The industry began in a simple way, around the turn of the century. Young, Dalton woman, Catherine Evans Whitener, recreated a bedspread in a handcrafted pattern she had seen, for a wedding gift. Copying a quilt pattern, she sewed thick cotton yarns with a running stitch into unbleached muslin, clipped the ends of the yarn so they would fluff out, and finally, washed the spread in hot water to hold the yarns in by shrinking the fabric.

Interest grew in young Catherine's bedspreads, and in 1900, she made the first sale of a spread for $2.50. Demand became so great for the spreads that by the 1930s, local women, who were real entrepreneurs, had "haulers," who would take the stamped sheeting and yarns to front porch workers. Often, entire families worked to hand tuft the spreads for 10 to 25 cents per spread. The local term for the sewing process was "turfin" for the nearly 10,000 area cottage tufters - men, women, and children. Bedspread income was instrumental in helping many area families survive the depression.

As an example of the spirit of these early entrepreneurial women, Mrs. J. T. Bates stated that she simply "shipped 15 spreads to John Wannamaker's department store in New York. On a piece of plain tablet paper I made out a bill for $98.15 and put it in with the spreads. Although there had been no previous contact whatsoever with the store, Wannamakers sent us a check for $98.15." Chenille bedspreads became amazingly popular all over the country and provided a new name for Dalton: The Bedspread Capital of the World.

Simulating the "Oriental" Rug

Industrialist/retailer Marshall Field had a traditional Axminster weaving loom modified to create what no one else had ever created - a machine-made rug woven through the back, just like a handmade Oriental, featuring intricate designs and virtually unlimited color variety. Karastan rug mills was established in 1926, and introduced the first Karastan rugs to the public in 1928.

Alexander Smith, Bigelow, and Karastan are companies continuing today as divisions of Mohawk Industries, headquartered in Georgia.

There are many manufacturers today producing both simulations of antique designs and updated "oriental" type rugs by both the weaving and tufting processes.