Harry Carbaugh, Who Founded Tennessee Egg Company And Became A Force In National Politics, Grew Up On Poplar, Pine Streets

Harry C. Carbaugh, who went from humble beginnings to found the Tennessee Egg Company and be a force in national politics, grew up on Cameron Hill.

Carbaugh was born at Tasso in Bradley County, the son of Harvey F. and Bertha F. Carbaugh. The family moved to Cameron Hill in 1896 when Harry was two years old. They lived in a house at 322 Poplar and then at 703 Pine.

Rosa Carbaugh, who was also in the household, did domestic work at one of the big houses on the East Terrace. Harvey Carbaugh was a conductor for the Chattanooga Electric Railway. Later he operated a grocery at 500 Market St. Still later, Harvey Carbaugh operated Carbaugh Coal Company on Whiteside (Broad) Street. He died in 1927.

Harry Carbaugh attended the Second District School, Chattanooga High School and the University of Chattanooga, where he played fullback for the Mocs. He married Alice Huffaker, the daughter of Hugh Huffaker Sr. The Carbaughs lived at Hill Top Drive in Brainerd.

Carbaugh entered the poultry business after World War I. He and James B. Cole, a fellow UC graduate, founded the Tennessee Egg Company in 1920. The company was a wholesale dealer in produce, poultry, eggs, butter, cheese, meat and lard. At the time, much of Hamilton County was still devoted to agriculture, and the Tennessee Egg Company was among the local businesses that helped in bringing farm products to market. The firm did so well that it opened a small egg processing plant in Atlanta the following year.

Harry Carbaugh was active in the Republican Party, and assisted in setting up the 1921 speech of President-elect Warren Harding at the city auditorium. Harding was on his way to vacation at St. Augustine, Fla. President Franklin D. Roosevelt later called on Carbaugh and others for input from small businessmen on what to do to alleviate the Great Depression. Carbaugh served as state finance chairman for Tennessee Governor Winfield Dunn.

As of 1962, the Tennessee Egg Company was processing 30 million broilers annually, and was raising 15,000 turkeys a year on its 1,000-acre farm near Harrison Bay State Park. That same year, Central Soya acquired Tennessee Egg. Central Soya produced the poultry and livestock feeds used by Tennessee Egg and others. Soybeans were delivered to the Central Soya plant by barge, converted to oil and meal, and then shipped out by barge.