Nov. 30 through time
100 Years ago – 1924
Ad: “We will pay 5 cents per pound for clean white and colored rags delivered to our factory. VIRGINIA FURNITURE CO.”
Another: “RAGS! RAGS! We will pay five cents per pound for clean cotton or linen rags delivered to our office at 111 Bridge Street. BULLETIN PRINTING & PUBLISHING COMPANY.”
“FOR SALE, cheap, one $1,250.00 player piano in good condition. Will take $450 on time with a reasonable cash payment. R.S. Brown, Martinsville, Va.”
75 years ago – 1949
A short program was presented to observe the inauguration of the highway mail bus service between Roanoke and Greensboro. Thomas G. Burch was largely responsible for that legislation when he was a member of Congress, and he would be a speaker; other speakers would be Rep. Thomas B. Stanley and Mayor Nick Prillaman. The bus was parked in front of the courthouse, and visitors were welcome to look inside it.
1960
Two Henry County timber rustlers were in jail on charges of cutting a removing a large amount of trees from two woodlots. They were accuse of cutting down popular and pine trees from forest land owned by A.C. Wilson of Martinsville and Fords Inc., also of Martinsville. The trees were taken from adjoining properties about 3 miles south of the city, just off Route 220. Evidence indicated that the timber had been being removed over a 2- or 3-month period. The thieves had used chain saws and crossbar saws to cut the trees, then employed trucks to take them to the market. As many as 100 trees had been removed, including from Wilson’s land about 50 large poplar trees from one of the area’s few remaining virgin forests, and those trees were described by him as “more than 100 feet from the first limb.”
50 years ago – 1974
About 250 employees were laid off from DuPont because of declining nylon sales.
25 years ago – 1999
Laurel Park High School held its annual Christmas open house, where it sold wreaths, centerpieces, ornaments and novelty designs.
King’s Grant was a step closer in adding apartments to its retirement community. The Henry County Industrial Development Authority approved a bond issue for between $3.2 million and $4 million for an expansion plan that would build apartments. Meanwhile, many residents of Knowle, Union, Askin, Stultz and Oak streets would have their homes brought up to standard through the Southside Comprehensive Community Development; City Planning, Zoning and Housing Manager Wayne Knox, at a meeting at Starling Avenue Baptist Church, gave them an update on that project.
About 20 members of the Needletrades, Industrial and Textiles Employees (UNITE), in front of the Tultex Corp. plant on Franklin Street, protested the proposal to allow China into the World Trade Organization. They marched down Liberty Street Extension. “We got tricked into NAFTA,” Kenneth Hairston, a 22-year employee of Tultex told the Bulletin. He said that the workers wanted legislators to know that jobs should remain in the U.S., not go overseas.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.