May 28

By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion

100 Years ago – 1924

Quips in the Henry Bulletin: “Hoboes are Thick, says a headline in the Philadelphia Bee. Most of them hereabouts are lanky, comments Millner.” / “Girls will be girls even though they try to look like boys.”

75 years ago – 1949

The Martinsville Bulletin reported that over the past 11-year period Martinsville saw the “greatest expansion of any similar period in its history.” More than $35 million had been invested in construction since 1938. Most growth was along Route 220 from Collinsville, through the city to the Smith River bridge, the North Martinsville area, Chatham Heights, Forest Park, East Martinsville, West End and adjacent territories.

1960

Over 1,000 people in Botetourt, Carroll, Craig, Floyd, Franklin, Grayson, Henry, Montgomery, Patrick, Pulaski, Roanoke, Smyth, Wythe and Bedford Counties began the public phase of the Blue Ridge Council’s Boy Scout Camp Development Fund. They sought pledges for the $400,000 required to further develop Camp Powhatan, build a second camp, add an Explorer base and acquire 15,000 acres in Pulaski County. It was slated to be the largest Boy Scout reservation in the country. The capital fund campaign was well underway with advance gifts from industries and businesses in the area.

50 years ago – 1974

The Collinsville Jaycees had raised $43,000 of the $50,000 they were aiming for to build a new park in Collinsville near Kings Mountain Road and Colonial Drive. William H. Crabtree was the park project chairman. After the park would be completed, it would be maintained by Henry County, with a full-time supervisor and five full-time employees.

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