Creation of this resource was supported through a Library Services and Technology Act grant administered by the Mississippi Library Commission.

Biographical/Historical Sketch

The Stahl-Urban Company owed its existence to an Austrian immigrant named Charles Zimmerman who settled in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1864. Zimmerman had been a weaver of wool cloth in his home country, and after an unsuccessful attempt to make a living at his craft in Indiana, he moved to Tuscola, Illinois, to open a general store. According to the official history of the company published in 1947, it was during this period (1868) that Zimmerman and his widowed daughter, Rosa Urban, invented the garment known as bib overalls. Such demand for these new work clothes emerged that Zimmerman and Urban opened a plant in Terre Haute to make overalls and other work pants and shirts. They employed 400 seamstresses, most of whom picked up pattern cut pieces at the plant and did their sewing at home.

Rosa married Carl Stahl during a trip to Austria, and Stahl returned to America with his bride to assume the direction of finances for the work apparel operation. After Zimmerman’s death in 1888, management of the company passed to Stahl. Stahl built a new factory, and with it changed the name of the business to Zimmerman and Stahl Company. When his stepson Camille Urban took charge of design and sales in 1895, the name changed again to Stahl-Urban Company. They produced clothes marketed under the brand name, “Western Made.”

During the early twentieth century, Stahl-Urban expanded its line to include lined jackets for work and hunting. It introduced overalls for women called “My Lady’s” about 1914. By 1930, Carl and Rosa Stahl and Camille Urban all had died. Their sons, Carl R. Stahl, Marcel C. Urban, and Carl E. Urban, assumed control of the company, and they began to produce lines of semi-dress, sportswear, and winter outerwear (under the brands Dan Dee, Sport Dee, and Forty Below, respectively). They ceased production of the bib overalls that had lead to the company’s original success.

In 1936, Stahl Urban began to look for a new site to build a more modern facility, one that was closer to major sources of materials and that was better situated for distribution. The 1947 company history recounts that “at Brookhaven, Mississippi, deep in the heart of the resurgent South, they found the ideal spot.” It continues, “development-conscious Brookhaven citizens were foresightedly striving to strike a suitable balance between agriculture and industry.”

Plant superintendent John A. Garrigan designed the Brookhaven facility. He later would become vice-president in charge of production. The manufacturing operation moved from Terre Haute to Brookhaven, and with it came Carl Urban, who took charge of the plant. Sales and shipping remained in Indiana under the direction of Marcel Urban.

Between 1940 and 1945, Stahl-Urban produced nearly 1.5 million uniforms for the military. This constituted nearly all of its production during the period. After World War II, the company resumed manufacture of its civilian lines of clothing. By 1949, Stahl Urban employed 550 in its Mississippi operation, and ten years later the figure was up to 675. By 1963, the former work clothes maker had switched to men’s and boy’s sportswear, including pants, shirts, and jackets. Other plants opened in Monticello and Wesson, Mississippi, Shelbyville, Tennessee, and Winnsboro, Louisiana.

In 1971, Stahl-Urban became a division of Kellwood Company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Kellwood had emerged on the garment-manufacturing scene ten years earlier as the result of a merger of 15 independent suppliers of soft goods to Sears, Roebuck, and Company. At that time, Kellwood already had 22 plants in 10 states and 7,000 employees. Stahl-Urban continued to produce men’s and boy’s outerwear until 1983 when the plant’s current occupant (as of 2003), Auburn Sportswear, began producing jackets at the site. Auburn Sportswear is headquartered in Tallassee, Alabama.

The donor of the collection, Edna James Kinchloe, was born in Lincoln County, Mississippi on September 12, 1920. The daughter of Med Davidson James and Salle Mae Strahan James, Edna began working for Stahl-Urban in 1945 on a sewing line. After one year she was moved to the Personnel Office under Yvonne Cheairs. After Mrs. Cheairs retired Edna became the Personnel Manager until her own retirement.

Sources:

75 Years in Work Clothes: A History of the Stahl-Urban Company, 1871-1946.Terre Haute & Brookhaven: Stahl-Urban Company, 1947.

Mississippi Manufacturers Directory (1946-2000)

Kellwood Company Historical Highlights (www.kellwood.com/corporate/history.asp)

Scope and Content Note

The Stahl-Urban Photograph Collection consists of 371 images, mostly of employees of the company. As many of these photos are not captioned, there is limited information on identifications of individuals and dates.

Edna James Kinchloe is responsible for the photographs, and, presumably, she took or collected them as a part of her work in the Stahl-Urban Personnel Office. The majority of the images document employee gatherings (including Christmas festivities and other parties), acknowledgment of employee accomplishment and service (25-Year Club inductions), and notable occasions (100th anniversary). There are two items depicting Stahl-Urban and related physical plants; these include images of seven manufacturing facilities in Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. In addition to the photographs, the collection includes a copy of the official company history published in 1947.

Administrative Information

Collection donated by Edna James Kinchloe.

Collection processed by Marti Parker, April 2003. Encoded by Toby Graham. This resource is made available through a Library Services and Technology Act grant administered by the Mississippi Library Commission.

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