Photo of The Month – Feb 2003

Spoke & Handle Plant

Picture contributor: Dena Watkins Chandler

We don’t know where this rather large operation was located. Since the building of Cliffside Mill had not yet begun, perhaps spokes and handles were being pre-manufactured to be available when the mill was built. Or perhaps the plant’s role was to supply the existing mills that already existed in Rutherford county. Many of the men are carrying lanterns; others are holding what looks like dinner buckets. The photo was in the effects of R. B. and Ida Craig Watkins, who moved to Cliffside about 1901.