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75 YEARS AGO
From Greensboro Daily News, Dec. 19-25, 1935
A fire erupted in the home of Robert Mayberry on Fontaine Street in Reidsville about 6:45 a.m. and spread to two other houses before firefighters could get a fire hydrant thawed enough to use.

The flames spread to an adjoining home occupied by Mrs. Mattie Chapman and both the Mayberry home and the Chapman home were consumed. The blaze also spread to the house on the other side of the Mayberry home occupied by Paul Farries, but firefighters were able to save this house although it was heavily damaged,

The Mayberry house, owned by Paul Scurry, was a complete loss and so were most of its furnishings. The Chapman house, owned by a real estate company, was a total loss but much of its furnishings were saved.

The Farries house, owned by R.L. Goolsby of Reidsville, was extensively damaged but its furnishings were removed before the flames reached it.

There were no personal injuries.

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A contract has been awarded to a Greensboro firm for a  three-story brick addition to First Presbyterian Church in Reidsville costing $10,000. The new wing, 32 by 34 feet in length, will be known as the Boyd Memorial Wing and is a gift of  Mary Boyd Gibrell as a memorial to members of her family who once attended the church.

It will have space for the education department and other activities of the church.

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Joseph T. Richardson, who delivered mail from the Benaja and Reidsville post offices for 30 years, has retired and has received a letter of commendation from Postmaster General James A. Farley for his long service,  beginning Nov. 15, 1905.

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Leaksville High School’s star halfback, Thomas Edwards, and Reidsville High’s superstar, Tom Rumley, have been chosen for the first annual Tobacco Bowl all-star game in Winston-Salem on Jan. 1. Both Rumley and Edwards will play for the western team in the game.

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The Dolley Madison Book Club held its annual Christmas party at the home of Mrs. Robert E. Labberton in Madison, and she and Mrs. J.J. Van Noppen were co-hostesses.

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Christmas gift: Silvertone radio, $24.95.

50 YEARS AGO
From Greensboro Daily News, Dec. 19-25, 1960
The $2 million, six-mile U.S. 220 bypass around Madison and Mayodan opened this week. The bypass is a strip of 24-foot heavy-duty asphalt paving, extending for 5.92 miles with three sections of dual lanes around interchanges.

Cost of grading, structures, right-of-way and paving was $1,950,000, with bids taken April 29, 1958, and work commencing shortly after that.

Another section of U.S. 220 around Stoneville is to be undertaken soon, according to T.A. Burton, seventh highway division engineer.

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Brochures with rules of the 1962 Fine Arts Festival and categories in which prizes will be given have been printed and are available in Rockingham County’s branch libraries and the headquarters library in Leaksville.

Dates for the festival will be Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 5-7, at Franklin Street School in Reidsville.

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Spray police Chief Wiseman Terry was released from Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem and was home for Christmas. The 44-year-old police chief was admitted to the hospital a week earlier after being shot several times.

Authorities have charged James Curtis Weatherman of Martinsville with the shooting, saying he took the police chief hostage and later shot him after forcing Terry to drive him to Philpott Dam, where he blackjacked and then shot the officer.

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Jerry DePriest of Spray was installed as worshipful master of Leaksville Masonic Lodge. DePriest, an operator at the Dan River steam plant of Duke Power Co., succeeds Andrew Collins Jr.

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The Rev. C. Bernard Smith, pastor of Wesleyan Methodist Church in Spray, has been elected president of the Tri-City Ministerial Association, succeeding the Rev. Harry Wood Jr. Other officers are the Rev. K. Edwin Fussell of the Leaksville Moravian Church, vice president, and the Rev. Fred Lippiatt  of Immanuel Friends Church, secretary-treasurer.

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Christmas gift: 17-inch portable TV, $148.

25 YEARS AGO
From Greensboro News & Record, Dec. 19-25, 1985
From Chinqua Penn Plantation to businesses, churches and the average middle class home, Rockingham County was clearly ready for the holidays.

Maj. Mae Harris and other members of the Salvation Army have decorated the traffic circle in Spray and put lights and pine boughs on the bridge approaching the circle.

In Reidsville, many downtown merchants have lined their windows with strings of tiny white lights that give the windows a glow.

Wreaths, bells, candy canes, lanterns and trees make utility poles alive with the spirit of Christmas in Stoneville, Madison, Mayodan, Reidsville, Eden.

Then, there are the homes, like that of Bobby Lambeth on Sandy Cross Road in the southern part of the county.

It is typical of how many Rockingham residents have decorated their homes — garlands across the front porch, electric candles in each of 20 windows and a 7-foot Christmas tree in a corner of the living room.

Multiply this many times over and you have a county that was well prepared for the arrival of Christmas.

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Snow fell for awhile Friday, giving the county a genuine winter look, but it also caused headaches, especially on the roads. The Highway Patrol reported about 25 wrecks and the county’s five municipalities reported 52 fender-benders. Two school buses were involved in accidents but no one was injured.

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The Eden Chamber of Commerce is compiling a list of retailers whose stock is at least 75 percent American-made. With funding from the county’s textile mills, the chamber plans to run newspaper advertisements naming those retailers that made the list.

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The Western Rockingham Board of Education said its capital improvement needs total $15.7 million, including $12.5 million for a new high school.

The capital improvement figures will be given to the county commissioners, who will take similar figures from the county’s four other school boards into consideration if and when a bond issue is called.

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Christmas gift: Variable power microwave oven, $218.98.

10 YEARS AGO
From Greensboro News & Record, Dec. 19-25, 2000
County officials are looking for a growth explosion in the coming years, but state officials think the county’s population will increase by barely 3 percent over the next 20 years.

County officials are optimistic for several reasons.

Federal Express has chosen the Greensboro airport as its newest location, and this should result in some businesses locating in Rockingham to be near the FedEx site.

Also a developer has made a deal for two industrial parks and a 500-home residential neighborhood, with the county and local government picking up certain costs associated with this.

Finally, Lowe’s is planning a building near Reidsville where several hundred people will be employed.

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Every Monday for 14 years, 15 women from Wentworth, Ruffin and Summerfield have gathered in the fellowship hall at Wentworth Presbyterian Church to chat and crochet afghans for poor people nationwide. The women call themselves the Friendship Group. When they have 10 to 12 afghans completed, they ship them to the Craft Yarn Council of America in Gastonia. The council then distributes the afghans to Red Cross chapters across the nation.

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Barry Weinberg has resigned as vice president of Rockingham Community College to become president of Fulton Montgomery Community College near Albany, N.Y. He has been at RCC three-plus years after spending 27 years at community colleges in New York, Minnesota and Maryland and two years at Guilford Technical Community College.

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Heather Casselberry has resigned as president of Chinqua Penn Plantation, eight months after being hired to improve conditions at the county’s largest tourist attraction.

Her resignation comes just two weeks after Chinqua Penn’s board announced it would close earlier than usual this year because of continuing financial problems.

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J.P. Carter, a former elementary school principal and mayor of Madison, died at age 85. Carter, a native of the county, joined the Army in 1934, serving in World War II and the Korean War and finally retiring  from the military in 1958. He then attended Wake Forest University, graduating in 1961 and joining the Madison-Mayodan school system.

He retired as principal of Elliott Duncan Elementary School in 1977 and that same year was elected mayor of Madison, a position he held for 12 years.