Dr. Jesse M, Shackelford, bought property in Irisburg and built a home, a wing of which was used as a hospital from 1895 to1899.  Five years later, he moved to Martinsville where he remained.  On April 29, 1921, Dr. Shackelford purchased the Teague residence on Church Street and created a hospital there.  The Shackelford Hospital was established in 1921.

John Armstrong Shackelford, MD, was born in Irisburg, Virginia, 1893, and attended school in Martinsville. He attended Hampden-Sydney College where he was President of his class and captain of the football team.  He then entered Johns Hopkins University and received his Doctor of Medicine degree after a two-year internship at Johns Hopkins and Union Memorial. Although he received his.....

Dr. Shackelford was born and reared in Irisburg, Virginia, the son of William George and Pattie Martin Shackelford, a direct descendent of General Joseph Martin.

Abo Gleibman was born in 1894 in Ozarich, Russia.  He came to the United States in 1911, through Ellis Islan, when he was 16 years old. He came off the boat with $25 which was the minimum amount the 16 year old needed to pass through the immigration station.  He spoke no English, and by the time he passed through registration his name changed from Abo Gleibman to Abe Globman......

Whatever the reason, General Joseph Martin has been undeservedly forgotten, and as an act of historical justice I am appealed to write this sketch of him to re-emphasize the importance of his career on the Virginia-Carolina border and in the early emigration to Kentucky.   He was the sort of figure out of which border heroes are made.......

I would live from week to week with the expectation of going to town on Saturday.  After I was 11 or 12 years old I would drive the cattle truck to Martinsville with a full cab and with neighbor children – from two to six in number – riding in the truck bed while standing with feet protruding through spaces between the wood strips. This was an open-air experience, with faces in the wind, but.....