March 16 through the years
100 Years ago – 1926
Miss Elizabeth Marshall was a Public Stenographer, and her services could be retained by calling her at Phone 217.
Dr. G.B. Dudley, M.D., in the Burch Building, was a specialist in eye, ear, nose and throat, including the fitting of glasses.
75 years ago – 1951
Fieldcrest Towel Mill in Fieldale was growing with the addition of two buildings totalling 30,000 square feet. One would be a two-story building 50 feet wide by 96 feet long, and the other, a three-story building 96 feet wide and 130 feet long.
50 years ago – 1976
Martinsville’s application for Community Development Block Grants was turned down because, as City Manager Thomas D. Noland told the Martinsville Bulletin, its “slums are not slummy enough.” The seven projects it was hoping to get money to do were: street realignment at the courthouse; buy and tear down five vacant buildings and some dilapidated houses; double the capacity of the water treatment plant; build small playgrounds around the city; build a better street in Pony Place; fix streets and utilities in two subdivisions for low income houses; and planning and engineering of those projects.
Letter printed in the March 16 Martinsville Bulletin: “Dear Friends of the Axton Volunteer Fire Dept. and Neighbors: Because so many came to assist in combatting the devastating fire which occurred here Thursday morning about nine o’clock it would be impossible to thank each one in person so I am using this means of doing so. So I hope each of you will consider this as directed to you personally. Some, I have been told, worked the so called Grave Yard Shift the night before. Also I want to thank members of the Martinsville Volunteer Fire Department who came to assist the Axton Department. They too made a valuable contribution. I marvel at the quick response these boys made to my phone call. I had hardly left the phone before they were coming in the yard. Sincerely, Maynard P. West”
25 years ago - 2001
Nine of the 10 employees of the Virginia Museum of Natural History who had been laid off in February 1976 were called back to work. The layoffs had been done in reaction to an expected loss of state funding, but the governor later announced that budget cuts were aimed at avoiding state employee layoffs. The staff, with the resumed positions, numbered 38 full time and 15 part time.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.