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75 years ago
From the Greensboro Daily News, Jan. 9-15, 1936
Ray Goodson, 30, a farmer from Williamsburg township, was arrested by Deputy Sheriff Blaylock Robinson and charged with fatally shooting Fred Hall at the Goodson home.

According to Deputy Robinson, Goodson some time ago told Hall not to come to his house, suspecting him of affection for Mrs. Goodson. When Hall showed up at his house, Goodson slipped away to a neighbor’s house. There he borrowed a shotgun and returned home and shot Hall.

Then Goodson went to Robinson’s home, turned himself in and asked the deputy to have Hall taken to the hospital. But by the time Robinson showed up at the Goodson home, Hall was dead.

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The Reidsville tobacco market opened after Christmas, with sales of 201,453 pounds, averaging $31.36 per hundred pounds.

The following day the market sold about 175,000 pounds but the final figures for that day were not yet in.

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When a Reidsville jury found Ralph Evans not guilty of buying bootleg whisky, Judge E.H. Wrenn dismissed charges against Sam Meadows of possession and sale of whisky. The judge declared he couldn’t convict the bootlegger if the jury couldn’t convict the buyer.

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The Rev. George Henry of Chapel Hill has accepted the pastorate of Mayodan Episcopal Church, making his home at the rectory with E.F. Duncan. Rev. Henry also will be in charge of Stoneville, Walnut Cove and Germantown churches.

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Officials of the Bi-State League met and voted to continue the eight-team baseball league that includes Leaksville-Spray, Mayodan and Reidsville along with Danville, Martinsville, Fieldale, Bassett and Mount Airy. The league will begin play April 24 and go through a 19-game schedule ending Sept. 7.

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Fontana soda crackers, two one-pound packages, 19 cents.

50 years ago
From the Greensboro Daily News, Jan. 9-15, 1961
An old Reidsville house has new occupants and a new look. The new occupants — and owners — are Mrs. Horace O’Shea and her son Bill O’Shea. The new look is the restoration they made to the house on South Main Street.

Bill O’Shea is the county’s new librarian, returning to his hometown in August from The Citadel, the military school at Charleston, S.C.

At an open house, the O’Sheas showed off what they have done to the house, and visitors agreed it was a tasteful transformation. The house is at least 100 years old, having been built before the Civil War, although historian Bettie Sue Gardner can’t pinpoint the exact date. Thereafter the house was occupied by various owners.

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The Reidsville airport, unused for some years, was sold at auction to Reidsville Citizen Development Corp. for $45,000. RCDC, presuming its bid is not upset, plans to use the land for industrial sites. City Manager Joe L. Womack said the 155-acre tract brought a decent price, averaging about $300 per acre.

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Mrs. James E. Daugherty has been named general chairman of the United Cerebral Palsy Association’s march in the Tri-Cities on Jan. 19-20.

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Washington High School in Reidsville was clearly out of its league in basketball when it took on Dudley High of Greensboro, losing to the visitors, 65-43. Guard Harold Thomas of Washington led all scorers with 13 points, but no one else from Washington scored more than 7.

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John W. Driscoll, son of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Driscoll of 103 Driscoll St. in Reidsville, has completed a 14-week course at the Electrician’s Mate School at the Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Ill.

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Flour, plain and self-rising, 24 pounds, 85 cents.

25 years ago
From the News & Record, Jan. 9-15, 1986
The 1965-66 Morehead High basketball team won the state championship over Radford Hoke High, staging a last-minute rally that remains vivid to its starting team to this day.

Coach Hugh Citty called a timeout, with less than four minutes left, and inaugurated a new strategy.

He put in new guards Gene Luna and Frankie Westmoreland and instructed his team to play a man-to-man trapping defense.

This combination forced Radford to turn the ball over six straight times, allowing Morehead to post a three-point victory, 82-79.

Today the victory is vividly remembered by the starters, Dale Manuel, Mike Harris, Barry Hopkins, Garry Minter and Johnny Baker.

Six members of the team played college basketball, another played college football, 11 earned undergraduate degrees, and six added master’s degrees.

Baker became a physician, Carter an assistant professor with a doctorate in medieval history. Westmoreland remained in basketball, winning a state title in Florida and moving to East Guilford two years ago. Coach Citty remained at Morehead until 1968 and then took a position as head of physical education at Rockingham County Community College.

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Unifi of Greensboro announced it will buy Macfield Texturing’s two yarn plants in Mayodan for $40-45 million to increase its production of undyed textured polyester yarn.

Macfield employs 600 hourly workers and 60 salaried employees at its two plants located side-by-side on Ayersville Road near the Madison town limits.

But not all those workers will be needed by Unifi, according to Billy Armfield, Macfield president.

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The joint recreation department of Madison and Mayodan has been given the Madison-Mayodan Recreation Building and the former YMCA building by Tultex Corp. of Martinsville. The gifts will make it easier for the joint department to obtain state and federal grants.

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Pennsylvanian Owen Kogel, who has promised at least $38 million in development to the downtown areas of 20 North Carolina cities, said his business is healthy and most of his projects are on schedule.

Concern about Kogel’s ability to deliver on his promises developed recently when it was disclosed the company, OK Associates, had closed its Raleigh offices and his top aide had resigned to start her own development firm.

Among the towns signing with Kogel are Reidsville and Eden.

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Nabisco Premium crackers, 16-ounce package, 99 cents.

10 years ago
From the News & Record, Jan. 9-15, 2001
With Mayodan having given a Winston-Salem group authority to develop what used to be the town of Avalon, some myths about the former town are being exposed.

Mayodan began along the Mayodan River in 1896 when a cotton mill was built. Then the same owner built another mill a few miles north, again along the Mayo, in 1900. The two towns grew side by side until 1911, when fire destroyed the Avalon mill, prompting the owner to move the workers’ houses to Mayodan, protecting his investment, and merging the towns.

But with that movement went some myths, says Historian Violet Young, who has researched the towns’ histories for several years.

Foremost among these: The Moravian Church in Avalon moved to Mayodan. It did not. Rather the Mayodan church organized the Avalon congregation, and when the Avalon church was closed, two men bought the building and used the wood to erect outbuildings behind their houses.

Another myth: The Vaden house, which was built before Avalon and set at the center of the town, was later burned by the Mayodan volunteer fire department as a training exercise. One of the few buildings not owned by the cotton mill company, the house was moved and not burned down. That was another house. The original Vaden house now sits on Third Avenue.

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It may be financially unfeasible for Mayodan to annex 139 lots along N.C. 135 east of town. According to Ginger Booker of the Triad Council of Governments, it would take Mayodan 14 years to get its money back from the annexation.

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The county Board of Education adopted a school calendar that calls for schools to open in the coming year on Aug. 15, the day preferred by an overwhelming number of parents who responded to a survey sent out by the school administration.

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Bethany Community Middle School, the county’s only charter school, is not only financially stable but looking to increase enrollment midway through its first year.

It also is offering diverse electives in a rigorous core curriculum and small class sizes and has volunteer support, according to Headmaster Mark Richardson.