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75 years ago
From the Greensboro Daily News, Feb. 20-26, 1936
Three Madison women — Mrs. Minnie Smith, Miss Irene Money and Miss Lillian Ray— were resting fairly comfortably in the hospital following an accident on a bridge while approaching Greensboro.

Mrs. Smith had a fractured pelvic bone, Miss Money a broken left arm and Miss Ray a fractured collarbone. The vehicle’s driver, chauffeur Thomas Foy, and two other women in the car escaped with cuts and bruises.

The accident occurred when the vehicle skidded on ice at Horse Pen Creek just north of Guilford Battleground. Foy told Patrolman A.H. Clark he stopped to let two trucks pass and then he proceeded, getting across the first two of three bridges. But as he left the middle bridge, his car went into a skid and hit the abutment to the third bridge. It turned over and went into the creek.

Patrolman Clark noted there was an ice formation where the accident occurred. No charges were filed.

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The Works Progress Administration office in Greensboro has notified a committee working on getting a branch library in Leaksville that the project has been approved. Work is expected to start in a few weeks on a branch library of semi-colonial design on Boone Road. Cost is expected to be $8,000 to $10,000.

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A survey of the relief and employment situation in the county showed that the extreme cold and severe snows during the past two month have made the problem acute.

Although agencies are doing the best they can with what they have, it is not enough, and there are no federal funds for taking care of the poor and needy.

There are 140 cases in the county on relief, these being mostly old or infirm persons or dependents classified as unemployable.

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Hunter M. Mobley was elected president of the Reidsville Luckies at a meeting of the club’s new shareholders. It also was reported enough money was raised to carry the team through the year.

A couple of days later, Jimmy Maus, age 27 and a star catcher for semi-pro teams, was signed as player-manager for Reidsville.

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Lewis and Hall Securities has City of Burlington bonds paying 4.5 to 5.25 percent.

50 years ago
From Greensboro Daily News, Feb. 20-26, 1961
Jack Freeman, of Reidsville, a microwave relay maintenance engineer with American Telephone and Telegraph, is on loan from Western Electric in Greensboro and has been assigned for a year to the Dewline Project in Alaska.

In a letter to friend Steve Woodson, manager of radio station WFRC in Reidsville, he reported on the coldness of the nation’s newest state and traveling to Delta Junction which, he noted, “is not as large as Ruffin.”

He said he presently is working on the Rearward Communications System, which establishes communication links from radar sites that are part of Ballistic Missile Early Warning System to the SAGE headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo.

He’s not certain where he will go from Alaska but he looks forward to his return to “good old Reidsville” and a reunion with his wife, Mary Anne, and son Ricky, now 4.

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Douglas MacArthur Stanley, 18, was critically injured when the stolen car he was driving crashed into a tree in Reidsville as he attempted to get away from Reidsville police.

He was admitted to Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro with a brain injury, broken jaw, broken leg and crushed chest.

Police said he reached speeds of 70 mph during the chase.

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A full discussion of “County Planning and Zoning” will be heard at Wentworth High School, with counties in the Northern Piedmont Area Development Association participating. The session is sponsored by the Rockingham County Development Association.

Counties in the Piedmont association are Rockingham, Guilford, Randolph, Davidson, Chatham and Caswell.

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Both the Stoneville girls and boys scored wins in the Rockingham County basketball tourney, with the Stoneville girls edging Ruffin 43-41 and the boys beating Wentworth 49-41.

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Home Federal Savings and Loan pays 4 percent interest.

25 years ago
From the Greensboro News & Record, Feb. 20-26, 1986
The county commissioners have accepted low bids for a new $3.5 million governmental center in Wentworth, including one for $2.2 million from J. H. Allen of Asheboro for the general contract.

Other bids accepted are $73,474 from Plumbing and Heating Service of Greensboro, plumbing; $362,400 from Dick and Kirkman of Greensboro, mechanical; $250,231 from Sherman Canter Electric of Greensboro, electricity.

Construction is expected to start by March 19.

Because the bids were lower than expected, the commissioners were able to award contracts for additional work, such as a second elevator for $26,000 to serve the health department; $59,000 for a sanitary sewer system to run between the center and Rockingham Community College; $28,575 for an uninterrupted power supply for the computer room; and $7,500 for another entrance on N.C. 65.

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Stoneville Town Manager Michael Roche was fired by the town’s Board of Commissioners following an emergency meeting of the board because of what was described as communication problems among Roche, the board and employees of the town of 1,000.

“I wasn’t totally surprised,” said Roche, 34, who has been town manager since 1982 when Norman Newell, the first town manager, was fired.

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The five Lions clubs in Rockingham County have donated $6,000 to Morehead Memorial Hospital to help buy a $25,000 laser machine used for eye operations.

The clubs — two in Eden and one each in Reidsville, Madison and Mayodan — had set a fund-raising goal of $5,000 and exceeded it by $1,000.

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Rockingham County could lose up to $1.2 million annually if general revenue sharing by the federal government is halted under legislation passed by Congress in December. Some 30 municipal officials in the county adopted a resolution this week opposing the cutoff.

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Rockingham County High girls defeated Northeast Guilford 58-43 to take the Triad 3-A Conference tournament title. The Cougars were led by Cynthia Price, who scored 19 points, and Gretchen Cobb, who scored 15 of her 16 points in the second half.

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First Federal of the Carolinas pays 8 percent on $500 minimum 9-month certificate.

10 years ago
From the Greensboro News & Record, Feb. 20-26, 2001
Chinqua Penn, the county’s favorite but financially struggling tourist attraction, has received a grant of $100,000 from the county’s tourism authority, subject to approval by the county commissioners, who will meet March 5.

The grant would be disbursed in separate installments over three years. The tourism money is collected from the county’s hotel and motel occupancy taxes.

Chinqua Penn is state-owned but run by a local nonprofit foundation.

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A surprise snowstorm left Rockingham County with 3 inches covering the ground. Two school buses slid off icy roads. No one was hurt. Classes were canceled for the next day.

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Twelve-year-old John Orin Neal got his two younger siblings out of their Reidsville Housing Authority apartment and called 911 shortly after noon.

The younger siblings had started the fire by igniting a bed in a back bedroom and then went into an adjoining bedroom to take a nap.

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The Rockingham United Way met its campaign goal of about $1.4 million, the largest it has faced since the merger of Eden, Reidsville and Western Rockingham into a single United Way in 1998.

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Madison and town Manager Sharon Garner were named as defendants in a racial discrimination suit by firefighter Charles Carlton Dalton, who contends he was turned down for the chief’s job because of his race. The job went to Fred Butts, who began serving as the town’s first full-time fire chief in September and is the only employee of the otherwise volunteer fire department.