September 30 through time
100 Years ago – 1925
Patrons of the Irisburg school were requesting the school board to run a bus from Irisburg to Axton. A bus already brought children from the Granberry school to Axton, and another bus brought high school students from Mountain Valley to Axton. In Spencer, subscriptions were being solicited for the proposed Spencer-Penn Memorial High School, and a mass meeting on the topic was held at the Spencer school on Sept. 30 to formulate plans to raise the money.
Meanwhile, Mr. C.M. Wyatt of Preston received a contract to build a school in Oak Level. George Barrow would help with the work, and they expected to have the school building finished and ready to use by Nov. 1. Near the Stanley Manufacturing Company plant, Mr. T.B. Stanley was building a two-room school.
75 years ago – 1950
More than 250,000 pounds of tobacco were sold in the two Martinsville warehouses. The top price was $69 per 100 pounds. The day before, the market handled 158,318 pounds at an average price of $52.80 per 100, with the top price for high quality tobacco being $80 per 100. Over the first 8 days, the local market sole 1,320,574 pounds, netting farmers $728,810.
50 years ago – 1975
Fitchue Hopper of Bassett grew a sunflower that was 14 ½ feet tall.
25 years ago - 2000
Martinsville Speed Fest was a concert aimed at race fans in Martinsville for the NASCAR race. Waylong Jennings was the headline performer Saturday night. The band Backstreet performed at The Warehouse until 2 a.m. Friday, then performed on the Bridge Street stage at 11 a.m. Saturday to open SpeedFest 2000’s activities. The Danville band played popular music from country to 1970s funk. Domino, which had a four-piece horn section, played on the Broad Street stage from 3-5 p.m. The Pythians served hot dogs and curly fries to raise money for charities such as Cystic Fibrosis and United Cerebral Palsey. Wayne Bennett was one of the cooks. A giant dinosaur balloon by the Virginia Museum of Natural History was on site.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.