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75 YEARS AGO
From Greensboro Daily News, Dec. 12-18, 1935
Aunt Carolina King, who was born a slave but lived over half of her life as a free woman, died at age 117 at her home about 15 miles from Reidsville.

She was born March 27, 1818, according to a record left by her owner, and was one of the most loved and best-known slaves in the Reidsville section.

She originally belonged to the Tucker plantation, and when that plantation was willed to the adjoining James Meador plantation, she became a part of the Meador possessions.

She finally was freed in the Civil War and lived for 87 years as a free woman until her hair was white and her face was lined with wrinkles. She was buried at Jones Chapel and a large number of white friends, as well as black ones, attended.

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The Reidsville tobacco market closed for the Christmas season with sales of about 170,000 pounds, which brought the total for the season to 10.1 million pounds. Sales to date exceed last year’s by more than 2 million pounds and equal to seasonal figures for the 1932-33 year.

The pre-holiday poundage assures the Reidsville market of more than 11 million pounds by time the market closes in February.

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Warner Ray of Mayodan was found guilty in Reidsville Recorder’s Court of reckless and drunken driving and was fined $200 and his license revoked.

He was charged following an accident on the Reidsville-Leaksville Highway on the night of Nov. 11 in which Judge Lane of Leaksville was seriously injured while riding in a car driven by Dr. Millner of Leaksville. Ray noted an appeal after pleading not guilty and contending he was blinded by a spotlight on Millner’s oncoming car.

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The American Legion auxiliary met in joint session with the Legion in the Eastern Star Hall in Reidsville. A short memorial service was held for Mrs. M.S. McClellan, whose untimely death came less than a month after she was installed as state president of the American Legion Auxiliary.

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The Draper YMCA boys defeated Bassett 48-33 in a basketball game played on Draper’s home court.

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R.S. Dickson & Co. is selling municipal bonds paying up to 6 percent.

50 YEARS AGO
From Greensboro Daily News, Dec. 12-18, 1960
Spray police Chief Wiseman Terry, 43, was in serious condition in Winston-Salem Baptist Hospital with gunshot wounds reportedly inflicted by ex-convict James Curtis Weatherman of Martinsville.

The events leading up to the shooting began late in the evening when Terry was called to assist Rockingham County deputy sheriffs investigating a break-in at Snow Hardware Store in Spray.

Chief Terry, in uniform but driving his own car, headed to the store, but near the scene, saw a man tampering with an automobile. When he stopped to investigate, the man — Weatherman — drew a revolver taken from the hardware store, opened the door to the chief’s car, climbed in, and after taking the chief’s gun, ordered Terry to drive north across the Virginia state line.

At the edge of Philpott Reservoir, Weatherman allegedly hit Terry in the head with a blackjack, pushed him out of the car and shot him several times.

After Weatherman fled, Terry got back in his car but made it only a short distance before the car ran out of gas. He staggered to a nearby farm house to call for help.

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Voter fraud cases originating out of Draper town elections two years ago have been resolved finally, with a Superior Court jury and Judge Hubert Olive finding defendants not guilty or non-suiting certain charges. Those cleared included Spray Town Councilman David Cook and cousins Herman and Jack Hopper.

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A strange tale of four convicts finding $8,000 in a paper bag while working on a highway was told by William Walker, who said he hid the money in a log until he was released from prison and then retrieved it with three other convicts. It turned out the money was counterfeit and the men were arrested for passing counterfeit money. They are awaiting trial.

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The new Madison-Mayodan High School is open and now local school officials are working on getting the school accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. They hope to have the accreditation completed by December 1961, school Superintendent V. Mayo Bundy said.

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The removal of Fieldcrest Mills’ electric blanket division is almost complete, Fieldcrest President H.W. Whitcomb said. The division is being moved to Smithfield where a building has been erected by the Sel-Field Area Development Corporation made up of Selma and Smithfield residents.

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Home Building and Loan Association is paying 41/2 percent interest on savings accounts.

25 YEARS AGO
From Greensboro News & Record, Dec. 12-18, 1985
Morehead Memorial Hospital honored longtime supporter Harold W. Whitcomb by dedicating the star on the hospital’s Tree of Life to him at ceremonies for lighting the tree on top of the hospital.

Whitcomb, left invalid by a stroke in October 1976, is a former president and chairman of Fieldcrest Mills.

He has been supportive of the hospital since it was bought from two doctors in 1958 and reorganized as the publicly owned Tri-City Hospital.

He served as the first president of the hospital’s board of trustees.

He was responsible for Marshall Field and Co.’s $50,000 gift as the community’s portion to match Duke Endowment’s $45,000 gift for the purchase and initial operation of the hospital.

Thereafter, when it was determined a new and larger hospital was needed, he headed the campaign committee and got John Motley Morehead to contribute $100,000. He also oversaw a campaign among mill workers that raised $250,000.

Since then, he has led a committee that got the hospital’s diagnostic center built. The center is named after him.

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State Sen. Bill Goldston is waging a campaign to clean up litter dumped along Eden streets.

He and a Department of Transportation official are planning meetings with fast-food chains and beer brewers to persuade them to fund programs to stop pollution and use pamphlets, newspaper and television advertisements in their education program.

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Eden’s school cafeteria has turned a profit so far this year and this may prevent an increase in lunch prices, according to Tom Olson, a member of the Eden school board. The cafeteria profit-loss sheet “looks a lot better than it did at the beginning of the year,” Olson reported to the school board.

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Cindy Barber, 16, of Route 2, Ruffin, has received a $1,000 scholarship from the Quaker Oaks Co., sponsor of a national 4-H program on plant and soil science. She is one of six national winners of the scholarships.

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Morehead Panthers whipped Madison-Mayodan 91-57, taking a 30-12 first quarter lead and never looking back.

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1st Home Federal is paying 9.63 percent annual yield on $10,000 minimum deposit held four years.

10 YEARS AGO
From Greensboro News & Record, Dec. 12-18, 2000
The N.C. Gospel Music Hall of Fame has chosen Mayodan as its future site.

The hall will go into an old textile mill on the edge of town first known as Washington Mills and later as Tultex Mills. The plant has been purchased by Unique Promotions and Properties.

Dale Swiggett, a partner in the development group, said the hall will feature exhibit space and a 1,500-seat performance area, taking up 66,000 square feet on the first floor.

Swiggett has been working with The Hoppers, a nationally known gospel group from Rockingham County, to organize the Hall of Fame.

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The Reidsville City Council agreed to annex 242 acres off Business 29, a half mile outside the city and straddling 29 and Crutchfield and Wolf Island roads.

The council’s action clears a hurdle for Project Homestead, a nonprofit Greensboro group that owns the land and wants to build a housing development there.

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Rockingham District Attorney Belinda Foster offers a worthless check program that merchants use to collect on bad checks. The program, which has collected $155,000 for local business owners since it began in December 1997, calls for merchants to ask the prosecutor to seek out worthless check writers and give them an option of paying the balance owed on the checks and a $50 fee or face criminal prosecution

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The Mayodan Town Council unanimously approved turning the land where Elliott Duncan School once stood into a park, featuring a gazebo made with bricks and slate from the school as well as playground equipment.

The school was torn down after being damaged by a tornado in March 1998.

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Annie Penn Hospital’s medical staff has elected Dr. Sethu Krishnam as chief of staff for the coming year and Dr. Mark Boles as chief-elect.

Other officers are Dr. Luis Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer; Dr. Michael Rourk, chief of medicine; and Dr. Carroll Haines, chief of surgery.