Werner Braun: Spirit of Catherine Evans Whitener lives among us

Published 8:43 am Friday, November 12, 2010

Two weeks ago our children (and maybe even us parents) took out our best Halloween costumes and went trick-or-treating, to parties, and more than likely, gave ourselves stomachaches with too many Snickers, Butterfingers and gummy worms shaped like spiders and vampire teeth.

But don’t put your Halloween costumes away just yet — the “spirits” of Dalton are just now arriving.  

Scared? Don’t be.

The Dalton Little Theatre is reprising its popular West Hill Cemetery “Spirit Walk” on Saturday and Sunday. Tours begin at 3 p.m., 3:15 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.  

“Spirit” walk? But don’t worry, there are no “real” ghosts here, just local Daltonians telling the stories of eight former Dalton residents and one anonymous Confederate soldier who are all buried in the cemetery. One character in particular we carpet industry folks would like to share more about is Catherine Evans Whitener.

Never heard of her? Then you might be intrigued at learning she is credited with laying the ground work for the carpet industry.

Through the late 1800s, Dalton struggled with cotton mills and steel manufacturing works to forge a small town in the north Georgia hills. Northwest Georgia, with its hard-packed clay, poor farmland and rolling hills, was among the last areas of Georgia settled. Rich in a heritage of Cherokee Indians and Civil War battles, that northern corner of the state was rugged and spawned people who were independent and self-sufficient.

Those were the people who brought forth and nurtured the tufted textile industry. The industry’s infancy was in Dalton; it has gone through intense growth in Dalton; and it has now matured in and around Dalton. The carpet industry’s impact is great on this region, this state and the nation, and the story of its growth is unique.

The industry began in a simple way, around the turn of the century. A young Dalton woman, Catherine Evans Whitener, recreated a bedspread in a hand-crafted 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.

Even though we have changed to the “Carpet Capital of the World,” what Ms. Whitener started has lived on in Dalton, and her story is just one of many being shared this Saturday during the spirit walk. Tickets are $20 and can be reserved through the Creative Arts Guild by calling (706) 226-6618. Tours are limited to 20 people, so don’t miss your chance to walk with some famous “spirits” of Dalton (Halloween costumes not required).

Werner Braun is president of the Dalton-based Carpet and Rug Institute.