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Glimpses of History
From the July 16, 1995 edition of Foothills Magazine comes this account of how Phillip White discovered and acquired the Cliffside movies.
Unusual Views of the River
They "drew" the pond in December, in order to repair the gates that control the water flow to the power house. James Harris made a sequence of terrific photos of the area and we chose 30 of them for an animated Flash slideshow with music. (This may not work well for those of you with dial-up Internet service. If DSL or Broadband services are available in your area, we suggest you sign up. We'll be offering more Flash content in the near future, including the 1937 and 1940 Cliffside movies by H. Lee Waters.)
Remember Cliffside Day 2007
Here's Jack Huskey working the grill on RC Day (Oct. 13). It's just one of about three-dozen photos Wayne Millis snapped that day. See them all in our slide show.
Bringing Them Home
On the rare occasions the Cliffside Railroad bought a "new" engine, it had to be "brought home" by railroad men like Shirley White (right) and John Padgett.
Family Stories
The oldest graves in Cliffside Cemetery hold four descendents of one Robert Haney, a Revolutionary War veteran and, after 1783, resident of the High Shoals area. It is thought that Haney or his children once owned the land on which Cliffside was later founded.
Music Makers
Like all mill towns, Cliffside had a handful of home-grown musicians, but few had a man who could play like Dewey McDaniel.
The Bypass
Did they destroy the town in order to save it? Cone Mills wanted the bypass built so that Cliffside wouldn't be "tied in knots" at changing time. Were they aware the closing of Main Street might be the final blow, killing the town entirely? The bypass tied in nicely into Cone's "redevelopment" plan. It should have been named the "undevelopment" plan, for it involved little more than tearing down all the buildings and trying to sell off the land mostly for trailer parks.
Is there anything you'd like to know about Cliffside or its people? For example: what happened to the WWI mortars that used to sit in front of the Boy Scout cabin? How rich was Raleigh Haynes? What is Buzzy Moss' actual name? Check this page often and try to answer the questions posed by others, or submit those of your own.
Who lived where in Cliffside? If you're interested in 1964, we've found an old county cross-reference directory that lists 667 individuals on the streets and roads in and around Cliffside.
Why this web site?
In the southeastern corner of Rutherford County, North Carolina, along the Second Broad River, is the village of Cliffside. Or more accurately, what's left of the village of Cliffside. This site is dedicated to preserving the memories and lore of the little mill town we once knew.
Were you aware?
There is a list of all four dozen Photos of the Month we've selected since Remember Cliffside began in 2002. On the Galleries home page you can go through the list and revisit all those outstanding photos.
“We lived at Rabbit Town, next door to Jim Doggetts shoe store, across from Dr. Lovelace...”
Find the house where you lived and the streets where you walked and played, on this map drawn in 1942.
Players 2
On March 1, we presented the famous movies of Cliffside (see below) along with a six-minute video of stills from the movies with many local people identified. We called The Players.
This month we've created a second video with over 100 more IDs. Go to the bottom of the movie list for the link.
Shinin' The Rails
You'll learn things you never knew about our little town and its people from Matt Ingram's 22-page graduate school thesis titled "Shinin' The Rails: The Story of Cliffside." He interviewed family and Cliffside's natives and wove their personal stories into the historical narrative. Matt is Jim Ingram's son.
In the Society's archives we've found a number of old photos made in and around Forest City about 100 years ago. Here's a gallery of a dozen of them.
Profile: George Kelly Moore
He was R.R. Haynes' right-hand man, who oversaw the design and building of nearly every structure in Cliffside, including the mill. Like R.R. himself, G.K. died much too young, killed in 1930 by a drunken driver. Yet we who came along later were never told all that he had done, nor was there a plaque or monument erected in his honor or memory.
Visit The Archives
The snippets on this page appear for only a few months and then, alas, in order to make room for new features, they vanish into thin air.
Or do they?
Actually they don't vanish at all, but take up residence on one of our archives pages. Browse through them occasionally. You may find an item you missed when it was first published.
Note: None of the pages on this site is ever archived, all remain wherever they were first stored, in History, Memories, etc. Only these front-page teasers are moved to the archive section.
In The News
We've found a delightful description, written in 1903, of the "Cliffside style" of marrying, which usually amounted to little more than the couple running down to South Carolina (without telling her folks), and getting back in time to work their next shift in the mill. And, from 1911, a Lattimore contributor to The Sun, who called himself "Corn Cracker," tells of his trip to the impressive town of Cliffside. Both articles are found in In The News, Miscellaneous.
Haynes Grove Baptist Church
Although the Baptist church had its centennial this year, the building is actually 104 years old. In its first four years it was a Methodist church. Don Bailey has written a history of the church and its people and an account of the celebration and homecoming held one Sunday this past August. The articles are accompanied by a collection of new and old photos.
A Shortage of Kudzu?
This is no joke, Rutherford County farmers were once 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.
The Cemetery
The most enduring landmark in Cliffside is the cemetery. Did you know some of the long-ago owners of the land on which the cemetery sits may be buried there? Read its history, look over maps of its layout and peruse lists of those buried there. All these pages are a significant addition to our Landmarks section.
Photo of the Month — May
A rare look at the dismantlement of Cliffside. It's a house on River Street being moved, not torn down. Perhaps you can tell whose house it was, and where it was moved to.
In 1913 the Sky-Land Magazine devoted some 20 pages to the town of Cliffside and its founder, textile tycoon Raleigh Rutherford Haynes.
“Good Old Days in Rutherf'd ”
A 1940s historian explains why the "good old days" of Rutherford County in the early 1800s might be called the "bad old days." Thieves (especially horse thieves) and other miscreants were branded, flogged and often much worse—depending on the crime. Apparently, such punishments as branding, cutting off ears, and whipping were administered in full view of any who chanced to pass along Rutherfordton's main street.
Cliffside Sketches
The latest: never steal a watermelon from a metal trailer. Read about Sam Davis' shocking experience.
Rev. Hunt's Letters
Cliffside's former Baptist minister from 1914 to 1921, Rev. D.J. Hunt, wrote letters to a couple about to be wed (by him). What we learn from the letters is that we shared Rev. Hunt with another church. Who knew? And who preached at Cliffside in his absence every other Sunday?
In the late 1920s, the athletic teams of Cliffside High were called "The Purple Cloud," and wore white jerseys and purple pants. Moreover, the school published in the Rutherfordton Sun a weekly multi-column spread with the same name. It had all the news of the goings on at the school.
The Callahan Collection
Pictures! Pictures! Pictures! There are 114 of them, all made by 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.
The Fair
Is it just us, but in days gone by was the Cleveland County Fair the greatest of them all? Here, in Odds & Ends, is a great old ad for the fair of 1938. Maybe we should all go back this year and see if the excitement is still there.
Tragedies
On May 21, 1981, Cliffside lost one of its finest and most loyal citizens, Roy Lee Harris. The sad story of his death is related in these news stories of the terrible accident caused by a drunk driver.
Poems of Cliffside
“Listen, I’ve got to tell you—
Cannot keep it longer or be still—
Walked down the street one day last week
And got a job in the Cliffside Mill.”
That's just a taste of the poetic offerings you'll find in this new section.
Recent additions: new poems by Billy Ingram and Era Robinson.
From The Rutherford County Sun, dozens of articles and columns from the late 1920s, describing events both tragic and humorous; changes to the town; advertising by Cliffside stores and businesses; and community, school and church news.
Latest addition: In 1919 came news of progress on the new mill in Avondale, Cliffside's support of the recent war, the company's benevolence during the great flu epidemic in the past few months.
Did you ever wonder how it all started? In our Documents section we've added the Articles of Incorporation for Cliffside Mills, dated February 4, 1901. It's the agreement between R. R. Haynes and his other partners to start a business that would prosper for over 100 years.
Remember those old two, three and four digit phone numbers? Find the number of everyone in town in the Rutherford County Phone Directory for 1944.
Browse through these and many other old Cliffside papers. This is history, folks.
Recent addition: Cliffside Historical Society Newsletter Volume I.
Lest we forget...
The Falls at the Mill (with video)
Old Engine 40 Rides Again
The Town Clock
Copyright © 2008 The Cliffside Historical Society