April 20

By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion

100 Years ago – 1924

Sam Kolodny’s store had a sale on a new shipment of linen dresses: $8.50 values at $5.95; pure Irish linen dresses, valued at $15, for $8.75. Brown’s Corner, Martinsville.

75 years ago – 1949

The DuPont nylon plant made a new world’s safety record, covering a period of 82 months with no lost-time injuries, according to the William C. Janes, director of the Statistical Division of the National Safety Council. The previous record was 18,871,795 man-hours over a period of 66 months, set by another DuPont nylon plant – the one in Seaford, Delaware.  The Martinsville DuPont began operations on Nov. 3, 1941, and as of April 1949 employed 2,400 people.

1960

The Martinsville-Henry County Civic Music Association kicked off its subscription campaign for 1960-61 with a dinner bash at The Hut Restaurant. About 100 local music lovers attended. New Subscriptions received a free ticket to the final event of the season, a concert by the St. Louis Sinfonietta. The following year’s concert series attractions would be chosen by a popular vote of the subscribers.

The local Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee released their finding that 2,586 acres of Martinsville-Henry County land were seeded with grass and legumes in 1959, totaling $5,541. Additionally, 2001 tons of lime were used by the farmers, and another $14,701 was spent on fertilizer.

50 years ago – 1974

Four Patrick Henry Community College students and two of their instructors were celebrating high honors they had received at the 35th Annual Meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists. They were the only community college team to attend. Their comparative survey of stream life in the headwaters of the Smith River and Rock Castle Creek would go on to be presented in a paper at the May 1974 meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science in Norfolk. The instructors were Dr. Jim McIntosh and Donny Minter and the students were Ritt Strachan, Robert Osborne, Darrell Martin, Logan Esarey and Jennifer Lowe.

25 years ago - 1999

Piedmont Arts Association and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts entered into a partnership which would allow PAA more cooperative programs with other institutions.

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