June 26
By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion
100 Years ago – 1924
The contract for an addition to the Shackleford Hospital was given to E.L. Davis, and construction work had begun. The addition would extend 60 feet to the rear of the building and would be three and a half stories high, making a total of 30 bedrooms to the annex. The cost was expected to come in at $20,000.
The murder charge against John G. Eggleston of Fontaine, in the May 12, 1924, death of his wife, Nancy Eggleston, was discharged on grounds of insufficient evidence.
75 years ago – 1949
Grocery prices were noted as being lower than they were a year before, following steady rises in prices since the outbreak of World War II.
1960
Mrs. W.D. Stowe of John Redd Boulevard flew from Roanoke to Cleveland for a month-long meeting and orientation with a seeing eye dog who would be her companion and helper. She won the dog, and all expenses for the trip, in a statewide contest sponsored by the Junior members of the Virgnia Federation of Women’s Clubs.
50 years ago – 1974
The County Board of Supervisors embarked on an ambitious 8-year plan: Improving the system of road names and house numbering to make it easier to find houses, especially for emergency responders. A lot of houses back than only had addresses of a route and box number, without having street addresses. County Administrator John E. Longmire brought up the idea of creating a grid system, with numbers assigned to spaces along every road or street in the county, whether there was a house there or not. He also recommended coming up with names for roads that did not have names (only route numbers), plus, getting new names for streets whose names duplicated those of other streets in the county (Carver Lane, Carver Road and Carver Heights; Sunset Road, Sunset Drive and Sunset Avenue; and there were even three Ridge Roads in the county, for example).
25 years ago – 1999
Henry County Public Schools had issued laptop computers to fourth- and eighth-graders already, and in June 1999 approved getting them for fifth- and ninth-graders as well.
Jennifer Bell and Todd Jenkins did something unusual at their wedding, which was held at Starling Avenue Baptist Church: the release of 110 butterflies. The butterflies were ordered from California and arrived in the cocoon state, at a cost of $300. The women of the family carried the theme further by having butterfly images and decorations throughout the wedding.
Mark Cooper of Collinsville won a bronze spittoon and over $5,000 fishing at Buggs Island. He weighed in 20 pounds, 6 ounces of bass at the Piedmont Division Redman Tournament.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.