April 4
By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion
100 Years ago – 1924
Public transportation for students to and from school was being considered. Carter W. Wormeley reported in the April 4, 1924, Henry Bulletin that Supt. Harris Hart of the State Department of Education said that about 20,000 students riding to and from school in 768 motor and horse-drawn conveyances, which received payment of $100 each, per year, from state funds. An unknown number of children also were getting to school were by railroad and streetcar.
75 years ago – 1949
This ad: “For Correct Time, Dial 2653 – Lloyd’s Inc. Jewelers, 27 Church St., Opposite Roxy Theatre. Shop in Air-Conditioned Comfort.”
1960
The tobacco premeasurement of 160 tobacco farms throughout Henry County had not yet taken place because of the snow. The deadline was May 1 and determined the allotment each farm was allowed to grow. In order to avoid excess expense and delays, farmers were urged to cooperate with the Henry County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Office.
The City Managers and Mayors of Martinsville and Danville met to discuss the possibility of a joint airport project between the two localities. No definitive decisions were made.
“Ben Hur” took the majority of the Oscars, with Charlton Heston winning best actor.
50 years ago – 1974
In the Martinsville Bulletin: “A crowd of about 800 people filled the Fieldale-Collinsville High School auditorium Wednesday night to tell the Henry County Board of Supervisors what it thought of the proposed subdivision ordinance. The crowd left little doubt that it violently opposed the land use controls. During the three emotional hours of virulent rhetoric nothing and no one associated with county government nor the West Piedmont Planning District Commission, which helped prepare the ordinance, was safe form the angry criticism of the crowd.”
25 years ago - 1999
Hugh Gerlach, the owner of Blue Ridge Gymnastics with his wife, Donna, had recently received the boy’s gymnastics coach-of-the-year award in North Carolina. The award-winner was decided by dozens of gymnastics coaches.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.