Looking Back on Jan. 8

1924: Jan. 8, 1924, Town Council meeting: Present, Hon. G.A. Brown, mayor; J.H. Stanley, J.D. Sparrow, Whitley Shumate, F.P. Turner, C.A. Whaling and J.W. Booker Jr., councilmen. Some topics discussed: Some citizens who had put in “frigid air machines” have applied for a special rate of electric current for them, but Council deemed there was not enough consumption by those machines to warrant it. / Seven colored families living on Third Street, south of Fayette, applied for electric lights, and the council furnished those lights on the same terms that other parties living outside the corporate limit get electric current. / Henry B. Hairston was proposed, and Council accepted, that the Town build a sidewalk in front of his store on Fayette Street and he would provide the materials.

1949: This day 75 years ago was the start of the Martinsville Seven incident: On the night of Jan. 8, city and county police investigated an alleged criminal assault on a woman by 13 men, in East Martinsville, the Martinsville Bulletin reported on Jan. 9, 1949. Police searched a wide area around the Lee Telephone Co. garage off the Old Danville Road for the suspects. After the attack, the woman walked several hundred yards to the office of the Prillaman Paint Co., operated by Mayor Nick Prillaman, to call police. The woman had been going to collect for some clothing she had sold to families, and she was accompanied by a 12-year-old black boy, of the Cherrytown section, when the alleged attack happened. The boy confirmed the woman’s story but said he didn’t think it was as many as 13 attackers.

1974: The Martinsville Bulletin and the Southwest Virginia Enterprise of Copeland won the W.S. Copeland Memorial Awards by the Virginia Press Association. The Bulletin was honored for: a successful campaign to retain a planning district commission for its circulation area; an in-depth study which overcame complacency by educational and government officials and resulted in a vigorous campaign against drug abuse; and for a campaign to force the Henry County Board of Supervisors to open their closed meetings in accordance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

1999: The price of a stamp went up by 1 cent, to 33 cents.