Oct. 13 in 1925, 1950, 1975 and 2000
100 Years ago – 1925
Martinsville High School was beginning an orchestra with 13 students and a glee club. Meanwhile, Angeline Matthews collected most of the money from the pupils of the Junior room to buy a pencil sharpener for that room.
Richardson Electric Company had a sales price of $3.98 ($138 in today’s dollars) for items which normally cost between $7.50 and $10: a 9-cup electric percolator, a toaster, an electric heating pad with a 3-heat switch; an electric radiator, and a 6-pound flat iron.
Doris Holcomb, 13, was sitting with her mother and another child in the kitchen of their home near Figsboro when she was shot and died instantly. The shooter was discovered to be Roland Dix, who lived near Martinsville, according to reports. Reports stated that he had gone out in search of liquor when he passed the Holcomb home. He was angry at Doris’s father, Thomas Holcomb, because Mr. Holcomb had caught him running a still on the Holcomb farm, and he told him to keep away. Dix had only just gotten out of jail where he had spent time on bootlegging charges.
75 years ago – 1950
Martinsville and Henry County received a letter from the United Nations complimenting the area’s UN ceremony held the previous weekend. “It was genuinely a most moving and impressive affair. The scene was in the main square of the city, in front of the county courthouse and alongside the roll of honor for veterans of previous wars. Something like 2,500 of the city’s 18,000 people filled the space to capacity … The UN was taken very largely into the hearts and lives of the people of Martinsville and Henry County in the ceremony …” A firing squad from the State militia fired three volleys and the high school band played the National Anthem. The UN Memorial was unveiled. It was a large stone capped by a bronze tablet inscribed as “Dedicated to the Men of Martinsville and Henry County fighting and dying under the United Nations flag for a free and peaceful world … October 1950.” It was intended to be a permanent feature on the lawn of the courthouse, with the UN flag on one side and war memorials on the other.
50 years ago – 1975
Local school systems were preparing to go all metric, and teach their students to do so, because of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975. One objective of the City school system was for all students in grades 1-12 receive instruction in the metric system in math class and other classes that involved measurements. Mrs. Doris Harshaw coordinated a workshop in the metric system for city teachers during the mid-term conference. In Henry County schools, the metric system would be implemented in isolated units beginning the following semester.
25 years ago - 2000
Three options had been proposed for an economic development agency for Martinsville. The MHC Chamber of Commerce offered to become the lead agency for economic development; Vice Mayor Gene Teague proposed that a group named “Economic Development Council” be formed of representatives of existing development groups; and Henry County Board of Supervisors chairman R.E. “Mike” Seidle proposed that Henry County form its own economic development officer under the direction of Henry County Administrator Sid Clower. Clower said the Chamber’s proposal was the right one.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.