Facts (barely) Worth Remembering

• In the early 1960’s, when Cone and other textile firms still provided and maintained homes for their employees, DuPont sold a product officially called “Mill Village White House Paint #1063.” Cone’s cost was $3.65 a gallon. (Although, DuPont admitted, it was not as good as its “Industrial Maintenance White House Paint #948,” which sold for $4.00.) Today such paint would cost $20 to $30 a gallon.
• In late Summer, 1918, Cliffside Mills ordered a boxcar-load of wagons from Kentucky Wagon Mfg. Co. in Louisville. Imagine the number of mules the Company must have owned for all its transport and farming needs.
• The Cliffside postmaster’s annual salary in 1934 was $1,600.
• On Nov. 19, 1938, a hot cinder flew into the left eye of C. T. (Shine) Freeman, as he was riding on the train. Dr. Moss, after applying ointment, dressed the eye and dismissed the patient.
• In about 1940 (the clipping was undated) Cliffside Mills gave out about $25,000 in Christmas bonuses, paid in proportion to each employee’s earnings.
• Way back when, the Cliffside Furniture Store took care of all your funeral needs. In a 1925 newspaper advertisement, one of its enticements was news of this convenient feature:

  “We have a new lowering device for placing the corpse in the grave which dispenses with the use of hand straps.”

  They of course had a complete line of “undertaker supplies” (a comforting thought).

  If you wanted them on Sunday or at night, you were to call Cornelius Martin, Chas. Swofford or R. B. Watkins (phone numbers supplied).

This article first appeared in the Summer 2011 issue of The Cliffside Chimes.