Photo of The Month – Mar 2005

Early Weave Room

Picture contributor: Joan Humphries Harris

Workers assembled for a group photo at end of the weave room. We see portions of looms against which are leaning rolls of cloth. — Weave Room

We can’t identify them, but they worked in the weave room about 100 years ago. Those are rolls of gingham cloth (we zoomed in to check), which the Cliffside Mill produced from 1902 until the late ’20s. The boxes against the wall contain sprocket chain, much like that used on bicycles. The contributor, daughter of Archie and Mary Helen Beason Humphries, says the photo was her dad’s, who said many times it was taken at Cliffside. Below is a closer look at the faces. See if you recognize an ancestor.

The faces are identifiable (if only we could). Oddly, all the men are wearing hats and caps (perhaps to keep lint out of their hair). The women. mostly bareheaded, with hair in the pompadour style, are wearing high-necked blouses and floor-length skirts. — A closer Look