The Monroe Journal's News Flashback for April 7, 2025

Richmond Pearson Hobson

20 YEARS AGO
APRIL 7, 2005

Group plans bicycle ride to Montgomery for cancer: Local radio personality Fred Kelley and at least 21 other cyclists will be “Peddlin’ for a Cure” next Wednesday to raise money for the American Cancer Society and the Monroe County Relay for Life.
Kelley’s group will depart from the Lee Motor Co. parking lot in downtown Monroeville Wednesday night at 9 p.m. and attempt to bike over 100 miles to the State House in Montgomery.
As of press time, the group has raised over $8,000 in donations and sponsorships to help in the fight against cancer.
Last year, in the first-ever “Peddlin’ for a Cure” event, Kelley and eight other riders biked 92 miles from downtown Monroeville to the deck of the USS Alabama battleship in Mobile.

Excel holds on to No. 1: Excel, ranked No. 1 in the Class 2A poll, completed Thomasville’s tournament last weekend with a 2-2 record, leaving its overall record at 14-3 as of Monday.
Excel opened the tournament Friday evening with a 7-0 win over Sweet Water, a Class 1A team, and followed it with a 14-7 loss to Andalusia Saturday, a Class 4A team. On Saturday, the Panthers pounded Monroe County, a Class 5A team, 17-8, and followed it with a 3-0 loss to the Thomasville team, which was ranked No. 7 in Class 4A with a 12-4 record.
(Top Excel players that season included Brian Barlow, Patrick Bowen, Toby Hilton, Josh House, Neil Hudson, Josh Morgan, Justin Ridgeway, Justin Whatley and Blake White. Robbie Carpenter was Excel’s head coach.)

45 YEARS AGO
APRIL 3, 1980

Rain swells river to 54.4: With the Alabama River level already at 54.4 feet and more rain expected in the county Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, a Claiborne Lock and Dam official is keeping a close eye on the water level, but stops short of issuing a flood warning.
Lock and dam assistant resource manager Larry Reaves said the river’s flood stage is 42 feet, and with the river at 12.4 higher, it has already flooded some cabins in the Maiben Lake area, but he’s not planning on issuing an evacuation notice.
Reaves said last year the river rose to a high of 55.4 feet, flooding many Maiben Lake area cabins.

Two more MA seniors sign football grants: Two more members of the 1979 Monroe Academy state championship football team have signed scholarships to play football in Mississippi.
Larry Gaston and Davison Carter signed last week with Holmes Junior College of Goodman, Miss., becoming the fourth and fifth Volunteers to sign scholarships since the season ended.
Earlier, Jeff Tatum, Randall Norris and Tommy Owens signed scholarships with the Mississippi Delta Junior College Trojans.

Chamber leaders: Officers and new directors of the Monroeville Area Chamber of Commerce were installed by Monroe County Probate Judge Otha Lee Biggs March 24 at a banquet at Vanity Fair community house. They are John Rice, director; Tom Tippy, second vice president and director; Kenny Johnson, director; Bill Chance, director; Ed Smith Jr., director; Louie Hayles, president; and Dick Deas, first vice president and director.

70 YEARS AGO
APRIL 7, 1955

New Eating Place Will Open Here: Monroeville will soon have another eating establishment under the ownership and operation of Frank Meigs, Monroeville businessman.
The establishment, to be known as “The Wee Diner,” will be located in downtown Monroeville and will have a “Teen-Age Room,” where the younger people will be able to meet, eat and have their regular get-togethers. The opening date will be announced later.

David Nettles Opens Law Offices Here: David Miller Nettles, a native of Monroeville, began the practice of law here this week. His office is located next to Snowden’s Barber Shop.
Mr. Nettles, the son of Mr. and Mrs. George Lee Nettles of Monroeville, was graduated from the Law School of the University of Alabama in August 1952. He has been in military service for the past two years.

RECEIVES PROMOTION: Richard G. Ivey, son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Ivey of Beatrice, was recently appointed assistant treasurer of the University of Rochester, N.Y., it was learned here this week. A graduate of Columbia University and U.S. Military Academy, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross before his capture by the Japanese at the fall of Corregidor. He was held a prisoner 39 months. He began his duties with the University March 1.

Murlen L. Ledkins, fireman, U.S. Navy, son of Mrs. Z.L. Ledkins of Frisco City, Ala., is serving aboard the radar picket destroyer, USS Vesole, in the Mediterranean.

95 YEARS AGO
APRIL 3, 1930

JUDGE B.M. MILLER OPENS CAMPAIGN HERE: Judge B.M. Miller of Camden opened his active campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor of Alabama at the court house here on Wednesday of last week.
The judge was among his friends, both personally and politically, as was evidenced by the throngs that greeted him and the attention and applause that was his throughout his speech.
In years gone by, Judge Miller was frequently in the courts of this county in the practice of his profession, later serving a number of years as Circuit Judge and a term of six years as associate justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama.

FOR REPRESENTATIVE: I hereby announce myself a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Representative in the state legislature from Monroe County, subject to the action of the primary election of August 1930. – A.C. LEE

DEATH AGAIN VISITS OUR CITY: Our community was saddened Tuesday morning by the news of the death of F.H. Melton, prominent citizen and Treasurer of Monroe County.
He had been sick one week with pneumonia, and while it was known his trouble was serious, yet as late as Monday afternoon the news from his bedside seemed to offer hope of his recovery. But about three o’clock Tuesday morning the final summons that eventually comes to all mankind came to him and he was with us no more.

Brantley’s Cash & Carry Store of Frisco City offers special prices on groceries and almost everything needed in the way of eats. Mr. S.S. Brantley, manager of the store, is well known in this section.

120 YEARS AGO
APRIL 6, 1905

NOTICE: $350 Reward will be paid for the arrest and delivery in any jail for Will and Ed. Ptomey for attempting to murder Prof. Claude Hardy on his plantation March 13, 1905. – L.W. HARDY.

HOBSON TO LECTURE: A number of his local admirers have induced Captain Richmond Pearson Hobson of “Merrimac” fame to deliver one of his noted lectures in Monroeville, and his managers have designated Wednesday evening, April 12, as the date. The lecture will take place in the courthouse and seats are now on sale. Although a native Alabamian, few of our readers have had the opportunity of meeting and listening to Captain Hobson, hence no one who can possibly do so should fail to attend.

LOST CHILD: Great excitement prevailed in the vicinity of Tekoa last Sunday on account of a little boy who became lost in the woods and much uneasiness was felt for several hours until the little wanderer was found.
A little son of Mr. Evan Manning, age about five years, went into the woods with several boys older than himself, when their dog jumped a rabbit. The boys followed in pursuit, but the little fellow being unable to keep up, was lost off from his companions and wandered about in the woods for several hours.
The older boys returning from the chase discovered that their companion was missing and reported the fact. The neighborhood was soon alarmed and searching parties went in all directions. After several hours the little boy was finally overtaken several miles from home and restored to the arms of his half-distracted parents.

What role did Tootsie Rolls play in 'To Kill a Mockingbird'?

Have you ever stopped to think about the role that Tootsie Rolls played in Harper Lee’s novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird”?

I hadn’t either until the other day while I was re-reading Chapter 23. This is the chapter that begins with Miss Stephanie Crawford describing to Jem, Scout and Dill the encounter between Atticus Finch and Bob Ewell in front of Maycomb’s post office. This took place in the summer of 1935, shortly after the conviction of Tom Robinson for the rape of Ewell’s daughter, Mayella. Scout would have been eight years old at the time.

Later in that chapter, Atticus’s sister, Alexandra, is sitting in the living room “hooking a rug” and listening to Jem and Scout talk about the Cunninghams of the Old Sarum community. Scout and Alexandra get into a back-and-forth in which Alexandra calls Scout’s schoolmate Walter Cunningham “trash.” Alexandra tells Scout in no uncertain terms that she will not be playing with Walter or inviting him to their house.

At that point, Jem, who is 12 years old, takes Scout by the shoulders, puts his arm around her and leads her “sobbing in fury” to his bedroom. Atticus stuck his head in the door only to have Jem tell him that everything was okay, at which point Atticus leaves. It’s then that Jem did something unexpected to help calm his crying sister.

“Have a chew, Scout,” Jem said as he dug into his pocket an extracted a Tootsie Roll. Scout took the candy, popped it in her mouth and began to chew. She noted in the next line that “it took a few minutes to work the candy into a comfortable wad inside my jaw.”

This short paragraph caused me to wonder if it was historically accurate. Today, you can walk into any gas station or grocery store in town and buy Tootsie Rolls by the bagful, but did they exist in 1935? This question launched me down a rabbit hole that resulted in me learning more about Tootsie Rolls than I ever imagined.

Research reveals that Tootsie Rolls are a lot older than I thought. In fact, they have been made in the United States since 1907 and were the first penny candy in America to be individually wrapped. The candy was developed by an Austrian-Jewish immigrant named Leo Hirschfeld, who named the candy after his daughter, Clara “Tootsie” Hirschfeld.

The candy that Jem likely gave Scout was one of the small, bite-sized Tootsie Rolls, which are called “Midgees.” The other type of Tootsie Rolls that readers have no doubt seen are the larger, longer Tootsie Roll “logs.” Sources say that about 65 million Tootsie Rolls are made every day.

As things go, Tootsie Rolls aren’t the only candy specifically mentioned in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” In Chapter 4, Scout finds two pieces of Wrigley’s Double-Mint gum in the knothole of a live oak on the edge of the Radley lot, and rather than share the gum with Jem, she crams both pieces in her mouth. Perhaps the Double-Mint gum and Tootsie Rolls were both purchased from the same candy rack at Maycomb’s Jitney Jungle?

100-year-old Wilcox Progressive Era news highlights from April 1925

Marquis de LaFayette

Today marks the first Wednesday of the month, so it’s time to take another trip back down memory lane for a look at some of the interesting things that happened in Wilcox County a century ago, way back in April 1925.

In the April 2, 1925 edition of The Wilcox Progressive Era, editor Stanley Clifford Godbold reported that “Mr. Thomas Franklin Hale had the misfortune of being hit on the nose while playing baseball last Wednesday. It bled so profusely and continuously that he was carried to the Baptist Hospital in Selma. The latest report from him was that his condition was slightly improved.”

Also that week, readers learned that the “Lt. Joseph M. Wilcox Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, meeting will be postponed until April 16, 1925. Next week, the state is celebrating LaFayette’s visit here and this chapter has been invited to join the Selma Chapter at Cahaba for the celebration. Claiborne also near here is planning a large celebration with airplanes, etc.”

In the April 9, 1925 edition of The Progressive Era, under the headline “OPERETTA,” it was reported that “Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs is to be presented by the pupils of Miss Ione Nunnally and Mrs. Ruby McLeod at the school auditorium on Wednesday night, April 22. Admission 25 cents and 50 cents, proceeds for benefit of school.”

Also that week, it was reported that it “will be interesting news to the many friends of Capt. Emmett Kilpatrick to know that he has accepted a position at the Jacksonville Agricultural School and will have the chair of modern languages.”

In the April 16, 1925 edition of the newspaper is was reported that the “students of the Wilcox County High School are indebted to Matthews Hardware Co. for a splendid sanitary drinking fountain which was installed last week, in the hall near the main entrance.”

Elsewhere in that week’s paper, readers learned that the “Hon. R.H. Mangum of Selma will make the Memorial address on Decoration Day, Sun., April 26, at 3 o’clock. The public is cordially invited to the exercises which will take place in the Grammar school auditorium.”

In the April 23, 1925 edition of the paper, it was reported that the “Camden Bakery, owned by Mr. Julian Bonner and Mr. W.F. McWilliams, has moved from the store on the Jones block to the store formerly occupied by G.L. Wilkinson. We wish for the continued success at their new location.”

Elsewhere in that week’s paper, it was announced that the “women of Camden and vicinity are earnestly requested to meet at the Masonic Hall on Friday and Saturday afternoon to make wreaths for the graves of our Confederate dead.”

In the April 30, 1925 edition of the paper, it was reported that a “boy, about 15 years old, was killed at Oak Hill Tuesday by attempting to swing on to a truck loaded with lumber, when he missed his holt and fell under the truck. The truck crushing his head as it passed over. The driver did not see the boy and no blame can be attached to him. This should be a warning to all boys, who are accustomed to swing on moving cars and trucks.”

Elsewhere in that week’s paper, it was announced that the “picture fans had the pleasure this week of seeing the ‘Sea Hawk’ by Raphael Sabatini. This picture was the prize picture of 1924 and the author won the $10,000 prize offered by Pulitzer for the best story written in 1924. Mr. T.M. Baggett, manager of the picture show, is to be congratulated upon securing this wonderful picture for his screen.”

Well, I guess that’s all that space will allow for this month. On the first Wednesday of next month, I plan to take a look at the events of May 1925 in Wilcox County. Until then, if you get the urge to research the county’s past yourself, take advantage of the Alabama Department of Archives and History’s excellent selection of old newspapers on microfilm and other resources. Their friendly staff will be more than happy to get you started.

The Evergreen Courant's News Flashback for April 1, 2025

24 YEARS AGO
MARCH 29, 2001

Work is underway to repair buildings that were damaged by a recent storm. Local construction crews have more than their fair share of work and are trying to get everyone ‘dry’ before the next big rains. Covin Roofing and Construction is shown in the above photo replacing the roof on the Village Plaza building and in the photo at right Skipper’s General Contractors are shown hanging steel to replace the wall that had to be torn down at The Evergreen Courant.

Stanley Guy Busby, 75, of Repton died Tues., March 27, 2001 in a Monroeville hospital. Mr. Busby ran a dairy for many years. He was a driver for Poole Truck Line and retired CDL instructor from Reid State Technical College. He was a member of the Annunciation Catholic Church of Monroeville. He was a veteran and served in the Marines during World War II and the Korean War.

The Conecuh County Children’s Foundation, Thurgood Marshall Middle School, Lyeffion Junior High School and the Evergreen-Conecuh Chamber of Commerce invites everyone out to the airport at Middleton Field for the annual children’s carnival. Carnival rides will provide fun and excitement for the whole family. Also on Saturday, the Collard Green Festival, Extension Petting Zoo, Firemen’s Contest and Chili Cookoff will be featured as well as vendors, country music and many other interesting activities. Citizens are encouraged to attend and support the Conecuh County Children’s Foundation. Pictured at the recent ribbon cutting on Mon., March 28, are Eric Basinger, Nell Stuart, Kim George, Geneva Lyons, Joey Varner, Homer Lyons and Emily Brogden.

39 YEARS AGO
MARCH 27, 1986

Ole Earl Windham reports .10 of an inch of rain on March 16, 2.41 inches on March 19 and .46 on March 20.

Johnny Grace of Lyeffion High School exhibited the Grand Champion of the 41st Annual Conecuh County 4-H and FFA Steer Show held Monday at the Evergreen Livestock Arena. The 1,250-pound steer brought 95 cents per pound with Southern Pine Electric Cooperative, represented by Manager Tom Perry, paying the premium price.

John Shepherd Salter, 89, of 318 Perryman St., Evergreen, died Sat., March 22, in the Veterans Administration Hospital, Montgomery, after a long illness. He was a member of a pioneer county family and a veteran of World War I and a retired employee of the City of Evergreen.

415 marijuana plants were confiscated near Travis Bridge on March 14 by Deputy Sheriff Jimmy Lambert. Plants were found by alert citizens who immediately called the Conecuh County Sheriff’s Office.

State Representative J.E. (Jimmy) Warren of Castleberry has qualified to seek re-election to the Alabama House of Representatives. The veteran legislator, first elected in 1970, is asking for a fifth term of office. He represented District 64, composed of Conecuh and Monroe counties.

54 YEARS AGO
MARCH 25, 1971

Ewing Baxter McRady, 80, of Evergreen died Sat., March 20, in Montgomery hospital after a long illness. He was a retired hardwareman who was well known throughout this area.
A native of Tennessee, Mr. McRady was associated with Luttrell Hardware in Brewton for a short time before becoming associated with Wild Bros. Hardware Co. here some 55 years ago. He worked with Wild Bros. for 40 years until retiring 15 years ago and was generally recognized as one of the most knowledgeable men in his field in this area.

A Civitan Club may be organized in Evergreen. A breakfast meeting is set for 6:30 o’clock Tuesday morning at Jimmie’s Restaurant to put organizational procedures in motion.
Civitan International is a service club for men and has been in existence for 51 years. They are ‘Builders of Good Citizenship.
Any man interested is invited to attend the breakfast Tuesday morning as a guest of the Andalusia Civitan Club which is sponsoring the new club here.

Dean Masonic Lodge No. 112 will sponsor a special program on Drug Abuse at the Brooklyn Baptist Church March 27 at 7 p.m.
Rev. H.C. Botts from Milton, Fla. will be guest speaker. Films from Whiting Field on Drug Abuse will be shown.
The public is invited to attend this special program.

59 YEARS AGO
MARCH 29, 1956

Tuesday morning, the U.S. Navy began using Middleton Field, Evergreen’s airport, as a training field again.

James Richard Merritt, 23, Cincinnati, Ohio, who was a prisoner in the Conecuh County Jail made a unique escape here last Thursday night. It was the first escape made from the Conecuh County Jail in about six years and one of the few in its history.
According to Sheriff James Brock, Merritt gained his escape by tearing apart a small radio and obtaining a magnet from inside. He attached the magnet to a long strip of molding torn from the window and reached a file which was laying a short distance from the window. The file had been used to clean some stove parts on the outside of the building. Merritt filed out one bar on the window and made his way out through the small opening, approximately six inches in width. Merritt is of a very small build being about five-foot, six-inches tall and weighing only about 120 pounds.
Three other prisoners who were in the cell with Merritt refused to attempt to escape along with him. The escape was made sometime between 12 midnight and early Friday morning. Merritt was being held in jail on charges of robbing the London Store, Castleberry, Rte. 2 on Jan. 2 of this year. The robbery netted approximately $200 for him and three companions. Two others are still in the Conecuh County Jail for the crime and one other has not yet been apprehended.

84 YEARS AGO
MARCH 27, 1941

An advance trainer, piloted by J.D. Eiland Jr., Flying Cadet of Maxwell Field, was damaged to such an extent about 10:30 Wednesday night in a forced landing at the local airport it was found necessary to send a maintenance crew from Maxwell Field to dismantle the plane and truck it to Montgomery for repairs. The left wheel was broken off, propeller bent and the left wing slightly damaged. As soon as the employee on duty at the station saw what had happened, he summoned an ambulance but the pilot was found to be uninjured.
According to the information given The Courant, Cadet Eiland had made only one cross-country night flight before his flight Wednesday, and had become lost some time before reaching Evergreen. Upon discovering he was over Evergreen, it is said he found that his gas was low and headed for the airport to land.
It is not known how the accident occurred but it is surmised the pilot misjudged his altitude, being lower than he thought and sat the ship down hard enough to break off the left wheel. Due to the fact the ship finally came to rest several yards from where the wheel was found it is believed he then gunned the motor to right the ship and then made a perfect three-point landing – right wheel, left wing and tail skid – which, according to those who know how to fly, is quite an achievement for a cadet.

Robert James McCreary, prominent lumberman of Montgomery, died at his home on Lexington Road early Saturday morning after a brief illness. A native of Evergreen, Mr. McCreary had engaged in the wholesale lumber business for many years. He had made his home in Montgomery since 1927, operating the R.J. McCreary Lumber Co.