April 3
By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion
100 Years ago – 1924
The pupils of Four-A and Two-A grades presented the operetta “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in the High School auditorium. Admission was 25 cents, with proceeds going to buy equipment for the school.
75 years ago – 1949
The Martinsville Bulletin reported, “Construction is moving forward without a hitch on two new schools for Martinsville, with contract superintendents t the new Patrick Henry grammar school and the Albert Harris colored elementary school, both reporting work being on schedule. The grammar school is being built by the John W. Daniel Construction company of Danville, with about 40 men now on the job, and the colored elementary school work is being done by the English Construction Company of Altavista.
Martinsville Bulletin: “The population has been estimated anew at 18,000, showing an increase of 7,020 above the last census in 1949 of 10,080.”
The April 3 Martinsville Bulletin had several familiar names in its “News of Interest to Women” section: the engagement of Hazel Ruth Barnes, son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Russ Barnes of Bassett, to Thomas Bahnson Stanley Jr., son of Congressman Thomas Bahnson Stanley (of Stanley Furniture, and a future Virginia governor) and Mrs. Stanley, of Stanleytown; marriage of Lillie Frances Turner, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Thomas Turner of Bassett, to Wilber Smith Doyle, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wiliam Shelton Boyle; engagement of Gloria Chaney, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry W. Chaney, to William Dudley Smith, son of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Smith, all of Martinsville; and engagement of Anna Bowe Lester, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Claybrook Lester of Martinsville, to Charles Thomas Fleenor Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Thomas Fleenor of Martinsville.
Elder James E. Harris, 63, of Henry County, died suddenly of a heart attack at Moral Hill Baptist Church near Axton, a few minutes after he preached the funeral service for church member Carrie Stone, on Sunday. He had been pastor at several area black Baptist churches and had been the pastor of Moral Hill for 33 years. His funeral was held at High Street Baptist Church.
1960
Tiros 1, America’s new earth-orbiting weather-eye satellite, radioed back pictures of cloud formations from all over the world. This was encouraging to military entities as they endeavored to establish a spy-in-the-sky space vehicle system. Air Force officials indicated that although the satellite would be helpful for meteorological use, in its present form it most likely would not have any immediate military value.
Black students were served at the Kresge lunch counter in Bluefield, W. Va., without incident while picketers protesting sitdowns and backing segregation occurred in Hampton and Norfolk and arrests of demonstrating black students continued in Texas.
50 years ago – 1974
The State Corporation commission dropped a quality-of-service case against the Virginia Telephone & Telegraph’s Martinsville division, after finding that service had steadily improved over the prior six months. From March 6-7, 1973, the SCC held public hearings in Martinsville about the quality of local phone service and determined that more investigation was warranted.
25 years ago - 1999
Residents of Axton were expression impatience in their wait and desire to get public water service, but meanwhile, the proposed project was having trouble moving ahead because only about a quarter of the property owners there had granted the easements that Public Service Authority needed to provide that service. Two hundred easements were needed, but only 51 had been granted. Meanwhile, between 150 and 200 houses in Rangeley would be connected to sewage lines thanks to a $1 million grant awarded by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to the PSA.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.