Feb. 5 through the years

By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion

1924

An Associated Press article from Feb. 5, 1924, reported that a lynching was avoided by Franklin County Sheriff J.T. Hodges after he quietly moved a black man, Oat Gilbert, from the Franklin County to the Martinsville jail. Gilbert had been arrested Jan. 20 in Sydnorsville on a charge of rape and was tried on Feb. 5, receiving 20 years. At night, “the center of the city was peopled by a mob that grew in proportions mountaineers driving in from every point in the compass.” “After a parley” with the sheriff, they were permitted to explore the jail, but Gilbert was not there. “When the mob reached alarming numbers, authorities at Roanoke were appealed to.”  Another Associated Press article reported: “Chief of Police R.F. Taylor was called tonight over the long distance telephone by the chief of police of Rocky Mount in Franklin county who asked for police aid …” The Roanoke chief advised that help could not be sent out and that the sheriff should communicate with the governor to get national guard help instead. Gilbert was taken next to Danville and finally to the penitentiary in Richmond.

1949

Around $5,000 was raised in Martinsville to go toward the construction of a new Boy Scout camp in Pulaski county. Martinsville was part of the Patrick-Henry district; the Roanoke Boy Scout Area Council raised more than $105,000 altogether. Locally, H. Grady Moore and William F. Franck were co-chairmen of the effort.

1960

The state legislature was considering a bill allowing the sale of liquor by the drink. In response, local law enforcement presented a panel discussion presenting their belief that liquor, parental indifference and increased vehicular traffic flow were the main causes of increased crime throughout the nation. The panel was moderated by Rev. Chevis Horne, minister of First Baptist Church of Martinsville. Sheriff Morton T. Prillaman was also a participant.

1974

Roy Stone Transfer Corp. of Martinsville laid off about 200 employees who would be subject to recall at anytime. Most of the nation was affected by a major strike of independent truckers. Roy Stone Transfer had about 400 trailers and 200 tractors, and company president Joe C. Wilson told the Martinsville Bulletin that the company was sending out about half its normal amount of trucks. Across the nation, trucking companies suffered from inability to get fuel or having their trucks blocked into truck stops.

1999

The famous Dutch Inn windmill was photographed to be used as a program cover for the 53rd annual Southwest Virginia Firemen’s Association convention. It was pictured with two fire trucks backed up to it, one on each side, with their ladders extended upward toward the windmill blades.

— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfiche at the Martinsville Branch Library.