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What's New - 2011
12/01/2011 Our clock face restoration is finished and you can follow the months-long effort with over 100 photos (in three galleries) and two Courier stories. You can also find a list of all 96 of the clock fund contributors who made it all possible.
From only six of the many profiles about him published over the span of four decades, you'll get an inside glimpse at the background, personality and talents of the inimitable Earl Owensby.
What is metal, rust-ridden and spent a few days in October lying on the ground? By now it's likely reduced to small shards, and is in the hold of a ship bound for China. It's our Photo of the Month,
December's sponsor of this site is the late William Wallace. We greatly appreciate his contributions.
11/02/2011 The Gathering on Oct. 7 was the largest ever, when we honored Ben Humphries and he regaled us with stories of his life. A DVD of the program will soon be available. Here are photos from the evening by Marilyn Moore Kerr and here is a poem written for the occasion by Janna Dea Harris.
Remember Cliffside Day on Oct. 8 was a big success as well. Old Main Street, from the clock tower to the Post Office, was well populated with excited people and entries in the Old Car & Tractor Show. Here are the shots made by Marilyn Moore Kerr. More will be added when we get them. Anyone care to share their photos of the event?
The cover story of a recent issue of Rutherford Woman magazine was on Cliffside's Melrose Dover, a familiar face to those who frequent the Country Plaza. Great story and photos. Our thanks to the magazine for allowing us to republish them.
In the days when few women entered the legal profession, Daphene Ledford Cantrell obtained her law degree, became a successful lawyer and eventually served for many years as a District Court judge in Mecklenburg County. On October 16, Daphene passed away at the age of 81. Here is her obituary.
Our Photo of the Month is of a chubby little Cliffside boy from the 1910s, photographed at the Hames Studio. His family name was likely Taylor.
We'll be finishing up the clock restoration on Tuesday, Nov. 8 (weather permitting) by replacing the faces. Shortly thereafter we'll post a slide show of the entire restoration process.
Once more, the monthly sponsor of this site is the late William Wallace. We greatly appreciate his contributions.
10/01/2011 Remember the “little bus line that could?” Here's one of its schedules and a photo of one of its drivers.
The Photo of the Month was made during the recent work on the R. R. Haynes Memorial Clock Tower. It's going to look fantastic once the faces are reinstalled near the end of October.
Once again, the monthly sponsor of this site is the late William Wallace. We greatly appreciate William's contributions. By the way, if you'd buy just one month's sponsorship we'll have completed the year 2016. How about it? It's just $25. And for just $300 you could sponsor the entire year of 2017!
On Friday, October 7, we're holding the fifth annual Society Gathering. The producers of the program promise live music and stories about and from Cliffside's one and only Ben Humphries, this year's recipient of our annual award. Please arrive by 6:30 or earlier to socialize, pay your dues, donate to the Clock Fund, and settle in for an entertaining 90 minutes.
09/01/2011 First and most important, we need your help! As planned, in the last week of September we've going to remove all four faces in the town clock and send them off to be refurbished. The old dingy, cracked, frosted glass will be replaced with beautiful Italian milk glass. These will be reinstalled sometime in October. Meanwhile, we going to have the clock tower scrubbed, the brick sealed and the woodwork repainted. This is costing more than our budget allows, but we're going ahead anyway. Would you please help by making a donation? (Or you can send a check to Cliffside Historical Society, 10612 Round Rock Rd., Charlotte, NC 28277.)
We've assembled the work of six still photographers during the 2005 demolition of the old Cliffside Mill. It's a heart-breaking six-minute video on YouTube's Remember Cliffside channel.
If you worked in the Cliffside Mills Stores in 1918, these were the rules you were expected to follow. You'll be surprised at how many are applicable today.
Months ago we found an old document; now we've run across a photo to go with it. It's our Photo of The Month.
The historical roadside marker in West Henrietta honoring R. R. Haynes, was already suffering the ravages of time when some careless driver nudged it, breaking its cement stanchion. Finding no other entity eager to address the issue, our Society, or at least two of our members, leapt into action. And while you're on that page, read about our honeybee problem.
Our sponsor this month is Phillip White, our very own Society president. Thanks, Phillip.
08/01/2011 We've added, under Memories, A Good Life, Virginia Wirtanen's reflections on her childhood in Cliffside. She was the former Ginny Blanton, grandaughter of Mrs. G. K. Moore, who ran the Cliffside Inn (the "teachers' home").
The Photo of the Month comes from our archives. It's a shot taken in the early stages of the R. R. Haynes Memorial Clock Tower's construction in 1978.
On April 11, 1935, the school and entire town was stunned when it was announced that Principal Rupert L. Leary was killed in an automobile accident. The reporters of the Purple Cloud, the school paper, devoted an entire issue to the news.
Jim Ruppe, the Society's vice president, did some great research on one of the county's minor scandals that people were talking about around 1900. Read “Cherry Trees For Sale”.
This month's sponsor is the late William Wallace whose monthly sponsorships reach way out into the year 2015. Our sincere thanks.
07/01/2011 One of the boys is identified in Daddy and His Doffers photo.
We've scanned the yearbook for 1959, the last class to graduate from Cliffside High. It marks the end of our project to put all 18 available Cliffside yearbooks online.
He titled his memoir "Up A Little Hill," which covered his life from 1887 to 1916. He was W.T. (William Thomas) Tate, who chronicled his years of attending the Simmons School on Ferry Road, working in the Cliffside and Henrietta mills, and attending college at Boiling Springs and Wake Forest.
Our thanks go to Carolyn Greene Waters, this month's Web site sponsor.
Not an appliance normally found around the house, we know, but if you're in need of a sawmill...
We keep running across early photos of the square. Here's another, our Photo of the Month, but pay close attention, your eyes could deceive you.
The Society has republished a valuable history of Cliffside, Ina Fortune Haynes' 1954 book, Raleigh Rutherford Haynes: A history of His Life and Achievements. The new edition is now available for purchase. Read all about it!
06/01/2011 Luckily we had fine drinking water in our town, thanks to the men at the filter plant. Ben Honeycutt, whose dad Jess ran it, remembers the plant and the operators there.
Remember the old Esso station on the Corner in Avondale? Our Photo of the Month just might be the last one taken of the building before it was demolished, for most people don't usually go around taking pictures of shabby old structures. Except for Joey Cargill.
It was just one thing after another in old Cliffside. No longer had the influenza epidemic of 1918 subsided than there came an outbreak of smallpox.
In 1986 Phillip White conducted an interview with A.W. Crotts, a projectionist at the Cliffside Theater in the Depression years.
Marvin Sparks was an entrepreneur. At one time he ran a 10¢ store, and, as we learned here, he developed and sold flavoring. It was in the news.
This month's Web site sponsor is Cliffside Mills, LLC, owner of the land where the mill and the downtown buildings once stood. It operates the power generating plant, formerly the old mill's power house. Many thanks.
You're attention is invited to the front page, where we've moved a number of "teasers" to the archives. If you can't find what you remember you saw, look for it on one of the archive pages.
05/02/2011 The Cliffside High grads of that year, and all the rest of us, will enjoy reading our scans of the 1958 Cliffdweller, the school yearbook.
We have two new galleries (16 photos each) of color and b&W photos made during the Sixties, of the making of the bypass around Cliffside and the building of the new bridge and dismantling of the old one. All made of course by Roy Lee Harris.
In the mid and late 1930s Cliffside was well represented in the Forest City Courier by the Twin Reporters. They were Lois Womack and Sue Crowe, writing a column a week on the towns events. We have 60 of their articles from late 1935 throughout 1936.
Our thanks to this month's Web site sponsor, Carolyn Greene Waters.
Our Photo of the Month takes us back to the farm.
04/01/2011 You won't remember Charles "Squeezer" Lemmons unless you were in Cliffside in the early 1930's. His family left for Forest City in 1935 when he was 10. But he never forgot the town and still has a deep love for it. We've added him to our "Where Are They Now?" feature.
A rare photo inside Cliffside Railroad's engine shed, where generations of train mechanics did repairs and maintenance on the locomotives. It's April's Photo of the Month.
In 1837 an Englishman named G. W. Featherstonhaugh made a trip through the Southern states, largely for the purpose of studying mineralogy. Later he wrote of his trip. A seven-day section of his account, starting with his trip from Asheville to Rutherfordton, is now in History, The County, Events.
From warp hand to soldier, to carpenter's helper, to Duke Power plant manager. Read about the life and times of James Odell Harris, a boy who made good—real good. It's located in History, Profiles.
Our website sponsor this month is Gerard Davidson, the son of the late beloved teacher and coach at Cliffside School. Our thanks to Gerard. Who would like to sponsor a full year of Remember Cliffside? 2017 is open. Only $300. Oh, come on.
Your grandfather may have purchased a Perfect Pea Picker from the Cliffside Mills Store. It did in one day the work of 20 to 30 men! (Provided you had two mules.)
03/01/2011 Leonard Jolly, Cliffside native and 1967 Chase graduate, has written a compelling novel based on the life and trials of a boy like himself in the '70's, growing up in a company mill town that's rapidly changing for the worse. Read all about it—and buy a copy—right here.
Remember those summer Sundays when the family would pile into the old sedan for a day-long trip to the mountains? Remember how you'd picnic on an overlook? It's all here in March's Photo of the Month.
This month the website is sponsored by the late William Wallace, a most generous contributor.
02/01/2011 Betty Houser Cromer read these remarks ten years ago, at the half century reunion of her graduating class. You'll love her comparison of then and now, in “Cliffside Pride — Class of 1950.”
Had they lived, the two horses in February's Photo of the Month would now be 110 years old, more or less.
A cardboard box was found alongside a Charlotte street. It contained the personal effects of a long-deceased Cliffside lady. Don't let the evidence of your life be put out by the road for the trash truck.
In the grim years of the early 1940's, when Americans believed our towns might come under enemy attack, Cliffside was divided into Civil Defence districts, and townsmen were organized into teams of air raid wardens and “auxiliary police.”
Once a hypnotist who called himself “The Amazing Preston” came to town. He enlisted a local boy to be put in a trance by radio. Read what happened.
Her family came to Cliffside from Illinois in 1927 when she was 13. Just before she passed away last July at age 95, Lalage Grigg Freeman answered our Where Are You Now survey.
The 1930 Census section has had a face lift.
We've scanned the 1956 Cliffdweller (high school yearbook).
On our Society Membership page, you'll find that those who have joined as a Family (or household) are indicated with an “X”. And, while you're there, check your membership Renew Date. If it falls in 2010 you will soon be removed from this list, and from our mailing list. Hence you will not receive our newsletters.
Our web sponsor this month is Sam Davis. He was the inspiration of this whole Remember Cliffside enterprise. Were it not for his 2002 phone call to a long-ago acquaintance, this web site might never have come about. Thank you, Sam.
01/01/2011 Around Cliffside there's more old stuff than new, and much of it is off the beaten path (assuming any of Cliffside's paths are beaten). Here's an old relic few people know about. It's our Photo of the Month.
Don Bailey reminds us of perhaps the first "soda water" bottler in Rutherford, Robert E. Haynes, and of his world-famous visitor who dropped by one day in 1906 to buy—gasoline!
The current post office building was dedicated in 1961. Here's the story.
Our Society has an agreement with the County regarding the care and maintenance of the town clock. Read the fine print.
Some years there were changes in the school's faculty. The Purple Cloud (the school newspaper) reported who came and went in the fall of 1933.
In the same issue, the PC also noted a significant addition to the Cliffside mill.
If you were in Cliffside School in the 1940s and 1950s you'll hold fond memories of Miss Frances McCardwell. Here's a nice profile of that fine teacher from the Courier.
Lastly, there's a picture postcard from 1913 displaying a scene at Caroleen.
Copyright © 2010 The Cliffside Historical Society