Qualla: Gastonia, North Carolina

Gastonia, North Carolina: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hlecroy, CC BY-SA 3.0. Ella May Wiggins was 28 years old, a widowed mother of five surviving children, and a balladeer when an armed mob shot her dead near Gastonia on September 14, 1929. She was riding in the back of a truck on her way to a strike rally at the Loray Mill. The bullet that killed her went through her chest. The men who fired the shots were acquitted. Her songs about mill life and child mortality - she had buried four of her nine children - outlived her killers and the strike itself. The Loray Mill still stands at the western edge of Gastonia, converted now to lofts. Her grave is in Bessemer City. Gastonia, the largest city in Gaston County, has been quieter in the century since, but the events of that summer still sit just beneath the surface of any honest history of the place.

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Image: Hlecroy | CC BY-SA 3.0

Gastonia, North Carolina: The Spun-Yarn Capital

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mark Clifton, CC BY-SA 4.0. Long before and long after the strike, Gastonia was a textile town. Parkdale Mills - the largest manufacturer of spun yarn in the world - is still headquartered here. The company has closed plants and shifted production overseas like most of its competitors, but the corporate bra...

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Image: Mark Clifton | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gastonia, North Carolina: Schiele and the Stowe

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Heisenburg CA at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Schiele Museum of Natural History keeps the area's deep history visible - the Hall of North Carolina Natural History, the Henry Hall of the American Indian, and the James H. Lynn Planetarium, the only one in the Charlotte region. Just southeast in Belmont, the Daniel Stowe Bo...

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Image: Heisenburg CA at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Gastonia, North Carolina: The Ghost Peppers Move In

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Caspermichael, CC BY-SA 4.0. Downtown has been quietly working its way back. The historic district has filled in with locally owned businesses again. The newest civic landmark, CaroMont Health Park, opened in 2021 as part of the Franklin Urban Sports and Entertainment District. The Gastonia Honey Hunters pla...

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Image: Caspermichael | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gastonia, North Carolina: The Names That Left

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GastoniaHappening, CC BY-SA 4.0. Gastonia's notable-people roll is long and improbable. Thomas Sowell, the economist and political commentator, was born here. James Worthy of the Lakers and the Hall of Fame grew up here. Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit. R. Gregg Cherry, governor of North Carolina from 1945 to 1949. Th...

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Image: GastoniaHappening | CC BY-SA 4.0