April 21
By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion
100 Years ago – 1924
The Martinsville Town Baseball Team opened its 1924 season on Easter Monday, April 21, with a home game played against the Danville All-Stars.
75 years ago – 1949
The jury trying Joe Henry Hampton, 20, of raping Mrs. Ruby Floyd, 32, on Jan. 8, 1949, in East Martinsville, was chosen after an hour’s interrogation of 29 people. Chosen as jurors were Dudley H. Robertson, E.H. Draper, A.J. Fischer Jr., Ralph Seidle, Percy Compton, W.R. Moss, R.L. Alcorn Jr., James A. Dawson, C.D. Willis, J.V. Richardson, J.E. Jones and Watt M. Clingenpeel. Chalmers McFarland was chosen as alternate. People who were interviewed but not chosen included Ryland Richardson, R.T. Smith, B.S. Parrish, H.L. Nunn, W.S. Slaydon III, W.E. Roadcap, A.B. Via, William Lightfoot, R.G. Atkins, John E. Floyd, Jake Aaron, Everette Hensley, F.I. Richardson, Stan Finney, George K. Wyatt and William S. Foster. Only Lightfoot and Foster were listed as black.
Mrs. Ruby Floyd, 32, testified in City Circuit court, pointing to joe Henry Hampton, 20, as the first of several black men who criminally assaulted and raped her Jan. 8 in Martinsville. Hampton was calm and composed throughout the trial, the Martinsville Bulletin reported, but when he took the stand, he denied categorically statements the police officers had attributed to him in what had been called his signed confession. The trial took place all in one day, finished with the jury announcing it had chosen death sentence at 5:50 p.m., after 30 minutes of deliberation.
The site of the proposed Martinsville Memorial Public Library on Church street was sold at auction for $18,000. It was known as the Andes house, and bought by Mrs. W.L. Pannill and Miss Bess Tuggle. The property had been sold in four separate parcels earlier. Original purchasers of the lot were H.L. Finney and T.M. Ford for the Church street frontage and Miss Tuggle, the rear street frontage; those sales totaled $15,500.
1960
A three day polio clinic was scheduled for the area as enough vaccine was sent from the Governor’s office through the State Health Department to cover 900 shots for local school children, with another 2,600 shots being made available by Martinsville’s Charity League. 3500 third shots were to be given, as well as first and second shots.
The state school superintendent, Davis Y. Paschall, spoke at the Druid Hills PTA meeting. He emphasized that the position where the best teachers were needed was in first grade as a child set his/her direction in life, and that the key to understanding was the spirit of cooperation between school and home. He also recommended reading to the child “when you’re both not tired” to capture “rare moments of close happiness and seal an enduring relationship.”
50 years ago – 1974
In the Stroller column in the Bulletin: Lewis Walker and Kenneth Meece of Collinsville had caught at the Philpott Reservoir “a string of the finest looking smallmouth bass” they had ever seen. They “bragged to some nearby fellows who had been water-skiing, then did their chores and drove off.” Next, they went to Wickline’s Drugstore in Collinsville to show the fish to more people. “Imagine their chagrin when they brought their friends to the vehicle to see the fish to find that the fish were missing.” They figured the water-skiers had taken them. “I don’t mind that so much,” Walker said; “They can keep the fish. I just wish they’d call Wickline’s and confirm that we did catch them. Nobody believes us.”
25 years ago - 1999
JC Penney announced that it would convert its department store at Liberty Fair Mall to a catalog outlet store. The merchandise from the catalog distribution system would be priced at 20% to 60% off original prices. JC Penney staff at the time included Frances Nance in basic logic management; Teresa Barnes, supervisor of customer service; Store Manager Mike Self; Karen Stegal, shoes and jewelry departments manager; Dawn Hawks, visual merchant manager; and another 55 full- and part-time employees.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.