April 26

By Holly Kozelsky and Pat Pion

100 Years ago – 1924

Prices at N.F. Burge & Sons, Bridge Street, Martinsville, phone 26: Welch’s Grapeade, 20 cents; Paul’s Preserves, 25 cents and 40 cents; Table Pears, 20 cents; Prunes, 15 cents; 3 cans of cherries, $1; flake hominy or canned peas, 19 cents, 20 cents and 35 cents; ZuZus, 6 cents; graham crackers, 6 cents; Uneeda Crackers, 6 cents; tea, 40 cents per pound; Electrica Light Globes (no price given).

75 years ago – 1949

It was the third trial of the Martinsville Seven case, that of Booker T. Millner, 20. His sister, Leora Millner, 14, testified that she came by the scene and saw him standing on a bank some distance away from where Joe Henry Hampton was holding Ruby Floyd, and she warned her brother not to go down there because “Joe has a woman.” Their mother, Ila Millner, while sobbing, asked “the jury and judge to have mercy on my son.” As she said that, he broke into loud sobs and was still crying when led out of the courtroom at 1 p.m. for adjournment. After 1 hour and 47 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict, with death penalty.

In an interview with the Martinsville Bulletin, Sgt. C.C. Barker said the biggest hassle in police work was the way people – mostly women -- protested their parking tickets. The two main excuses were that the parking meter didn’t work or the person was “only gone two minutes.” The hardest thing he had to do, he said, was to get a drunk man off a horse; it ended up taking four other officers to help.

1960

The Patrick Henry Boy Scout District announced a two-week Canadian canoe trip taking place in August. They would be taking 30 boys on the trip costing each boy $135. Boys would need to take several classes in canoe training, camping, lifesaving, cooking, orientation and using fishing gear before going on the trip, as well as having a physical.

2550 seats in the West Grandstand were covered at Martinsville Speedway ahead of the weekend’s six events for Modified, Sportsman and Hobby stock car drivers. It was the first in a series of weekly events at the half-mile track.

50 years ago – 1974

City Manager Thomas B. Noland issued a parade permit to allow protesters of the county’s proposed land subdivision ordinance to march around the courthouse. About 1,000 protesters were expected to participate. Opponents of the ordinance included Joseph C. Hankins and Samuel Amos.

— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin accessed on microfilm at the Martinsville Branch Library.