Individual Details
Myrtle Crystell FURRH
(15 Mar 1891 - 17 Dec 1980)
Alma Desk Company
It is not surprising that Charles E. Hayworth, Jr., president of Alma Desk Company of High Point, N. C., should term the Southern Railway System a vital factor in the success of the firm which he heads.
The city of High Point owes its very existence to a line now part of Southern -the North Carolina Railroad Company. Even the community's name comes from the fact that it took root at the highest point on the railroad's Goldsboro-to-Charlotte right-of-way.
Incorporated in 1859, High Point was yet an infant when the War Between the States rolled down on the North Carolina Railroad from both sides, Federal and Confederate strategists alike being attracted by its military value. But though the young community's rail commerce was for a time interrupted, when the conflict ended High Point found itself situated on a line that joined with Virginia's rail facilities through Greensboro to the north and with South Carolina's rail system at Charlotte to the south.
By 1864, then, High Point was no longer just a station on a local line; rather it faced greatly enlarged opportunities by virtue of being on an extensive inter- state system of railroads. And it was on service to these rails that the economy of High Point continued mainly to be based until the early 1880's, when a new factor entered into the local economy. Development of vast stands of nearby forest was begun.
One of the first woodworking firms attracted to the area by the nearby forests was the A. 0. Redding Company, which began in 1881 to make sashes and blinds on a site lying alongside the North Carolina Railroad right-of-way. Redding soon branched out into the manufacture of kitchen safes (ventilated food storage chests) and the pedestals on which they stood. In 1895, he began making household furniture also as the Alma Furniture Company, a name adopted in honor of his deceased daughter, Alma.
The plywood essential to Redding's operation came from as far away as Indiana and Illinois; and essential to getting the plywood to him were the railroad tracks that ran within a dozen yards of his plant. By 1895, those tracks had come under the operating hand of the Southern Railway Company, which when organized the year before had taken over the North Carolina Railroad lease from the' Richmond and Danville Railroad.
This partial view of the yard where lumber destined for use in Alma desks is stored pictures only a fraction of the storage area, which is about half a city block square. The company uses about 1 million feet of lumber every six weeks.
In undertaking the manufacture of household furniture, Redding was one of those who paced the growth of the local industry which would make High Point "the furniture capital of the world;" So rapid was the growth of the furniture industry in that area that within a few years a crucial need had developed for; a local source of plywood.
"There to fill that need was Charle E. Hayworth, a 22-year-old farmer's son who founded the Hayworth Roll and Panel Company in 190. Located next door to the Alma Furniture Company, the Hayworth firm was one of the South's first plywood producers.
In addition to founding a successful business concern, Charles Hayworth also founded a successful romantic concern for the secretary at Alma Furniture Company. The secretary, Miss Myrtle Furr, daughter of a sawmill operator, was being paid $3 a week to answer the telephone for I. P. Redding, son of Alma's founder and the company's owner and manager . Charles Hayworth, not having a telephone of his own, held frequent and animated conversations over Redding's phone at Miss Furr's desk in the Alma office. In 1911, Charles Hayworth called the right number and Myrtle Furr became his bride.
The year before, J. P. Redding's health had begun to fail and he had sold a part interest in Alma Furniture to J. H. Petty, son of the founder of another woodworking firm, which had come to High Point in 1881. Alma continued under that partnership until 1921 when Redding died and the plant was sold at auction. The buyer was Charles Hayworth.
Since Hayworth's Roll and Panel manufactured plywood for other furniture makers in the High Point area, Charles Hayworth knew that to continue making household furniture himself at his newly-acquired Alma plant would put him in competition with his own customers. Consequently, in 1922 the Alma plant was converted to the manufacture of wood office furniture.
In 1928, Charles Hayworth died and his management responsibilities passed on to his young widow, who set about gaining the objectives which had been those of her deceased husband.
Symbolic of the close relationship which exists between Alma Desk Company of High Point, N. C., and the Southern Railway System is the presence of Southern's main line within a few yards of the office equipment manufacturing plant.
One of her first moves was to change the name of the Alma Furniture Company in 1929 to Alma Desk Company, more correctly indicating the nature of its output.
And one of her great tasks was keeping both the plywood and desk companies alive during the depression.
Mrs. Hayworth recalls January 3, 1933, as the one day when the family businesses came closest to failure. She spent the better part of that day paying current bills owed by the Hayworth Roll and Panel company, and when she was finished the firm had a bank balance of $27.
The raw lumber begins to take shape on such assembly lines as the one pictured here, where Alma employees are engaged in assembling desks from pre-cut sections.
But recovery came, and, with it, more expansion. A veneer company at Liberty, N. C., was added to the Hayworth holdings.
And through it all for Mrs. Hayworth ran the job of bringing up six children, two of whom were girls. Charles Hayworth, Jr., born in 1913, is today general manager of Hayworth Industries and president of Alma Desk Company. Richard, born in 1915, is manager of Hayworth Roll and Panel. David, born in 1928, is vice-president and sales manager at Alma. One son, Joseph, born in 1926, is a clergyman in New York State.
Frank Dalton, assistant to Alma's president, married one daughter, Margaret. W. H. Daveler, husband of the second daughter," Katherine, is an Alma salesman in the Southwest.
There, high-speed routers are shown making precision cuts on various pieces going into desks.
Mrs. Hayworth, now Mrs. Myrtle Hayworth Barthmaier -is chairman of the board of directors.
So Hayworth Industries, the mainstay of which is Alma Desk, is quite obviously still a family venture.
And the light-industry complex which the Hayworth family manages is an almost ideally self-contained operation; the desks manufactured at the Hayworth owned Alma Desk Company are made from plywood and wood cores supplied by the Hayworth Roll and Panel Company and are covered with veneer supplied by the Hayworth plant at Liberty.
A double-end tenon machine also making precision cuts on desk parts.
One indication of the size of this entire operation is that it distributes an annual payroll of $2,260,000 to about 500 employees.
Another indication of its size is that it uses up about 1 1/4 million feet of lumber every six weeks.
The lumber comes in across Southern trackage from points in Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and the two Carolinas. Southern it is also which starts the finished product on its way to Alma Desk Company warehouses on both coasts and in the Middle and Far West and in the South. In addition to this nation-wide distribution, Alma also has outlets in Canada, Central America and the Caribbean.
A sales force of about 20 men uses these warehouses as bases of operation and supply with the office furniture stored there forming the crux of Alma's pacesetting "package plan." Under that plan, Alma Desk is able to give customers an "integrated interior" that includes everything from a $1,500 desk unit down to a 35-cent ash tray, all purchased according to plans drawn up at Alma's design department, located at the High Point plant. Alma Desk was among the first in the industry to create such a department.
The electronic bonding of panels to rails.
Not only in sales technique, but in physical plant also Alma Desk is a leader in its field.
The old standard for curing lumber, for instance, was at the rate of one inch per year, an obviously antiquated standard for a firm that uses 1 1/4 million feet of lumber every six weeks and yet intends to remain in business. Alma solved the problem by installing six dry kilns capable of curing 64,800 feet of lumber every five days under temperatures which range up to 180 degrees.
Reflecting the alertness which guides it, Alma Desk has been able to expand production capacity about five times since 1945 - and is still expanding, with another 13,000 square feet of nearby plant space soon to be added to the present facility.
It is true that in many respects, Alma Desk is an assembly-line operation. But tucked away in a sunny second-floor corner of the High Point plant are a half-dozen or so employees who maintain the ancient traditions of cabinetmaking. Working on special jobs, they join and sand and shape with much the same patience as did those who first worked for A. 0. Redding 80 years ago, when the North Carolina Railroad was helping pace the growth of High Point.
"Both the Redding enterprise and the North Carolina Railroad have changed a good deal since then. Redding's sash and blind factory has 'become Alma Desk Company; the North Carolina Railroad has become an important stretch of main line iron in the Southern system.
Finally, lower right, at the end of the production line Southern is again called upon -this time for transportation of the finished product to Alma distributing points on both coasts and in the Middle and Far West and in the South. It rounds out the cycle, which begins with Southern bringing in the raw lumber from points in the Southeast.
Significantly, Frank Dalton, assistant to Alma's President Hayworth, regards as a prized possession an old certificate of stock in the North Carolina Railroad passed on to him by his father. It symbolizes the continuity of relationship between Alma and the Southern.
It is not surprising that Charles E. Hayworth, Jr., president of Alma Desk Company of High Point, N. C., should term the Southern Railway System a vital factor in the success of the firm which he heads.
The city of High Point owes its very existence to a line now part of Southern -the North Carolina Railroad Company. Even the community's name comes from the fact that it took root at the highest point on the railroad's Goldsboro-to-Charlotte right-of-way.
Incorporated in 1859, High Point was yet an infant when the War Between the States rolled down on the North Carolina Railroad from both sides, Federal and Confederate strategists alike being attracted by its military value. But though the young community's rail commerce was for a time interrupted, when the conflict ended High Point found itself situated on a line that joined with Virginia's rail facilities through Greensboro to the north and with South Carolina's rail system at Charlotte to the south.
By 1864, then, High Point was no longer just a station on a local line; rather it faced greatly enlarged opportunities by virtue of being on an extensive inter- state system of railroads. And it was on service to these rails that the economy of High Point continued mainly to be based until the early 1880's, when a new factor entered into the local economy. Development of vast stands of nearby forest was begun.
One of the first woodworking firms attracted to the area by the nearby forests was the A. 0. Redding Company, which began in 1881 to make sashes and blinds on a site lying alongside the North Carolina Railroad right-of-way. Redding soon branched out into the manufacture of kitchen safes (ventilated food storage chests) and the pedestals on which they stood. In 1895, he began making household furniture also as the Alma Furniture Company, a name adopted in honor of his deceased daughter, Alma.
The plywood essential to Redding's operation came from as far away as Indiana and Illinois; and essential to getting the plywood to him were the railroad tracks that ran within a dozen yards of his plant. By 1895, those tracks had come under the operating hand of the Southern Railway Company, which when organized the year before had taken over the North Carolina Railroad lease from the' Richmond and Danville Railroad.
This partial view of the yard where lumber destined for use in Alma desks is stored pictures only a fraction of the storage area, which is about half a city block square. The company uses about 1 million feet of lumber every six weeks.
In undertaking the manufacture of household furniture, Redding was one of those who paced the growth of the local industry which would make High Point "the furniture capital of the world;" So rapid was the growth of the furniture industry in that area that within a few years a crucial need had developed for; a local source of plywood.
"There to fill that need was Charle E. Hayworth, a 22-year-old farmer's son who founded the Hayworth Roll and Panel Company in 190. Located next door to the Alma Furniture Company, the Hayworth firm was one of the South's first plywood producers.
In addition to founding a successful business concern, Charles Hayworth also founded a successful romantic concern for the secretary at Alma Furniture Company. The secretary, Miss Myrtle Furr, daughter of a sawmill operator, was being paid $3 a week to answer the telephone for I. P. Redding, son of Alma's founder and the company's owner and manager . Charles Hayworth, not having a telephone of his own, held frequent and animated conversations over Redding's phone at Miss Furr's desk in the Alma office. In 1911, Charles Hayworth called the right number and Myrtle Furr became his bride.
The year before, J. P. Redding's health had begun to fail and he had sold a part interest in Alma Furniture to J. H. Petty, son of the founder of another woodworking firm, which had come to High Point in 1881. Alma continued under that partnership until 1921 when Redding died and the plant was sold at auction. The buyer was Charles Hayworth.
Since Hayworth's Roll and Panel manufactured plywood for other furniture makers in the High Point area, Charles Hayworth knew that to continue making household furniture himself at his newly-acquired Alma plant would put him in competition with his own customers. Consequently, in 1922 the Alma plant was converted to the manufacture of wood office furniture.
In 1928, Charles Hayworth died and his management responsibilities passed on to his young widow, who set about gaining the objectives which had been those of her deceased husband.
Symbolic of the close relationship which exists between Alma Desk Company of High Point, N. C., and the Southern Railway System is the presence of Southern's main line within a few yards of the office equipment manufacturing plant.
One of her first moves was to change the name of the Alma Furniture Company in 1929 to Alma Desk Company, more correctly indicating the nature of its output.
And one of her great tasks was keeping both the plywood and desk companies alive during the depression.
Mrs. Hayworth recalls January 3, 1933, as the one day when the family businesses came closest to failure. She spent the better part of that day paying current bills owed by the Hayworth Roll and Panel company, and when she was finished the firm had a bank balance of $27.
The raw lumber begins to take shape on such assembly lines as the one pictured here, where Alma employees are engaged in assembling desks from pre-cut sections.
But recovery came, and, with it, more expansion. A veneer company at Liberty, N. C., was added to the Hayworth holdings.
And through it all for Mrs. Hayworth ran the job of bringing up six children, two of whom were girls. Charles Hayworth, Jr., born in 1913, is today general manager of Hayworth Industries and president of Alma Desk Company. Richard, born in 1915, is manager of Hayworth Roll and Panel. David, born in 1928, is vice-president and sales manager at Alma. One son, Joseph, born in 1926, is a clergyman in New York State.
Frank Dalton, assistant to Alma's president, married one daughter, Margaret. W. H. Daveler, husband of the second daughter," Katherine, is an Alma salesman in the Southwest.
There, high-speed routers are shown making precision cuts on various pieces going into desks.
Mrs. Hayworth, now Mrs. Myrtle Hayworth Barthmaier -is chairman of the board of directors.
So Hayworth Industries, the mainstay of which is Alma Desk, is quite obviously still a family venture.
And the light-industry complex which the Hayworth family manages is an almost ideally self-contained operation; the desks manufactured at the Hayworth owned Alma Desk Company are made from plywood and wood cores supplied by the Hayworth Roll and Panel Company and are covered with veneer supplied by the Hayworth plant at Liberty.
A double-end tenon machine also making precision cuts on desk parts.
One indication of the size of this entire operation is that it distributes an annual payroll of $2,260,000 to about 500 employees.
Another indication of its size is that it uses up about 1 1/4 million feet of lumber every six weeks.
The lumber comes in across Southern trackage from points in Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and the two Carolinas. Southern it is also which starts the finished product on its way to Alma Desk Company warehouses on both coasts and in the Middle and Far West and in the South. In addition to this nation-wide distribution, Alma also has outlets in Canada, Central America and the Caribbean.
A sales force of about 20 men uses these warehouses as bases of operation and supply with the office furniture stored there forming the crux of Alma's pacesetting "package plan." Under that plan, Alma Desk is able to give customers an "integrated interior" that includes everything from a $1,500 desk unit down to a 35-cent ash tray, all purchased according to plans drawn up at Alma's design department, located at the High Point plant. Alma Desk was among the first in the industry to create such a department.
The electronic bonding of panels to rails.
Not only in sales technique, but in physical plant also Alma Desk is a leader in its field.
The old standard for curing lumber, for instance, was at the rate of one inch per year, an obviously antiquated standard for a firm that uses 1 1/4 million feet of lumber every six weeks and yet intends to remain in business. Alma solved the problem by installing six dry kilns capable of curing 64,800 feet of lumber every five days under temperatures which range up to 180 degrees.
Reflecting the alertness which guides it, Alma Desk has been able to expand production capacity about five times since 1945 - and is still expanding, with another 13,000 square feet of nearby plant space soon to be added to the present facility.
It is true that in many respects, Alma Desk is an assembly-line operation. But tucked away in a sunny second-floor corner of the High Point plant are a half-dozen or so employees who maintain the ancient traditions of cabinetmaking. Working on special jobs, they join and sand and shape with much the same patience as did those who first worked for A. 0. Redding 80 years ago, when the North Carolina Railroad was helping pace the growth of High Point.
"Both the Redding enterprise and the North Carolina Railroad have changed a good deal since then. Redding's sash and blind factory has 'become Alma Desk Company; the North Carolina Railroad has become an important stretch of main line iron in the Southern system.
Finally, lower right, at the end of the production line Southern is again called upon -this time for transportation of the finished product to Alma distributing points on both coasts and in the Middle and Far West and in the South. It rounds out the cycle, which begins with Southern bringing in the raw lumber from points in the Southeast.
Significantly, Frank Dalton, assistant to Alma's President Hayworth, regards as a prized possession an old certificate of stock in the North Carolina Railroad passed on to him by his father. It symbolizes the continuity of relationship between Alma and the Southern.
Events
| Birth | 15 Mar 1891 | Montgomery County, NC |  | ||
| Marriage | 20 Sep 1911 | Guilford County, NC - Charles Emerson HAYWORTH | | ||
| Marriage | 30 Jul 1930 | Gaston County, NC - Herbert Cornelius BARTHMAIER | | ||
| Death | 17 Dec 1980 | High Point, Guilford County, NC |  | | |
| Alt name | Myrtle C. FURR | ||||
| Soc Sec No | 242-07-9044 | | |||
| Burial | Oakwood Cemetery, High Point, Guilford County, NC | |
Families
| Spouse | Charles Emerson HAYWORTH (1882 - 1928) |
| Child | Mary Katherine HAYWORTH (1912 - 1989) |
| Child | Charles Emerson HAYWORTH Jr. (1913 - 1994) |
| Child | John Richard HAYWORTH (1915 - 1985) |
| Child | Margaret Frances HAYWORTH (1921 - 1995) |
| Child | Living |
| Child | Living |
| Spouse | Herbert Cornelius BARTHMAIER (1886 - 1957) |
| Father | Allison Thomas FURRH (1861 - 1937) |
| Mother | Alice Theodora BOGGAN (1866 - 1940) |
| Sibling | Victor Alonzo FURRH (1886 - 1969) |
| Sibling | Grace F. FURRH (1889 - 1975) |
| Sibling | Living |
| Sibling | Elma C. FURRH (1896 - 1987) |
| Sibling | Living |
Notes
Death
Hayworth Barthmaier (1891–1980) became the president and chair of four interrelated High Point family furniture businesses. Alma Desk and Myrtle Desk, two of the four, became the world’s leader in manufactured office furniture. Barthmaier was the only female leader in the industry to maintain and expand during the Depression and World War II.Endnotes
1. "North Carolina, Center for Health Statistics, Vital Records Unit, County Birth Records, 1913-1922", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CTMK-KW2M : 4 April 2020).
2. North Carolina County Marriages, 1762-1979. Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org.
3. North Carolina County Marriages, 1762-1979. Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org.
4. North Carolina Deaths, 1931-1994. Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 May 2019. Citing Department of Public Health, Vital Records Section. State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh..
5. United States Social Security Death Index.
6. findagrave.com.