Sept. 27

100 Years ago – 1924

Millner’s Department Store on Walnut Street opened. It featured merchandise priced at 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, $1 and up and advertised, “See Our Mechanical Man!” The store boasted having 20 departments, with the Gift and Toy Department on the second floor.

75 years ago – 1949

The City Prison Farm opened with the transfer of about 30 inmates from the county jail. All of them were subject to being put to work at the city rock quarry or at the farm. Robert King was the prison farm superintendent. Prison farm guards were Drewry Hamilton Price and Sterling G. Minter; Forest Moore was the quarry guard; and Beverly Hodges was the farm guard. Grover Harrison was hired to drive the truck at the rock quarry, which Moore had been doing before.

1960

The Spaghetti House on Route 220 near Bassett Forks served steaks, chops, chicken, seafood, char-broiled steaks and, of course, spaghetti. It was open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. It was owned and operated by Nancy T. Price.

50 years ago – 1974

Patrick Henry Community College was advertising three new classes: “Knitting for the Fall,” “Methods Engineering, Time and Motion Study” and “Economic Forecasting and Planning.” Meanwhile, night classes were being offered in Henry County at John Redd Smith Elementary School in Collinsville, Campbell Court Elementary School in Bassett, and Axton and Ridgeway Elementary Schools: reading, writing, English, math, spelling, science and social studies.

25 years ago - 1999

People brought donations to help flood victims in North and South Carolina to a tractor-trailer in the parking lot of First Baptist Church at the corner of Starling Avenue and Mulberry Road. The pastor was the Rev. Thomas McCann, and David Doss was the local truck driver.

— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.