The company was founded in 1886 by David Rothschild as a wholesale dry goods and notions business in Columbus, Georgia, with his brother Gerson as an associate. The sales force reached its customers in small town stores by traveling dirt roads, using horses and carts. David’s three sons, Irwin, Maurice and Jac continued and re-invented the company, meeting the challenge of evolving conditions by changing the company into a contract weaver of popularly priced upholstery fabrics. Before World War II, the company bought Cherokee Mills at Acworth, Georgia and for 40 years wove its own tapestries, brocades, and needlepoints there prior to selling that mill in 1980.

The family tradition continued into the third generation. After serving in World War II, Irwin’s sons Norman, David II, and Irwin, Jr. and Jac’s son Benno joined the business and opened sales offices and warehouses across the country. David II bought the company in 1980, and two of his sons, David III and Walter, came into the business. Today the company designs, makes yarns, and weaves all of its upholstery fabrics at its mill in Reidsville, North Carolina.