NOVEMBER
1974
GASTONIA
NORTH CAROLINA
l^tre^fone
Textiles Company
BENNETTSVILLE • SOUTH CAROLINA
BOWLING GREEN • KENTUCKY
Woodstock With Textiles Company
They’ll Roll
With The Tires
• • A thick slab of steel has
been rolled into a circle and the
seam welded. It's the first step
in what will become a 625-pound
wheel for a giant earthmover.
A Firestone worker inspects
the center band as an automatic
welder does its work at the
Quincy. 111., Firestone Electric
Wheel Company plant. At the
Quincy facility—a major manu
facturer of wheels for agricul
ture and industrial equipment—
plans call for fabricating more
than 130.000 tons of steel into
wheels and farm wagons by the
end of 1974.
Yarn-fabric production facilities of Firestone’s Wood-
stock, Ontario, Canada operations have been reassigned
organizationally to Firestone Textiles Company, with divi
sion headquarters at the Gastonia, N.C., plant.
Division president James B. cipally supply Firestone’s plants
Call announced the organiza- at Hamilton, Calgary and Joli-
Troop 631 Scouts To Clemson
Members of Firestone-spon
sored Boy Scout Troop 631 of
Bennettsville attended a Clem-
son-Georgia Tech football game
at Clemson recently.
Accompanying the boys were
Charles Sweatt Jr., leader; Otis
The National Board of Fire
Underwriters suggests: Having
fire extinguishers and knowing
how to use them could mean
the difference between a minor
fire and a major disaster.
Watson, John H. Sweatt and
Floyd Huggins.
While at Clemson the group
toured the University and Fort
Hill, home of John C. Calhoun.
Fort Hill is one of Upcountry
South Carolina’s outstanding
heritage preservations. Its orig
inal portion was built in 1803
and Calhoun enlarged it in 1825.
Most furnishings are original.
Calhoun, the “states rights”
champion, was in the U.S. Con
gress, was Secretary of State
and Vice President.
tional change effective in Oc
tober; also the appointment of
Hugh H. Dorman to the newly-
crested position of general man
ager of the Woodstock facilities.
The original Woodstock plant
began producing tire fabric for
Firestone in 1936. Units con
structed since then comprise a
fiber-textile complex of two tex
tile mills producing tire fabric,
and a nylon-yarn factory.
The Woodstock plants are the
only company facilities of Fire
stone Textiles Company operat
ing outside the U.S. They prin-
☆ ☆ ☆
• Bumper sticker on pickup
truck traveling toward Besse
mer City: TITHE IF YOU LOVE
THE LORD. (HONKING'S TOO
EASY—AND NOISY!)
• A Gastonia Firestone em
ployee reported seeing this on a
signboard in front of an At
lanta church: HALLELUJAH
ANYWAY!
From Cotton To Computers EULA WILSON
Her career spanned the nostalgic days of cotton textiles
to the exciting age of the computer. Eula Wilson is retired
(if that’s what you call it.) Anyway, she closed a 39-year
work record at Gastonia, Firestone, Oct. 31.
She continues busy at home ship-operation in 1935.
Her association began with
the Old Loray Mill successor
company, Manville-Jenckes
which had ceased operation in
1934. Firestone purchased the
plant and other buildings and
surrounding miU village in early
1935 (village homes were later
sold to employees).
Eula Bradley (she married
projects, in her church and com
munity; hopes to “work in”
some well-deserved rest and
recreation “in time.”
"THEY SAY she came with
the building, was a part of the
deal,” some have joked, refer
ring to the beginning days of
Firestone in Gastonia and tran
sition of plant property owner-
Bobby Nichols
In BG Exhibition
Bobby Nichols, host pro at the
Firestone Country Club in Ak
ron, Ohio, led a clinic and
played an 18-hole exhibition
round at Bowling Green (Ky.)
Country Club, Oct. 14.
Nichols, a native of Louisville,
is one of the winningest profes
sional golfers on the tour, with
a dozen titles. His appearance
in Bowling Green was Fire-
stone-sponsored. While there he
visited the Firestone Textiles
Company plant on Louisville
Road.
In August, Nichols came to
Gastonia for a plant visit, a
clinic and exhibition round at
Gaston Country Club.
Firestone people at the Gastonia Plant
made pledges of $49,640.47
in the October United Appeal Campaign
ette in Canada.
DOMESTIC units of Firestone
Textiles Company are at Gas-
ton'a, Bennettsville, S.C., and
Bowling Green, Ky. All of them
produce tire fabrics for the com
pany’s tire plants and for sale to
other tire companies.
As a division, Firestone Tex
tiles Company is among seven
divisions within a broad diversi-
fied-products (non-tires) area of
The Firestone Tire & Rubber
Company’s operations.
This organizational arrange
ment was made in late 1973,
when Jay H. Rosenson was ap
pointed a company vice presi
dent for operations of the
newly-designated Raw Materials
and Chemical Group. A second
grouping under diversified prod
ucts has Leon R. Brodeur as
president.
THE WOODSTOCK textile
plants in years past have been a
part of the textile division with
Gastonia and Bennettsville be
fore the Bowling Green plant
was constructed. This was be
fore division headquarters were
moved from Akron to Gastonia.
For the past five years the
Woodstock plants operated un
der the International Company.
Besides Firestone Textiles
Company, other facilities op
erating under the Raw Materials
and Chemical Group are; Fire
stone Synthetic Rubber and La-
More on Page 2
Bowling
Sweet Things, Hang
ups and Misfits.
What're they? Names
of bowling teams from
the Firestone Gastonia
plant during the current
season. They're not all.
Here are the others:
Alley Kats, Rollers,
Sardines, Firestone Cats,
Mustangs, Struggling
Four, Whammos, Oute
Kats, Fireflies and The
Blooming Four.
Clayton Wilson in 1940) was
working at the old plant. She
stayed on with the new owner
ship to do payroll, shipping
records, even to operate the
telephone switchboard.
SHE RECALLS the visit of
company founder Harvey Fire
stone a little while before the
Gastonia property was acquired.
“He stopped by my desk and
asked: ‘Young lady, will you
continue working here, keeping
my books?’
“I thought Lord, have mercy!
But I was glad that the mill was
going to run again. What a
blessing it has been to so many
people and to this area. I’m so
glad I’ve been a part of it
through the years,” she says.
Across the decades Eula has
had responsible jobs, and the
one she held for the past many
years was supervisor of factory
payroll. At one time the assign
ment also included supervision
of data processing.
More on Page 2
m
• Just before her retirement,
Eula Wilson reviewed an old
scrapbook of items from the
1930s when she began working
at Firestone—in the days of cot
ton textiles. John Ragland of
the Data Processing staff, had
some programming sheets, rep
resenting the age of the com
puter.
A Cookout
At Bennettsville
The bog pot was enjoyed by
all; the recreation and fellow
ship were fine.
Bennettsville Firestone em
ployees had a cookout on a Sun
day afternoon in October, on
the Firestone field beside the
plant.
People played softball and
pitched horseshoes later in the
afternoon.
Prentiss White, George Wood-
berry and Marvin Dowdy pre
pared the chicken bog.
And what’s bog? In this case,
chicken and rice cooked to
gether (‘bogged’), with a touch
of herbs and spices tossed in.
Says Joyce Miles of Bennetts
ville Main Office:
“It’s ‘favorite fixings’ in South
Carolina Low Country and Up
per Coastal Plain area. Bog’s
easy to prepare and sort of
‘standard’ for serving a lot of
people.”