Dec. 28
100 Years ago – 1924
Roy Prillaman on Franklin Street sold: tender steak, roast beef, stew beef, pork chops, boiled ham, frankfurters, chip beef, pork sausage, butter, eggs, lard, dressed chickens, turkeys, fresh hams, veal cutlets, veal steak, veal roast, liver pudding, side meat, fresh shoulders, pickled hog feet and fresh pork hogs for packing. Phone 157.
75 years ago – 1949
Fontaine Converting Works Inc. adopted a non-contributory group insurance plan for all its workers, paid for entirely by the company. Manager Julius Hermes said that the plan would “mean a great deal to the stability of each employee.” A group plan had been available for many years, and employees paid a portion of the cost of it. This newer plan provided increased medical coverage and life insurance.
1960
After 6 months of negotiations, the City agreed to pay the County $2 per prisoner per day. That was nearly double the charge they had been paying, of $1.04, and it would cost the City $2,500 more than it had been paying. However, a change in the payment for medical care of the prisoners was expected to save the City $200.
50 years ago – 1974
Several organizations were raising money to aid James Vernon Aliff of Preston, whose wife and four children were murdered on Dec. 26: Fieldale Rescue Squad, Preston Ruritan Club, the southside office of First National Bank of Martinsville and Henry County, Nationwide Homes, Patrick-Henry Volunteer Fire Department, Bassett Rescue Squad, Martinsville Exchange Club and Martinsville-Henry County Lifesaving and Rescue Squad were active in that regard right away. Later, the family’s tombstone would be donated by Fieldale Elementary and Primary schools and friends.
25 years ago – 1999
The Martinsville-Henry County Baseball Association, in an effort led by Rick Martin and coaches Timmy Robertson and Butch Freeland, got the use of the baseball field owned by Martinsville Church of God, and fixed it up, so that their group could use it. The group was not affiliated with but followed the rules of Little League baseball. The group bought equipment with funds from an anonymous donation. They worked since April in improving the turf, and the boys on the teams participated in the work.
Ridgeway Tire and Auto won the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce’s community improvement award. Stevan Eanes was the business owner.
Paul B. Toms Jr. was named president and chief operating officer of Hooker Furniture Co., succeeding Frank Hooker Jr., who retired over the summer. Doug Williams Sr. was named executive vice president-manufacturing.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.