Feb. 1 here through time
Photo is of Baldwin’s Block.
By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion
1924
In the Martinsville RFD (Rural Free Delivery) No. 2 district, one of the Henry Bulletin neighborhood columns reported, “choppings” were conducted at the farms of Pete Stultz, Jim Draper and Brice Eggleston. Other neighborhood columns also mentioned choppings going on, but none of them explain what was being chopped.
1949
Attorneys for the Martinsville Seven (who were not yet called that, in 1949; that is a modern moniker) held a press conference to ask for a preliminary hearing for the defendants; Feb.11 was set. Commonwealth’s Attorney I.W. Cubine said the hearing would have been scheduled for earlier, but the victim of the attack, Mrs. Glen Floyd, 32, was still not physically well enough to testify. The attorney for defendant Joe Henry Hampton, 19, earlier had said he would waive a preliminary hearing for his client, but after it was understood that the other six attorneys would ask for the preliminary, the attorney changed his mind and decided on one after all for Hampton.
Also 1949, The County School Board had put out the land of the Henry County Training Academy to bid, but only one insufficient bid had been received; written on a postcard, the bidder had offered to buy four of the 20 lots of land. The property was about 360 feet on the south side of West Fayette Street, between First and Second streets. The Training Academy was destroyed by fire on April 14, 1948. It had been bought in 1916 by the Christian Woman’s Board of Missions, who established the Piedmont Christian Institute there, and again in 1941 by the school board.
1960
The drive to raise $240,000 to fund the new Martinsville Community Recreation Center on Cleveland Street has entered the final phase, hoping to garner the last $40,000 needed to begin construction. 8500 pamphlets were distributed this weekend, many accompanying milk deliveries or tied to automobile handles. The pamphlets ask “What is a Boy or Girl Worth?”
Also 1960, A 22-year-old Axton man was fined $650 and 9 months in jail after sideswiping a sausage truck with the school bus he was driving. He did not stop. Police intercepted him and charged him with driving under the influence. They found a pint of whiskey on the bus.
1974
Three 21st Judicial Circuit Court judges were reelected on Feb. 1, 1974: Chief Judge John D. Hooker of Stuart, General District Court Judge Kenneth M. Covington and Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge J. English Ford.
Also 1974, The gas shortage continued to leave gas stations dry. The Martinsville Bulletin reported on Feb. 1 that most local stations had run out of gas the day before. Hubert Marin, owner of Church Street Union 76 Station, said his station had been out for 8 days, and Jessie Kendrick, manager of East Church Street Exxon, said his station had been out of gas for three days.
1999
Democrat Congressman Virgil Goode Jr. of Rocky Mount voted to impeach President Bill Clinton, also a Democrat. Goode told the Martinsville Bulletin that while his father, state legislator Virgil Goode Sr., was a yellow dog Democrat – he’d vote for a yellow dog over a Republican – the son is a Blue Dog, a term for conservative House Democrats unafraid to buck their party.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfiche at the Martinsville Branch Library.