Inventory of the Cone Mills Corporation Records, 1858-1997

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Historical Note

In 1845, Herman Kahn (1828-1897), who later Americanized his last name to Cone, was a Jewish immigrant to the United States from Bavaria, Germany. In 1876, he opened H. Cone & Sons, a wholesale grocery firm. Two of his sons, Moses H. Cone (1857-1908) and Ceasar Cone (1859-1917) worked as traveling salesmen for their father's Baltimore-based company, often bartering groceries for southern textiles and selling them outside the South. Herman Cone's other children, many of whom would later be involved in Moses and Ceasar's business undertakings, included Carrie (1861-1927), Monroe (1862-1891), Claribel (1864-1929), Albert (1866-1867), Solomon (1868-1939), Sydney M. (1869-1939), Etta (1870-1949), Julius W. (1872-1940), Bernard M. (1874-1956), Clarence N. (1876-1929), and Frederick W. (1978-1944).

In 1887, Moses and Ceasar Cone invested $50,000 in the establishment of C. E. Graham Mill Manufacturing Company of Asheville, N.C., which manufactured plaid fabrics. The name of the mill was changed to Asheville Cotton Mills in 1893, and then to Asheville Fabrics Mill Inc. in 1948. In 1888, the brothers invested in Salisbury Cotton Mills of Salisbury, N.C., and Minneola Manufacturing Comany of Gibsonville, N.C., both of which also produced plaid fabrics.

In 1891, Moses and Ceasar Cone established the Cone Export & Commission Company as a northern selling agent for southern textiles. Chartered in New Jersey, the company's headquarters was located on Worth Street in New York, N.Y., and Moses Cone served as president. In 1893, the Cones built one of the first finishing plants in the South, Southern Finishing & Warehouse Company, in Greensboro, N.C.

In 1895, the Cones built in Greensboro their first denim manufacturing plant, the Proximity Cotton Mills, named for its close location to cotton fields, warehouses, and rail lines. Nearby they constructed a building that was to serve as a headquarters for Proximity Cotton Mills and other cooperative plants controlled by the Proximity Manufacturing Company. Ceasar Cone served as president. In 1899, the Cones partnered with Emanuel and Herman Sternberger of South Carolina to build Revolution Mills, a flannel production plant, in Greensboro. In 1905, the Cones built White Oak Mill, another denim plant in Greensboro under Proximity Manufacturing Company. In 1912, the Cones opened Proximity Print Works, one of the earliest cloth printing facilities in the South.

In 1927, the Cones acquired Cliffside Cotton Mills, which included both the terry cloth-producing Cliffside Mill of Cliffside, N.C., and the chambray-producing Haynes Plant of Avondale, N.C. By 1929, they had aquired Holt-Granite Puritan Mills Company of Haw River, N.C., which for the Cones served as the corduroy-producing Granite plant, and Tabardrey Manufacturing Company. By 1932, the Cones had gained controlling stock of Eno Cotton Mills of Hillsborough, N.C. In 1941, they bought the Florence Mills of Forest City, N.C., and its subsidiary, American Spinning Company of Greenville, S.C. In 1945, many of the manufacturing companies, mills, and various subsidiaries owned by the Cones underwent a major reorganization in which the separate business operations of Proximity Manufacturing Company (including Proximity Cotton Mills, Proximity Print Works, White Oak, and Granite), the Cliffside Mills (including the Cliffside and Haynes plants), the Florence Mills (including American Spinning Company), Minneola Manufacturing Company, Salisbury Cotton Mills, Tabardrey Manufacturing Company, and Cone Export & Commission Company, were all organized under Proximity Manufacturing Company. In 1948, another major merger occured, this time beween Revolution Mills and Proximity Manufacturing Company, and the consolidated company was named Cone Mills Corporation. While operating as Cone Mills Corporation, the company was known as the world's largest producer of denim. In 1950, Cone Mills Corporation announced a merger with Dwight Manufacturing Company of Alabama, a twill and drill manufacturer, and the following year purchased the company outright. Also in 1951, Cone Mills Corporation went public, beginning trade on the New York Stock Exchange, and created Guilford Products Company to manufacture cloth diapers to meet the demand of the postwar baby boom.

From 1958 to 1969, Cone Mills Corporation was involved with the annual Miss North Carolina Pageant. The company provided fabric for wardrobes that were given to each year's winner and also for the presentation gown that each winner wore to represent North Carolina in the annual Miss America Pageant. For many of these years, Cone's public relations department collaborated with local clothing designer Luther Self to produce the wardrobes. Cone Mills Corporation discontinued its involvement in 1970 due to a dispute between the 1962 Miss America winner from North Carolina and the Miss North Carolina runner-up over rightful ownership of the wardrobe that had been provided by Cone.

Cone Mills Corporation continued to expand by acquiring John Wolf Textiles in 1961, which marketed decorative home fabrics, and organizing Olympic Products in 1962, which made foam products.

When faced with a potential takeover by Western Pacific Industries in 1983, the company went private again until 1992. In 2003, Cone Mills Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. By 2004, all of Cone's assets had been acquired by W. L. Ross and Company and were then combined with what remained of Burlington Industries to form International Textile Group Incorporated.

Collection Overview

The collection contains records of Cone Mills Corporation (and predecessor Proximity Manufacturing Company and its subsidiary and affiliated companies), manufacturers of denim and other textiles chiefly in North Carolina and South Carolina during the late nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century. Materials include correspondence, reports, minute books, a variety of financial recordkeeping volumes, contracts, blueprints, photographs, and audiovisual materials.

Series 1. Cone Export & Commission Company and Series 2. Proximity Manufacturing Company (chiefly Proximity Cotton Mill, Proximity Print Works, and White Oak Cotton Mill) document financial as well as business affairs of the Cone companies in the late nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century. Correspondence, subject files, and volumes detail mill operations at every level, from plant facility planning to manufacturing costs and sales to employment and mill village welfare. The records of Bernard M. Cone and Herman Cone in Series 5. Executives likewise relate to management of all financial and business affairs at Proximity plants. The records of these two executives also document labor and unemployment in the textile industry, public perceptions of mill business operations, segregated education and recreation, and civic and charitable involvement outside the mill, including the founding of the Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital.

Series 3. Revolution and other mills contains the business and financial records of textile companies and plants owned and operated in full or in part by the Cone family, including Revolution Cotton Mills, Asheville Cotton Mills, Minneola Manufacturing Company, Salisbury Cotton Mills, Cliffside Mills, Eno Cotton Mills, Granite Finishing Works, Tabardrey Manufacturing Company, and Florence Mills and American Spinning Company. This series chiefly contains financial records, but materials in Series 3.1. Revolution Cotton Mills and Series 3.4. Minneola Manufacturing Company contain more extensive documentation of other business affairs, similar to the materials relating to Proximity Manufacturing Company described above. The records of Ceasar Cone II (1908-1986) in Series 5. Executives document the reorganization of affiliated and subsidiary companies in 1945.

Series 4. Cone Mills Corporation includes business, financial, and other materials that relate to the affairs of the reorganized company. Other materials in the series document Dwight Manufacturing Company; public relations functions, especially advertising, employee relations, community relations and outreach, and program sponsorship of the Miss North Carolina pageant; and audio visual materials for equipment and safety training of textile workers. The remaining records in Series 5. Executives document the Cone Mills Corporation under the leadership of Lewis Morris and his assistant Dewey Trogdon. Their files include internal Cone Mills Corporation communications regarding various company mills, divisions, policies, finances, products, and involvement in external industry-related and non-profit organizations.

Series 6. Photographs includes photographs, negatives, and slides depicting Cone family, Cone Mills plants, employees, schools, ceremonies, workplace safety instruction, recreation, and Miss North Carolina in fashions made of Cone Mills fabrics. Also included are lantern slides related to studies conducted by the research and development division of Cone Mills.

Series 7. Other materials contains Cone company and family history, including a scrapbook concerning labor union negotiations in the 1950s; genealogy; writings about the Cone companies and family; H. Cone and Sons Company records; volumes of unidentified ownership; and miscellaneous publications, including a film, possibly by H. Lee Waters, of people in the mill village associated with White Oak Plant in Greensboro, N.C.

Folder titles and original order have been maintained throughout the collection with minor exceptions.

Please note that there is considerable overlap among the types of materials and subjects covered in the series. Researchers should therefore investigate all possible locations when searching for materials of interest to them.

Arrangement of Collection

Items Separated

Detailed Description of the Collection

Business records of the Cone Export & Commission Company. Series 1.1. Chronological files are chiefly business and some personal correspondence between executives and representatives of Cone Export & Commission Company and with other textile manufacturing companies, customers, salesmen, and competitors. Primary correspondents include Saul F. Dribben, Lacy H. Sellars, Frederic W. Cone, Herman Cone, Julius Cone, Ceasar Cone (1859-1917), David Dryfuss, Clarence M. Guggenheimer, and Benjamin Cone. Series 1.2. Subject files includes deeds, board minutes, financial statements, correspondence, contracts, and other business records that document production costs, inventories, mill construction, stocks, financing, assets and liabilities, and relationships with other textile companies. Series 1.3. Volumes include minute books and a variety of financial recordkeeping volumes.

Business records of Ceasar Cone (1859-1917) and Proximity Manufacturing Company, including correspondence, reports, contracts, budget data, deeds, awards, ledgers, journals, and other records. Series 2.1. Subject files chiefly concerns mill finances and production, but also documents some aspects of mill life in the early- and mid-twentieth century. Of particular note are subject files relating to budgeting for mill operations; contracts with businesses, utilities, and individuals for goods and services; the Textile Bank redemption, in which the Cone family redeemed the holdings of every investor after the company bank failed in 1933 (see also series 5.1. Bernard M. Cone); and records of night school and other welfare programs. Series 2.1. Volumes chiefly concerns finances and production, including payroll, purchases, customer orders, and sales records at Proximity Cotton Mill, White Oak Mill, Proximity Store Company, Proximity Print Works, and Cone Finishing Company.

Budget data concerns many aspects of mill operations: card room, labor, beaming and slashing, spinning overhead, packing, dyeing, fabric construction, waste disposal, weaving, payroll, allowance for defectives, finishing, and shipping.

Business and financial records of textile companies and plants owned and operated in full or in part by the Cone family, including Revolution Cotton Mills, Asheville Cotton Mills, Minneola Manufacturing Company, Salisbury Cotton Mills, Cliffside Mills, Eno Cotton Mills, Granite Finishing Works, Tabardrey Manufacturing Company, and Florence Mills and American Spinning Company. Note that in many cases the records of a company may pre-date the Cones' ownership of the company.

Contracts, deeds, ledgers, minutes, and other records of the flannel-producing Revolution Cotton Mills and its executives. Series 3.1.1. Subject files documents a variety of business affairs, including stocks, leases and agreements, and salaries. There are some records relating to mill equipment, regulations and policies, and the hiring of welfare workers. Series 3.1.2. Contracts documents agreements with businesses and individuals for goods and services, including railroads, chemicals, utilities, machinery, lunch concessions, a church, and insurance. Series 3.1.3. Volumes chiefly concerns finances and production, including payroll, purchases, customer orders, sales records, and salaries. Also included are company minute books.

Financial, business, and other records relating to the Asheville Cotton Mills (called C. E. Graham Mill Manufacturing Company until 1893 and renamed Asheville Fabrics Mill Incorporated after 1948). The series is arranged into two subseries: 3.2.1. Subject files and 3.2.2. Volumes.

Correspondence, ledgers, board minutes, financial statements, reports, and other records documenting the business and financial affairs of the Salisbury Cotton Mills. The series is arranged into two subseries: 3.3.1. Subject files and 3.3.2. Volumes.