August 23
100 Years ago – 1924
Ad in the Henry Bulletin: “Straw Hat Day is every day at S. Heiner. Choice selection of straw hats at great saving in price. All sizes and styles still in stock. There are many warm days yet to come – buy a straw today. – Bathing Suits – A beautiful assortment of bathing suits for both men and women. There is no sport like swimming – get your suit now and enjoy these hot days. Prices reduced. S. Heiner – The Old Reliable. Martinsville.”
75 years ago – 1949
The Martinsville Cotton Mill company was getting back to a normal level of production. Earlier in the spring, it was operating only on one shift of three days per week. Then in summer it got back up to a standard five-day daytime shift. Finally it was back to a two-shift daily schedule, thanks to reported improvement in the nation’s textile market.
1960
There were two George Washington Gusler families living in Collinsville. The George and Elsie T. Gusler lived on Daniels Creek Road, and he worked for Gusler Brothers; George and Mildred T. Gusler lived on Longview Drive, and he worked for W.M. Bassett Furniture Co.
50 years ago – 1974
The new Collinsville Branch Library opened in the Collinsville Shopping Center – where it still is today.
A hearing was held in County District Court against R and C Theaters, the owners of the Martinsville Drive-In in Rich Acres, for obscenity charges. Following guidelines, Judge Kenneth Covington would have to watch the movie at the center of it all – “Orgy of Revenge” – before making a ruling. That movie was just randomly picked – the Rich Acres and another local drive-in regularly showed X-rated movies, and citizens had been complaining about it, then finally a group took action: Commonwealth’s Attorney Roscoe Reynolds, Magistrate Joseph W. Minter and several Rich Acres residents went to watch the movie, a required step, then turned it in under official complaint as obscene.
Collinsville Postmaster D.S. Smith and postal worker Mrs. Margaret Norman checked the post office’s alarm system. Mrs. Norman’s mother heard the sirens and called the law, and Henry County Sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene.
25 years ago - 1999
The Martinsville Branch Library installed a handicapped access parking lot between the side of its building and neighboring Lee’s Tire and Wheel. Ellen Bell was the library director.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.