August 17
100 Years ago – 1924
In the Henry Bulletin: “Located just outside the congested business district is a new and modernly equipped fresh meat market operated by a dealer in fresh meats of many years’ experience. This market was established a few months ago in a new building erected especially for the business with a modern built-in refrigeration plant which affords excellent protection to all fresh meat supplies such as western and native beef, pork, veal, lamb and all other fresh meat products … A specialty is made of buying hides, beeswax and tallow, the best market prices being paid. Prillaman’s Market, Franklin Street – Phone 157. Roy Prillaman, Propr.
75 years ago – 1949
The Knights of Pythias Patrick Henry Lodge No. 82 held their annual picnic at Fontaine Field. The committee in charge was George Branham, Allan Kalbaugh, Fletcher Thomasson, Sam Uram and Ben D. Whitlow.
1960
Eonna Koumparakis, 13, shot a 4 ½-foot poisonous snake in the stomach and head with a .22-caliber long shot rifle on her family’s farm in Axton. She was alone with her 7-year-old twin brothers, John and George; her 12-year-old sister, Phylliscity; and a friend, Betty Bakos, 10, of Danville, when the snake crawled out of the children’s army tent.
50 years ago – 1974
A new Henry County program was “Recreation on Wheels:” a van with three workers (Ken Easley, George Giles and Mrs. Ida Marie Manson) drove to locations throughout the county, such as schools, vacant lots and parking lots. There, they would pull out games and sporting equipment – basketball, volleyball, softball, painting, modeling cray, table cricket (like Foozball), bumper puck (like billiards), darts, chess, checkers, Monopoly and more. Children would show up to play. This was funded by a grant.
25 years ago - 1999
It was a really hot summer. Southern Area Agency on Aging, CONTACT and HomeCare of Memorial Hospital were providing fans and air conditioning to the elderly. One group of people who had no such luck was inmates and workers at the old part of the city jail, which did not have air conditioning. The inside of the jail would be about 100 degrees hotter than outside. In the summer before, the thermometer had reached 100 degrees, but in the summer of 1999 they didn’t bother posting the temperature.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.