August 8
100 Years ago – 1924
Chairman Shirley of the State Highway Commission wrote to Gov. Trinkle: “I am getting ready to place signs over the entire state giving the route number, directions and distance, and we have about completed arrangements for this week. I think within the next six months we will have the state well signed, so that any one can pass through it without asking for directions.”
75 years ago – 1949
The John W. Daniel Company of Danville was awarded the contract for construction of the Lynwood Golf Club. Construction was estimated to run from Sept. 1, 1949, to Feb. 1, 1950.
A one-armed resident of East Martinsville was arrested and fined $25 and given six months in jail on charges of begging and vagrancy. He had been arrested three days prior. Another man who had been charged with cursing and creating a disturbance at the home of David Lee Hairston was fined $50 and costs and given 6 days in jail; he had been arrested the day before.
1960
Heavy winds at 50 miles per hour slammed into the area, doing the most damage in the Jones Creek section of Martinsville. The Northside Esso Service Station on Liberty street had two plate glass windows and asphalt roofing torn out, and employee Harold Adams’ car was damaged. Winds also picked up a television from inside a house on Liberty street and left the TV smashed in the yard. Several windows at the City Filtration Plant were busted out.
1961
Four Martinsville lunch counters were integrated by planned action. Click https://www.mhchistoricalsociety.org/articles/martinsville-lunch-counter-integration?fbclid=IwY2xjawEh9KtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYIgbFsRhtvrNp4gafTm2PjNpDq2gbHXAND4dEyw3qHjHcu3fINDKaAC3Q_aem_BSyijtes4DUN897Odn8tjw (or see the latest entry in the Articles page of this website) for more information.
50 years ago – 1974
President Richard M. Nixon resigned. Vice President Gerald Ford became president.
25 years ago - 1999
Frith Construction was rebuilding First Presbyterian Church of Collinsville. The Kings Mountain Road church had been destroyed on Nov. 16, 1998, by an electrical fire. Jim Frith assured that the church would be rebuilt in time for Christmas services.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.