Meritas was a brand of oilcloth first produced in 1869 by A.F.Buchanan and Sons at Montrose, New York

Montrose, New York

Montrose, New York, is a hamlet within the Town of Cortlandt located near Croton-on-Hudson and Verplanck in the northwestern corner of Westchester County. The rural character of the hamlet is defined by the Hudson River, numerous wooded hills and steep slopes, wetland areas and beautiful...

. The company was taken over by the Standard Oil Cloth Company which then became part of the Standard Textile Products Company. The range of cloths produced under the Meritas brand was expanded to include composite cloth, leather cloth and slate cloth which were used for a variety of purposes including upholstery

Upholstery

Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word upholstery comes from the Middle English word upholder, which referred to a tradesman who held up his goods. The term is equally applicable to domestic,...

 and trim for automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

s. In 1909, the company built the Meritas Mills in Columbus

Columbus, Georgia

Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795...

to manufacture these cloths.