Daily Rainfall Observations from SW Alabama for Fri., June 7, 2019

Rainfall (Past 24 Hours): 0.10 inches.

Week to Date Rainfall: 0.40 inches.

Month to Date Rainfall:  0.40 inches.

Spring to Date Rainfall: 9.20 inches.

Year to Date Rainfall: 22.70 inches.

Readings taken at 0700 hours Central Standard Time (1300 GMT) daily in Monroe County, Alabama, USA, in the vicinity of Lat 31.405783N Lon -87.479861W. CoCoRaHS Station No. AL-MN-6, Station Name: Frisco City 5.0 WSW.

1933 practical joke in rural Alabama was so epic that the State Attorney General got involved

Thomas E. Knight Jr.

Eighty-six years ago Conecuh County was struck by a series of practical jokes so epic that the Attorney General of Alabama had to get involved.

It all began on May 3, 1933 when “distressing happenings” began to occur at Owassa as residents of that area began to hear something at night that “roared like a lion.” This awful roaring sound kept farmers awake and caused them to lose “considerable” time from their crops.

Mothers were afraid to let their children play outside and for 10 days women were on the verge of nervous breakdowns. Parties of men even banded together and tried to hunt down the “lion,” but they were unable to find the creature.

During this fearful time at Owassa, a young man was escorting his girlfriend home from church one Sunday night and as they walked down the dark, deserted country road to her home, the “lion” roared from a tree branch over the road. The young man “without a great deal of ceremony” took off running and left his young girlfriend “to the mercy of the beast.”

One citizen finally had enough and put pen to paper to write Thomas E. Knight Jr., who was the Attorney General of Alabama from 1931 to 1935. The letter-writer, described as a “young man,” said that six men and boys were responsible for the “lion” and were making the dreadful noise with what’s known as a dumb bull. Their dumb bull was made out of a nail keg, partly covered with a goatskin, with a wax cord attached, that when pulled, caused it to roar like a lion.

The unnamed letter-writer told Knight, who was a native of Greensboro, that he had the names of the parties involved and asked Knight what he needed to do about it. Knight referred the letter-writer to Hugh M. Caffey Jr., who was the Circuit Solicitor of the 21^st Judicial Circuit in Brewton. Caffey, who practiced law in Brewton for 34 years before passing away in 1953, launched an immediate investigation. A short time later, he reported his official findings to Knight.

“The greatest injury done was to the feelings of the complainant who was escorting his girl home from preaching one Sunday night when the ‘lion’ roared from a branch overhead,” Caffey said in his letter to Knight. “The complainant, without a great deal of ceremony, reached for his hat and left the young lady to the mercy of the beast. Naturally, he has not received many compliments in this vicinity for bravery.”

All of this was big news in Conecuh County and there was a front-page story about it in the June 1, 1933 edition of The Evergreen Courant. Under the headline, “Conecuh’s ‘Lion’ Stilled; Swains Recapture Dignity,” it was reported that “the ‘roar of the lion’ has been stilled in Conecuh County, and it appears now that swains can walk their girls ‘home from preaching’ without suffering loss of their dignity.”

“Swain” is a word that’s not used very much today, and I’ll be the first to admit that I had to look it up. According to the dictionary, there are a couple of definitions. “Swain” is defined as a “young lover or suitor,” but it means “a country youth.”

In the end, there is little doubt that this incident was one of the most unusual in the county’s history, especially when it comes to practical jokes. It would be interesting to know more about who was involved. I suspect that most of the men involved have long since passed on, but it’s possible that some of the “dumb bull boys” are still around. If anyone has more information about this incident, please let me know.

Which female athletes would you include in a proposed Conecuh County Sports Hall of Fame?

Coach Natalie Nelson Mims instructs Hillcrest player in 2013.

I got my legs streaked a little bit last week after the paper came out over my column in this space about the proposed Conecuh County Sports Hall of Fame.

Those of you who read it will remember that I gave a long list of potential inductees into this fictional hall of fame, and a close reading of those names revealed that I didn’t include one single female in that list. Several female readers, rightfully so, got on to me for this oversight, and it got me to thinking about the top female athletes in county history.

Coming up with a list of deserving female athletes is more challenging than coming up with a list of top male athletes. This is simply because, historically, more emphasis has been placed on male sports than female sports. When it comes to female sports, about the only two sports available to females locally has been basketball and softball with a little track and field thrown in for good measure.

Off the top of my head, I would be sure to include players who were part of state basketball championships at Conecuh County Training School and Sparta Academy. Conecuh County Training School’s girls teams won state titles in 1952, 1954, 1956 and 1957 while competing in the Alabama Interscholastic Athletic Association, which was the governing body for Alabama’s black high schools until the AIAA merged with the Alabama High School Athletic Association in 1968.

Sparta Academy’s girls have won five state titles over the years. The Alabama Independent School Association crowned its first girls champions in 1973 and Sparta’s girls won their first title in 1996. They also won the Class A title in 1997 and 1998 and followed that with state titles in 2003 and 2009.

Conecuh County has placed a number of great female athletes on various all-state teams in basketball and softball. I’ve never seen a complete list of these girls, but I suspect the list is pretty long. In fact, more than a few of these players made all-state teams in more than one sport.

There have also been more than a few local female athletes who have signed scholarships to play college ball and some of them have gone to coach in the college ranks. Again, I have never seen a complete list of those players, so it would be interesting to know just how many went on to play and coach in the college ranks. Hillcrest High School’s Natalie Nelson Mims and Sparta Academy’s Andrea Ward Lemmond are two great examples of local female basketball players who played college ball and then entered the coaching ranks.

In the end, let me hear from you if you know of other top female athletes who would deserve a place in a Conecuh County Sports Hall of Fame. Many of you in the reading audience likely witnessed first hand these top performers, and it would be interesting to hear who you would nominate. Send me your nominees and your reason for nominating them, and I’ll run them down in the paper at a later date.

Daily Rainfall Observations from SW Alabama for Thurs., June 6, 2019

Rainfall (Past 24 Hours): 0.20 inches.

Week to Date Rainfall: 0.30 inches.

Month to Date Rainfall:  0.30 inches.

Spring to Date Rainfall: 9.10 inches.

Year to Date Rainfall: 22.60 inches.

Readings taken at 0700 hours Central Standard Time (1300 GMT) daily in Monroe County, Alabama, USA, in the vicinity of Lat 31.405783N Lon -87.479861W. CoCoRaHS Station No. AL-MN-6, Station Name: Frisco City 5.0 WSW.

Investigator reported strange events in Wilcox County 'haunted house'

George Buster Singleton

Twenty-five years ago, paranormal investigator George Buster Singleton investigated an “abandoned farm house” in Wilcox County and reported having a wide variety of supernatural experiences there.

Singleton, a Korean War combat veteran who served for years as the full-time administrator of the National Guard armory in Monroeville, also wrote a popular weekly column for The Monroe Journal newspaper in Monroeville for over 30 years. More often than not, his columns were about local legends, ghost stories and other unusual happenings, and in the May 26, 1994 edition of The Journal, under the headline “Strange events center around Wilcox County house,” Singleton told readers about an unnerving trip he’d recently taken to an “ancient farm house” in Wilcox County.

Singleton, who passed away in 2007, was invited to investigate the house by an unnamed Camden man, who guaranteed him that he would witness something that would make his “hair stand up on end,” even during the daylight hours. Singleton met the man at a crossroads not far from the Alabama River and followed him a couple of miles farther down the paved highway. Eventually, this road gave way to clay and gravel, and they followed it for another mile before coming to the abandoned lane that led up to the spooky old house.

Singleton’s guide declined to go any farther, saying that he couldn’t stick around because he’d been called in to work to fill in for someone who was sick. Before leaving, the man told Singleton to explore the house for as long as he liked and to call him later to report his experiences. Singleton continued up the lane on his motorcycle, entered the house and searched it thoroughly to make sure that he was alone. He then took a seat and waited for something to happen.

As things go, Singleton did not have to wait long. A short time later, he heard the home’s “sagging” front door close loudly, but when he went to investigate, he found it open. Closer examination of the door showed that the top hinge was not connected to the door facing and that the door “hung at a crazy angle with its bottom resting on the ancient boards of the decaying front porch.” He realized that the door would have to be physically lifted in order to close it.

Not long after that, Singleton heard heavy footsteps on the plank floor of the large room to his left, and they sounded like they were moving towards the rear of the house. Singleton investigated the source of the sounds and found nothing, but a short time later, he began to smell an “unusual odor” coming from the old kitchen, “like food cooking on a wood-burning stove.” Singleton investigated this also but could not find the source of the bizarre smell.

Singleton eventually decided to bring his ghost hunt to an end and passed through the open kitchen door to get to his motorcycle. When he looked back at the house, the kitchen door was “tightly” closed, and he also noticed that the odor of cooking food had disappeared. Lastly, as he strapped on his motorcycle helmet to leave, he was overcome by the feeling that he was being watched and looked up in time to see a “shadow” step across the opened front door “as though it had been standing there, watching me make ready to leave.”

No doubt, this is one of the most unusual haunted house tales to ever come out of Wilcox County, but Singleton was characteristically vague about where this house was exactly located. He indicated that it was northwest of Monroeville and near the Alabama River, somewhere off what in 1994 was a clay and gravel road. A close reading of Singleton’s story does provide more clues about the house.

He noted that the house was of the old dog trot style and indicated that the kitchen was separate from the main house. The house was also surrounded by a “ragged and decaying old yard fence” with an “ancient gate” and that “several huge” mimosa trees shaded the house and kitchen. Singleton also mentioned that there were “two huge fireplaces at each end of the large old log house” and that there was an “old stone chimney that stood above the roof of the aged kitchen.”

In the end, I’d like to hear from anyone in the reading audience familiar with this old, supposedly-haunted house. Perhaps the clues left behind by Singleton will sound familiar to someone who can provide more information about where this old house is located. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that this old house still stands, just waiting for a fresh set of eyes and ears to experience what it has to offer the most stouthearted of visitors.

Daily Rainfall Observations from SW Alabama for Wed., June 5, 2019

Rainfall (Past 24 Hours): 0.10 inches.

Week to Date Rainfall: 0.10 inches.

Month to Date Rainfall:  0.10 inches.

Spring to Date Rainfall: 8.90 inches.

Year to Date Rainfall: 22.40 inches.

Readings taken at 0700 hours Central Standard Time (1300 GMT) daily in Monroe County, Alabama, USA, in the vicinity of Lat 31.405783N Lon -87.479861W. CoCoRaHS Station No. AL-MN-6, Station Name: Frisco City 5.0 WSW.

The Evergreen Courant's News Flashback for June 4, 2019

TWO YEARS AGO

Marker dedicated during 2017 Memorial Day ceremony.

JUNE 1, 2017

Evergreen weather observer Betty Ellis reported 1.07 inches of rain on May 22 and 1.14 inches of rain on May 23. She reported a high of 89 degrees on May 27 and a low of 53 on May 24.

A sizeable crowd of patriotic citizens braved the threat of rain and thunder on Monday morning to take part in the annual Memorial Day ceremony at the Conecuh County Veterans Monument in Evergreen. The highlight of Monday’s ceremony was the official unveiling of the new marker dedicated to the memory of unknown service members killed during wartime. Speakers at the ceremony included Luther Upton, James Leon Windham, the Rev. Michael Jackson and the Rev. Wayne McMillian. Purple Heart recipients Ray Fleming and Kenneth Fountain unveiled the new unknown soldiers marker during the ceremony and raised the United States flag from half-staff to full-staff at noon.

Sparta Academy held its annual Miss Alpha pageant on April 20, 2017. Winners in the Miss Alpha division were Lauryn Emmalyn Bolton, Miss Alpha; and Roxie Gabrielle Weaver, first alternate.

The Evergreen-Conecuh County Chamber of Commerce presented Presley-Fluker Funeral Directors with the Chamber’s Business of the Month Award for the month of May last Thursday morning at the funeral home on Knoxville Road in Evergreen. Pictured from left at the award presentation are funeral home owners Larry and Mary Fluker and Chamber representatives Kathy Daniels and Carol Hamrac.

27 YEARS AGO

JUNE 4, 1992

Evergreen weather observer Harry Ellis reported 0.33 inches of rain on May 26, 0.45 inches on May 27, 1.30 inches on May 28 and 0.04 inches on May 29. He reported a high of 84 degrees on May 26 and lows of 55 degrees on May 30 and May 31.

Stanley Bullock, City of Evergreen superintendent of the electrical department, is congratulated by Evergreen City Clerk Laurice Baggett and City Administrator Curtis Hamilton for completing the Solid State Meter School at Perdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.

Downtown revitalization will help bring city back to life: The downtown business district in Evergreen has the chance to be one of the most beautiful areas in the southeast, according to an official with the Alabama Historical Commission.

The state official met with business owners last week to discuss the upcoming revitalization project.

Elizabeth Ann Brown, a preservation architect with the historical commission, and Evergreen Mayor Lee Smith addressed the gathering. They were joined by Ray Hogg of Hogg Engineering of Selma. Hogg has been instrumental in securing the $400,000 grant for the revitalization.

The grant money will be used to pave the downtown streets and many adjoining streets leading to the downtown business district. New sidewalks, planters and lighting will be included.

52 YEARS AGO

JUNE 1, 1967

HYDE RECEIVES LLB DEGREE: David Hyde, son of Mr. D.T. Hyde and the late Mrs. Hilda Hyde, graduated from the University of Alabama Sun., May 28, with his LLB Degree. After June 1, he will be working as a Law Clerk for Chief Justice Livingston in Montgomery.

First cotton bloom: The first cotton bloom of the 1967 crop to be brought in to The Courant was brought in Monday by Carey Dees, Evergreen, Route 1. Dees said that he planted his cotton in April and in spite of the early drought it is looking good. He has three acres planted.

Final rites held for Bill Cardwell: M.M. “Bill” Cardwell, well known Evergreen engineer and cattleman, died early Monday morning of a heart seizure at his residence on Main Street. He was 76 years old.

A native of Wadley, Chambers County, Mr. Cardwell had lived here for the past 31 years. He was widely known throughout South Alabama where he had engaged in civil engineering.

Mr. Cardwell was a graduate engineer, receiving his degree from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University) in 1912. He was one of the first engineers to be employed by the State Highway Department.

Mr. Cardwell was the first engineer to be employed by Conecuh County and served in that capacity for 12 years. He was a member and past president of the Evergreen Rotary Club and a Mason.

77 YEARS AGO

JUNE 4, 1942

Lt. William A. Sims Killed In Crash: Lt. William A. Sims, 24, youngest son of T.M. Sims of this place, was instantly killed Wednesday night of last week when the plane which he was piloting crashed near Lakeland, Fla. Five members of the crew were also killed in the fatal accident.

Young Sims received his wings at Brooks Field, San Antonio, Texas, Dec. 12, 1942. He was shortly thereafter sent to Florida for further training and was only recently made senior pilot. No details of the cause of the accident have reached here.

His body was carried to his old home at Cement, Oklahoma where funeral services were held Monday. His mother, who before her marriage was Miss Sadie Croom, left here for Lakeland shortly after she received news of the tragedy.

Ashley Carter Missing In Action: Mrs. A.B. Carter was notified by telegram by the Coast Guard Monday afternoon that her son, Ashley Carter, was reported missing in action. Aside from this bare announcement no details were given in the message.

Mr. Carter, who has been a seaman with the Texas Company, working out of Port Arthur, Texas for the several years, was at home on a vacation several months ago. They knew that he sailed on a trip to a foreign port at about the time they last heard from him.

The report came as a great shock to his numerous friends and to the family, all of whom hope that a mistake has been made and that he will yet show up.

100 YEARS AGO

JUNE 5, 1918

Train Kills White Youth: A white boy was killed by a train south of Sparta some time Monday night or early Tuesday morning. His head was cut off and his body severed in twain and horribly mangled, indicating that he probably attempted to catch the train and was thrown beneath it.

The boy, apparently 18 years of age, was seen in Evergreen several days the past week and gave his name as Arthur Roy. He applied to railroad officials for employment and being informed that he could not be employed without the consent of his parents, he is alleged to have stated that he had no parents, but had an uncle in the L&N shops at Pensacola. He was not given a job, however, and went to Sparta where he remained until the tragedy.

Acting Coroner Cheney empaneled a jury to view the body and the jury reached a verdict to the effect that death was produced by being struck by a train. The body was taken in charge by a local undertaker and embalmed and prepared for burial, in the meantime efforts were made to locate relatives of deceased for instructions as to disposition of the body.

Oscar M. Dugger, editor of the Andalusia Star, paid The Courant office a fraternal visit while in the city on Friday last. The editor regrets that he was out of town when his editor friend paid his respects.

Friends of Rev. W.A. Taliaferro here and elsewhere will be interested to learn that the degree of D.D. was conferred on him recently by the faculty of his alma mater, Howard College. A distinguished honor worthily bestowed.