July 8 MHC through the years

100 Years ago – 1925

 State License Inspector C.R. Murphy was at Martinsville Police Headquarters for the day to take applications for chauffer. Section 2129 of the Code of Virginia required that any person other than the owner of a registered and license machine be operated in the state or driven must take out a chauffeurs state license.

75 years ago – 1950

Montgomery Ward at 20 Church St. advertised “wear ’em, wash ’em” dresses for $5 each. They came in embossed cottons, cotton sheers, rayon crepes, butcher rayons and rayon sharkskins.

50 years ago – 1975

The Ku Klux Klan promised to do whatever it takes to prevent the integration of private schools. The Virginia klan was planning a membership drive to substantially increase its ranks. Grand Dragon Robert Hudgins said in an interview on WNOR in Norfolk that the klan was instrumental in bringing investigations of the CIA and FBI, and that the klan’s top enemy was communism, which, it said, had a strong influence on the government with the food stamp program, which encourages laziness and makes people vulnerable to a socialist state.

25 years ago – 2000

Four members of the Brown family died in a murder-suicide at 1302 Carver Court. They were Jesse Brown Sr., 63; his son, Jesse Brown Jr., 42; his grandson (and Jesse Brown Jr.’s nephew), Demetri Lamar Brown, 12, and his daughter, Dorothy Yolanda Brown, 33, of Greensboro, N.C. Jesse Brown Sr.’s ex-wife, Katie Brown of Martinsville, found them. Jesse Brown Jr. was found with a firearm across his chest. The elder Brown had severe Alzheimer’s disease, and the 12-year-old was severely mentally and physically handicapped. It was theorized that taking care of them had become too much for Jesse Brown Jr. Brown Jr. had had custody of the boy since the boy, who was Yolanda’s son, was 2 years old. It was said that the day of the killing was the first time in 4 years that Yolanda Brown had gone to the home. There had been no signs of struggle, and Brown Jr. had left a note with funeral instructions.

Volunteers were clearing out and cleaning up People’s Cemetery, which was located on about 5 acres of brush and woods at the end of Second Street. People involved included the Rev. William Shackleford of High Street Baptist Church, Vallie Hylton and Gertrude Edwards. The cemetery dates back to the 1800s. Until the 1960s it was called People’s Colored Cemetery, and it was the main cemetery (other than church and family burial grounds) for black people until Carver Cemetery in 1968. Some of the prominent citizens buried there include the Rev. G.P. Watkins, an early owner of Hairston’s Funeral Home; Joe Martin, one of the first black residents of Collinsville; and the Rev. John E. Wade, a former pastor of Pilgrim Baptist Church.

— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.