E.C. Beetem & Son, Inc.

John C. Stephens and Edward C. Beetem formed the partnership of Stephens & Beetem at Carlisle and bought the firm of Frysinger & Co. of the same place in 1875. In 1877 they built a carpet factory. The firm of E.C. Beetem & Co. was established in 1901, after Stephens' death. In the same year it built the Carlisle Carpet Mills. In 1906 the Charles B. Young Co. became the selling agency, the first "Hit and Miss Rag Rug" was made, and Charles Gilbert Beetem, partner of his father, went to Philadelphia to establish a rug factory, which specialized in Raglin carpets, so as not to interfere with carpet weaving in the mills at Carlisle.

In 1914, the Kensington plant was moved to a new mill in Carlisle as the elder Beetem sought to reassert control over his son's enterprise. By then the volume of business had reached $400,000 a year and the firm was one of the leading carpet manufacturers in the country. In 1914 C. Gilbert Beetem joined the business and expanded it with dye works in Carlisle and two mills in Philadelphia. They traded under various names: E.C. Beetem & Son, Bedford Mills, Carlisle Carpet Mills, Carlisle Dye Works, and Raglin Hand-craft Mills, and as Eden Mills in Philadelphia. They manufactured handwoven rag rugs, carpet, jute-filled rag rugs, chenille rugs, cotton bath rugs, novelty rugs, draperies, curtains, and pillow covers. The firm continued to be managed in such a way as to be able to flexibly respond to market forces. It relied on a largely female work force, depending on women sewing the rag rugs in the home.

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