Third week of December, 1925-2000
DECEMBER 14
100 Years ago – 1925
Miss Janie Lavinder was the chairman of the Christmas Seal Sale for Martinsville and Henry County. The sale of the seals supported the local Tuberculosis Clinic which had been established in Henry County earlier in the year. The clinic saw 237 patients, 48 of whom showed an active condition of tuberculosis and 30 being of suspicious cases. Of 46 children examined, nine had positive cases and 17 had suspicious cases. Nineteen patients from Henry County were sent to the Tuberculosis Sanatorium during 1925. Statistics from the State Board of Health showed that the health work in Henry County had reduced the rate of tuberculosis by half.
The Martinsville Boosters went by caravan of several cars to other communities to spread public relations about the town: Axton, Spray, Leaksville, Lone Oak, Wentworth, Reidsville and intermediate places. They stopped at several of the schools to distribute souvenirs. The Warren Draper String Band performed at the stops. About three dozen local merchants were on the trip, and were accompanied by Baptist minister Dr. Peter McCabe.
75 years ago – 1950
Quick work by firemen in Koehler prevented the possible destruction of 25 houses and many businesses, including the Patrick Henry Cold Storage, when they fought a blaze at the Pure Oil Company plant. They kept it away from three huge, 20,000-gallon storage tanks holding gasoline and other inflammable materials. There was no water in the area, so firemen used a shuttle system to keep a constant stream of water to keep the blaze from spreading. Three fire trucks took turns emptying their tanks, then returning to the city to fill them. The fire was thought to have been started at an oil stove in the office.
The Rotary Club heard a talk by James Belleza of the local DuPont plant on the development of synthetic fibers in recent years.
50 years ago – 1975
When you spent $4 in dry cleaning at One Hour Martinizing, you’d receive a free bicentennial silver dollar.
25 years ago - 2000
Susan Christian, a faculty advisor at Patrick Henry Community College, took a trip to Australia with other teachers and librarians to study children’s literacy.
Investors Corp. announced that it was buying the former Pulaski Furniture Corp. plant on East Church Street in Martinsville, and it would invest $12 million into the plant and hire 380 people. The company would make solid wood bedroom furniture.
Cinergy Capital & Trading Inc. announced that it wanted to build a $150 million power plant on Commerce Court on the north side of Martinsville (between the mall and Stultz Road). It would be a 330 megawatt natural gas-fired plant. It would be the largest business investment in Martinsville’s history and would generate an annual tax revenue of $1.4 million for the city. (The plant never ended up being built.)
DECEMBER 15 100 Years ago – 1925
The O.D. Ford Motor Company filling station on Main Street, operated by P.S. Ford, was being renovated: The whole of the front entrance was being arched and latched with a view to stuccoing the front of the building; new tanks had been received and were being installed.
Sign painter Sargent [no other parts of his name given] and his wife headed out to Chicago to visit with her people. Along their trip he set out various signs he had made, in this vein: “800 Miles to Martinsville,” posted along the route to promote the town he had lived in for the past year.
75 years ago – 1950
The Martinsville Milk Board announced a 1-cent per quart increase in all grades of milk sold on the local market. The increases took effect after a conference with the State Milk Commission in Richmond. That increase brought prices to: Breed milk, 25 cents retail and 24 cents wholesale; premium or homogenized, 24 cents retail and 23 cents wholesale; standard grade A milk, 23 cents retail and 22 cents wholesale. The prices of pints, half pints and all quality creams also increased proportionately. (A penny then is worth 13 cents now, and 23 cents then is worth $3.08 now.)
50 years ago – 1975
The Ministerial Association held a Christmas program at First Baptist Church on Starling Avenue. People were asked to bring a gift of money, wrapped up in a small package like a Christmas present. The wrapping would symbolize people’s Christmas gift to God to help feed starving people around the world through the CROP program. Then the people would head out in two groups to sing Christmas carols in downtown shopping areas and the Patrick Henry Mall.
25 years ago – 2000
A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge approved a $600,000 lump-sum settlement of Tultex Corp. fund to the city. Former Tultex employees also would be entitled to some money. Tultex had closed the year before.
DECEMBER 16 100 Years ago – 1925
The Community Christmas Tree program included a tree and the giveaway of gifts to the needy. Committees were: Tree Committee, Mr. L. Marshall, chair, and Abe Globman, Willis Stokes, Fleta Woodson, Virginia Self and Lula Carter; Purchasing Committee: Sam Kolodny, chair, and George Carter; Basket Committee, Lucy Cheshire, chair, and Bessie Tuggle, Mrs. P. Drewry, J.D. Hodges and P.S. Ford; and Program Committee, E.G. Coleman, chair, and Mrs. C.T. Womack, Elizabeth Marshall, Annie Ford, Annette Fuller and J.D. Sparrow.
In Spray, N.C. [now part of Eden], a disastrous fire destroyed six business concerns, including the local telephone exchange, causing $125,000 in losses. The fire had originated in the Ku Klux Hall near the telephone exchange. The night operator, a boy, narrowly escaped as the flames quickly overcame the wooden buildings.
75 years ago – 1950
President Truman proclaimed a national emergency and the government issued its first price control order, a rollback wiping out increases on 1951 cars. The president also established a new office to mobilize the nation at a fast pace against “world conquest by Communist imperialism.” He appealed to every citizen to put the country’s defense ahead of everything else. In reaction, Martinsville City Manager Kent Matthewson sent a memorandum to all department heads saying that all supplies and materials needed for the rest of the year and for 1951 be ordered immediately. He also urged all department heads to check on orders already placed for things such as electrical equipment, fire apparatus and other items. “We should make every effort to be ready for whatever the future may hold,” he wrote.
25 years ago - 2000
Fifty-three children each received a new pair of tennis shoes, thanks to the Shoes for the Sole drive put together by local churches and residents with Horsepasture Supervisor Debra Parsons Buchanan. Forty local families received boxes of food from Elks Lodge No. 1752; members who helped put that together include G.B. Franklin, Randolph Stowe, Carl Cooper, G.W. Fisher, Herbert Gibbs, John R. Smith Jr., Alvin Harris, Al Hall, David Rogers and Ernest Lassiter. Drewry Mason Middle School Future Farmers of America and Future Business Leaders of America clubs donated 50 toys which had been made in the shop to Christmas Cheer. Erselle Young and Denise Hammock were FBLA sponsors, and Champ Hardie (now on the school board) was the FFA advisor. Piedmont Masonic Lodge No. 152 on Starling Avenue gave boxes of food, each including a large ham, to 15 families. Members who helped with that included Herbert Gibbs, Alec Hamby, James McFarland, Cecil Cornett, Tony Sando, Basil Bollings and Jennings Holland.
DECEMBER 17 100 Years ago – 1925
Miss Christine Pannill of Martinsville High School won a statewide essay contest. Her topic was “Hampton Roads – An Asset of Virginia.”
Postmaster Chas. P. Smith Jr. gave this list of instructions for how to pack Christmas gifts for mailing: “All parcels must be securely wrapped or packed. Use strong paper and heavy twine. Special Packing – Umbrellas, canes, golf should be reinforced their full length by strong strips of wood tightly bound to withstand transportation Hats: Packed in strong corrugated or fiber boxes. Ordinary pasteboard boxes MUST be crated. Ladies hats and stiff hats easily damaged should be marked FRAGILE. Cut flowers: Place in strong suitable boxes of wood, tin or heavy corrugated cardboard. Wrap with tissue to retain moisture. …”
75 years ago – 1950
Power in Martinsville was interrupted for 2 hours and 13 minutes while Appalachian Electric Power Company double the capacity of its transformer bank in Fieldale.
50 years ago – 1975
Back in those days, people often cut down Christmas trees on other people’s land without asking permission. It was a common complaint by landowners shared in the Stroller section of the Martinsville Bulletin. One such as from Russell L. Edwards of Spencer.
25 years ago - 2000
Martinsville Volunteer Fire Company three sets of pediatric and obstetric supplies to the Martinsville Fire Department’s First Responders. Those involved included president Randall Hundley, EMS Coordinator Ted Anderson, treasurer Page Brockenbrough and secretary Leon Reed.
DECEMBER 18 100 Years ago – 1925
Millner’s Variety Store on Walnut Street advertised many items as Christmas gifts, and also these Christmas items: “A Box to Carry the Christmas Spirit – A box of delicately tinted stationery in an ideal way to present the Christmas Spirit in Gift Form. 10c to $1.39; Holiday Boxes All sizes in green and red designs 3c to 25c; Christmas Tree Ornaments 1c to 10c Each – Some of our articles sell as high as 25c in some places; Special Sale on Xmas Candies for Thur. Fri. and Sat., Dec. 17-18-10, Hard mixed Xmas Candy, 20c grade 2 pounds for 35c; Hard mixed Xmas Candy, 25c grade, 2 pounds for 45c; We also have large fresh stocks of chocolates, fudges, cocoanut, bon bons, peanut and other high grade pure candies, prices from 20c to 38c lb.”
75 years ago – 1950
Aubrey Bradshaw of Ridgeway was the state winner in the National 4-H Achievement Contest. He had started in 4-H in 1943 as a pig club member and a county winner. From 1943-1947 he was also a dairy club winner. In 1947, due to the labor shortage on the farm, he and his father had to sell the herd. He had built his number of cows to seven but kept one Guernsey as a family cow to produce milk for the family. She had two calves which he showed in many shows. Since selling the herd, he and his father built back up to 20 beef steers, and Aubrey had seven beef heifers, three of which were registered Herefords. He also grew field crops. He was the valedictorian of his high school Class of 1950.
50 years ago – 1975
Imperial Savings and Loan at 33 Spencer St., Martinsville, invited people to prepare for the next year’s Christmas shopping by opening a Christmas Club savings account, which paid an interest rate of 5.25%. The incentive Piedmont Trust Bank offered for opening a Christmas Club account was that the new account holder would receive a free memo board. You’d write on it with a fiber-tipped pen and wipe it clean with a damp cloth. A cork panel at the bottom was for pinning up notes; push pins included. For the accounts, paying $1 a week for 50 weeks would net $50 for next year’s Christmas shopping and $10 would net $500.
25 years ago - 2000
Time Out, the Ultimate Sports Bar & Grill, opened at 2280 Virginia Ave. in Collinsville (the old Hut restaurant building). Its owners were Bill Parks, Michael Booker, Elly Stone, Binky Walmsley and Jay Gibert.
The store Teacher’s Choice in the Holiday Shopping Center offered Christmas gift suggestions: ant farms, Sea Monkeys, chemistry sets, magnet sets, I Spy books, Magic Penny and CD Roms, hand-crafted wooden puzzles, Name That State, Presto Change-o and educational games such as Phonics Fire Fly.
A public meeting was held at Clearview Elementary School on the proposed Cinergy Corp. power plant which would be built on northside Martinsville, between the mall and Stultz Road. Thirty-five people attended, many of them expressing concerns about the plant – which ended up not being built after all.
The Men’s Roundtable Club held a Pizza Party at the National Guard Armory for more than 300 children. The pizza was donated by Pizza Hut. The club dedicated the party to member Clyde Williams, who wa sin the hospital recovering from a stroke. Earlier, the club took more than 200 children on a shopping spree at Kmart, helping them buy gifts for their families.
DECEMBER 19 100 Years ago – 1925
Roberts Drug Company on the corner of Church and Walnut advertised itself as “The Great Xmas Shopping Center – Kodaks, Fountain Pens, Ivory Dressing Sets, Military Sets, Men’s Traveling Sets, Face Powders, Ivory Picture Frames, Pen and Pencil Sets, Shaving Sets, Teddy Bears, Scooters, Fine Pipes, Cigars and Cigarettes, Smoking Sets, Smoking Stands, Flash Lights, All Kinds dolls, Doll Carriages, Ladies’ Hand Bangs, Columbia Bicycle, Book Ends, Candle Sticks, Ivory Bob Sets.”
75 years ago – 1950
Glamor Shop at 18-20-22 Walnut Street, with Mrs. E.C. Leibe Jr. as manager, advertised: “Santa Says: ‘Go Glamor – Dress Well – Save Money.’ See our beautiful Christmas windows.”
50 years ago – 1975
Al Groden’s Dutch Inn Restaurant in Collinsville had the all-you-can-eat seafood buffet for $4.25 for adults and $2.50 for children.
Bible Book Store at 5 E. Church St. was open each night until 9 p.m. through Christmas Eve. It suggested its personalized pencils and Bibles as Christmas gifts.
25 years ago - 2000
Janet Copenhaver was named Apple Distinguished Educator statewide for grades K-12. She was the director of technology for Henry County Public Schools. Technology programs included Cyber Café Surfing, in which parents could visit the middle schools once a week for students to teach them how to surf the Net. She took a college class in Tampa, Florida, which prepared her to install a wireless computer network at Axton Middle School. That school had four or five carts of computers for teachers to check out and bring to their classrooms. She planned to institute the program in the three other middle schools in the county to provide “Classrooms Without Walls” to students.
DECEMBER 20 100 Years ago – 1925
Only $300 of the $1,000 goal of the Community Chest Fund had been raised so far. Families had been mailed letters asking for contributions of $10 each. That money would go toward the purchase of gift baskets for needy families.
An advisory from the bureau of fire prevention in Richmond made an appeal that families, churches and schools not use candles in their holiday decorating or programs. The slogan was “Better Be Safe Than Sorry.” The notice said that children wearing cotton or paper costumes in pageants and programs that use candlelight are in danger of being caught on fire which, the announcement states, causes “the sad toll of lives of little children that annually darkens the Christmas season in many towns and cities.”
Yet as it would happen, a Christmas fire destroyed the first story of the governor’s mansion. The governor’s 3-year-old son, Billie Trinkle, had been playing with a sparkler, which ignited the Christmas tree in the parlor. That started a fire. The governor’s wife, Helen Sexton Trinkle, ran through a wall of flames to rouse her 14-year-old son, E. Lee Trinkle Jr., who had been sleeping upstairs. The mother and teenager jumped out his bedroom window to the ground three stories below. Neither were hurt in the fall, and neither child was burned, but Mrs. Trinkle suffered severe burns about her face, neck and arms.
75 years ago – 1950
Carolyn Hall, 9, of Henry County, wrote to Santa Claus, in care of the Martinsville Bulletin: “I am a little girl nine-years-old, and I am in the fourth grade. I guess all the little boys and girls have written you what they wanted for Christmas. So please let me tell you what I want too. I don’t want any toys or clothes. Nor my two little brothers don’t either. We want our daddy Joseph Earl Hall E.N. 2, who is in the Navy, to come home for Christmas. You can find him somewhere near Keria for he is on a ship that carries ammunition and supplies to Keria. He is the best daddy in all the world, and mother, Douglas, Cecil and I miss him very much. I don’t get to see him much, for he went into the Navy when I was only two years old. This is two wars, my daddy has been in, so Santa don’t you think he should be home with us this Christmas? He hasn’t been home for Christmas, for three Christmases …” Martinsville Bulletin Editor K.L. Thompson Jr. sent the letter to Secretary of the Navy Matthews. Matthews replied, “I have read her appeal to Santa Claus with the same sympathetic reaction with which it must touch the heart of every person who sees it. … Were little Carolyn Hall’s letter to Santa Claus the only similar appeal by me, the problem would be simple. However, there are hundreds of little children who want their daddies with them for Christmas. Their membership in the armed forces, however, imposes upon those beloved fathers the stern duties which are paramount even to the parental obligations which animate their hearts. …”
50 years ago – 1975
Insurance agents at Turner & Shelton, 205 E. Main St., were W.T. Turner, Claude Midkiff, Jane Brodie, Dick Shelton and Dianne Via.
25 years ago - 2000
Elizabeth’s Gifts and Treasures moved to 25 E. Main St. from its previous location in the Chief Tassel Building. Maurice Venable and Kay Dillard were the owners. The store sold antiques and antique reproductions, accessories and gifts. Rives Coleman, the president of Martinsville Uptown Revitalization Association, joined them at the ribbon-cutting.
Hosea Hylton opened Hosea’s Hair Design at 324 Main St. in Ridgeway.
DECEMBER 21 100 Years ago – 1925
In early December there appeared ads for palm reader Madame Hager. Now, Madame P. strikes back and stakes her claim [We type it exactly as presented]: “The Old English scientific Palmist. She tells you your Past, Present and Future, just what you need to know and find out. She reads the lines in your hand, like an open book. If any troubles or serious difficulties which you want to know, she will cause you and tell you how to avoid all matters causing Business, love, friends enemies and marriage, divorce and law cases. She’ll give you the height, size and complexion, also the day of marriage. She makes the old feel young, and the young feel gay. Those that have heavy hearts and sorrows she will enlighten them to gladness, all frowns to smiles. If not satisfied – money refunded see her. Private Reading for colored. Office upstairs over R.E. Tuggle’s office, Walnut St. Hours from 10 A.M. to 10 P.A. MADAME P.”
75 years ago – 1950
Martinsville and Henry County furniture plants and most textile plants closed this Thursday, Dec. 21, 1950, or Friday, Dec. 22, for the holidays. They would reopen on Wednesday, Dec. 27. Well over $100,000 in Christmas bonuses were paid by some of their plants, and other plants gave Christmas gifts in merchandise or cash. Bassett employees received more than $125,000; at Morris Novelty Company, $11,000. Jobbers Pants Company had been closed since Dec. 15 and would resume operations on Jan. 8 with rearranged machinery to take care of government orders, especially trousers for the Army. (The value of $100,000 in 1950 would be $1,340,000 in today’s dollars.)
The Draft Board ordered Henry County to send 65 men, and Martinsville 12 men, to Roanoke in January for draft examinations for the Korean War. Meanwhile, 14 young men in Patrick County had passed their draft physicals.
50 years ago – 1975
M. Eugene Boaz of Route 4, Martinsville, was named technical instructor on aircraft systems with Bell Helicopter International of Fort Worth. He had completed 4 years in the Marines in April; during that time he was trained in helicopter maintenance. He attended flight and maintenance training school in Euless, Texas.
25 years ago - 2000
Public Service Authority came up with an incentive to get its customers to sign up for electronic payment: Any customer who would sign up for it by January would get a year’s worth of water for free. PSA finance director Steve Kenrick said at a PSA board meeting he figured at least 3,000 of PSA’s 11,571 customers would sign up for electronic payment under that plan, saving PSA more money in the long run on billing fees.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.