Kubar Manufacturing Company and later owners plant at Davidson, North Carolina

In July 1927, Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, reported that A. B. Kuhn had left his post as manager of a company at Newton, N. C., on April 1st and "began to establish the Davidson plant" of the Kubar Manufacturing Company.⁵ The same article said the new plant at Davidson had machinery "with which to manufacture high grade Asbestos Textiles," and a separate department for "a complete line of asbestos paints and cements, and chemicals."⁵

In 1931, Asbestos reported that the Kubar Manufacturing Company of Davidson "made a change in management and is now known as the Carolina Asbestos Company"; a 1980 look back in the same journal dates the name change to 1930, and a 1968 article says its founder started Carolina Asbestos in 1930 and "operated a textile plant at Davidson, North Carolina."^1,6,7

In December 1941, Asbestos reported the purchase by Carolina Asbestos of a new plant at Marshville, N. C., "and the expansion of their present plant at Davidson, all for the manufacture of asbestos textiles."² Later articles in the same journal tell it differently: in 1968 it wrote that Davidson "then became largely a carding and spinning mill" while Marshville was mainly a weaving mill, and in 1972 that the business "had outgrown the little plant at Davidson and, rather than expand at that location," took on the Marshville plant, after which Davidson was "primarily a yarn mill."^1,3

In December 1947, Asbestos reported that Union Asbestos & Rubber Co. "acquired control of the Carolina Asbestos Co. with factories at Davidson and Marshfield, N.C."; the journal's 1971 account says Union bought the two textile mills at Davidson and Marshville in January 1947, and its 1968 account names the buyer as Unarco Industries, Inc.^1,8,9 A 1949 item lists Davidson among the plants where Union was already making asbestos products.⁴ Both later accounts say the plant left Union in 1950: the 1971 article says it was "re-acquired by Herb Carlough," and the 1968 article says a newly formed Carolina Asbestos Company, with Carlough as president, "purchased the Davidson textile plant from Unarco."^1,9 The 1968 article ends the story: "Later the Davidson property was sold to H. K. Porter Company, Inc."¹

Location

What each document says

Every statement about this plant in the documents, in each document's own words.

Other names

Documents call this plant “plant of the Kubar Manufacturing Company at Davidson, N. C.”, “present plant at Davidson”, “factories at Davidson ... N. C.”, “textile plant at Davidson, North Carolina”, “the little plant at Davidson”, “the Davidson property”.

See also

• Union Asbestos & Rubber Co. (Unarco Industries, Inc.): the company's history, documents, people, products and plants
• H. K. Porter Company, Inc.: the company's history, documents, people, products and plants
• Asbestos exposure sites in North Carolina

References

1. Asbestos Magazine, 1968, August 1968 (August 1, 1968), p. 22.
2. Asbestos Magazine, 1941, December 1941 (December 1, 1941), p. 10.
3. Asbestos Magazine, 1972, March 1972 (March 1, 1972), p. 12.
4. Asbestos Magazine, 1949, March 1949 (March 1, 1949), p. 48.
5. Asbestos Magazine, 1927, July 1927 (July 1, 1927), p. 20.
6. Asbestos Magazine, 1931, January 1931 (January 1, 1931), p. 6.
7. Asbestos Magazine, 1980, September 1980 (September 1, 1980), p. 52.
8. Asbestos Magazine, 1947, December 1947 (December 1, 1947), p. 5.
9. Asbestos Magazine, 1971, September 1971 (September 1, 1971), p. 8.