August 12
100 Years ago – 1924
A man who later gave his name as William Castillo left his Ford Roadster parked at the Church Street Filling Station, in front of the post office, while he went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Police officers H.W. Stultz and O.T. McCray believed the car held illicit liquor, so they inspected, found that it held 60 gallons of booze, and quietly waited for the man to return before arresting him and seizing the car and booze.
City Council voted unanimously to incorporate the town of Martinsville as a city, given that Martinsville had reached a population of more than 5,000. The resolved that the town apply as soon as possible to the Circuit Court of Henry County to have a legal enumeration of its population and for the town attorney to take legal steps necessary to carry out the purpose of the resolution. (According to the City of Martinsville’s website, Martinsville was established a town in 1791, incorporated as a town in 1873, became a city of the second class in 1928, and was declared a city of the first class in 1941.
75 years ago – 1949
Joe Scales was advertising the selling of 90 head of Holstein dairy cattle. He was planning to switch over to raising beef cattle on his farm in Cascade.
Attorneys for the Jobbers Plants Company gave up on trying to block union from their plant. They withdrew all exceptions to a National Labor Relations Board ruling that a new election be held among employees to determine its bargaining agency, if any. The new election was requested by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.
1960
The hottest sports rivalry was said to be in a church softball league made of teams in western Henry County and eastern Patrick County. The Horsepasture Christian Church had gone undefeated until the latest game it had played, but it still remained on top of the league. The team Horsepasture lost to was Mount Bethel. Horsepasture had beat Mount Bethel 13 to 3 in an earlier game, but in the latest game, Mount Bethel won 15 to 14, attributing its success to the only female player on the team, pitcher Madeline Gilbert, 18.
50 years ago – 1974
Gindy Manufacturing Corp., a Collinsville builder of commercial truck trailers, announced plans to move to a new 250,000-square-foot building in Ridgeway.
25 years ago - 1999
Drake Extrusion was beginning an $11 million expansion that would create three dozen jobs.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.