July 10
By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion
100 Years ago – 1924
A tent revival was taking place under a tent erected on Fayette Street near the Courthouse Square. The Rev. S.S. Perry of Thomasville, N.C. was the tent evangelist. Tent Evangelist C.A. Hamilton of Atlanta was in charge of the song services. Preaching was at 7:45 in the evenings, and Sunday at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.
75 years ago – 1949
A war refugee family from Latvia – Jirgens and Zelma Karlis and their daughters, Anna, 12, and Ilze, 8, were set to Martinsville by an agency, the father told he could get a job in a furniture factory. The family got lodgings at 804 Princeston street, but had no food, no furniture and not much clothing – and it turned out that the factory the man had hoped to get a job at had closed. Two police officers, A.T. Finney and J.A. Johnston, discovered the family in that situation and went to work. They got donations of furniture from J.W. Townes (bed and box springs), J.R. Troxler (table and chairs), Walter S. Bondurant (mattress, rug and four chairs), Whitney Shumate (a bad, mattress and box springs) and Otis Blejack (oil stove). D.W. Swicegood of Danville gave the policemen $25, from himself and from a church in Danville. The policemen got the family $9.50 worth of food and gave the rest to the family. The Bulletin quoted Mr. Karlis as saying, “You Americans – you Americans is gold.”
1960
A 12-year-old Axton boy was charged with selling a half gallon of white whisky to ABC undercover agent Harold E. Wright. He was set to appear in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in August.
50 years ago – 1974
Spencer-Penn and Axton schools operated canneries where people would bring their homegrown produce and meats to be preserved. In 1973, canneries supervisor R.A. Tavener of Ridgeway reported, 545 people canned about 60,000 cans of food at the two sites. People bringing the food did all the canning themselves, and employees gave instruction. Among equipment was a retort pressure cooker held about 150 No. 2 ½ 28-oz. cans and steam jacket kettles were used to make tomato juice and applesauce (they skinned and seeded the produce automatically). People only paid for the cans they used; the county school system paid for the staff – Mrs. John E. Pratt and John Taylor at Spencer-Penn and Mrs. Curtis Davis and Charlie Motley at Axton.
25 years ago – 1999
Eltham Manor, built in 1936 for W.M. Bassett, was added to the Virginia Landmarks Register and was nominated for the National Register of Historic Places. It was in 1999 the home of Butch and Virginia Hamlet.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.