June 21
By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion
100 Years ago – 1924
It was social time for children: The Mt. Olivet 4-H Club held a lawn party at Olivet school house at 8 p.m. Over in Fontaine, an ice cream social was given by the Fontaine 4-H Club at the Fontaine church. Proceeds would be used to send a club member to Blacksburg for a State Short course.
A Food Sale was held at the old Martinsville Drug Store. The County women offered dressed spring chicken, butter, eggs, pastries, bread and Henry County vegetables.
Ad: “HURRAH! BASE-BALL! Saturday, June 21st. 4:00 P.M. Martinsville Colored Stars VS Imperial Giants of Roanoke, Va. This is the fastest team in Roanoke and they will give our boys a hard fight. Come out and see Martinsville line up. We have played 4 games and have won 4 of them. Admission 25 and 35 c. Come One – Come All.”
75 years ago – 1949
City councilmen and other city officials met at the W.M. Bassett Furniture Co. to make a survey of the proposed new street leading to the Sylvan Ridge community. The session was decided on during the prior City Council meeting, when some members expressed reluctance to spend $22,000 for an unpaved new street alongside the eastern side of the railroad tracks from Sylvan Ridge to Rives road. It was pointed out that the city could build a street along a beltline from Sylvan Ridge to Mulberry street for $16,000 if it could get rights-of-way. That would be a shorter route, and it would include water and sewer service, whereas the $22,000 route would not. [Presently, there is a Sylvan Avenue, a short road with 26 houses on it. It runs parallel to Rives Road, coming off Rives from Morrison Street, which is across from Nationwide Homes.]
North Martinsville industrial worker Jake Lail was fined $25 and given 30 days in jail, suspended upon good behavior for 12 months, on charges of using indecent language to a female.
The second city-wide fogging against insects was done, just 20 days after the first mass fogging, using new equipment purchased in May. The intention was to eliminate flies and mosquitos, and fogging was done most heavily in the areas those pests were most prevalent. The community of Fieldale, organized under Leonard Stultz, requested that the City lend Fieldale the fogging machine, and the City agreed, with Fieldale paying cost plus 10% to cover wear and tear.
1960
Bassett people went to great lengths to recover a child’s wheelchair from Philpott Lake. T.C. Wells of Greensboro had taken his two children, both of whom were confined to wheelchairs because of muscular dystrophy, for a boat ride. After the boat ride, one of the wheelchairs rolled off the ramp at the public boat dock near the observation tower and disappeared into water 60 or 70 feet deep. A skin diver tried to retrieve the $100 wheelchair but failed. The next morning, six members of the Bassett First Aid and Life Saving Crew, led by Big Jim Walls, gave it a shot. They went through considerable effort with grappling hooks and did pull the chair out of the water. They got it all cleaned up for the Wells family, who got it back.
50 years ago – 1974
The Dan Greene Memorial Stadium at Martinsville High School was nearing completion in construction. Greene died in 1970. More than 300 donors contributed toward construction costs, and their names were engraved on bronze a plaque at MHS.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.