July 9
By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion
100 Years ago – 1924
Carpenter J. Ira Poff, 35, died instantaneously when he fell from a stepladder into a gymnasium pit at the new high school building in Rocky Mount. He only had been 3 feet from the floor and was working on an iron column when he lost his balance and fell, breaking his neck. He left behind his widow and six small children.
75 years ago – 1949
Mt. Vernon Baptist Church Pastor Rev. William T. Hall announced that a Sunday school auditorium would be built, thanks to a $5,000 donation by Col. John Hankins of Lexington, N.C. Hankins’ grandfather was the organizer and first pastor of the church more than a century before. The addition was to be built to the rear and adjacent to the church building. Mt. Vernon was in an old-time revival that week.
1960
This ad: “In This Age of ‘Do It Yourself’” We take pride that your PHARMACIST is a professional man who still has to be relied upon to carry out your doctor’s orders in the filling of prescriptions for your health – a service you should leave to professional men who have spent years in training for their work. ‘Do it yourself’ should have no art in healing the sick. For ’round the clock prescription service plus drive-in window, come by or call Bud Shelton’s Pharmacy, Henry County’s Fastest Growing Pharmacy. 100 Oakdale, Behind Hospital. Dial ME 2-3435.”
50 years ago – 1974
The Carver Road Ruritan Club was issued its charter on July 9, 1974 – the first black Ruritan Club of all the 1,300 other Ruritan Clubs across 33 states in the US. The group was starting with 30 initial charter members plus anyone who would join the club within its first month also would be considered a charter member. The Carver Ruritan Club was the 15th Ruritan Club in Henry County.
25 years ago - 1999
Prices at Taylor’s Supermarket: bananas, 29 cents a pound; tomatoes, 69 cents a pound; cabbage, 15 cents a pound.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.