Belmont

… city in E Gaston County. Site of cotton mills in late nineteenth century. Named Garibaldi in the 1870s for the man who built the railroad water tank there. Inc. as Belmont, 1895. Named for August Belmont (1853-1924), New York banker and financier. Roman Catholic St. Mary's College opened there in 1878, chartered 1886; renamed Belmont Abbey College, 1913. Sacred Heart Junior College operated there, 1892-1987. Produces textiles and hosiery. Alt. 685.