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What's New - 2008
12/01/08 A major new section on the Web site is being introduced this month: the Media Center, where all audio and video components can be found. Any previously posted sounds and videos are now there, along with some new ones, including audio interviews with Albert Lancaster and Myrtle Mashburn, two natives who are now in their 90s. There are video news clips from that sad, dreary November day in 2003 when it was announced the Cliffside Mill would close forever, and another of the pond being drawn about eight years ago. In the latter, we recognized Donald “Lefty” Brooks and Vance Norville out on the dam. Can you name any others?
In addition to Albert Lancaster's audio interview, we also have a written summary of it, along with a number of Al's family photos. Thanks to Jim Ruppe, who did the summary and added annotations.In the spirit of the season, we're presenting 24 photos of the 1967 Christmas Parade. It began somewhere up Shelby Highway, wended it way across the bridge, through town and up North Main. There seemed to be an overabundance of horseback riders that year.
And, just in time for Christmas, the Photo of the Month is of a seasonal decoration installed not so long ago in front of Cliffside School.
Thanks to many of you who have renewed your Society membership fee, and we were delighted to get a check for $125 from the Cliffside High class of '56, purchasing sponsorship of the Web site for five months. This month's sponsor is Marc Dedmond, who has our thanks.
11/03/08 Updated the Updates page.
11/01/08 This month's site sponsor is James Price. Again, we're grateful.
November's Photo of the Month revives memories of a long-forgotten sport—school bus window hanging. Ah, those were the days—the pep rallies, the big orange buses, the heart-stopping excitement!
A bit of history on the march on our mill by labor activists in 1934. And have you met Haywood, the rooster?
In 1940, Harley C. Beatty, our school principal, did a study of the graduates in the years 1934 through 1939, who, after their school years, remained in High Shoals Township. What did they end up doing? Did they marry? Where did they live?
Duke Power's Cliffside coal-fired plant has been in the news a lot lately. Do you know where that coal comes from? And how it gets here? Here are the answers, and a lot of background on the Duke plant itself, in a detailed story by A.R. Poteat of Bostic.
As a boy, Jim Ruppe saw a stranger helping Dr. Mills in the drug store. Curious, he asked his father who the man was. He was Commodore George H. Mills, USN, brother of our druggist. That curiosity lingered, and Jim has written an account of Commodore Mills and his amazing career.
Many of us attended the second annual Society Gathering on Friday night, Oct. 10. There's a review of the event on the newly-added News tab on the Society Page.
10/01/08 This month's Web site sponsor is Marc Dedmond's Carolina Trophies & Screen Printing.
Dr. Jack Hunt's Memories, a talk given at Society Gathering on Oct. 12, 2007.
Lost, Then Found. Larry Byrd, Cliffside High class of 1958, lost his class ring only days after graduation. Fifty years later, with the help of this Web site, the finder returned the ring.
In 1983, Dr. Howard Radford retired after 28 years as Cliffside's physician. Here are three news stories about him and his years in Cliffside.
Once in the 1920s the school issued a monthly tabloid called Cliffside School Life, which contained fascinating glimpses of life at school and in the community. One article contained the lyrics of the school song of that time, which we've reprinted. And we include an audio track of Myrtle Mashburn's piano rendition of the song, which was played in the '20s and '30s, as students marched into the auditorium.
Another news story, from 1969, features Broadus Roach, who once—in the late 1920s—was church organist, Scout master and “secretary” of the Memorial Building.
When Mr. Roach left Cliffside in the early '30s, he took something with him. Here's how we found out.
The Photo of the Month for October is another nostalgic view of life in Cliffside.
And don't forget Cliffside Day (Oct. 11) and, on the night before, the 2nd Annual Society Gathering.
09/02/08 This month's site sponsor is James Price. We're grateful, as always.
We've come across an old document that gives us an insight into the Wall family and to some of Rutherford county's history. The Walls held their first family reunion in November, 1927. One family member, Bess Wall, traced their lineage back to William, the Conqueror's time.
We've revised and consolidated the Cliffside Railroad articles and galleries onto one page, including something new: a list of all the men (that we know of) who worked on the railroad.
In The County there's a feature on the Henrietta Mill, including a group photo of the slasher room staff at the mill in 1927, and a photo of the mill's remains in 2003.
Some great photos have turned up of the Memorial Building's demolition and the "new" clock tower being constructed. See The Old Clock in the galleries section.
Cliffside Day (October 11) is almost upon us. Here's a scan of the official flyer.
In the Yearbooks tab of the Memories section we've added another Cliff-Dweller, from the year 1948.
The September Photo of the Month is a view from the 1920s of the old ice plant and Railroad Street.
Finally, an appeal to Society members. The annual membership of about two dozen of you have expired, or will expire in a few days. Please renew promptly. These modest fees—and your personal support—are crucial to our ability to operate.
08/01/08 This month's sponsor is Marc Dedmond's Carolina Trophies & Screen Printing. Thanks, Marc.
A reminder: Please check your expiration date on the Society's membership list and renew promptly. If you have been a member but your name isn't on the list, then you're way overdue. Please rejoin.
August's Photo of the Month is an aerial view of the north side of town in or around 1950. There's a bonus satellite view of the same area made fairly recently.
Cliffside High's class of 1943 recently had its 65th anniversary reunion. Here's the report of that event, with some now and then photos, and a group photo made at their 40th anniversary.
Our chief Cliffside photographer, James Harris, set out one day to capture the signs of Cliffside, such as they are. Makes us miss the ones no longer there. See his work under Galleries, Present Day, Signs of Cliffside.
For many years, standing on the store building's sidewalk, in front of one of the stores, there was a scale. For a penny, it dispensed a little card that told your weight and fortune. Such a card was found in the effects of Roy Lee Harris. Of course it could have come from a machine located anywhere, but we like to imagine that it came from that old machine on the sidewalk in downtown Cliffside.
On the highways and byways, in out-of-the-way places, there still can be found objects that remind us of our past. This one did just that.
07/10/08 Added new guest book.
07/02/08 We've had several people upgrade to lifetime Society memberships. It's easy to do. Just print out a renewal application and check the Lifetime option. It's only $100 for individuals or $150 for families.
There's a passel of stories in Cliffside Sketches about a true pioneer of the area, James Edward Atkinson, 1857-1954. In 1910, at age 46, Ed was one of Cliffside Mills' oldest employees.
Don Bailey has written an extensive profile of Clyde A. Erwin, once superintendent of Cliffside Schools. A great educator, he was responsible for many of today's North Carolina public school innovations.
In October 1954 a terrible accident cut short the life of John Lawrence, one of Cliffside's brightest young lights. After half a century it still seems like yesterday.
The Photo of the Month is another old postcard. This one is of Main Street nearly 100 years ago.There are seven new Reader Comments, an Update to a recent story and two more poems by William Allhands.
And, under Landmarks, there's a 1999 news story on Cliffside School.
06/03/08
Added announcement of Harris Reunion on June 14, 2008 at Fairview Missionary Methodist Church, Cliffside.
06/01/08
We've revamped the Society pages, consolidating them into one tabbed unit. There's a newly-designed Membership page with all the members' names and their renewal dates, and one that lists the Society's officers and board members.
Dean and Becky Scruggs purchased a month's sponsorship in memory of Becky's parents, M.B. and Pearl Ledford Callahan.
In Odds & Ends there's a photo from 1916 in a clipping from 1979, provided by our Henrietta friend, Johnny Phillips.
We're revised Players 1 video, correctly identifying Vardy Abernathy, once the Master Mechanic of Cliffside Mills. We had incorrectly named him Clarence Watkins. We've added a still frame of Kenneth McMahan, who, at the time these movies were made, had his law office upstairs in the Store Building.
Our Photo of the Month for June is of a scene you might have seen every day, had you worked in the weave room in the old mill.
05/01/08
This month's sponsor is William Wallace, to whom we give our appreciation.
We've made changes to the main pages of the History, Memories and Odds & Ends sections. This will allow you to find more easily the dozens of pages within them.
May's Photo of the Month is a sad reminder of the slow death of the Cliffside that used to be.
There are a couple of updates to a previous month's Photo, of an old train shed that once stood on South Main Street.
And there are four new “letters” in Readers' Comments. (Click the new Readers' Comments tab on the Odds & Ends page.)
04/01/08
Our thanks to Joyce Atkinson Hunter, this month's Web site sponsor. Also, William Wallace recently purchased sponsorships for two months.
Our Photo of the Month for April is a whimsical picture made in England in World War II, featuring Bobo Greene with a tool of his wartime trade.
In the History section, we've printed in full the 1913 Sky-Land Magazine story on Cliffside.
We've had much response to the 70-year-old Cliffside Movies, put up last month. This month, there's a second video featuring the stills and IDs of over 100 more local people from the movies. It's called Players 2.
We've reprinted the “Glimpses of History” article from the July 16, 1995 edition of Foothills Magazine, which describes how Phillip White discovered and acquired the Cliffside movies.
02/29/08
Our thanks to Jim Ruppe, this month's Web site sponsor.
The single new addition this time, other than the Photo of the Month, is something we're particularly proud of. Thanks to Phillip White's generous sharing, we're presenting the famous movies of Cliffside. Made in 1937 and 1940, these two films show the faces of literally hundreds of Cliffside people. You might see your old friends or relatives, and certainly you'll get a sense of the life and times of those who lived there 70 years ago. Recently restored, these films have never before been so clear and sharp.
In addition, there's a special video, called "The Players," which identifies dozens of those seen in the films. (There'll be a second Players video coming soon.)
We've created instrumental music tracks for all these "reels," comprised of the popular songs of the day. What you'll hear is the very same music by the very same orchestras these gentle people listened to on their radios.
You can learn more about the music, the films, and H. Lee Waters, their creator, on the movies' selection page. And don't miss, on our front page, the wonderful poster Mr. Waters used to promote his films.
And there's a special first-person account by Phillip White of how he came to discover the films, and later to buy them. It's in the March-April Cliffside Chimes, available to members of the Cliffside Historical Society. You are a member, aren't you? If not, there's an application form on that page.
(Note that, below each movie, there's a control that lets you pause the video if you want to get a closer look at a scene or a face you recognize, and another to control the sound volume.)
We hope you enjoy them.
02/01/08
Our thanks to Don Bailey, this month's Web site sponsor.
Recent sponsors who "bought" one or more months: Jane Mashburn, Bill Beason, Joan Speaks, Cliffside Mills LLC, Gerard Davidson, William Wallace.
Our Senior Cliffside Photographer, James Harris, who keeps a watchful eye out for changes in Cliffside, shot a nice sequence of photos of the dam, the pond, and power plant when, in December, the pond was drawn in order to do repairs to the gates. We've made an animated Flash feature out of them, and added a sound track.
February's Photo of the Month is another puzzler. It's another great Cliffside Railroad photo, taken in the mid to late 1930s, but where, exactly? And who was the engineer?
As for last month's Photo of the Month, we wondered where it, too, was taken. We had several readers offer an opinion. Go to the Updates page.
Matt Ingram, a graduate student at Appalachian State University, recently wrote a thesis on his father's home town. His father is Jim Ingram, Cliffside High's Class of '53. The thesis is titled "Shinin' The Rails: The Story of Cliffside."
JoAnn Huskey has embellished her sketch of Lafar Ruppe with the story of the shocking experience Sam Davis had when he touched Lafar's trailer full of watermelons.
In you lived in Rutherford County in 1810 or thereabouts, and happened to steal the slightest little thing, you were likely to be whipped and have a shiny, bright letter "T" branded prominently and permanently on your forehead. All sorts of unimaginable things were done to miscreants back then, according to "Good Old Days in Rutherf'd County Much In Doubt."
01/10/08
Oh, how long the world has waited for this! A real Company Store on Remember Cliffside, where you can buy apparel, photos, artwork, novelties and books (or, for the moment, book). You can even join or renew you membership in, and make donations to, the Society. You can pay by credit card though the convenient and secure Google Checkout system. Don't just stand there—buy something!
01/01/08
Our thanks to January's sponsors of the site, Buzz and Beth Biggerstaff.
Appropriately, for January, our Photo of Month is of a snowfall. The inscription on the picture says it was made in Cliffside in 1912. Can you identify the street or road we're looking at?
We've made a Cliffside Day Slideshow from the three dozen photos made on October 13 by Wayne Millis.
On the rare occasions the Cliffside Railroad bought a "new" engine, an engineer and a fireman would be assigned to go wherever the engine was and bring it "home" to Cliffside.
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.
In the Society's archives we've found a number of old photos made about 100 years ago in and around the town formerly known as Burnt Chimney. Here's a gallery of a dozen Old Forest City Photos.
Copyright © 2010 The Cliffside Historical Society