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75 YEARS AGO
From the Greensboro Daily News, Sept. 5-11, 1935
Rockingham County schools will open Sept. 30 after a delay caused by difficulty in obtaining approval for funds to furnish the school buildings and additions through the Works Progress Administration and by the slowness of new buses in arriving.

Principals selected for county schools are Mason D. Fields, Wentworth; Paul Cragen, Ruffin High; J. Allen Lewis, Ruffin Elementary; L.W. Kelly, Stoneville; E.F. Duncan, Mayodan; O.M. Staton, Bethany; John Wagoner, Huntsville; W.T. Smith, Simpsonville; and Willis Campbell, Williamsburg.

A principal for Sadler School has not been announced yet.

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W.R. Lewis of Reidsville was in Greensboro on Thursday and sat in on a Guilford Superior Court trial of an automobile larceny case involving Charlie Rayle and Henry Garrison. Lewis parked his car on Sycamore Street but it was not there when he left the courthouse. He promptly reported the theft to Sheriff Joe Phipps. The car is a 1935 model Ford sedan.

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William Alfred Troxler, 63, a farmer who lived near Stokedale, died at St. Leo’s Hospital in Greensboro from injuries received two days ago in a fall. He suffered a broken neck.

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Dr. Ernest Reynolds has assumed his new duties as physician for Washington Mills  in Mayodan, succeeding Dr. M.L. Welch, who resigned to take up private practice in Georgia. Dr. Reynolds, a Bellevue Hospital Medical School graduate, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. B. Frank Reynolds of Madison.

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Blythe Brothers of Charlotte was low bidder at $25,306 for laying concrete on a .39 mile stretch of U.S. 158 in Reidsville.

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Fall dresses: $12.75

50 YEARS AGO
From the Greensboro Daily News, Sept. 5-11, 1960
Base Hospital 65, a World War I outfit whose members served in France, held its 39th annual reunion in Reidsville, with about 50 people including wives showing up for supper on the lawn at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Pinnix on Maple Avenue. Pinnix was commander of the unit during the past year.

The original strength of the unit was about 290 men, 100 nurses and 50 officers (doctors). About 250 are still living.

Base Hospital 65 was organized by Dr. John Wesley Long of Greensboro and most of its officers, nurses and men came from North Carolina. Most of those attending the reunion were from the Reidsville-Greensboro-Winston-Salem area but there were some from Florida and Pennsylvania.

Mrs. T.R. Snyder of Blowing Rock was elected president for the coming year. The 1961 reunion will be held Labor Day weekend in Blowing Rock.

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Representatives of an unidentified industry will look over about 180 acres known as the Terry farm, 1 mile northeast of Draper. Robert Moore of the Tri-City Chamber of Commerce said the industry, if it chooses the site, will establish a $25 million business and will need 125,000 gallons of water a day.

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Attendance for the fifth day of classes in Leaksville township reached 4,605, a gain of 70 over first-day enrollment but 107 less than the same day last year, School Superintendent John M. Hough reported. Douglas, Leaksville-Spray Junior High and Morehead High all posted significant gains.

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Tobacco auction markets on the Old Belt, including those in Reidsville, Stoneville and Madison, will begin sales Sept. 19, with prospects likely for a much better year than the last.

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The TUWA team of Leaksville placed seventh in the national slow-pitch softball tournament held in Toledo, Ohio. The Leaksville team won two games before falling to defending champion Yorkshire, Ky., 9-8 in the 40-team tourney. It earlier outslugged New Jersey 20-7 and the Toledo Mazis 17-5.

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Versatiler dress: $14.95.

25 YEARS AGO
From the News & Record, Sept. 5-11, 1985
Ammunition residue found on Susie Lynch’s hands indicate she probably fired a weapon just before she and Fritz Klenner were killed June 3 when Klenner’s Chevrolet Blazer exploded near Summerfield, according to the SBI.

“We aren’t saying she killed one or both children but that she most likely fired a shot,” a high-ranking SBI source said.

Susie Lynch’s two children, John, 10, and Jim, 9 were given cyanide and shot to death before the explosion. Susie Lynch was determined that she would not let her ex-husband, Thomas Lynch of New Mexico take them from her.

In another disclosure, the SBI official, who asked not to be identified, said ballistic tests showed that a rifle Klenner and Lynch traded at a Winston-Salem gun shop was the same weapon used to kill Susie Lynch’s mother-in-law and sister-in-law in Kentucky.

Kentucky officers believe the gun shop swap may have been made as Klenner and Lynch returned from Kentucky.

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The Eden City Council has agreed to pay Owen Kugel of Pennsylvania $5,000 a month for 12 months with Kugel giving the city a money-back guarantee that he’ll bring at least $2 million in investment to town within a year. Eden joins Reidsville in snatching up Kugel’s offer.

Rockingham County’s unemployment rate rose to 9 percent in July as temporary holiday layoffs in the textile industry swelled the ranks of the unemployed.

The rate was 7.6 percent in June.

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The annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon raised $20,237 in Rockingham County for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Volunteers operated telephone centers in Eden and Madison, and more money was raised through raffles, a merchants’ auction and gifts from Reidsville Jaycees, schools and Scout troops.

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The N.C. Shakespeare Festival’s touring production of “The Taming of the Shrew” will play in Reidsville on Sept. 19. The play centers on the efforts of Petruchio to win over ill-tempered but wealthy Katharina.

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Crepe dress: $140.

10 YEARS AGO
From the Greensboro News & Record, Sept. 5-11, 2000
Alexander Martin was well known in the state during his time — he was a colonel in the Revolutionary War, a six-time governor and prominent statesman. He owned a plantation in Rockingham County known as Danbury.

But where is he buried?

That is a question that has stumped historians for decades. It is known that he died at his estate in 1807 but where he is buried eludes researchers, such as Charles Rodenbough of Madison. Rodenbough and other local historians believe he is buried in the county but they can’t determine where.

According to one account, his body was removed from a vault on the plantation to a family cemetery about 15 miles from Reidsville. But, if so, no headstone was placed at the grave. Rodenbough and others have appealed to the state Division of Archives and History to dig up a potential site in the family cemetery but archivists have resisted this since it could set a precedent for locating the graves of other historical figures.

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Mayodan held its 14th annual Homecoming Festival and hundreds from out of town attended. A highlight of the festival was a street dance. This year’s festival was not as large as last year’s, which celebrated Mayodan’s centennial, but it was larger than any others.

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Fans of Chinqua Penn Plantation relived the Roaring ’20s at the plantation’s annual Gatsby and Stew Day Festival. The Stew Day was moved up from October so as not to conflict with Reidsville’s Downtown Festival. Besides serving homemade Brunswick stew, the festival featured a dance exhibition, hayrides, an antique car show, raffles, and house and garden tours.

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In a football game, Reidsville raced past Morehead High 28-13, gaining momentum by blocking a Morehead field goal attempt in the third quarter and carrying it into the end zone. Then the Rams put on an effective running game to secure the win.