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Northwest Georgia's Tufted Textile Heritage

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In 1895, fifteen-year-old Catherine Evans (later Whitener), inspired by the sight of a Civil War-era hand-tufted chenille bedspread, decided to make one of her own as a wedding gift for her future sister-in-law. Catherine sold her first bedspread in 1900 for $2.50. Others soon followed Catherine’s lead, and a small cottage industry began to grow in Northwest Georgia. However, the chenille bedspread would have remained little more than a local commodity used to generate extra family income were it not for visionary entrepreneurs such as B.J. and Dicksie Bradley Bandy, who saw great potential for chenille bedspreads beyond Northwest Georgia. In 1920, Dicksie Bradley Bandy, armed with one completed bedspread, called on department stores in Washington, D. C. and Baltimore, Maryland. By returning with orders for 600 bedspreads, Bandy helped generate a new national market. “Spread mills,” small factories employing dozens of workers to sew the rows of tufts, soon appeared throughout the region to fill the demand.

If the supply were to keep up with the ever- increasing national demand for tufted chenille bedspreads, the manufacturing process had to become modernized and mechanized. In 1930, Dalton’s Glen Looper Foundry took the basic Singer single-needle sewing machine, added a knife blade to cut the tufted yarn as it passed through the sheeting, and introduced the first true tufting machine. Needle bars continued to increase in width, and production time and labor costs decreased. Cabin Crafts became a leader in the industry thanks to its needle-punch process. Utilizing a handheld, single needle sewing gun combined with sheeting clamped to a circular rotating frame, Cabin Crafts produced bedspreads with more elaborate patterns and greater color variation than had previously been seen. Machine shops to manufacture the tufting machinery, dye houses to color the yarns, and laundries to finish the bedspreads created a complementary network of businesses that contributed to making Dalton “The Tufted Bedspread Capital of the World.”

Although tufted chenille bedspreads were sold in department stores throughout the United States, the most celebrated way to purchase them was straight off the line from stores along U.S. Highway 41. Thanks to the popularity of the peacock pattern, the route between Dalton and Cartersville was soon christened “Peacock Alley.” This popularity however, would not last. Changing consumer tastes in the combined post-World War II housing market and baby boom heralded the decline of the chenille bedspread industry. Chenille bedspreads were seen as “old-fashioned” to a generation eager to embrace a new age. However, a nation of expanding families and first-time homeowners demanded durable yet affordable floorcoverings. Dalton’s bedspread industry possessed the technical expertise, trained workforce, and machines to meet the need. With adjustments in existing machinery and new techniques, another industry was born in Northwest Georgia: tufted carpet.

Because of their narrow widths, the single-needle and multiple-needle sewing machines used for bedspread production were unsuited to the needs of the carpet industry. Cobble Machinery and the Southern Machine Company in Chattanooga, Tennessee, developed wide-width machines capable of producing carpet in large volumes.

Local machinists and “tinkerers” such as Mose Painter refined means of feeding the yarns to the tufting needles reducing the space needed for a machine, and created the tenter frame to stretch the carpet during dyeing reducing shrinkage.

Fiber manufacturers also responded to this potentially lucrative market. Nylon combined the characteristics of durability and affordability that made it a viable alternative to natural fibers. Early nylon yarns shed fiber and fuzzed due to their construction. These problems were addressed with the DuPont Corporation’s development of a new nylon fiber, Type 501. This bulk continuous filament fiber allowed for the construction of inexpensive, low-loop constructions that dominated the emerging residential market.

With the necessary tools now available, all that was needed were men of vision to capitalize on the opportunity. Jack Bandy, M.B. “Bud” Seretean, and Guy Henley combined their financial, marketing, and production skills to create Coronet Industries, the first carpet manufacturer to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Brothers Robert and J.C. Shaw took their father’s dyeing operation, Star Finishing, and transformed it into Shaw Industries, one of the first mills to fully achieve vertical integration in all aspects of production. Shaheen Shaheen, along with his wife Piera, built World Carpet and pioneered innovative distribution and sales techniques that became industry standards. While these three early manufacturing giants were the largest and most recognized companies in the carpet industry, credit must also be given to the hundreds of independent tufters, yarn spinners, contract dyers, and finishing houses that allowed even modest entrepreneurs to find their place in the industry.

The 1950s and 1960s became the “Golden Years” for the tufted carpet industry. In 1951, the industry shipped 6 million square yards of tufted carpet; by 1968, total shipping exceeded an astounding 395 million square yards. Northwest Georgia’s tufted carpet industry changed the economic and social dynamics of the region. In just a few years, what had once been an agricultural region was transformed into one of Georgia’s greatest areas of industry. An impoverished corner of the state was now the home to a rising middle-class with steady jobs, full paychecks, and bright futures.

Dalton, the “Tufted Bedspread Capital of the World,” evolved into and remains the “Carpet Capital of the World,” producing more than 70 percent of the sales of the $9 billion worldwide market. This homegrown industry owes its success to those who took the risks to turn their dreams into reality and to generations of skilled and dedicated workers whose labor forged not only an industry but also a community.

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Northwest Georgia's Tufted Textile Heritage