Jan. 6 going back a century

1925

A distillery said to be the largest ever found in Virginia was discovered and destroyed 2 miles east of Ridgeway, a quarter mile from the state line, on a branch. It was a steam boiler and a huge wooden still of 1,000-gallon capacity. About 5 yards from the still, in the car shed of a cave-like underground house, they found two bushels of malt. They destroyed it all. Then, going about 400 yards down the branch, they came across a large steam boiler and engine, a 1,000-gallon still, 5,000 gallons of beer, nine 500-gallon fermenters and a variety of barrels and buckets and a lot of distilling materials plus 20 gallons of whisky. The worm of the still was the largest ever seen in the county. There also was more than 1,000 feet of iron piping lying about the property.

1950

Sales at the Chicago Furniture Market were not as good as local furniture makers had hoped. During the first week of the two-week market, local furniture men reported that a lot of buyers were looking, but not placing too many orders. It was a buyer’s market. The year before had gone much better.

1961

Drewry Mason High School’s Dramatic Club presented “Blithe Spirit,” a Noel Coward comedy. C.W. Gilley played the husband; Sue Matthews, the spirit wife; and Judy Shillings, the living wife. Proceeds from the play supported the club’s participation in the state one-act festival later in the year.

1975

Kyle Stanley Oakley, 42, of Martinsville, was shot dead during a robbery of his Liberty Street Sunoco.

The area had .22 inch of sleet and snow.

Martinsville parents were told to dress their children warmly before sending them to school because the thermostats would be kept a 67 or 68 degrees due to a gas shortage. Supt. John D. Richmond told the Martinsville School Board in a special session that all natural gas to the school system had been terminated for an unknown amount of time. Additionally, 10% of the school system’s 17,000-gallon fuel oil allocation for January was cut. The school system initially had been allocated 70,000 gallons of fuel.

2000

Gov. Jim Gilmore’s office announced that the $8.5 million the state would receive in Federal Trade Act funds included $1.2 million for laid-off Tultex workers. The money would go for career counseling, job search assistant and basic remediation. Trade Act funding was to help people who have lost jobs as a result of foreign competition.

BB&T announced that it would give $50,000 to help Henry County and Martinsville in the wake of so many job losses in the area. Bank officials said it would meet with county and city leaders and business development groups to decide how the money would be used. Recent job losses included 1,100 from Tultex, 450 from Pluma and 120 from Hampton Industries.

Postal worker Sheila A. Heyeck, 51, died in a freak accident while she was delivering mail near Colonial Drive in Collinsville. While she was leaning out of her postal truck, the mail truck rolled on its own down the driveway and crashed against a tree.

The Patrick Community Hospital cut 20% of its workforce – 40 jobs – and did not offer its laid-off workers severance packages. The hospital was under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

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