July 24 through the years
100 Years ago – 1925
The Kiwanis Club met at the Patrick Springs resort, where they were served a great dinner by proprietor Billy Hamilton and his wife. The 50-plus club members and guests were impressed with the newly whitewashed buildings, the screens on windows which kept out flies and the lovely, peaceful grounds. They had a rousing conversation about evolution, started by Pete Ford and joined by George Marshall, John Smith, John Simmons and Parson Wilfred Roach. Then they had an old-fashioned dance.
A dozen members of the Piedmont Lodge 152 A.F. and A.M. of Martinsville attended a special meeting of the Mountain Lodge of Stuart to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Masonic Home for children in Richmond. Those men from Martinsville were J.C. Shockley, E.L. Turner, T.B. Huskey, C.M. Wales, J.D. Clift, John Dyer, Harry Kester, J.W. Townes, W.B. Reed, T.H. and C.B. Burgess and C.M. Hart.
75 years ago – 1950
The U.S. Secret Service was in Martinsville to question two men about five counterfeit $20 bills they spent the previous Friday and Saturday. The men were arrested, one released on a $5,000 bond and the other unable to post bond.
50 years ago – 1975
Between 1,800 and 1,900 residents of Collinsville got their water through Daniel Creek Water Company. The minimum charge per billing was $3.50, for up to 4,000 gallons of water. For those using between 4,001 and 10,000 gallons, the cost was 85 cents per 1,000 gallons; and it was 80 cents per gallon for amounts higher. The Daniel Creek Water Company was used by most Collinsville residents, except those with private wells. The water company got its water from 15 wells.
25 years ago - 2000
The Red Birch Country Market at 4801 Greensboro Road, with a Bojangles, opened on this day; the Jameson Inn was almost finished being built on Commonwealth Boulevard; and construction was about to begin on Nautica Enterprise’s $40 million distribution center that would employ 375 people.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.