April 17 through the years
100 Years ago – 1925
An advertisement announced that the United States Civil Service Commission would hold an examination in Martinsville to fill the position of rural carrier at Sandy River and any potential other vacancies. The salary of a rural carrier on a standard daily wagon route of 24 miles was $1,800 yearly, with an additional $30 yearly for each additional mile. The salary for motor routes ranged from $1,450 to $2,60 depending on length.
75 years ago – 1950
Ten contenders were running for five City Council seats. They were incumbents W.T. Turner, Rives S. Brown Jr., Rieves S. Hodnett, J. Robert Walker, Carroll Craig and O.V. Huskey. Newcomers to the race were Gus R. Ashworth, John H. Richardson, Julius Hermes and Dyson Hobson. Hobson would go on to be elected Martinsville’s first black councilman.
A forest fire destroyed almost 400 acres of forest near Mountain Valley.
50 years ago – 1975
The Commonwealth of Virginia sought federal funding to improve Brookdale Road in Martinsville. The project would re-align and make four lanes a little more than a mile of the road, between Spruce and Church streets. The original aim was to have it done in 1974, but the state’s moratorium on new construction plus increased construction costs pushed it back.
Former Patrick County Deputy Paul T. Overby was fired for his role in the disappearance of 49 pints of whisky from a locked evidence closet in the sheriff’s department. He admitted to having taken four of the pints because, he said, he had been told that it would have to be either destroyed or given away. He also said that he still planned to run for sheriff.
25 years ago - 2000
Nine apartments in Rivermont Apartments were damaged by fire, displacing nine adults and 12 children. Some of them included Sadina Dalton and her daughter Lyric Pritchett, 3; and Tamekica Dalton and her daughter Natasha Hamlett, 1. The cause was thought to have been lightning. In Bassett, 4,600 Appalachian Electric Power customers lost power in the storm. Large manufacturing operations in the Bassett area also had lost power. Other outages included Dillons Fork Road area near Preston and the Sandy River area on Va. 57 east.
The first novel of Patrick County Circuit Court Judge Martin Clark was out, and it was receiving rave reviews, and on this date he autographed books at an event at the Martinsville Branch Library. It was “The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living.” Over the 25 years since, the now-65-year-old is a best-selling author, called “our finest legal-thriller writer” by Entertainment weekly and “not only the thinking man’s John Grisham but, maybe better, the drinking man’s John Grisham.” His books since then were “Heathen Mischief,” “The Legal Limit,” “The Jezebel Remedy,” “The Substitution Order” and “The Plinko Bounce.”
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.