April 28
By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion
100 Years ago – 1924
J.W. Booker & Co., Phone 70, Martinsville: Yellow Danvers onion sets, 20 cents for a quart; Red Wethersfield onion sets, 20 cents for a quart; Tennessee Green pod beans, 30 cents a quart; Golden Dent seed corn, 15 cents a quart; Boone County seed corn, 15 cents a quart; Hickory King seed corn, 15 cents a quart.
75 years ago – 1949
It was the fifth trial of the Martinsville Seven case, that of Francis DeSales Grayson, 37. Jurors, chosen that morning, were P.H. Flora, McKinley Lovell, Ernest W. Ayers, Mark N. Ivey, Ray L. White, Edwin C. Haynes, Brown P. Thomas, B.M. Jarrett, Cedric J. Beck, George May, D.D. Palmer and Carl B. Burgess, with alternate T.D. Alexander.
1960
Outside of a tax, State law prohibited counties from exercising any control over automobile graveyards or junk yards other than possibly requiring the construction of a fence. Nineteen residents of the Koehler community petitioned the Henry County Board of Supervisors for help to control the junk yards which had begun in their area; the attempt to enact zoning had failed four years prior.
At midnight a six-room frame house formerly on Wilson Street was moved down Memorial Boulevard with the goal of moving it to a new site on Rivermont Heights. However, the behemoth load only made it as far as Frank’s Food Fair, where it remained for the rest of the night. The transfer resumed in the morning, and the house assumed its new home without incident, thanks to the efforts of Fire Chief Clay Easterly, Traffic Engineer Irving McGhee, electric and telephone company employees and a number of curious onlookers.
50 years ago – 1974
Winners of the Gen. Joseph Martin Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizenship Awards were Hubert Staples and Deana DeHart.
Barbara Prillaman was 1974-75 Secretery of the Year. She was crowned by 1973-74 Secretary of the Year Sharon Lawrence. William Franck was awarded Boss of the Year.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.