^th anniversary of operations by Vanity Fair Mills, Inc. in Monroeville.
Initial use of the Drewry Road plant began Mon., July 9.

79 YEARS AGO
NOV. 23, 1944

PFC CHARLES H. COALE WOUNDED IN ACTION: Word was received last week by his parents and other relatives of Perdue Hill that Pfc. Charles H. Coale had been wounded in action in Germany. He was able to write home that he was wounded by a German mortar shell and received shrapnel wounds on his right ear and head. He stated also that he was receiving the best of treatment in the hospital in Belgium.

Pvt. Ralph McMillan, son of S.J. McMillan Sr. of Drewry, has been awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in action. Pvt. McMillan was wounded Oct. 1 in France and was carried to England for treatment. He is still in the hospital but is showing improvement steadily.

Mr. and Mrs. J.F. Lathram and Mrs. Elizabeth Bland left Wednesday for Atlanta to spend Thanksgiving with Sgt. Johnson Lathram, who is a patient at the Lawson General Hospital. Johnson, wounded in action in France last August, has only recently arrived in this country after more than two years in foreign service.

108 YEARS AGO
NOV. 25, 1915

Mr. R.G. Scott of Eliska, accompanied by his son, Lt. Charles Scott of the United States Army, favored The Journal sanctum with a pleasant visit while in the city Monday. Lt. Scott has been assigned by the war department to an important post in the Philippines and will sail for that far away archipelago early in December. In the meantime, he and his family are spending a few weeks with parents at Eliska.

Mr. E.L. Covan, who lives in the northeastern part of the county and who is serving on the jury here this week, killed a 17-month old shoat recently which dressed 522 pounds. The pig was of the Duroc-Bekshire-Tamworth strain. He also killed three others a little older, the aggregate dressed weight being 1,115 pounds.

The County Board of Revenue has determined to apply for Monroe’s quota of state aid funds for the improvement of county highways. Between four and five thousand dollars have accrued to the credit of the county and if the application is granted this fund will be supplemented by the county and employed in the building and improving the Old Federal Road from the Butler County line to Burnt Corn.

The fall term of the circuit court adjourned Wednesday evening. The docket was unusually light and all cases were disposed of either by trial or continuance. Judge Turner and Solicitor McDuffie will go from here to Clarke County where court will convene next Monday.

138 YEARS AGO
NOV. 27, 1885

The alleged murderer of Stewart Charlie Tatum was arrested by Sheriff Burns Monday and safely lodged in jail.

A CARD: In response to what appears to me to be a very general and unanimous desire on the part of my many friends in different portions of the county for me to again permit the use of my name for the office of Probate Judge, I feel that it would be ungenerous to ignore the kindly feeling thus manifested, and that it would be wrong to myself and those who have honored me in the past, to deny them the right to use my name in this connection. I therefore yield to their wishes and consent to become a candidate for reelection. – W.C. Sowell.

The Entertainment given at the Monroeville Institute recently by the Perdue Hill Dramatic Club for the benefit of the Confederate soldiers’ monument, was one of the happiest and most pleasant events of the season, and the performance richly deserves all the kind things said of it by the audience who were profuse in their praises.
The house was crowded with an intelligent and appreciative audience, and the performance throughout reflected credit upon the histrionic talent of the several members of the Club, and more especially the ladies who understood and acted their parts almost perfectly.
Jno. M. Morton’s celebrated serio-comic drama, “A Husband to Order, with the following cast was presented: Baron DeBeaupre (a returned emigrant nobleman) – J.M. Agee; Pierre Marceau (an officer in the imperial army) – J.F. Gaillard; Anatole Latour (a young lawyer) – A.P. Agee; Phillipeau (a wealthy farmer, cousin to Pierre Marceau) – R.F. Lowery; Josephine (the baron’s niece) – Miss H. Gibbons; Elise (the baron’s ward) – Miss M.A. Savage; Madame Phillipeau, Miss L.G. Strode.