Feb. 26

By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion

100 years ago - 1924

 In Bassett, Dr. R.N. Mitchell, dentist, opened his office on the second floor of Mountain Drug Co.

75 years ago - 1949

State ABC agents seized an illicit distillery within 3/10 of a mile of City limits, near the Chatham Heights section. They destroyed a six-box plant copper submarine still of 300-gallon capacity in a hollow 600 yards northwest of Route 57 to Chatham. They also got a six-box plant near Foley’s store in Patrick County.

1960

An outbreak of infectious hepatitis (aka yellow jaundice) had occurred in Martinsville-Henry County. Eighteen children and one adult had been diagnosed, and two had been hospitalized. The disease was spread by person-to-person contact. The Health Department supplied gamma globulin free to private physicians for family contacts of cases. School children who contracted the disease had to remain out of school for one month.

50 years ago - 1974

Expected emergency gas allocations for Henry County had not arrived. Henry, Patrick and Floyd counties were allocated a combined 170,000 gallons of gas by the State Department of Agriculture and Commerce.

25 years ago - 1999

Patrick Henry Community College became an authorized testing center for Microsoft and SISCO certification. PHCC could offer certifications in Word, Excell, Access, PowerPoint, Office and Outlook.

Patrick Henry Community College named its administration building for Francis T. West, one of its founders and a former Martinsville mayor.

PHOTO: Phyllis Fleming, daughter of defense worker, Floyd W. Fleming from Spencer, who lives in new rural home built by FSA Farm Security Administration on T.H. Walters farm near Radford, Virginia (Library of Congress)

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