July 20
100 Years ago – 1924
State Tuberculosis Association nurse Miss Howett spent several days in Martinsville and Henry County to make a survey of tuberculosis conditions. She reported finding 23 cases in the county urgently in need of proper treatment and care, all of whom had excellent chances of recovery should they receive it. Seventeen of those people were being sent for treatment to various tuberculosis sanitoriums, with a few going to Catawba. Funding was still needed to pay for the treatment of the other six. The local chapter of the Red Cross began a fundraising campaign, searching for 100 people to pay $5 each. Miss Bessie Tuggle was the local Red Cross chapter president.
75 years ago – 1949
Several hundred Elks and guests attended the annual picnic held at City Park.
1960
Eight local Boy Scouts were in Colorado for the National Boy Scout Jamboree: Tommy Hall, patrol leader, with Jamie Hill, Cecil Creasy Jr., Bill Ritchie, Joe Scales, Charlie Stone, James Blankenship, and patrol leader Burnham Bryson Jr., accompanied by G.B. Smith, assistant commissioner of the Patrick Henry Boy Scout District.
Jesse Ben Craig died, 73, died in his home on Hundley Road. Craig and his brother, Pete Craig, who had died the April before, founded Bassett Mercantile Company. Later, Jesse Craig sold his interests to J.D. Bassett Sr., then worked in the building trade until he retired. His children were Bill, Russell and Hogue Craig of Bassett, Edward D. Craig of Spencer and Mrs. C.S. Williams of Danville.
50 years ago – 1974
The local real estate housing market was in a real slump, owing to inflation and high interest rates. Figures from the Associated Press showed that the median price of a new house in the US was $23,400 in 1970 to $41,000 in 1974. As buying had slowed down under those high prices, the housing construction industry had declined by about 40% in the previous year and a half. Thomas Childress, present of the MHC Board of Realtors, stated that local housing sales had decreased by 50% in the previous few months. Interest rates ranged from 7.75% in some federal programs to over 10% on conventional loans.
25 years ago – 1999
Charles White’s Chevyland offered for sale a 1998 Ford Explorer, Eddie Bauer edition, for $29,000 – “fully loaded, sunroof, one owner, trade-in, extra nice.”
Jesse J. Jones Jr. had a bad surprise at his Curtis Mathes Showstopper Movie Club at 515 W. Church St. His 1992 Cadillac was parked in front of it. A wrecker tow truck that had been parked nearby rolled backward down Church Street and knocked Jones’ car into his store. It went in through the window.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.