Who Owned Cliffside?

Not surprisingly, on the date of R. R. Haynes’ death, Feb. 6, 1917, he held the majority of Cliffside Mills’ stock, double the number of shares of the nearest holder.

Here are the top 10 holders of the 2,500 outstanding shares:

Rank	Owner	Shares
1.	R. R. Haynes Cliffside	800
2.	R. J. Reynolds Winston-Salem	405
3.	Charles H. Haynes Cliffside	379
4.	Mrs. Moses Cone Greensboro	156
5.	John M. Scott Charlotte	112
6.	Ceasar Cone Greensboro	100
7.	C. M. Guggenheimer New York, N.Y.	100
8.	Belk Brothers Charlotte	65
9.	J. W. Hastings Charlotte	50
10.	W. T. Purvis Columbus, Ga.	50

See lists of all shareholders for the date above, for May 1914 to May 1915, and for May 1915 to May 1916.

R.R. and Charles Haynes had added substantially to their holdings in the previous two years, by 186 and 279 shares respectively. Two years earlier T.B. Lovelace and J.F. Whisnant, charter investors, had owned 200 and 50 shares respectively. Now, in 1917, they owned none.

What is surprising was the second largest shareholder. His name became familiar around the world: R. J. Reynolds, the tobacco tycoon, whose company three years earlier had introduced Camel cigarettes, the first nationally popular brand in the United States and beyond.

 

A version of this article appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of The Cliffside Chimes, official newsletter of the Cliffside Historical Society.