A mystery of history: Can you solve it?

Submitted by
Rebekah Sheats

History is full of mysteries and unanswered questions. Finding the answers is part of what makes history so interesting and such fun.
Take, for example, a mysterious photograph that has been preserved in the state archives for over seventy-five years. The photo in question shows a vast crowd gathered around the north side of the Jefferson County courthouse on a sunny afternoon in 1945. What was the crowd doing there, and who are the people standing on the courthouse steps and obviously directing the ceremonies?
To find an answer, we must step back in time a few years. Almost 150 years ago, a child was born in Monticello. He would be known to the world as Teddy. When Teddy grew into a man, he joined the U.S. Army. He made Jefferson County proud in 1918 when he served under George Patton in war-torn France during the First World War. Patton took particular notice of him during the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives and declared that Teddy “showed rare courage and ability” throughout the battle. After the Allied victory, Patton wrote of this young man, “I should always like to have him under my command.”
Teddy remained in the Army after WWI and was later stationed in the Philippines. He happened to be there in 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor—on December 7, his birthday. Now a colonel, Teddy served directly under General Wainwright, and he remained with the general during the harrowing days at Corregidor before the American surrender. He was then placed in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. He would remain in Japanese hands until the end of the war three a half years later.
During those long years, Teddy’s family and friends back home in Monticello wrote him letters and prayed for his release. When at last that release came in August of 1945, the town erupted in spontaneous celebration.
Teddy was in such an emaciated state that he was unable to return home immediately. He spent some time in a military hospital before beginning the long trek to Florida. He would reach Jefferson County on the afternoon of Nov. 30, 1945.
Little Monticello was exuberant at the news of their hero’s soon return. “Captured by Japs when Corregidor Fell, Monticello’s Native Son Returns Today,” read the front-page article of the county newspaper. “He is expected to arrive about 2:45 p.m. this afternoon,” it continued. A celebration was to be held in Teddy’s honor. “It will include a short ceremony of welcome at the courthouse,” wrote the Monticello News. “All citizens are invited and urged by Mayor Richard H. Simpson to join in the celebration. All business places will close for an hour. Legionnaires plan to form a motorcade three miles west of Monticello to escort the colonel in to the city limits where the other citizens are waiting to greet him.”
As predicted, all Monticello turned out en masse to greet their returning hero that afternoon. This also happened to be the day of the homecoming football game at the Monticello High School, so the school’s marching band accompanied the parade that escorted Teddy to the courthouse. (Members of the band are visible on the right side of the photograph. Teddy arrived about 2:45, as expected. The picture was taken a short time later, at 3, as the afternoon’s shadows began to cover parts of the excited crowd.)
Judge Thomas B. Bird served as master of ceremonies. “We are all delighted to see [Teddy] safely at home again,” he said before introducing Mayor Richard Simpson. Simpson spoke briefly, noting, “It’s homecoming day at M.H.S. when all of us gather to greet old friends and to recall our school days here. We appreciate having the school band and the students with us on this occasion. In welcoming Col. Teddy back into our midst, we welcome also the 700 other boys who have gone out from this county to fight their country’s battles, and we pause to think reverently of the 17 who will never return. [Teddy] is one of the war’s heroes, and so are the 700 other Jefferson County boys and girls who answered their country’s call.”
Another picture was taken that day to commemorate the historic event. This one was a closeup of Teddy flanked by Mayor Simpson on one side and Fletcher Goff, Teddy’s nephew (and a captain in the Air Force) on the other. A copy of this picture is also housed in the state archives, though it is marked as a photograph of an “unknown WWII veteran.” The state archives may have forgotten who this WWII vet was, but Monticello hasn’t. It still honors the memory of Colonel Theodore “Teddy” Sledge to this day.