March 25
By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion
100 Years ago – 1924
MARCH 25 – Circle No. One of the Baptist Aid was joint hostess at a pan cake party from 8-11 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, at the home of Mrs. C. W. Davis. The cost of admission was one penny for each letter of your name, plus 5 cents for a ticket to the dining room. There was music and guessing, and the guessing winner would take home the pound cake.
A vaccination clinic against typhoid fever was held in Bassett, at the office of the J.D. Bassett Mfg. Co. in North Bassett and the Bassett Furniture Co. in Bassett, starting March 25 for the first treatment and continuing April 1 and April 8 for subsequent treatments. The vaccinations for workers of those two companies were free, and the general public had to pay. Additionally, workers had to pay a 50-cents doctors charge, and the general public had to pay a 75-cents doctors charge.
In Tuesday, March 25, 1924, Henry Bulletin:
“The New Virginia Law to Preserve Racial Integrity” By W.A. Plecker, M.D., State Registrar of Vital Statistics, Richmond: “Senate Bill 219, to preserve racial integrity, passed the House March 8, 1924, and is now a law of this state. This bill aims at correcting a condition which only the more thoughtful people of Virginia know the existence of. It is estimated that there are in the State from 10,000 to 20,000, possibly more, near white people, who are known to possess and intermixture of colored blood, in some cases to a slight extent it is true, but still enough to prevent them from being white. In the past it has been possible for these people to declare themselves as white or even to have the Court so declare them. Then they have demanded the admittance of their children into the white schools, and in not a few cases have intermarried with white people … The task of the Bureau of Vital Statistics is a great one, with not a cent of appropriation to go with it … The new law further provides for the registration of all persons who desire it, and who will make application for such registration of color and birth, remitting at the same time the fee of twenty-five cents for each applicant. Do not send stamps. These births will be permanently recorded and preserved for all time, and will be of great value for many purposes, such as to prove American citizenship when applying for passports to go abroad, and for establishing and preserving the family tree for future generations. … If ten or twenty thousand or more will register within the next few weeks, we will be able to provide printed forms, filing cases, desks, typewriters, postage, and clerk hire, to begin vigorous State-wide propaganda. … Address, Dept. 1924 Law Bureau of Vital Statistics, Richmond, Va.”
Tuesday, March 25, the Martinsville town clerk received the order of election on the matter of changing Martinsville’s form of government to the “Town Manager” style. An election was scheduled for April 26. [Apparently it would not pass, because the change to “City Manager” form of government did not occur until February 1949.]
75 years ago – 1949
Henry County Schools received notice of approval of a $600,000 loan for a new Negro High school, but did not yet know when the money would be available. The new school would be built between Horsepasture and Fieldale. Black students, in the meantime, were being taught at temporary quarters around the city because the previous school had been destroyed by fire.
The city’s power generating plant was shut down because of the worst log jam in the history of the hydro-electric dam. The dam’s control gates were clogged by debris that had been washed downstream by a flash flood three days before. Teams of between 12 and 15 men had been working 40 hours trying to get the gates cleared. The City was losing between $75 and $80 a day in lost revenue.
1960
Southern senators appeared to be banking on revising one section of the House-passed civil rights bill, thus delaying its passage indefinitely.
The demolition of the former First Baptist Church and two adjoining buildings on Church Street was slated to be completed and cleared within the next 75 days. It would be graded and surfaced and incorporated into a parking lot already owned by Globman’s, fronting on Broad Street. The combined lot would accommodate 250 vehicles.
The House Appropriations Committee voted for sharp increases in President Eisenhower’s education and health budgets, calling for an all-out war against juvenile delinquency.
50 years ago – 1974
Miss Stuart Windle’s sixth-grade class at Mary Hunter Elementary School hatched chickens in an incubator and wanted to try with the birds of other eggs such as duck, goose, quail or pheasant. Two of her students were Gracie Baker and Dennis Bowles.
25 years ago – 1999
About 30 parents met with their children’s teachers and the principal at John Redd Elementary School for a workshop on the SOLs (state Standards of Learning tests), which were new at the time.
Henry County Administrator Sid Clower announced that Henry County was buying land in the Beaver Creek Industrial Park from Tultex to use for two economic development projects.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.