March 14 through the years

By Pat Pion and Holly Kozelsky

100 Years ago – 1924

March 13, 1924 was Farmers Night at the Kiwanis Club meeting. The tables were decorated with arrangements of jonquils, pyramids of apples, ears of corn and leaf tobacco. The agricultural committee of John Smith, Everette Davis, Dock Davis and George Mitchell put on the program. Many guests attended, including county farm agent J. Nick Jones. Jones advocated growing food stuffs with tobacco and rotating crops in order to build up the land. Earnest Howard agreed, but said the only money crop that counts is tobacco. Hay farmer J.R. Wray asked the Kiwanis for help in getting a lower freight rate, and he said the county would produce the very finest blue grass by using more lime. E.J. Davis agreed with Mr. Wray and offered the use of the side tracks of the Patrick Henry Cold Storage on Koehler for unloading cars of lime.

75 years ago – 1949

The DuPont plant was open for public inspection for during the observance of Nylon Week March 14-18. It was the first open house since the plant opened in the fall of 1941. Open houses were scheduled for between 7-8 p.m. on two nights for white residents and one night for colored persons. More than 8,000 requests for tickets were made, so only people invited by night shift workers could go during those times, and other daytime visits would be arranged for March 22 and 24 for people invited by day shift workers.

After weeks of contention, James Vincent Law was appointed superintendent of Patrick County schools for a 4-year term with a vote of 32. The Patrick County courtroom in Stuart was packed as people debated whether the role should go to him or to C.J.M. Kyle, who had been superintendent for 8 years. After the vote, school board chairman A.C. Turner, who had voted to keep Kyle, said that he was resigning from the board.

1960

While the police were busy investigating two accidents involving four vehicles, the Forest Park section of Martinsville was the site of a major gas fire on  this date. Residents stressed as a broken valve on a gas main at Southwestern Gas Company’s metering and pressure station near Corn Tassel Trail caused a stubborn gas fire that burned for over an hour as workmen strived to shut it off at another valve. The actual cause of the fire was unknown. The burning jet of gas, blazing to a height of 12 feet,  did extensive damage to the structure and equipment, and ultimately caused damage estimated at $2,000, much lower than the original estimate.

50 years ago – 1974

Adult education classes started at Axton and Ridgeway Elementary Schools, with the subjects reading, writing, English, spelling and math. R.E. Philpotts Jr. was the director of adult education for Henry County.

25 years ago - 1999

An office building at the corner of Bridge and Market Streets was being built to house the Patrick Henry Day Reporting Cetner, the Department of Rehabilitative Services and the Department of Probation and Parole. Terpence Construction of Rocky Mount was building it and would own it and lease out the spaces.

PHOTO: Thornton’s Bakery, corner of Moss and Fayette streets

— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.