Alva Review-Courier -

When Congress created Alabama Territory in 1817, President James Monroe tapped U.S. Senator William Wyatt Bibb of Georgia to be Alabama’s territorial governor.

Two years and nine months later, in December 1819 Alabama became a state. Bibb, having won an election held in anticipation of the territory being granted statehood, became Alabama’s first state governor.

That made him the first person in American history to be a U.S. senator from one state and the governor of another. That rare feat has only been duplicated twice since – by Sam Houston and Mitt Romney.

Bibb was only 38 years old on the...