City of Gastonia history

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.

It was 1888 before Gastonia, 11 years after its incorporation as a town, was large enough to attract its first resident legal advisor.

Meanwhile, with the arrival of its second and third cotton mills in 1894, Gastonia’s prospects looked so promising that the town attracted its second resident attorney.

In 1897, eight years after its first attempt and with pride running high among its 3,400 residents, the question came up for the second time.

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.

Jenkins, in turn, sold it to Gaston Loan & Trust Co., successor to the old Gastonia Savings Bank, in 1903.

In 1905, a team of “fine fire horses” were purchased, and L. L. Jenkins donated a fire wagon and some harnesses.

It was in Winston-Salem and was owned by young G. C. Thomas, who had purchased it in 1908.

It operated under this bilateral arrangement until the YMCA board could persuade the city to take it over and make it a public library. 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.

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.

George Bason Mason returned from his law studies in Chapel Hill in 1918 to join his father, the elder Oscar Mason.

He was first in partnership with Harley B. Gaston (later to become dean of Belmont’s law community), and then in 1921 with Addison G. Mangum under the firm name Mangum & Denny.

J. Eris Cassell became the first principal of Gastonia High School when it moved to its new campus in 1924.

The name was changed to The Gaston Sanatorium, Inc., and it was dedicated to the care of the sick in February 1927.

In 1928, a group of still rebellious workers marched the mile or so into uptown Gastonia bearing a coffin that held a man resembling the Loray Mills manager.

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.

Upon Doctor Miller’s resignation from the staff of the Gastonia hospital in 1932 to devote his time exclusively to his Charlotte clinic, Doctor Roberts assumed the position of chief surgeon and retained that post for the next thirty-four years.

In 1935 it applied for and was approved to come under the Duke Endowment funding; and the name was changed to Garrison General Hospital, Inc. in honor of one of its founders.

Under his administration, with the aid of the WPA, a separate high school was built in 1936.

In 1938, thoroughly discouraged with the Communist system of government, he returned to the United States to begin serving his 20-year sentence.

Gastonia had become large enough by 1939 to warrant a separate junior high school for grades seven and eight and ease the crowding in the lower schools.

In 1941, fourteen additional members, representing different women’s volunteer organizations in Gastonia, were welcomed into the Society, giving it a total of 28 active members.

When Cherry was elected governor in 1944, Hollowell started his own practice.

In 1946, Gaston Post No.

With the death of Doctor Patrick in 1947, Doctor Blair became the surviving partner.

Following Garland, in 1948, E. Pat Cooke set up his well-known practice in Gastonia and became involved in many facets of the city’s affairs.

John L. “Buck” Fraley joined them in 1949.

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.

In 1964, Gastonia was named the All-American City in Look Magazine's annual contest.

When it was sold in 1971, it had become one of the largest private tucking firms in the nation.

19, 1976: R. E. Bradley (died in office)

¦ The first African-American mayor of Gastonia was Thebaud Jeffers (1977-85).

The proceeds from the liquidation of the hospital’s valuable assets, amounting to $726,524, was directed by its surviving board of trustees toward the founding of the Community Foundation of Gaston County on July 11, 1978.

Since 1984, CaroMont Health has served as the parent company of Gaston Memorial Hospital.

He was devoted to the city of his birth and, among many accomplishments, served Gastonia as mayor for ten years, 1987-97.

In 1989, Neely retired and Jim Mercer became the third executive director.