Another Halifax County landmark has been lost - this time as the result of arson.
A spectacular Friday night blaze in Centerville destroyed the two-and-a-half-story home known as Hodges Hall despite the attempts of 40 to 50 firemen from four county fire departments to save it.
South Boston Fire Department officials estimated the loss of the colonial revival home built by Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hodges and owned by Mrs. Allen Fuller of Halifax and Hugh Edmunds Jr. and Holt Edmunds of Richmond at $300,000.
The house was not covered by insurance according to a family member.
State police arson investigator Special Agent L.D. Bishop said Saturday morning he is sure arson is at the heart of the blaze that destroyed the home.
"It's a 99.9 percent chance that it's arson," Bishop remarked.
However, Bishop was unable to say how or when the fire may have been set.
An initial search of the two and a half story colonial revival home that had been the homeplace of the Hodges family had not revealed the presence of accelerants, Bishop said.
Bishop, South Boston Police Investigators B.K. Lovelace and Wanda Garner and other State Police and South Boston police officers combed the house Saturday, taking samples and searching for clues as to what and who may have started the blaze.
"The fire originated in the high center part of the house," Bishop stated, "probably the attic.
"According to witnesses, just prior to the fire, there was a visible light in the second story."
Bishop and the South Boston police investigators are asking that anyone who may have any information at all about the fire to call the local Crime Stoppers hotline number.
"We have received reports that people have been seen going in and out of the house," Lovelace said.
"Reports came in that windows were being broken out of the house. We checked it out and didn't find anything.
"We've been routinely patrolling the property," added Lovelace.
The call to the fire was reported to the South Boston Fire Department at 7:58 p.m.
Firemen arrived quickly only to find that the fire had completely engulfed the house.
A factor that hindered firemen in attacking the blaze was that the nearest hydrants were approximately 1,000 feet away from the site.
Firemen had to set up huge amounts of hose to relay water from a hydrant located near the intersection of Routes 129 and 501 adjacent to the Subway restaurant and from another hydrant located at the entrance to the Centerville Trailer Park.
As a result, South Boston police had to shut down traffic on Route 129 between the intersection of Routes 129 and 501 and Wal-Mart for several hours.
The blaze had gotten such a head start that firemen needed more than an hour to bring it under control.
Twenty-six firemen and six trucks from the South Boston Fire Department were used in battling the fire.
Three trucks and a handful of firemen from the Halifax Volunteer Fire Department, two trucks and firemen from the Cluster Springs Volunteer Fire Department, and some firemen from the Turbeville Volunteer Fire Department joined the South Boston department in battling the fire.
Firemen were at the scene for approximately four hours.
Hodges Hall had long been recognized as one of the area's stately homes.
One floor contained a parlor, music room, side staircase, a rear bedroom, a kitchen and butler's pantry with a half-bath.
On another floor were four bedrooms and a sleeping porch and a balcony room.
The house also had a full attic and cellar.

A fire in the basement of Sunshine Mills on Thursday was probably due to human error, according to officials.
Wayne King, Halifax fire chief, said that a spark from a welding operation started the blaze, resulting in damage estimated at no more than $1,000.
"The welding crew did have the proper permits, and also fire extinguishers," King added. As a result, the fire was contained quickly.
Elements of the Halifax, South Boston and Scottsburg fire departments responded to the late afternoon blaze.
Fireman stayed on the scene for several hours to ensure that the smoldering remnants of the fire did not re-ignite.

Four students were arrested Friday afternoon and charged with disorderly conduct in the wake of an after-school disturbance at Halifax County High School.
Halifax County High School Principal Larry Clark said two of the students arrested were ninth-grade students at the high school.
The others were students at the new Halifax Career Center.
"This is just more of what we dealt with the evening before," Clark stated.
"I have no idea why these people can't get along with each other. But, obviously, they can't."
Clark said that there appears to be tension between some factions of young people in the community.
"I'm not privy to why there is a problem," Clark said yesterday.
"Unfortunately, when it spills over into the school, it becomes our problem to deal with.
"We are, unfortunately, in a position where we can only react," noted Clark.
"It is impossible to anticipate."
There was a much higher than usual police presence at Halifax County High School on Friday.
Clark said that the decision to have additional police officers at the school Friday, especially before and after school, was made following discussions held late Thursday, following a trio of incidents that occurred that day.
A total of 15 students, seven from Halifax County High School, were arrested Thursday in the wake of three incidents at the school.
One student, who was said to have been beaten by three others in an early morning fight, was taken to Halifax Regional Hospital for treatment of injuries he sustained in the incident.
The three individuals who were allegedly responsible for the beating were arrested after police and school personnel squelched the major altercation that occurred on a third-floor wing while students were making their way to their first classes of the morning.
Eleven students, 10 males and one female, were arrested by authorities in the wake of an after-school disturbance broke out in the school bus parking lot on Thursday.
Three of the students arrested in that incident were ninth-graders at Halifax County High School, six were students at the Halifax Career Center and two were Halifax County Middle School students.
Another Halifax County High School student was arrested Thursday at the school and charged with threatening a teacher in a separate incident.

South Boston Police are continuing to probe a Friday night shooting at Fairmont Apartments that miraculously resulted in no injuries.
According to a report filed by Investigator B.K. Lovelace, a car occupied by Marquis Medley and a juvenile whose name was not released, was fired upon by an unknown assailant shortly before 11:30 p.m.
The car occupied by Medley and the juvenile was struck eight times.
"The victim did not get a scratch," Lovelace said.
More than 20 rounds were fired, police said.
"The victim said a car pulled into Fairmont and the next thing he knew, somebody was shooting at him," Lovelace stated.
Lovelace is asking anyone having any information about the shooting to call the local Crime Stoppers hotline.
Officer Devin Snead, Officer Mike Moreno, Officer Dan Frazier, Officer Mike Williams, Officer Chris Carswell, and Lovelace responded to the call.

In other police reports:
A South Boston man was arrested Thursday by sheriff's deputies on charges of breaking and entering and grand larceny.
Rodney Jones, 28, of Bill Tuck Highway, faces three charges of breaking and entering with the intent to commit a felony, grand larceny and falsely reporting to police.
Jones allegedly entered in the nighttime the Amoco Cluster Springs Food Shop with the intent to commit larceny, stole Virginia State lottery tickets, beer and cigarettes valued at $200 or more and knowingly gave a false report as to the commision of a crime to a law enforcement officer with the intent to mislead.
The alleged grand larceny and breaking and entering occurred on February 8.
The alleged false report was given on February10.
· Lorenzo Dale Bailey, 33, of Hunting Creek Road in Nathalie, was arrested Thursday by sheriff's deputies on charges of breaking and entering with the intent to commit a felony and of trespassing.
Bailey was charged with breaking and entering in the daytime the dwelling house of Jackie S. Richardson with the intent to commit assault and battery and without authority trespassing or remaining on Richardson's property after being forbidden to do so.
The alleged offenses occurred on December 22, 1999.
Bailey is scheduled to appear in Halifax County General District Court on March 15.
· A Nathalie man was arrested Saturday by sheriff's deputies on a charge of brandishing a firearm.
Ricky Guy Davis, 38, of Sandy Ridge Road was charged with brandishing a firearm in a public place.
The alleged incident occurred on March 11, the day of the arrest.
· Jesse James Harris, 38, of Belt Boulevard in South Boston, was arrested Friday by sheriff's deputies on an assault and battery charge.
Harris allegedly committed the assault and battery, March 7, on Fannie Harris.
A hearing for Harris is scheduled in the Halifax County General District Court today.
· Larry D. McCraw, 35, of James D. Hagood Highway in Scottsburg, was charged with uttering a check drawn on Wachovia Bank in the amount of $117. 74 and made payable to Town and Country Thrift Shop.
The alleged offense occurred on December 24, 1999.
McCraw is scheduled to appear in Halifax County General District Court on March 17.

In other police reports:

A 17-year-old South Boston youth was charged with failing to yield the right of way Saturday morning after a two-car crash on Route 501.
Trooper S.M. Krantz said the crash occurred on Route 501, 100 feet south of Route 58, when the youth pulled a 1996 Ford from a parking lot into the southbound lane of Route 501 and into the path of another vehicle.
The trooper said the youth's vehicle was struck by a 1977 Oldsmobile driven by Henry Link, 56, of South Boston travelling north bound on Route 501.
Krantz estimated $800 in damages to Link's vehicle after the 11:30 a.m. crash and $700 in estimated damages to the youth's vehicle.

The General Assembly passed a $48.1 billion budget Friday night that included a $2.6 billion transportation package, one with $3.5 million to study the route of a four-laned U.S. 501 northward from Halifax County, and $30 million for U.S. 58.
Delegate W.W. "Ted" Bennett said yesterday that money for U.S. 58 is earmarked for the four-laning of a new John Randolph Bridge.
"We still have unresolved a bypass around Riverdale," added the delegate.
Bennett said that prior to the Virginia Department of Transportation's pre-allocation road hearing in Lynchburg this month, he plans to ask supervisors and the public if they favor the bypass for Riverdale or the four-laning of Randolph Bridge.
"There is not enough money for both," Bennett said.
Locally, Bennett said that the South Boston Museum will receive $37,500 this year and $75,000 next year for a total of $112,500.
The Continuing Education Center, whose sponsors had sought $300,000, received an additional $100,000 annually. Bennett was disappointed.
"It (the CEC) deserved more than it got and we will be coming back this year to make up that deficit," he pledged.
School teachers get a 2.4 percent raise. "The House pushed for 6 percent, but the Senate had a 2.4 percent raise," the delegate said. "The Gilmore administration had no money in for teacher raises."
Rivers and Waters
Both the House and the Senate passed Bennett's Toxic Substance bill.
"The bill puts more requirements on the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to prevent the misadventures of the past five years," explained Bennett.
In the past, DEQ had to monitor every five years. With the new bill, it must monitor every three years.
"And now when they find a problem, they have to develop a plan to locate the source and to remediate it," Bennett emphasized.
The General Assembly also approved a bill to require the state Water Commission to determine the feasibility and desirability of establishing an inner-government entity to manage and protect its water resources.
"The bottom line is we are tired of abuses being heaped on the Staunton and Dan (rivers)," Bennett said. "Tired of people messing with our rivers."
In other business, Les Osborne of Lunenburg County has been named a 10th Circuit Court judge. Judge Charles L. McCormick III of Halifax retired this year.

General Assembly
Working with the first Republican majority in the General Assembly, Bennett said that he was pleasantly surprised with House Speaker Vance Wilkins' "adeptness" at being speaker. The speaker must play a technical/ parliamentary role as he conducts House business.
However, Bennett, a Democrat, described "a lack of overall leadership from the governor and the majority party" during the General Assembly session. He described the session as "very uninspiring" and "sometimes disappointing."
"We certainly did not deal with transportation's or textile workers' real problems. We provided no relief of real substance."

Just mention Gov. Gilmore's textile relief plan and Del. W.W. "Ted" Bennett's temper flares.
"It is so wrong," he charged. "The Gilmore package is an illusion, the Land of Oz."
Specifically, Bennett points to the fact that the new legislation only covers employees who made $10.50 an hour and above.
"Gilmore's argument was that you can't just pick out one area of the state (to help)," began Bennett. "Two years ago, the siren's song came out of Newport News shipbuilding. We did $75 million to bail it out," recalled the delegate.
"In Northern Virginia, Bennett said they get 12 percent annual supplement to the counties to add to school teachers' salaries and state police salary supplements because the cost of living is higher.
"But we can't help poor people who make less than $10.50 an hour," shot Bennett.
It was Henry County Del. Ward Armstrong's bill that sought higher jobless benefits in high unemployment areas. Armstrong wanted an increase of up to $100 a week. Gilmore's bill raises the maximum benefit $38 a week statewide.
Unemployment skyrocketed to 20 percent in Martinsville and 15 percent in surrounding Henry County due to layoffs in the textile industry.
In Halifax County, approximately 400 Tultex workers lost jobs in December when the sewing plant closed in South Boston.
Yesterday, Bennett said that the new textile legislation will cover about 22 percent of all the workers in Martinsville and surrounding Henry County.
There was one positive note.
"We got Medicaid for eligible workers," said Bennett. " An extra $7 million was put in that. None of that from the governor's budget," he charged. "We had to fight the administration all the way for the textile workers."

The March meeting of the South Boston Town Council will take place tonight at 7:00 p.m.
The session will take place at the council chambers, 502 Yancy Street. Items on the agenda include:
· A public hearing on the Community Development Block Grant program for 2000.
· Announcement of the Virginia Dept. of Transportation public hearing to consider requests for transportation funding. That meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 29, at 10:30 a.m. at the Lynchburg VDOT office.
· An addition to the utilities section of the South Boston town code. This will include stormwater, surface water, groundwater, road run-off and other similar sources of water as pollutants that cannot be added to the town wastewater system.
· Resolutions honoring the memories of former councilman Shanks Wilborn, retiring BZA chairman Ronnie Crabtree, and long-time town employee Gloria Harris.

Following a short business agenda this evening, supervisors will meet in closed session to discuss the appointment of a county administrator.
Approximately 25 applications for the vacant Halifax County post had been received by late Friday afternoon, according to a county spokesman. March 10 was the deadline for applications.
Former Halifax County Administrator Dan Sleeper left the post March 1 to begin his duties as Pittsylvania County's administrator.

Wind gusts of 60 mph and more were the source of a power outage Saturday night that left about 1,300 residents of the South Boston area without power.
The storm, according to Ken Blackwell, a spokesman for Virginia Power, left residents without power for the duration of an hour due to a tree that fell on a line near the Sinai substation.
Bow echoes (strong downbursts of wind), according to Jan Jackson, meteorologist at the National Weather Service, were the source of destruction that downed trees and limbs throughout Halifax County.
The storm traveled up from North Carolina into Pittsylvania and Halifax counties and then up around Campbell and Charlotte counties.
Trees were reported down in both the northern and southern parts of Halifax County at around 8:00 p.m., according to Joe Barkley, resident engineer of the Virginia Department of Transportation.

"We're on target."
That was the word from Halifax County High School varsity baseball coach Kelvin Davis following his team's 8-4 scrimmage game win over Dan River here Thursday night.
"We still have some fine tuning to do," Davis remarked.
"But, I feel very comfortable with where we are. Generally speaking, we saw a lot of good things from the guys. I think we accomplished a lot."
The pre-season scrimmage served as a good tuneup for the Comets' which will open the season next week with a trio of games on tap.
Halifax County's season opening contest looms ahead Wednesday afternoon in Roxboro, N.C. against neighboring rival Person High School.
Then, the Comets hit the road Friday to face William Fleming in Roanoke.
And, they conclude their big three-game opening week with their home opener at 2 p.m. Saturday against Baldwin High School from Pennsylvania.
One of the big things about the scrimmage, Davis said, is that everyone contributed something.
Davis had pointed out earlier last week that the team's defense appeared to be ahead of the game and that thought didn't change in the wake of Thursday night's scrimmage.
"The defense is ready," said the Comets coach.
"I was very pleased with our defense. We got a lot of communication going on in the infield, guys were hitting the cutoffs and doing the little things that it takes to win ball games."
The 10 inning-scrimmage gave Davis a much needed opportunity to give everyone a good workout and a good look.
Todd Meadows started on the mound for the Comets and he and his fellow moundsmen Scott Adams, Michael Priest, Jonathan Wallace, Justin Smith, and Brian Medley pitched pretty much equal increments.
"The thing we tried to do was get them all in game situations," Davis said.
"I was pretty pleased. Some of the guys we had big question marks about really changed some thoughts we had."
In terms of how the Comets swung the bats, Davis said the team was "okay."
"We still need to work on our hitting," Davis pointed out.
"We have to work on adjusting to different pitches, how to become a good two-strike hitter, how to work situational things a little better, just fine tuning types of things."
While the Comets didn't do a bad job of it, Davis said the team's base running also needs some work.
"We need to work on things like getting a good jump off of the pitcher," pointed out Davis.
"We have to be aggressive. I'm a very aggressive coach. We're going to work to make things happen and not sit back and wait for things to happen."
Thursday night's scrimmage against Dan River had a Halifax County taste on the opposite side of the field.
Former players in Halifax County baseball programs, Jeff Stevens and Chase Hetzell, both of whom are sophomores, play for Dan River.
Stevens is the catcher for Dan River and Hetzell saw some action on the mound.
Stevens' dad, Mark Stevens, is the hitting instructor for Dan River.
"We threw four 15-year-olds," the elder Stevens said after the game.
"I was real pleased with what they did."
Stevens said that Dan River made a few errors which is something that you expect with a very young team.
"I think you'll see us up there (at the top) next year or the year after," he said.

Eunice Jones Richardson, age 80, of 1133 Bellevue Road, Halifax, died March 9, 2000, at Halifax Regional Hospital.
Mrs. Richardson was born in Halifax County on December 13, 1919, the daughter of Henry Thomas Jones and Eudora Clay Jones and was married to Ellis Gunn Richardson.
Graveside services were held March 12 at 2 p.m. at Halifax Memorial Gardens with the Rev. Dane Skelton officiating.
Survivors of Mrs. Richardson include two daughters, Jean R. Cranford and Martha R. Chandler, both of Halifax; one son, Phillip G. Richardson of Danville; one brother, Herbert E. Jones of Alexandria; five grandchildren; six great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider the Southside Virginia Chapter of Alzheimer's Association, PO Box 310, South Hill, 23970.

Glen Curtis Chandler of 111 Rose Hill Apartments, South Boston, died at his residence at the age of 37.
He was born in Halifax County, on November 5, 1962 and was the son of James H. Chandler and Hazel Chaney Chandler.
Mr. Chandler is survived by one son, Soajario Traynham, of South Boston; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James Chandler, of Halifax; three sisters: Janet M. Wood and Sherry Armstrong, both of Newport News; and Mrs. Sandra Suitt of Durham, NC; one brother: James A. Chandler, of Halifax; one sister-in-law; one brother-in-law.
Funeral services for Mr. Chandler will be held today (Monday) at 2:00 p.m. with services at St. Paul C. M. E. Church with Elder William Howerton officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.

Paul G. Quinn, 19, of 120 Whicker Drive, Hillsborough, NC died suddenly Thursday from injuries sustained in an auto accident in South Boston.
Mr. Quinn was the son of Ms. Rosalinda Russell Quinn of Hillsborough, and Eddie Thomas Quinn, Sr. of South Boston.
Quinn was employed by Daniels Paving Service and had attended Abundant Life Church in Hillsborough.
He is also survived by his brother, Eddie Thomas Quinn, Jr. of Hillsborough; a half-brother, Fred Quinn, of South Boston; and his half-sister, Anita Lynn Glass, of Nathalie.
Funeral services will be conducted today (Monday) at 11:00 a.m. in Abundant Life Church in Hillsborough with the Rev. Rocky Coyle officiating. Burial will follow int he Hillsborough Town Cemetery.