August 2 through the years
100 Years ago – 1925
Kester Dry Cleaning, at Phone 101, offered quick service in “new process dry cleaning.”
75 years ago – 1950
Boy Scouts from Henry and Patrick counties were told to cancel any plans they may have had to attend Camp Powhatan, in Pulaski County, out of concerns of the spread of polio. The Patrick Henry Boy Scout council came to that decision after studying the polio situation in Wythe County, which is near the camp. Members of that committee were Warren Watrous, Leon Globman and doctors E.M. McDaniel and H.H. Price of Fieldale, L.A. Faudree of Bassett and B.A. Hopkins of Stuart.
50 years ago – 1975
A refuge family from South Vietnam went into the home provided for them by First United Methodist Church: Nguyen Luong Thoan and his wife, Dinthi Ky, and children The Nguyen, 10, Luong Than, 4, and Thuy Nga, 4 months. The father was an agricultural technician with the U.S. Agency for International Development. The family had left Fort Chaffee, Ark., at 4 a.m. for their trip to Martinsville. They were met at the airport in Greensboro by a white school bus with church members on it.
25 years ago - 2000
The Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce had just begun recruiting for a new position of tourism director, who would work part-time with an annual salary of $12,000 and plans for the position to become full-time, in the future.
Between 5,000 and 6,000 people attended the National Night Out event in uptown Martinsville. NNO is a public relations event held nationally to bring the community and law enforcement together. Festival-goers consumed 3,000 canned drinks, 2,000 slices of pizza, 1,000 sandwiches, 750 hot dogs and 600 Chic-Fil-A sandwiches, all free to the public.
County administrator Sid Clowder, Iriswood District Supervisor Paula Burnette, Henry County Planning Commission Chairman Paul Setliff, Director of Planning and Community Development Kevin Reed and Zoning Administrator Lee Clark toured a Cogentrix Energy Inc. plant in Wisconsin. The company had planned to build a plant costing between $400 million and $600 million in Axton.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.