Article Thirteen: 

Gastonia and the Age of the Automobile

        Before 1912 automobiles were something of a rarity due to cost, availability and the inconvenience of frequent breakdowns, and there were few good roads upon which to travel. But their popularity with the American public was firmly established and spreading rapidly. At nearby Lincolnton in November 1899, cotton manufacturer D. E. Rhyne is said to have purchased the first automobile in North Carolina. At Mountain Island in Gaston County, W. T. Jordan, superintendent of the mill there, is said to have owned one in 1901. Possibly the first motor vehicle seen in uptown Gastonia, according to a Gazette news article at the time, was in July 1902 when T. K. McCarey, state agent for the Locomobile Company of America, passed through Main Street on his way to Spartanburg in his twin-engine steam Locomobile. But it was in 1904 that Berry M. Holland is credited with being the first Gastonian to own a motorcar – a two-seater, one cylinder, steam-powered Oldsmobile that cost five hundred or six hundred dollars. Later in 1904, the “slickest thing on wheels” was a two-seater, steam-driven Locomobile owned by Robert B. Babington, head of Gastonia Telephone Co., and it cost $675 (1).         

        Luxury cars were slow in arriving in Gastonia for obvious reasons. Cotton manufacturer George W. Ragan bought a handsome five-passenger Cadillac touring car in 1910 at a cost of $2,040, the first of that premium make to ever grace the streets of Gastonia (2). It was a four-cylinder vehicle with chain drive and the color was Cadillac dark green. The driver sat on the right side, as they do in England. There were two foot pedals, one a clutch and the other a brake. A small lever on the steering wheel controlled the gas by hand. The gear was on the outside, where the right front door would normally be.  It had acetylene gas headlights made of highly polished brass. In case of rain there were waterproof curtains that could be lowered to keep the passengers dry. George A. Gray, another prominent Gastonia manufacturer, was so impressed once he saw and experienced its superior mechanical workings that he immediately ordered a similar Cadillac for his family. 

        There was only one Cadillac agency in North arolina in those days. It was in Winston-Salem and was owned by young G. C. Thomas, who had purchased it in 1908. Several years later, he established G. C. Thomas Cadillac Co. in Charlotte, which for fifty years was the largest dealership in the Carolinas. Ragan’s Cadillac was shipped to Gastonia by rail and was accompanied by Thomas and another man, known simply as “Hi” Henry, whose job it was to put the car in operating order. He stayed several days giving detailed instructions on how to drive the machine. A Gastonia man, W. Z. Plyler, master mechanic at Gastonia Garage Company, was also there to help unload it and study its operations. Soon Fords, Franklins, Chevrolets, Packards and even Pierce Arrows were seen in Gastonia, indicative of twentieth century technology, progress and individual success.           

        Always eager to try something better, Mr. Ragan traded the 1910 Cadillac for a new 1914 eight-cylinder Cadillac touring car. It was larger and had one of the practical electric self-starters, which had been invented by Charlie Kettering and had been installed initially in the 1912 Cadillac. By this time, Mr. Plyler had become so enamored with Ragan’s 1910 Cadillac that he arranged to buy it. He named her “Old Liz” and kept it in top-notch condition for the next fifty years. Plyler and “Old Liz”, it has been said, were in more parades than anyone in North Carolina (3)(4). Every time the bugles would blare in this section, people would find “Old Liz” with Plyler at the wheel. In the 1960s the ageing Plyler sold the historic car to Glenn Powell, owner of Powell Cadillac-Oldsmobile Co. in Gastonia, who kept it over thirty years. Following Powell’s death in the 1990s, it is believed to have been sold to outside interests.          

        Cars required fuel, but there were no filling stations in this section until about 1915. Gasoline and motor oil were shipped by train from Baltimore in 55-gallon drums and stored for future use and distribution. “Red C” was a popular brand and was picked up from the Railway Express office located in a small building on the east side of North Marietta Street just south of the railroad tracks. John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, which was represented early in Gastonia by J. Flem Johnson, began to supply the area from terminals in South Carolina. In 1898 they had gotten their first tank wagon for delivering heating oil.           

        Catering to the new automobile rage, Gastonia Garage Company, Gastonia’s first agency and repair shop, opened in 1910 on East Airline Avenue under the management of young R. Grady Rankin. It sold E-M-Fs, Buicks and Maxwells to car-hungry public. Frank E. Saunders and W. Z. Plyler were the dependable master mechanics. Early automobile owners were in great demand of their services, since few knew how to drive the machine and fewer still knew how to make even rudimentary mechanical adjustments. A flat tire or breakdown was a common occurrence on the 46-mile round trip to Charlotte. Burke H. Parker, a Gastonia cotton merchant, took on the Ford agency when nobody else would have it, and built it into a lucrative business under the name Parker-King Co. Colonel Tom Craig, the farm implement and wagon dealer, started the first Chevrolet dealership, Gastonia Chevrolet Co., about 1915.           

        By the 1920s automobiles were no longer a luxury, they had become a necessity in modern America. Locally, David W. “Big Dave” Smith had started Smith Chevrolet Co., the successor to Gastonia Chevrolet Co. Henry M. Rankin brought the Chrysler dealership to Gastonia, J. H. McArver had the Studabaker dealership and W. H. Wray the Hudson-Essex franchise. J. Carl Loughridge and R. Scott Loughridge succeeded to the Buick dealership in the 1930s and ran it for thirty years. Cadillacs, Packards and Pierce Arrows still had to be purchased in Charlotte, Winston-Salem or some other large city with a franchise.          

        With the proliferation of automobiles, better roads were required to accommodate them. Twenty-six-year-old Neal Hawkins, a Gaston native, was one of the first to enter this line of work about 1915, using horses and mules to pull his grading equipment for building and improving Gastonia’s streets. Sensing greater potential, he soon purchased mechanical equipment and expanded into engineering, grading and paving highways across North and South Carolina. In the late 1920s, this Gastonia entrepreneur also operated a fleet of tanker trucks for hauling gasoline and fuel oil in the southeastern United States.          

        The region’s huge textile industry spawned two major trucking lines in Gaston County – Akers Motor Lines (5) and Carolina Freight Carriers – as soon as the nation’s highway network made it a viable means of transportation. William Wirt Akers, Jr. started Akers Motor Lines in Gastonia in 1933 with one truck and a driver. He intended to capitalize on the millions of pounds of Gaston County yarn being shipped north by the railroads. His brothers, John McCorkle Akers of Gastonia and C. Scott Akers of Atlanta, soon joined him. With the recovery of the textile industry from the Great Depression, the Akers brothers began in the early 1940s to extend its network throughout the South and the industrial-rich Northeast, providing a faster and cheaper means of shipping than railroads were providing. These sons of a Presbyterian minister were joined in the early 1950s by another Gastonian, J. Robert Wrenn, who became an indispensable element in the Gastonia-headquartered company. When it was sold in 1971, it had become one of the largest private tucking firms in the nation.   

        In Cherryville, the Beam brothers – C. Grier and Dewey F. – founded Carolina Freight Carriers in 1931 with a $330 truck. John L. “Buck” Fraley joined them in 1949.  Like Akers, they grew large and successful, and under their leadership had become one of the largest truckers in America by the 1960s.  Unfortunately, deregulation of the industry in the 1990s caused the demise of this firm. Today, the C. Grier Beam Truck Museum in Cherryville recalls the amazing history of this company and its importance in Gaston County history. [INDEX]
 

Article Seventeen (Part 1 of 2 Parts):  

Gastonia’s Educational System History

        In some ways, Gastonia’s admired educational system had its beginning in the 18th century in the rural schools of the county. These scattered antebellum schools were mostly conducted in one-room log houses, at country churches or in private homes. Parents paid a dollar or two for each child enrolled, and they also provided firewood or anything else that was needed to run the facility. The teacher, usually with some degree of formal education, instructed children of all ages together in the same crowded room. Fowler’s Arithmetic and the Blue Book Speller were the two most commonly used textbooks, and most of the instruction revolved around the basic three R’s – readin’, ritin’ and rithmetic. Terms were short, usually about six months in duration, when students were not required by their families for work on the farm or in the home.

        As towns began to rise along the railroads, a slightly more formal approach was given to education. Of the first two schools in Gastonia, one was located east of town, near the old Shiloh Campground and Methodist meetinghouse, in the late 1870s and early 1880s. It was taught by Miss Sallie Chalk. The other was known as the Bradley School and was located west of town, a short distance north of the Loray Mills site. It was taught by Miss Mattie Torrence, and later by Miss Kathleen Netton and Miss Maggie Matthews. While it is not known which one was the first, Miss Chalk and Miss Torrence were the earliest instructors of the town’s youth and held the fort against ignorance until Gastonia was ready for greater advancement.

        During the 1880s and 1890s several of these small subscription schools were operating in Gastonia. A Mr. Crumb organized a school and hired Miss Chalk as his assistant. Miss Lizzie Adams, sister of Gastonia physician Dr. C. E. Adams, organized another in a grove of apple trees on a corner of West Main and Cemetery (now Chester) Street. Both schools provided children the basic fundamentals of rural education.

        Gastonia’s first structured approach to education came in 1880 when Professor John B. Blanton rode into town at the invitation of several citizens for an interview with town leaders regarding the possibilities of starting a school covering primary, intermediate and high school grades. The Blanton School opened its doors on January 1, 1881 in a new school building constructed on a small hill in a grove of trees near the northwest corner of today’s East Franklin Boulevard and South Oakland Street, where the parking lot that adjoins the west side of the sanctuary of First United Methodist Church is now situated. Blanton became headmaster, and served as a teacher as well. Miss Ester Bolick was teacher of the primary department and Miss Aurelia Barr of music. The school was so popular that not only did students from Gastonia and Gaston County attend, but others came from Cleveland, Lincoln, Mecklenburg and York counties.

        One of the first recorded high school commencements in Gastonia was in May 1885 at the Blanton School. Nationally acclaimed orator and author Thomas Dixon, a Cleveland County native who in 1905 wrote “The Clansmen” (made famous in 1915 by D. W. Griffith’s silent film epic “The Birth of a Nation”), gave the principal address on “The Coming Revolution”. Songs were sung by students Mary Bradley, Bettie Caldwell and Alda Smyre, and speeches made by school officials and local dignitaries.

        Around 1886, Professor James Pressley Reid, a native of Mecklenburg County, came to open the Gastonia Academy, the second formal school in Gastonia, soon becoming known colloquially as “The Academy”. At the same time Professor Blanton, whose health had failed, decided to close his school for a less stressful opportunity in Blacksburg, S. C. He therefore merged his academic efforts with those of the newly opened school of Professor Reid.

        Gastonia Academy opened in the long-bodied two-story frame building formerly occupied by the Blanton School. It was this school that called to the educational life of the town in the late 19th century Professors J. P. Reid, J. A. McLauchlin, J. M. Douglas, W. F. Marshall, S. A. Wolfe, F. P. Hall, J. W. Reid and others. Like its predecessor, it was a private school and charged a fee for attending.

 At almost the same time Gastonia Academy opened its doors in 1886, Professor J. A. Bryan arrived to start the rival Gastonia Institute, another private “high school” in competition with The Academy. Seven years later, in 1892, these two subscription schools merged their efforts. The combined school, as successor to Gastonia Institute and, therefore, Blanton School, came under the management of Professor James A. McLauchlin of the old Gastonia Academy. For all practical purposes the two schools became one. The surviving Gastonia Institute adopted The Academy’s more familiar name as its moniker and moved into their building. In the summer of 1894 McLauchlin resigned and returned to his former hometown in Wadesboro. He was succeeded at The Academy by Professor James McDowell Douglas.

 In the fall of 1897, Gastonia Institute, more familiarly known by its moniker – The Academy – opened under Professors J. P. Reid and J. W. Reid, the former having returned to Gastonia after an absence of seven years. The school operated under the management of Professors J. P. Reid and F. P. Hall until 1900, when the Reverend Jesse W. Siler purchased their interests and changed the school’s name to the [Gastonia] High School. Thus, The Academy operated for 20 years, from 1881 to 1901, and was the oldest and largest of Gastonia’s early private high schools.

        Gastonia landed another private school in 1896 under the auspices and ownership of Gastonia’s Main Street Methodist Church. Known as Oakland High School, it opened in a new two-story, six-room brick building on the southwest corner of South Oakland Street and East Second Avenue. Professor Benjamin E. Atkins of Athens, Tennessee came to take charge. In 1898, Professor Joseph H. Separk (1), previously superintendent of Charlotte Military Institute, was called to Gastonia to succeed Atkins as headmaster, the latter having returned to his former home in Tennessee. Separk ran the school until 1901, when all of the schools in the city came under the state public school system. The former headmaster would be heard from again as a major participant in Gastonia’s burgeoning textile industry.

        Oakland High School had an enrollment of 134 students and employed five teachers by 1899. It was said to be one of the best preparatory schools in the state and prepared one for college or life. Tuition was $1 to $3 a month and board, $6.50 to $7 a month. There were three primary grades and five higher grades. Its operating history was short, only five years, but its influence extended into all areas of the community. Its location and building would be occupied by Central School in 1901.

        In addition to the private subscription schools, several cotton mills had their own schools for instructing the children of their workers. The mills usually paid all of the expenses of running them, at least in the early days. Miss Mattie Glenn was the teacher of Trenton Mills School (2) in 1897, and Miss Ossie Shuford had become its teacher by 1901, when it became part of the public school system. 

        At Old Mill (Gastonia Cotton Manufacturing Co.), Miss Sue Gallant, followed by her sister, Miss Pearl Gallant, instructed the children; and at Ozark Mills Miss Cynthia Blackwell was the teacher. Each was paid $35 a month. The Arlington Cotton Mills, founded in 1900 in west Gastonia, also had a very fine school. Miss Lizzie Adams, one of Gastonia’s earliest schoolmistresses, became its first teacher. Later the school was enlarged and additional teachers were employed. Miss Mary Galloway, daughter of the local Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church’s minister, privately tutored Gastonia children in her home during the early 1900s.
        The only school in Gastonia for African-Americans in 1898 was taught by Dr. B. F. Martin. Of the 315 black children in the town, only 154 (less than half) were enrolled. Dr. Martin had no assistant and managed the entire school himself. Improvement came slowly – painfully for this sector of the population – but it did come, and Gastonia developed a progressive attitude toward its minorities.
        The year 1901 brought Gastonia High School (formerly The Academy) and Oakland High School to a close, and the entire educational system as it then existed was turned over to a new public graded system. The former Oakland High School building was purchased by the city as the location for its first public school; and its new designation became Central High School, or in later years, simply Central School. It was immediately renovated and expanded to double its original size in order to accommodate the greatly increased enrollment (3).

          A city tax was voted to support the new system, and Joseph S. Wray of Shelby was named the first superintendent of Gastonia city schools at a salary of $85 per month (4). John F. Bradley became Central’s first principal at a salary of $45 per month. The first teachers were Misses Julia Galloway, Bright Torrence, Annie B. Carr and Essie M. Stewart. As was the custom of the day, pupils living outside the city limits paid tuition rates because they were not covered by city taxes. 

        The first school board consisted of five elected members: J. F. Bradley, R. P. Rankin, A. M. Smyre, J. T. Suggs and J. S. Torrence. Mayor W. T. Love, Board of Alderman member G. A. Gray and Superintendent Wray served ex officio. Under their guidance, the struggle for quality education in Gastonia began in earnest. New and better teachers were attracted to the city because of its strong commitment to quality education.

        At the same time, the Reverend C. H. Chute was elected superintendent of the separate black school; and with him were A. L. Bethel and Minnie Rhodes as teachers. The school, located on North York Street, would become known as Highland High School. The Reverend J. A. Rollins guided it as principal until his death in 1929. [INDEX]

Article Eighteen:

Gaston Public Library Grew Out of the Activities of   
Gastonia Young Men’s Christian Association

Gastonia’s First YMCA

        Sometime in the late 1880s, evangelist William P.“Bill” Fife held a great revival meeting in Gastonia. As a result of this meeting and the involvement of a number of the town’s Christian leaders, Gastonia Young Men’s Christian Association was organized. The YMCA board raised $5,000 from free-will contributions of citizens and in 1890 purchased a lot near the northwest corner of Main and South streets, upon which they planned to build a two-story brick building.

        The YMCA board quickly became interested in acquiring a small adjoining lot in order to have a corner location. They approached J. W. P. Nixon, who had bought the corner lot (only18 feet fronting on Main Street and 90 feet deep on South Street) some years earlier from pioneer landowner O. W. Davis and erected a one-story frame building for his general store. Nixon was not interested in selling the property. He was, however, persuaded to convey the air rights above his building, the top of which was 14 ½ feet above the sidewalk. Some say the merchant was influenced by a need for a new roof and saw a good way to get one without putting out any money.

        The arrangement, considered one of the first such transactions in North Carolina history, was concluded by deed dated June 13, 1890, whereby J. W. P. Nixon and wife conveyed the air rights above their building to M. C. Arrowood, J. K. Dixon and F. A. Costner, trustees for the Gastonia YMCA, and their assigns. The YMCA then commenced to build their adjoining two-story brick building and extended it over and around the Nixon property per deeded agreement, giving the two separately owned properties the appearance of a single integrated structure. 

        Gastonia’s first YMCA served as a meeting place for holding Bible classes, study sessions and other types of religious meetings that benefited the town and its young men. Local ministers and laymen conducted religious services on a regular schedule. The association also had a small library of about fifty books and a reading room that was operated by the voluntary service of its members at certain times during the day and occasionally at night. Unlike today’s extensive YMCA curriculum, there was no arrangement for physical exercise, recreation or childcare. 

        About 1900, after ten years of operation, interest in the Gastonia YMCA and its activities lagged, and it soon ceased to exist as an active organization in the normal sense that a YMCA is supposed to function. The books of the library were given to the public in 1904. However, the real estate was placed in the hands of a self-perpetuating YMCA board of trustees. Through the years, the building was leased to multiple tenants, the property became more valuable and considerable funds were accumulated and reinvested as an endowment.

        In 1910 word circulated that the University of North Carolina under “escheat” passed by the General Assembly might seek to take the Gastonia property and accumulated funds. Therefore, on August 22, 1910, after ten years of disuse for the purpose for which it had been originally established, the heretofore unincorporated association was incorporated as Gastonia Young Men’s Christian Association, with Dr. C. E. Adams, W. Y. Warren, G. W. Ragan, J. Q. Holland, B. T. Morris, F. A. Costner, the Reverend Dr. J. C. Galloway, F. L. Smyre, H. B. Moore, J. H. Kennedy, J. E. Page and J. K. Dixon being named as trustees. Most of these same men had served on the original board in 1890.

        Mr. Nixon, who owned this unique little lot at the southwest corner of Main and South streets with its deeded air rights above, soon departed Gastonia for residency in Iredell County. He sold the corner property and its air rights about 1893 to cotton manufacturer G. W. Ragan, who in turn sold it to banker L. L. Jenkins about 1900 in a real estate trade transaction. Jenkins, in turn, sold it to Gaston Loan & Trust Co., successor to the old Gastonia Savings Bank, in 1903. Both institutions occupied the first-floor corner office room for a number of years. Upon the closure of Gaston Loan and Trust Co. in 1933 during the Great Depression, the property was bought by textilist Earl E. Groves and remained in his family until about 1953, when it was purchased by Citizens National Bank as an extension to the bank’s adjoining quarters.

Gastonia’s First Public Library

        Meanwhile, back in 1898, 27-year-old York County native Dr. D. E. McConnell came to Gastonia and opened a dental practice in the first-floor corner room of the YMCA building. He allowed the religious association to place their fifty books in his office and personally took charge of lending them to the public until more suitable and permanent arrangements could be made. This occurred in March 1904 when several ministers and interested citizens arranged a public meeting at the Falls House to organize Gastonia Library Association. This action was followed on May 10 with the election of the Reverend Dr. J. C. Galloway of Gastonia Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church as its first chairman; J. D. Moore, vice chairman; and J. F. Love, secretary and treasurer. The board was composed of the officers, the Reverend R. C. Anderson of First Presbyterian Church, J. K. Dixon, A. G. Mangum, W. F. Marshall, Dr. D. E. McConnell, J. H. Separk and G. W. Wilson. They selected the shy but efficient Miss Charlotte “Lottie” Blake as the first librarian, at a salary of $30 a month. She held the position for 33 years.

        The YMCA, which, as already mentioned, had been inactive for several years, turned over its entire second floor quarters to the library for their use, and the books were moved from Dr. McConnell’s office. This gave them space to expand, and by the end of 1904 the number of volumes in the library was reported to be 733, not including 44 public documents. After six years of this private arrangement, it became obvious the Library Association lacked the funds with which to adequately maintain and move the library forward to meet the needs of an expanding community. Its leaders fortuitously asked the YMCA board of trustees (although the organization was inactive, it had endowment assets and a funding source) to assume control, which it did in January 1911. It operated under this bilateral arrangement until the YMCA board could persuade the city to take it over and make it a public library.

        Finally, in March 1917 it came under the city budget and officially became a public institution. Progress came slowly, but in time it grew into a major educational and cultural organization of which Gastonians and Gaston Countians could be justly proud. By the late 1920s Gastonia Public Library had far outgrown its old 1904 location on West Main Street and was desperate for new space. Seeing this need, the public-spirited trustees of the long inactive YMCA, who had played such an important part in the library’s life since its founding, came to the rescue once again. Their ownership of prime Gastonia real estate and the accumulation of cash reserve since its disbandment gave it the wherewithal to do something worthwhile for the community. From this endowment reserve the YMCA donated $25,000 to the city of Gastonia, the cost of a completely new library. Construction began in 1930 on a one-story brick building on West Second Avenue, next door to the two-year-old Gaston County War Memorial Building, both buildings being designed by noted Gastonia architect Hugh E. White. The new library opened with an expanded staff and collection in 1931 as a “New Year’s gift [to the people of Gaston County] absolutely without any strings attached.” In October 1937 Gastonia Public Library became Gaston County Public Library, with Miss Barbara May Eaker (later Mrs. Heafner) selected as county librarian to replace the retiring Miss Blake. It would be under her leadership that the library would see much progress.

        The Second Avenue location served as the library’s home for 47 years, until the present facility was built on East Garrison Boulevard in 1978, near First Presbyterian Church.  The new facility became the pride of the county. Its 300,000-plus volumes and extensive computer interactive capability today is a far cry from the initial 50 books in Dr. McConnell’s dental office in 1898. The present library maintains, among its many features, a fine Carolina collection of local, regional and state historical books and documents. Much of Gaston County’s recorded history is housed here. Barbara Heafner was the librarian at the time of the move and was the one most responsible for planning the facility and executing its excellent features and programs. She served as head librarian for a remarkable 41 years, retiring in 1978. Within a year or two, Grier Middle School, Schiele Museum of Natural History and Parkwood Baptist Church built new facilities in the same area, furthering the development of that entire section of the city. Cindy Moose has been director of Gaston County Public Library for a number of years. In addition, she serves as regional director of Gaston-Lincoln Regional Library, the sixth largest library system in North Carolina. The current board of trustees of Gaston County Public Library consists of Ralph S. Robinson, Jr., chairman, Gail Silkstone, vice chairman, Tina West, Elayne Samuels, J. Bret Keeter and Jeffrey F. Funderburk.

Revival of Gaston County Family YMCA

        In the early to mid-1950s, interest in having a functioning YMCA to provide a full range of activity programs for youths and families of Gaston County was revived more than a half century after the original Gastonia organization had been disbanded in 1904 for lack of interest. The city of Gastonia purchased and then gave a suitable tract of land at the southwest corner of West Franklin Boulevard and Trenton Street to the Gaston County YMCA, which was incorporated in 1956. An aggressive capital fund drive raised enough money to construct and outstanding modern building with a full range of recreational and care facilities for an expanding population. J. D. Hicks became the first general secretary of the Gaston County YMCA and was succeeded by Bob Neely in the early 1980s. As programs and services continued to grow, the Y expanded accordingly. In 1989, Neely retired and Jim Mercer became the third executive director. In the fall of 1992, Phill Morgan became the fourth executive director to fill the office. Today Gaston County Family YMCA operates five locations throughout the county – Gastonia, East Gaston, Cherryville, Southeast Gastonia and Karyae Park near Crowders Mountain. [INDEX]