July 31 through the years
100 Years ago – 1925
Millner’s Variety Stores on Walnut Street advertised “CANDY That is Fresh, Pure, Wholesome – We pride ourselves on our excellent candy service. We not only carry a large varied stock, but keep it clean and fresh all the time – quick sales and weekly factory shipments enable us to do this. Any piece of candy we sell is safe for the baby to eat, and our prices are most reasonable.”
A fire in Kohler destroyed three buildings – homes of families who were left destitute.
75 years ago – 1950
Forty-one men from Henry County went to Roanoke for pre-induction physical examinations to possibly be sent to serve in the Korean War. They had been drafted.
50 years ago – 1975
Mrs. Joan Van Vleck of Bassett was one of 28 people across Virgina named to the Governor’s Advisory Council for Drug Abuse Control. She was a teacher who took 15 years off teaching, and when she came back to the classroom she noted many changes in kids, which she attributed in large part to drug abuse. She took measures to learn about drug abuse, then was named to the board of directors of the Patrick Henry Drug Abuse Control Council when that group formed. It was that local group which brought Jim Tobin [who would become the well-respected leader of Piedmont Community Services] to Martinsville in 1974 to direct a clinic. Joan Van Vleck’s husband was James Van Vleck, the president of Stanley Furniture Company.
25 years ago - 2000
The Martinsville-Henry County Historical Society, of which Carl deHart was president, were looking into ways to make the former Henry County courthouse into a museum. They would hold a public meeting in 3 days’ time to gather ideas on how to save and use the courthouse. The historical society had been storing some historical photos and relics in the old courthouse, but members thought that they possibly could have a museum open in there by October 2000. The estimated cost for restoring the old courthouse was between $1.5 million and $2 million.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.