There was a time when the little community of Critz bustled with stores, businesses, a bank, a railroad, a mill, automobiles, and seemingly no shortage of enterprise. At the center of much of that activity was a man remembered as one who was always buying, trading, building, or trying something new—Bahnson Franklin “Bonce” Martin.
Bonce’s life would be tragically cut short in 1928, but during his years in Critz, he left an imprint upon the community that endured long after his death. At his side was his wife, Nannie Ware Critz Martin, a descendant of the family for whom the community of Critz was named. While Bonce lived only into his early fifties, Nannie would live to the remarkable age of one hundred.
Together, their lives span a fascinating chapter in the history of Critz.
Bahnson Franklin “Bonce” Martin was born November 28, 1877, to William Franklin Martin and Mazzie Brown Martin. Bonce was one of at least five siblings.
His paternal grandparents were Abraham Walker Martin and Elizabeth Jane Moore Martin. His mother, Mazzie, was the daughter of Nicholas Brown and Sally Martin Brown, all of Patrick County.
On March 6, 1907, Bonce Martin married Miss Nannie Ware Critz in Patrick County.
Nannie brought with her another deep connection to Patrick County history. She was the daughter of William Dalton Critz and Elizabeth Flippin Critz.
William Dalton Critz was the son of Gabriel Critz and Mary McFarling Dalton. Gabriel’s father was Revolutionary War Captain Haman Critz, for whom the community of Critz was named.
Nannie’s mother, Elizabeth Flippin Critz, was the daughter of Joseph Taylor Flippin and Sallie Ware Lyon.
Following their marriage, Bonce and Nannie began building their life together in the Critz community. Before long, Bonce Martin would become one of the most active businessmen in that little corner of Patrick County.
Bonce’s involvement in community affairs can be documented as early as 1910.
The January 12, 1911, edition of The Enterprise listed:
“B. F. Martin Registrar at Critz precinct for year 1910.”
By October of that year, another small newspaper item provides evidence of his growing business. The Enterprise reported on October 26, 1911:
“Mr. B. F. Martin has employed Mr. Harry Nelson to clerk for him.”
Business must have been going well.
On May 9, 1912, the newspaper reported that Martin was making preparations to have “a nice residence erected near his place of business.”
The new home soon became a gathering place for friends and neighbors.
On February 13, 1913, The Enterprise offered a delightful glimpse inside the Martin home when it reported that Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Martin had entertained a large group of friends at a dance.
The gathering was given in their “hospitable home” in honor of several warehouse men. Among those named were T. R. and T. O. Pepper, R. H. Ogburn, C. E. Morton, T. W. Hancock, R. P. Barnes and W. L. Wolfe.
Others attending included Mary and Julia Cooper, Mattie and Jennie Wood, Hess, Bessie and Bettie Tatum, Ashworth, Mattie Via, Pearl and Dove Brown, Rachel McCabe, Ruth Cooper, Susie Critz, Bessie Foster, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Critz, Mrs. Mary Hutcherson, Mrs. Joe Brown, Mrs. J. L. Hall, W. E. and C. D. Ore, Fleet McCabe, Posey Joyce, Hiram Tatum, G. F. Via, E. T. Reynolds, Will Ashworth, Noah Hamner, J. L. Via, Fayette Brown, Clarence Cooper, Russell Critz, Erastus Harbour Gillay and others.
Dancing continued until late in the evening, and refreshments were served around midnight. It was nearly two o’clock in the morning before the guests departed, declaring it one of the most pleasant evenings they had ever spent.
The newspaper summed up the evening with a wonderful description:
“This was an incident of true Virginia hospitality, and each one was welcomed as a royal guest.”
It is a little newspaper notice that allows us, more than a century later, to imagine the Martin home filled with music, dancing, conversation, food, and friends on a winter night in Critz.
While Bonce and Nannie were entertaining friends, Bonce was steadily expanding his business interests.
On May 8, 1913, The Enterprise reported:
“Mr. B. F. Martin has just completed a storage room for shipping flour and etc.”
Less than a year later, on April 16, 1914, another expansion was underway:
“Mr. B. F. Martin is having a large store house erected preparative for handling hardware.”
Martin was clearly a man willing to venture into something new whenever he saw an opportunity.
And in 1915, one of the newest opportunities rolling into Patrick County was the automobile.
On April 22, 1915, The Enterprise announced that B. F. Martin had purchased a new model Ford Touring Car.
He and Gordon Beach had traveled to Danville and brought the automobile back to Critz on Saturday.
Apparently, Bonce did not remain merely an automobile owner for long.
Less than a month later, on May 20, The Enterprise announced:
“It seems that the automobile craze has struck Critz.”
B. F. Martin had recently received a carload of Fords.
J. H. L. Tudor had already purchased one, while C. E. Marion, Eddie Tatum, and A. J. Hylton were reportedly expecting to buy automobiles within a few days.
What must it have been like to see a carload of new Ford automobiles arrive in little Critz in 1915?
Martin was becoming involved in a technology that would soon transform Patrick County and the nation.
His business continued to grow in other directions as well.
On April 29, 1915, The Enterprise reported that Rev. J. M. Martin had accepted a position as a salesman for his brother, B. F. Martin.
Then, on June 17, came word of another undertaking:
“Mr. B. F. Martin is preparing to erect a roller mill at this place, which will be quite a convenience to the community.”
Bonce’s enterprises were not only making a living for his family; many were providing services needed by the people around him.
Another prominent Critz businessman during these years was W. King Via.
On October 7, 1915, The Enterprise reported:
“Messrs. W. K. Via and B. F. Martin our hustling merchants made a business trip to Stuart last Tuesday.”
That little phrase—“our hustling merchants”—seems particularly appropriate for the two men.
The same newspaper item announced that Miss Ella Corn had accepted a position as a sales lady for B. F. Martin.
Ella remained with the business for some time. On July 20, 1916, the newspaper announced her departure in wonderfully colorful language:
“Miss Ella Corn, who has been sales lady for Mr. B. F. Martin for sometime, has resigned and we learn that she expects to float on the seas of matrimony soon.”
Bonce’s interest in automobiles continued.
On January 11, 1917, The Enterprise reported that B. F. Martin of Critz had purchased the business of the Patrick County Motor Company from J. B. Beach and had taken charge at the beginning of the year.
Two months later, on March 8, the newspaper reported that Hugh Marshall had returned to Stuart from Amelia to work at the Stuart Garage, where he would repair automobiles and sell parts and supplies for J. M. Flippin.
The article explained that Flippin had reached an agreement with the owner, B. F. Martin, to take over operation of the automobile repair and supply business formerly operated by the Patrick County Motor Company.
Bonce Martin had moved from buying his own Ford, to bringing a carload of Fords into Critz, to owning an automobile repair and supply business.
Yet business was apparently not his entire life.
On April 25, 1918, The Enterprise reported that Pearl and Ruby Brown, C. D. Ore, W. E. Brown, Beverly Grogan, and B. F. Martin made up “quite an enjoyable fishing party” the previous Thursday night.
It is another small detail that helps us see the person behind all those businesses.
As Critz grew, Bonce Martin continued to occupy an important place in its commercial life.
He became vice president of the Bank of Critz, serving alongside his fellow “hustling merchant,” W. King Via, who served as president.
Years later, Roosevelt Reynolds remembered just how important businesses such as these had been to the community.
In a June 6, 1995, Bull Mountain Bugle story about the little town of Critz, Reynolds recalled that people were distressed and worried when the bank at Critz closed in 1929. They “fussed and carried on” again in 1942 when the Dick and Willie train made its final run.
But Reynolds associated another turning point in the community with the death of Bonce Martin.
He recalled that business in Critz “went plumb plunk” after Martin died.
According to Reynolds, Bonce had “kept something going all the time—buying and trading all the time.”
That recollection is supported by the remarkable variety of enterprises associated with Martin during his lifetime.
Bonce and Nannie’s daughter Elizabeth—known as “Buck” Martin—was only ten years old when her father died.
Years later, she remembered him as a man “who would take a chance on anything.”
Her memories paint perhaps the clearest picture of the little business empire her father had created at Critz.
According to Buck, her father had seven buildings housing a garage with a mechanic; a feed house; a general merchandise store; a lumber house and plow sales; factory-built coffins brought into Critz by train; new automobiles; and, as she put it, “anything you could call for.”
Those buildings stood in the area behind the site of the store at the intersection of Routes 626 and 694 in Critz.
At one time, Bonce even operated a candy factory—the Blue Ridge Candy Company of Critz.
Buck Martin preserved a wrapper from one of the company’s coconut creme bars as well as some of the candy molds used by the factory.
Hardware, flour, feed, lumber, plows, automobiles, automobile repair, coffins, banking, oil—and even candy.
It is easy to understand why old-timers remembered Bonce Martin as a man who always had something going.
Sadly, it would all come to a sudden end in the summer of 1928.
On August 7, 1928, Bonce Martin was driving a car near Stuart when tragedy struck at a grade crossing on the Danville & Western Railway.
The Enterprise described it as “the most serious car wreck that has ever occurred in Patrick County.”
The automobile was struck by a westbound train approximately two miles east of Stuart.
B. F. Martin, Walter Craig, Robert Critz, and Luther Craig were reported as occupants of the automobile. Martin, Walter Craig, and Robert Critz were in the front seat, while Luther Craig was in the rumble seat.
The injured men were rushed to Stuart Hospital by passing motorists.
Bonce Martin died shortly after reaching the hospital.
Luther Craig suffered a fractured skull, broken leg, broken collarbone, and crushed shoulder, although the newspaper reported that he had regained consciousness and appeared to be doing well. Walter Craig suffered a broken arm, while Robert Critz sustained two deep cuts on his leg. Robert and Walter were treated at the hospital and sent home.
According to the newspaper, the train had been operating on schedule and sounded its usual warning at the crossing. The occupants of the automobile apparently did not hear it.
The train struck the automobile near the middle and demolished it.
The newspaper reported that Bonce, who was driving, was very deaf and apparently failed to hear the approaching train.
In a matter of seconds, one of the most active business careers in Patrick County had ended.
The following day, August 8, one of the largest crowds ever assembled for a burial service in Critz gathered to pay tribute to B. F. Martin.
Services were conducted by Rev. N. C. Turner and J. Mason Richardson, assisted by the combined choirs of the Stuart and Critz churches.
The flowers covered and surrounded the grave, which The Enterprise said testified, even if only “in a small way,” to the high respect and esteem in which Martin was held.
His pallbearers were T. H. Cooper, R. A. Henderson, C. E. Marion, Hon. W. L. Joyce, J. B. Via, Dr. J. T. Shelburne, R. A. Hirifield, J. L. Via, C. B. Cox, C. L. Ayers, J. H. Brown, and B. H. Tudor.
The flower bearers included Troy Carter, Taft Carter, Walter Moore, Arthur Tudor, Buford Tudor, Marshall Via, Richard Spencer, Richard Clark, Ellie Via, Marshall Brown, Charlie Shepard, Elmer Shepard, Cuthbert Via, Walter Craig, Robert Richardson, Billie Ayers, Cecil Ayers, Hardin Gilley, Russell Joyce, Jimmy Via, Hattie Clark, Joe Brown, Don Trent, and others.
The newspaper remembered Martin as “one of the leading citizens of Patrick County” who had been engaged in numerous enterprises both inside and outside the county and had taken an active part in all of them.
Perhaps the most telling tribute was this:
“Numerous persons have made the statement that no person could have been taken who will be missed more keenly than our deceased friend.”
Bonce left behind his wife, five daughters, relatives, and a host of friends.
“A True Friend to All”
A longer obituary appeared in The Enterprise on August 30, 1928.
It stated that Martin had been a prominent merchant at Critz for twenty-two years. At the time of his death, he was vice president of the Bank of Critz and president of the Martin-Ford Oil Company. The obituary also associated him with the Critz baseball team.
The writer remembered him simply as “a true friend to all.”
His pallbearers were the directors of the bank, while the flower bearers were members of the Critz baseball team assisted by other young men from the community.
Although Bonce was not a member of a church, the obituary said that “he had faith in and hope of life eternal.”
The tribute ended by asking his grieving family and friends to trust that someday the meaning of their sorrow would become clear:
“Not now, but with the coming years
It may be in the better land,We’ll read the meaning of our tears,And then sometimes, we’ll understand.”
It was signed simply:
“A Friend.”
Bonce’s death left Nannie a widow with five daughters.
She would remain a widow for the next fifty-three years.
While Bonce’s life had been filled with the rapid changes of the early twentieth century—new businesses, automobiles, banking, mills, and industry—Nannie became a living link between generations of Critz history.
Known affectionately throughout the community as “Aunt Nannie,” she had joined Critz Baptist Church in October 1896. By the end of her life, she had been a member of that church for an astonishing eighty-five years.
Nannie Ware Critz Martin died at her home in Critz on December 13, 1981, at the age of one hundred.
The December 13, 1981, Martinsville Bulletin described her as a member of the Critz family that had first settled the Patrick County community bearing the family name and reported that she was believed to be the oldest citizen in Patrick County.
Surviving were her five daughters: Mrs. Troy (Eldena) Carter of Patrick Springs; Mrs. Madeline Thomas of Appomattox; Mrs. Jimmie (Erna) Nance of Martinsville; Miss Elizabeth “Buck” Martin of Critz; and Mrs. Nannie Sue Burton of Critz.
She also left five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Her funeral was held at Critz Baptist Church, where she had worshiped for most of her long life. The Revs. Fred Gilley, J. C. Spence, and Bill Wilkins officiated, and she was laid to rest in the church cemetery.
Bahnson Franklin “Bonce” Martin and Nannie Ware Critz Martin lived remarkably different lengths of life.
Bonce’s ended suddenly in 1928, just as automobiles, roads, commerce, and technology were changing Patrick County. Nannie lived another fifty-three years, long enough to see changes her husband could scarcely have imagined.
Yet both remained closely tied to the little community of Critz.
The old buildings are gone. The Bank of Critz stands empty. The Dick and Willie no longer comes rumbling through. The Ford Touring Cars that once caused such excitement have long since disappeared from Patrick County roads, and the Blue Ridge Candy Company no longer turns out coconut creme bars in Critz.
But the stories remain.
And through those stories, we can still catch a glimpse of Bonce and Nannie Martin and of a Critz that once was—a community built by families, neighbors, merchants, dreamers, and entrepreneurs whose lives helped shape Patrick County.
Their story is another worthy chapter in the history of our Patrick Pioneers. For questions, comments, or story ideas, you may contact Woody at [email protected] or 276-692-9626.
