April 30

By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion

100 Years ago – 1924

The Stuart Hairston Camp of Confederate veterans met in the Henry County Courthouse. The Mildred Lee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy served them dinner.

75 years ago – 1949

Smith River and tributary streams were rising after two days of heavy rain. By the previous night, the water had risen 6 inches, as measured at the Martinsville hydro-electric power plant.

1960

The Esso Standard Division of Humble Oil entertained local garden clubs at a luncheon meeting to kick off Esso’s “More Attractive Station” program. The program would net every entering garden club  a $5.00 gift in addition to four cash prizes for the winners. The program featured a specially made 30-minute color movie on gardens of historic Virginia, which was later made available to garden clubs throughout the Commonwealth.

50 years ago – 1974

ale at People’s Drug Store, Patrick Henry Mall: spray paint, 68 cents; folding chaise, $6.99; Miss Breck hair spray, two for $1.09; Band-Aid clear strips, 67 cents; Noxzema skin cream, 00 cents; 8-oz. bottle Pepto Bismol, 73 cents; G.E. lightbulbs, 4 for $1.98.

All but one member of the Prince Edward County School Board resigned in protest of the continuing closure of public schools throughout Prince Edward County and Farmville. The county’s schools were shut down the prior year when the supervisors, unwilling to accept federally ordered desegregation, withheld operating funds. The members’ resignation reflected their unwillingness to declare the county’s unused public school buildings surplus.

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