The Martinsville-Henry County Historical Society presents a free history program on the third Sunday of each month. The hour-long programs are held at 3 p.m. at the MHC Heritage Museum, 1 E. Main St., Martinsville.
To recommend a speaker or topic, email mhchistoricalsociety@gmail.com or call 276-403-5361.
Upcoming programs and their speakers will be:
Historic Gardens, with Debbie Lewis of the Garden Club of Virginia, 3 p.m. March 15
Not only buildings but also the grounds and landscape bring us back to the past. Join the MHC Historical Society on March 15 as Debbie Lewis, a former Garden Club of Virginia (GCV) president, talks about historic gardens.
The MHC Heritage Museum is the site of one of the GCV’s 41 historic landscape restoration sites. The grounds, of the former Henry County Courthouse, were transformed into a tree-lined plaza perfect for outdoor events and as a gathering spot which follows the tradition of Martinsville’s Public Square. In all, the GCV has completed 129 restorations at 52 different public spaces in the Commonwealth. These are the landscapes you know and love — Monticello, Montpelier, Poplar Forest, Executive Mansion Capitol Square, Mount Vernon, major universities and more. Funds for the restorations come from Historic Garden Week, which in Martinsville will be observed on April 22.
Everyone who attends this program will receive free perennial plants and/or bulbs for their own gardens because, of course, gardeners love to share and spread the beauty!
Laying the Past to Rest: A History of Funeral Traditions, with Jarred Marlowe, 3 p.m. April 19.
Jarred Marlowe takes us on a fascinating journey through how we care for the dead, from ancient mummification and early American burial customs to the rise of embalming, hearses, cremation, and the modern funeral home. He also talks about and how funeral traditions in Martinsville and Henry County evolved over the last century.
Marlowe is a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, a member of the Col. George Waller Chapter Sons of the American Revolution, a consultant for the Blue & Gray Education Society, and the chairman of the local Virginia 250 Anniversary Committee. He writes the “Community Chronicles” column for the Henry County Enterprise and, with Andy Doss, runs the YouTube video channel “Doss-Marlowe: His
tory in Sight.”
The Right Place, The Right Time – The Story of Ridgeway Clocks, division of Gravely Furniture Co., Inc., by Will Gravely, 3 p.m. May 17
The history of Ridgeway Clocks started exactly 100 years ago when Mr. R.P. Gravely and other local businessmen subscribed to $100,000 in stock to start a company to make furniture in the building in uptown Martinsville that at the time was that of B.F. and R.P. Gravely, being used for the manufacture of pins and brackets, etc., for telegraph and telephone companies. Gravely Furniture Company made household furniture until the early 1960’s when they started manufacturing grandfather clocks. The Martinsville Speedway has been giving a Ridgeway Clock grandfather clock as its race prize since 1964. In 1985, the Gravely Furniture Company was sold to Pulaski Furniture Corporation. In November 2004, Pulaski sold Ridgeway Clock to Howard Miller Clock Company in Zeeland, Michigan. Howard Miller announced they would shut down in 2025.
A Few Lines to Margaret: A Local Account of the First World War by Hunter Haskins, 3 p.m. June 21
Experience the emotional depth of America’s involvement in World War I through a series of 45 letters from a local soldier to his wife. These frontline love letters reveal the humor, dedication, tragedy, and love of the Lost Generation. Come join Hunter Haskins, a board member of the MHC Historical Society, as he brings the story of the Paschals back to life.
Haskins is the Assistant Director of the Salem Museum & Historical Society in Salem. He is a 2021 graduate of Roanoke College with majors in history and political science and a concentration in public/applied history. He has been a blacksmith with Ferrum College’s Blue Ridge Institute, a Carlisle School teacher and a volunteer for the Bassett Historical Center.
William Byrd: Laying Down the Line, by Garrett Channell, July 19
Garrett Channell, Executive Director of the Salem Museum, with a look at the life of William Byrd (1674-1744), a planter, surveyor, and member of the Royal Governor’s Council. The native Virginian got his education and then practiced law in England, then returned to his American homeland to make his impact. In the 1720s he served as the London agent of the House of Burgesses. He helped establish the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina, a task which placed him in modern day MHC. His diaries and manuscripts live on today in textbooks of American literature, showing both at once the values of British colonial gentry and the emerging American identity.
