Dec. 27
100 Years ago – 1924
The Henry Bulletin’s phone number was 4. A.S. Gravely was the editor and R.P. Beck was the manager. A subscription cost $2 for the year, $1.25 for six months and 75 cents for 3 months.
Pryor, the 11-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Millner, was painfully injured after being thrown from his pony. He and several other little chaps were riding near the schoolhouse when some thoughtless lad threw a firecracker under the pony, who of course bolted. At first everyone thought the boy had broken his neck, but he turned out to be OK and recuperating. As soon as regained consciousness, he announced that he wanted to see the boy who had thrown that firecracker.
75 years ago – 1949
Robert Leon Plaster Jr., 12, of Stanleytown was badly burned when flames burst from an empty oil drum in a yard where he was playing. The yard was next to Stanleytown Methodist Church.
1960
Buzzy Schilbe, 17, of 205 McCoy St., lost his 1961 Martinsville High School class ring, which had initials ALS. He suspected he dropped it into a bag when he was working at a Druid Hills supermarket, and he put a notice in the Stroller newspaper column asking any housewife who may have found a ring in her bag to call him at ME 2-5187.
50 years ago – 1974
Eddie Lee “Shanghai” Thomas of Preston was arrested and charged with the murders of Mrs. Sally Davis Aliff, 34, and her four children, Peggy, 10; James, 4; Charlotte, 8; and Vernon Darrell, 2. Thomas was a rip-saw operator who rode to work at the Nationwide Homes plant each day with the father, James Vernon Aliff
An article by 5-year-old (6 by the time it was published) Timothy James Downey of Martinsville was published in the December issue of the professional journal of the American Nurses Association. He was paid the standard $20 per page for the three pages it took up. The Carlisle School first-grader wrote about his experiences being in the hospital. He had dictated his story to his mother, Marie Downey, who typed it up and sent it out.
25 years ago - 1999
Applications were opened and would be open through Jan. 5 for a low-interest emergency loan program offered by Henry County and Patrick Henry National Bank to displaced workers. The program was available to people laid off from Tultex, Pluma, Ashmore Sportswear or Visy Protective Products since September. Worth Carter was the president and board chair of Patrick Henry National Bank.
Between 600 and 700 applicants attended Stanley Furniture’s job fair, which it held to fill 150 positions at its new plant in Beaver Creek Industrial Park.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.