Prototype. Chapter text drafted from the research notes and not yet checked at the archives. Images awaiting permission are marked.

E. T. Barwick Mills

Company · not yet checked at the source

Made by: Eugene Thomas Barwick
Date: founded 1949
Place: Dalton and LaFayette, Georgia
Held by: E. T. Barwick Mills
Themes: Machine tufting & Dalton, Companies & modern tufting

View at the source Cited in chapter 4, note 26

Cite this source

Eugene Thomas Barwick. “E. T. Barwick Mills,” founded 1949. E. T. Barwick Mills. westgatextiletrail.com/lafayette.

Research notes

After Coast Guard service, Eugene Barwick sold tufted goods for Sears and in 1949 formed Barwick Mills. One local history says sales doubled in 1950 and passed $26 million by 1954; by 1971 it ran large plants in LaFayette and Dalton; it closed by the mid-1980s. The book "Carpet Capital" uses it as a key case of the tufted-carpet boom; the Georgia Encyclopedia names it among the "maverick" newcomers who used tufting machines for room-size carpet around 1950. Why it matters: the archetypal 1950s start-up that turned tufting into a broadloom carpet business, rather than a bedspread one. Dates: 1949 rests mainly on one local-history site; check against "Carpet Capital". The defunct firm has no official site. Independent sources: https://georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/business-economy/carpet-industry · https://portersquarebooks.com/book/9780820324647 · https://trademark.justia.com/owners/e-t-barwick-industries-inc-109940 Research note (Oct 2026): facts taken from search-result summaries; the pages themselves weren't opened. Check the cited pages before quoting.