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What's New - 2007
12/01/07 We're grateful to Marc and Janice Swing for sponsoring the Web site in December.
The Photo of the Month for December is of a landmark remembered—and missed—by many, the legendary old bandstand in the park down near the river below Pine Street, where the town band gave concerts on Sunday afternoons.
We're slowly expanding our Profile section under History. This month we profile George Kelly (G.K.) Moore, builder of nearly every structure in Cliffside, as well as the railroad.
Under Family Stories, we present a brief essay on the life of Robert Haney, Revolutionary War soldier and ancestor to the four Haneys who occupy the oldest graves in the Cliffside Cemetery.
In Odds and Ends, we have fragments of a letter that, at this very moment, may be in your mailbox. It's from Cliffside's own Robin Talbert, who, at our request, has sent us a personal note. Also in the "local girl makes good" department, a clipping from 1939 about Elizabeth Hendrick making her mark at Salem College.
We've found a news feature published long ago (1903) in The Sun describing the "Cliffside Style" of marriage. In short, it was 1) leave the mill, 2) run across the state line and 3) tie the knot. It's under In the News, Miscellaneous. And, in the same section, from 1911, a columnist who called himself "Corn Cracker" writes of his trip to the thriving, impressive town of Cliffside.
10/31/07 Many thanks to November's sponsors of Remember Cliffside, Gene and Nancy Matheny.
Recently sponsorships have been "sold" to: Sam Davis, Jim Ruppe, Carolyn Waters, Phillip White, William Wallace and Jim and Juanita Haynes. What a remarkable response to this campaign! We're now "selling" months in the year 2011. But don't let up, let's fill up a decade with support.
In the Nov-Dec edition of The Cliffside Chimes (the new name for the Society's newsletter) we published Don Bailey's history of the Haynes Grove Baptist Church. We've republished it here along with an account ot the church's centennial celebration and homecoming , and a collection of photos of the church and some of its its members.
We all know of Mr. D.C. Cole's musical background, but few are aware of his experiences in the Army in World War I. Some of them are revealed in an article, Rutherford Boys Help Crash The Hindenburg Line, which he wrote for the Courier in 1942.
Under Memories, News Stories, we've placed the death notices (from The Forest City Courier) of two very prominent figures in the area's history. The news of the well known dentist of Avondale, Dr. J.F. Whisnant, appeared on Feb. 6, 1936. He was one of R.R. Haynes original “Cliffside” partners. And on Dec. 7, 1939, readers learned of the passing of Dr. J.M. Allhands, Cliffside's physician for 27 years.
Underneath every house in Cliffside there was a pile of coal. It was a vital commodity—for the mill, the railroad and our homes. Not that we gave it much thought, but sometimes coal, or the shortage of it, could have presented the town with a serious problem.
A “passel” of very interesting Reader Comments have poured in lately (16 in all). To make sure you see them all, the new ones will henceforth appear on the same gray background color.
Remember the races on East 5th Street they called the Mud Cut Derby? Here's an old photo to refresh your memory.
November's Photo of the Month was taken in the Spring of 1937. It was Florence Greene's 11th birthday party, held behind her Shelby Highway home. A lot of pretty little Cliffside girls were there. Perhaps you were one of them.10/01/07 Our sincere appreciation goes to this month's sponsor of Remember Cliffside, Myles Haynes, Jr.
Pictures! Pictures! Pictures! In the Callahan Collection, there are 114 of them, all made by the late Frances (Mrs. Jim) Callahan in the late '30s and early '40s. The collection is a nostalgic review of how we lived in those troubling times. Thanks to Riley Callahan, son of Frances, for contributing these wonderful photos.
We've added two Little League team photos from the 1970s in Galleries, Groups, Sports starting here. And there are two new photos in the Cliffside Steam Station gallery (#1 and #3 of 11).
In an old email R.G. Watkins sent us several years ago, we ran across an overlooked bit of trivia, which we've put at the top of his Flashbacks page. Rgee passed away on September 14 at the age of 86. He was a good friend and supporter of—and contributor to—Remember Cliffside. We will miss him and honor his memory.
Grover Haynes, Horton Landreth, Joyce Hunter and Steve Carroll (in the name of the McKinney-Landreth Funeral Home) have sponsored one or more months of the Web site.
On the front page, in the article October Weekend, there's a link to the official flyer for the Friday night event, the Society Gathering. Also there's a link to another event on that Saturday: The contents of the old Baptist church are being auctioned off. Here's the official notification.
October's Photo of the Month is of a filling station, yesterday's version of today's self-serve/food store/hamburger joint/drive-through carwash/ATM machine/Slim Jim emporium.09/10/07 James Price and Marc Dedmond have each sponsored the Web site for four months, spread over the years 2008-2009. Thank you. 09/02/2007 Ashley & Ginny Reid have sponsored the Web site for the month of July for the next three years: 2008-2009-2010. Thank you. 09/01/07 Like all mill towns Cliffside had a handful of home-grown musicians, but few had a man who could play like Dewey McDaniel. Read Music Makers in the Memories section.
No joking, back in 1941 Rutherford County farmers became afraid they couldn't get enough kudzu to stop all the erosion on their land. If the issue arises again any time soon, we know where to find plenty of the hateful stuff. Read "A Shortage of Kudzu?" in History, Articles.
A couple of interesting Readers' Comments (interesting, as they all are) from Shirley Crawford Thompson and Jim Ingram.
In Odds & Ends, there's a memory-evoking advertisement for the great 1938 Cleveland County Fair.
Our Society membership list has been updated. You may soon get an email or postcard if it's time to renew your annual membership.
In other Society news, we're seeking sponsors to help defray the Web site's monthly hosting fee and related costs. For only $25 you can underwrite an entire month of Remember Cliffside. We'll name the current month's sponsor on the front page, and provide a list of all past and future sponsors on a page in the Society section.
September's Photo of the Month offers a snowy view of N. Main Street, circa 1918, with a rare view of both the first Baptist church and first school building and the houses that surrounded them.
In Landmarks, in Our Own Little Stonehenge, we resurrect the remains of the old railroad trestle north of town, and answer some old questions with some present day photos.
Under In The News, in the Profiles section, is a 1939 write up from Clarence Griffin's "Our Neighbors" series in the Courier on Cliffside's Kenneth McMahan. And in the Community section, there a Cliffside News column from September 1938, probably the longest community column ever written. It just goes on and on. A couple of items caught our interest. We've highlighted them in red.08/01/07 In Did you know? you'll learn that around 1915 the Company began providing electricity to the workers, but with strict rules. Find out what they were.
The bypass was built, at the urging of Cone Mills, so the whole town would no longer be “tied in a knot” when the time came for changing shifts at the mill. It tied in nicely with Cone's "redevelopment program," to demolish the mill houses and establish trailer parks.
Back in the day when Cliffside Railroad carried passengers, its officials could apply to other railroad lines for one-time-only or annual “rail passes,” permits to ride free of charge from Cliffside Junction to anywhere their rails happened to go.
Riddle's Creek is a modest little stream that begins in the woods northeast of town and ends up in the Broad River just below the bridge. We consider it one of old Cliffsides important landmarks.
In the Landmarks section we've added a number of pages on the Cliffside Cemetery, including a history and maps of the cemetery by Horton Landreth, and W.D. Floyd's listing made in 1997 (plus an alpabetized version of his listing). Also there's an image of a 1937 cemetery deed for George Dedmond.
We've expanded The Tomb Builders project in the History section by adding two photographs (#6 and #7) found in the Blanche Edwards Campbell collection.
In Current Events there's an article called "Not Your Grandfather's Mill House." The new houses in Cliffside may look like grandpa's from the outside, but the similarity ends there.
The Photo of the Month for August is another look at "mill life" about 90 years ago. Twenty nine workers stepped out of their workplace and posed in a wonderous landscape of flowers and shrubs beside the mill.07/01/07 It was begun in 1835, making it one of the oldest organizations in the county that still exists. It's located on High Shoals Road, in High Shoals Township (but if you've always referred to it as "High Shoals Church," with an "s", you've been wrong). Read The History of High Shoal Church.
Our Photo of the Month for July is a great picture of the Cliffside Mills office (as it looked in 1908). Standing around it are three people without whom there would have been no Cliffside.
In our Documents section there's a signed 1909 letter from R.R. Haynes (a rarity) ordering an elevator. It reveals the simplicity of the times and Mr. Haynes' persuasive way of doing business.
There's an update on the 1930 story of the murder of Sallie Tate by her husband George. What happened to George Tate after he then shot himself? Did he die? Did he survive and go to prison? Find out by following the trail on the Updates page.
We, of course, knew the High School teams and yearbooks were called the Cliffdwellers, Old Gold and Black, The Eagle and, in the 1920s, the Purple Cloud, but we didn't know about this name until we laid eyes on The Cliff Climbers, the Cliffside High yearbook for 1941.
Look up your old phone number, if you had one, in Rutherford County's 1948 phone directory. The most fun in this old book is the advertisements, especially their graphics and slogans.05/31/07 Ron Arrowood sent us June's Photo of the Month, a rare glimpse of “downtown” Cliffside in 1909. It reveals a forgotten fact about one of our most prominent landmarks.
Ron also shares some old news about an “explosive” event in Forest City in 1893.
In Family Stories, the latest addition is on a popular figure around Cliffside, Esper Brown. Ever wonder how the name “Esper” came about? Find out here.
Get out your reading glasses. In The County, under History, we lead you to the 36-page Reminiscences of Christenberry Lee, a minister who was born, and lived much of his life (in the 1800s), in the High Shoals area. The people he writes about includes R.R. Haynes—and Nancy Hollifield, who he describes as 115 years old.
We've added the final seven chapters (41 through 47) of Robert K. Hollifield's memoirs.
There is an update for last month's article “Over There,” about Robert Cone Elliott and his experiences in France in WWI.
The class of '57 recently celebrated their “golden” anniversary. It occurred to us that it would be appropriate that we digitize their yearbook. So here it is, The Cliffdweller of 1957.
Bobby Jones, once a youngster in the Shiloh community, shares his memories of a big event in his early life, in The Trip to Cliffside.
A few more readers have sent their comments our way. No complaints so far.05/07/07 The Guest Book is once more in operation. Guess the spammers just got tired and slithered away. 05/01/07 “Cliffside Sketches”, JoAnn Huskey's collection of accounts of our town's life and people, resumes this month with a profile of Steve Dobbins and a few stories about his childhood.
Around 3:00p.m. on July 21, 1979, four men in a stolen light blue van robbed the bank at Cliffside. What's your alibi? The story from The Shelby Star is another addition to our Crimes section.
May's Photo of the Month is of an early resident of Cliffside, Thomas Jackson Price. He lived on Academy Street and, along with his neighbors, grew corn in his front yard.
The poems keep pouring in, in fact two have poured in this year, and it's only May. Another from Bill Ingram (“Shinin' the Rails ”) and the first contribution by Ray Nanney. Ready, set, rhyme!
We've come upon a flock of old news clippings from years past (else how could they be old?). They're all posted at the top of the Newspaper Columns and Stories section of the Memories main page.
04/01/07 April's Photo of the Month shows a car wreck that you might remember or heard about.
More Cliffside boys served in World War I than is talked or written about. Robert Cone Elliott's role in the war might have been lost to history were it not for the sharp eyes of our researcher Don Bailey. In late 1918 Elliott wrote home from Over There.
The postings have been slim lately, due to the webmaster's 54-day stay in three different Charlotte hospitals. We're back in action now, though, but with much more limited capabilities. But every day brings improvement. Our sincere thanks for all your calls, letters and prayers.01/01/07 There's nothing like bad weather to make a day in your youth memorable. One raw, icy, snowy day in early 1941 someone—probably Esper Brown—captured the mood of the moment in these two exceptional photos.
Another exceptional picture is January's Photo of the Month, showing a very common summertime scene in Cliffside in decades gone by, but not so much anymore.
We added an article in History on the Cliffside Steam Station, which leads to a new photo gallery and a few other things. Hope you can add some photos to the gallery.
There are several new Updates to previous stories. And another Flashback from Benjamin Bailey.
Do you know how Chase High got its name? Was it so named because fox hunters once CHASEed their prey across the fields of the Ferry/Floyd's Creek community? Not likely. Actually the word Chase is an acronym for something. Did everybody know that?
“Henrietta, Caroleen and Avondale” by Scott Withrow first appeared in the 1984 book The Heritage of Rutherford County, North Carolina. We republish it here with the author's permission. Within the article are links to some special notes by Leon Neal.
Was there once a liquor bar in Cliffside? Someone would Like to Know if it's true.
In Family Stories, there's a nice reminiscence about life in the Roy Lee Harris family, written by his son, James L. From the mid-fifties to his death in 1981, Roy Lee was the commercial photographer in Cliffside and you'll see many of his photos on this Web site.
More of R. K. Hollifield's columns are now available. We've posted Chapters 31 through 40. If you're browsing for name of a particular person, remember to use the index. It will list and provide a link to each chapter in which the person is mentioned.
You may have seen copies of Bobbin & Shuttle at the checkout line at various places, and didn't understand what it was, and walked on by. Here's what it is: a collection of articles and photos of cotton mill life, featuring histories and memories of towns just like ours. You'll love them.
Copyright © 2008 The Cliffside Historical Society