Chisholm Clark Cranford (1875-1955)

Portrait from the 1940 "Ash-Hi-Life".

   The city of Asheboro, North Carolina can take pride in the fact they have elected not one, but two curiously named mayors since its first mayor took office over a century ago, and the man profiled today, four-term mayor Chisholm Clark Cranford, left a lasting legacy in the city with his roles as a prominent Randolph County industrialist and leader in civic improvements. In addition to his mayoralty, Cranford further aided his city and state by serving in the state senate, where he represented Randolph County for one term. Born in Concord township, North Carolina on February 2, 1875, Chisholm Clark "C.C." Cranford was one of eight children born to Zimri and Rozina Maria (Lassiter) Cranford. Little is known of Cranford's formative years or education, excepting that he attended the public schools of Randolph County. 

  At age twenty Cranford left the family homestead, and within a short period had taken work with the Asheboro Roller Mill as a flour delivery driver. He married in November 1896 to Mary Annie Davis (1877-1959), and the couple's near six-decade marriage saw the births of four children, Edward (1900-1957), Vivian (1903-1994), Clarence Charles (1907-1939), and Samuel Davis Cranford (1910-1971).

  After several years of work and investment in the Asheboro Roller Mill's stock, Cranford rose to become manager of that enterprise. He later sold off his interest in the mill and with this capital elected to go into business for himself. In short order, he established the Crown Milling Company in the early 1900s, which he would continue to operate until selling it in 1913 to the Southern Milling Company. At the time of that mill's sale, Cranford had already developed a financial interest in several other area business enterprises, including the Randolph Chair Company and the Acme Hosiery Company. While he would soon sell off his interest in the latter business, Cranford purchased the Randolph Chair Company, a business that he would later transform into the Cranford Chair Company, a manufacturer of caned chairs. This business would continue on until Cranford decided to convert it into a hosiery mill.

   Cranford continued to expand his textile business acumen in 1917 when he established the Asheboro Hosiery Mills, which would manufacture both men and women's legwear. This mill comprised then state-of-the-art textile equipment, including "thirty seamless hosiery machines" as well as "steam engines powering electric generators and electric lights." The Asheboro Hosiery Mill proved to be only a small part of Cranford's overall business legacy, as he would have a hand in organizing multiple Asheboro manufacturing concerns, including the Bentwood Chair Company, the Cranford Furniture Company, the Asheboro Veneer Company, the Standard Tytape Company, the National Chair Company, and the Piedmont Chair Company. Two of these companies, Asheboro Veneer, and Piedmont Chair, would be managed by Cranford's brothers, Elsie Herman (E.H.) and Charles L. (C.L.). This textile and furniture manufacturing complex comprised three substantial brick buildings and an office, and would later become known as Cranford Industries. This vast manufacturing complex, now vacant, still stands today and in December 2011 was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

  While viewed as one of the leading industrialists in his city, Chisholm Cranford also achieved success in business outside of textiles and furniture, being the director of the First National Bank of Asheboro and president of the Asheboro Drug Company. His prominence was also not limited to Asheboro, with his serving as a director for the Southern Chair Company of High Point, North Carolina.

  

From the "History of North Carolina: Noth Carolina Biography", 1919.

   With his name firmly established in the Asheboro business community, Chisholm C. Cranford entered the political life of his region with his service on the Asheboro town board. In 1913 he was elected to his first term as mayor of Asheboro, and this term would see the construction of the first of Asheboro's city lakes "to augment the town's well-fed water system." Cranford won a second term in May 1915 but would serve only briefly, as he resigned that June due to the illness of his wife Mary. Following his resignation, Cranford was succeeded as mayor by another unusually named man, Doctor Bulla McCrary, who, like Cranford, achieved lasting prominence as an Asheboro industrialist and civic leader.

   Through the late 1910s and into the 1920s Cranford continued to expand Cranford Industries, erecting a two-story building in connection with the Asheboro Hosiery Mills, which increased not only the knitting mill's size but also its knitting machine number to over 500. The Cranford Chair Company also saw pronounced improvements, with its original structure being demolished and replaced by "a long, rectangular, one-story brick woodworking and chair manufacturing facility", as well as a two-story frame structure that was used to house varnishing and painting equipment. 

   In 1921 Cranford was selected by then Governor Cameron Morrison to serve as a member of the board of directors for the State Hospital at Morganton, North Carolina. Cranford served until his resignation in 1925, and in 1922 reentered local politics by serving as a member of the board of Randolph County Commissioners. In 1927 Cranford was returned to the Asheboro mayoral chair, serving a third term which extended until 1928, when he resigned due to his election to the state senate from the 12th senatorial district. During the 1929-31 session, he sat on the following committees: Commerce, Corporations, the Corporation Commission, Finance, Fish and Fisheries, Immigration, Insane Asylums, Insurance, the Journal, Manufacturing, Propositions and Grievances, and Public Health. 

From the 1929 North Carolina Senate composite portrait.

  One year into his senate term Cranford was called to political "double duty", as he was elected to a fourth term as mayor of Asheboro in 1929.  This term extended until 1931 and would see Cranford figure prominently in the construction of the Randolph Hospital in the city. Completed in 1932, Cranford served on the hospital's first board of directors and in 1930 was honored as the namesake of the C.C. Cranford Citizenship Cup, which would become an annual award given out to the "most outstanding citizen" picked from the Asheboro High School's senior class.

   After leaving politics in the early 1930s Cranford's business pursuits again took center stage, and in 1941 saw that the Asheboro Hosiery Company underwent an extensive renovation, with interior and exterior remodeling and the installation of over two hundred new full-fashioned and seamless hosiery machines. During the Second World War, Cranford aided in the war effort when he and business manager W. Clyde Lucas used the Cranford Furniture plant to manufacture goods that would aid in the Allied effort overseas, including "fabricated stretchers forms, medicine cabinets, convalescent rockers, mess tables, specialty chairs, and hospital beds."

   In 1946 the then seventy-year-old Chisholm Cranford undertook another ambitious project, overseeing the construction of a nearly sixty-thousand square foot, two-story factory on the outskirts of Asheboro that would later be sold to the National Carbon Company of Cleveland, Ohio, which used the facility to manufacture batteries. The latter part of that decade saw Cranford and his son Samuel lead in the construction of three commercial properties in downtown Asheboro, and in 1949 Cranford himself suffered a stroke from which he eventually recovered. He continued to reside in Asheboro until his death at home from a heart attack on May 16, 1955, aged 80. Cranford was survived by his wife Mary, who, following her death in 1959, was interred alongside her husband at the Oaklawn Cemetery in Asheboro.

Chisholm Cranford in old age; from "Farmer, Yesterday and Today", 1981.

From the Gastonia Gazette, May 17, 1955.