June 14 through the years

100 Years ago – 1925

There had been 14 recent cases of small pox, 13 resulting from contact with one same person, and one death resulting; and four cases of typhoid fever with one death from typhoid, Mr. F.C. Minter, in early June. Martinsville Health Officer R.M. Wilson was working with stat health officer Capt. Bote on getting 1,500 people vaccinated against smallpox and 1,000 vaccinated against typhoid, and other large amounts in the various communities of Henry County. The Martinsville water supply was being tested weekly and consistently found to be safe. Several area springs had been condemned due to contamination.

75 years ago – 1950

Ad for Foley & Wilson Appliance Co. 43 Fayette St., Telephone 3155: [with cartoon illustration of two lounging prisoners wearing black-and-white striped uniforms] “The judge gave me 10 years – just so he’d remember when his Westinghouse Electric Water-Heater protection policy ran out.”

A 3-legged chick with three legs turned up in a shipment of several hundred biddies received by the Planters Feed Store, run by Ben Davis and his son, Bill Davis. The New Hampshire red came from Indiana, and Bill Davis said he planned to raise it. The father-son duo had handled over a million chickens, and that was their first three-legged one.

50 years ago – 1975

William Haywood Swanson Jr. 16, of Route 2, Axton, died in a car crash in Pittsylvania County.

25 years ago - 2000

The City announced that it was stopping granting garbage privileges to those who weren’t entitled to it under guidelines. The City offered free bulk pickup, but too many people had started using bulk pickup to haul off construction and demolition debris, which did not qualify for free pickup. The City had been picking that up anyway, but it ended being too much – taking the City garbage collection from one crew of a city worker and two or three inmates to three such crews. It was time to cut back.

The Exchange Club was in charge of the “Freedom Shrine” at Liberty Fair Mall – a long wall display which displayed framed copies of important national documents. A rededication service was held on this day to put up Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and a plaque honoring Susan B. Anthony’s women’s rights advocacy, the first time the exhibit had been updated since 1994. James G. McMillan Jr. of the Exchange Club gave a talk, then handed out small U.S. flags during that service.

— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.