April 27
By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion
100 Years ago – 1924
A large county-wide revival opened Sunday, April 26, and ran for two weeks in Martinsville. The Union Revival Service. About 1,200 attended that first service. Services ran each night of the first week at 7:45 p.m. but twice a day during the second week. During that second week all businesses were asked to close during the day for an hour and 10 minutes, during the time of the revival.
75 years ago – 1949
Trial was held for Howard Lee Hairston, 18, on rape and assault charges against Ruby Stroud Floyd, 32, in what would become known as the Martinsville Seven case. Jurors proclaimed him guilty and sentenced him to death.
A 33-year-old man was discovered living in a tomb-like 15-square-foot hidden room in his family’s New York City apartment. Paul Makushak’s mother, Anna Makushak, had sealed him into that room in 1939 when war broke out to protect him from being drafted. His father ran a tailor shop downstairs; the mother told the father that their son had run off to Canada, and told her husband to stop coming upstairs, so he had been sleeping for the past many years near his shop. Paul Makushak was discovered when his mother went into the hospital so asked a neighbor to take care of him by sending him food through a chimney hole.
1960
Beaver Creek, ancestral home of Mr. & Mrs. J.E. Covington, was one of five Martinsville homes and gardens available to tour for Historic Garden Week. Also included on the tour were the Georgian style town house of Mr. & Mrs. N.S. Schottland on Starling Avenue, the French style home of Mr. & Mrs. Max White on Sam Lion Trail and the modern Williamsburg home of Mr. & Mrs. W. C. Ham which had been constructed partly with materials from the 1810 Thompson house bought in N.C. and re-assembled in Martinsville. The Thompson house had served as a field hospital during the Civil War and the bricks showed finger and footprints marked on the bricks while they were still wet. The final home on the tour was the home of Mr. & Mrs. Ralph Lester, a modern colonial ranch house on Dan Lee Terrace. The theme of the tour sponsored by the local Council of Garden Clubs was “Yesterday through Tomorrow”.
Four black citizens were injured by people wielding chains, blackjacks and sticks, while 10 others were injured by gunfire in Mississippi’s worst race riot to date after attempting to swim at a beach on the Gulf of Mexico. The group of 50 protesters attempted to swim on a 28 mile stretch of beach in Biloxi. By the end of the afternoon more than 400 people were involved in the ongoing demonstration. Several were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, fighting and disturbing traffic as 10 others were wounded by bullets and shotgun pellets.
50 years ago – 1974
At Piedmont Dodge on Commonwealth Boulevard: 1972 Pinto, $1,995; 1968 Pontiac 4-door sedan, $895; 1969 Chevy pickup, $1,295; 1962 Cadillac 4-door, $395; new 2-door Dodge Dart “Swinger Special” with power steering, AM radio, 3-speed wipers, remote control mirror, deluxe wheel covers, whitewashed tires, front & rear bumper guards, vinyl side mouldings, torque flite transmission, 225 C.I.D. 6-cylindar engine, $3,285
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.