August 9
100 Years ago – 1924
The Henry Bulletin reported that “Mrs. Globman left a few days ago for the northern market to buy her fall and winter stocks.” She was visiting Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. Mr. Globman was to join her in a few days.
75 years ago – 1949
You could get a case of beer in cans for $4.35: Pabst Blue Ribbon, Budweiser, Miller’s High Life or Schlitz, at S&W Confectionery, 521 W. Church St., Phone 3798. Canned Ruppert cost $4 a case.
1960
At the City Council meeting, City Manager Julian F. Hirst read a report from Clerk of Council and City Finance Officer W.H. Yeaman. Yeaman said that all of the minutes of recorded City Council meetings, going back to 1885, were microfilmed and stored in the court clerk’s safe deposit box in the South Office of the First National Ban of Martinsville and Henry County. Fifteen books, ranging from 300 to 700 pages, were recorded onto 15 rolls of microfilm. The minutes from 1885 to 1921 were written out longhand.
50 years ago – 1974
Dan River Inc. of Danville’s facilities constituted the world’s largest single concentration of textile plants. Its workers had been on strike for 5 weeks and were entering their sixth week. The firm employed 11,000 people, 8,500 of them hourly. The union was asking for a 16.5% increase that included wage and fringe benefits; the company had given a 10% increase on June 3 which, when the value of fringe benefits was added in, would come out to be a 12% increase.
25 years ago - 1999
Albert Harris Intermediate School was undergoing a $9.1 renovation project. It would make it Virginia’s largest intermediate school, with about 165,000 square feet of space. Each classroom would have five computers, and each grade 3 through 5 would have its own computer lab. Joan Montgomery was the principal. The original elementary school was built in the 1940s, using a lot of volunteer labor, next to the Martinsville Training School. This was during the days of segregation. The training school was later renamed for Albert Harris, who had been the principal of the old Martinsville Colored School. After it was torn down, Albert Harris High was built in 1958, adjoining the elementary school.
Information comes from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.