Pythians’ Christmas tree brought cheer and gifts
For 62 years, the Knights of Pythias, whose building was right across the road from the Henry County Courthouse, hosted a Christmas tree and gift-giving for Martinsville children.
At 2 or 3 p.m. on Christmas Day, local Pythians distributed gifts, fruits, nuts and candies to between 1,000 and 1,500 children at their decorated tree. Usually that was on the lawn of the Henry County Courthouse (now the MHC Heritage Museum); the courthouse block was known as “Public Square” and was the center of community life. When weather was bad, it would be held in other locations, such as at the Banner Warehouse (including 1923, 1931 and 1932).
The tree was usually erected on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve, and apparently it remained standing for some time afterward. The Stroller on Friday, Jan. 20, 1978, noted the Christmas tree on that date was still standing on the courthouse lawn.
By 1983, the tree’s final year, $2,000 was raised annually for the Peter S. Ford Memorial Christmas Tree Fund.
Started by the Elks
It was the Elks who started the tradition of a town Christmas tree. A letter from the Elks printed in the Dec. 23, 1921, Henry Bulletin said the Elks’ first tree was in 1916, with gifts to 175 children, and by 1921, the Elks’ last year with it, they provided gifts for 1,000 children.
The Pythians’ initial involvement was led by P.S. Ford and Morris Prager, 75-year-old O.F. Thomasson told the Martinsville Bulletin in 1978 (“The Holiday Mood” by Danny Barkin, Dec. 24, 1978). Prager said he was about 18 when the first Knights of the Pythias Christmas tree was put up outside a pool hall in Martinsville.
By 1978, Prager was the trustee of Pythias Patrick Henry Lodge No. 82, and that year’s tree would be its 57th consecutive.
P.S. Ford died on Dec. 30, 1963, at his home at 311 Brown St. (“Peter Spencer Ford, Individualist, Dies,” Dec. 30, 1963, Martinsville Bulletin). He had been hospitalized for several weeks in serious condition, but he was released from the hospital in time to direct the annual Knights of Pythias Christmas Tree program. He had been its chairman for nearly 40 years.
Community Participation
“For two years the project was abandoned because it was too much for the local lodge to carry on unassisted,” reads “Knights of Pythias Community Christmas Tree Will Be The Greatest Of All,” Nov. 29, 1929, Henry Bulletin. “The demand has been so apparent for a resumption of the practice that the lodge has again taken up the work, in the hope that all the community will cooperate.” By 1931 collection jars in businesses across town brought in money to help purchase gifts and food for the children.
Generous merchants
S.T. Fulcher, who shared the pictures printed here, said that in the program’s heyday, Abe Globman, the department store owner, offered to the Pythians all the toys which had not sold by Christmas Even. His son and son-in-law “Leon Globman and Dan Greene also were big contributors,” Fulcher said. Madison Aliff of Martinsville Produce offered all the nuts, fruits and candy left over on Christmas Eve as well. Fulcher recalled Charlie Pinkard, Albert Stultz, Johnny Mize, Roger Love, Sue Love and Jame Mize picking up all the donations.
The three chairs were Pete Ford, followed by Albert Stutz and then Richard Reffett, Fulcher said.
Energy Crisis of the 1970s
In 1973, 200 lodge members pledged to eliminate one bulb from their trees at home which, in theory, would balance out the energy used to light the Pythian tree.
Tree Cut Down
In 1977, landscapers cut down the big evergreen tree on the courthouse lawn (where the war memorial is now) that the Pythians used for their Christmas tree, the Dec. 13, 1977, Stroller column reported. However, the Pythians still planned to distribute about 1,000 packages of fruits, nuts, candy, toys and clothes to children.
