The Dixie Mercerizing Company began operating in Chattanooga in 1920 to focus on mercerizing, a process that strengthens and provides a silky finish on cotton yarn. The company started a new facility, Dixie Spinning Mills, near Chattanooga in 1922 to make yarn for the mercerizing plant. A company town with housing for the mill employees, Lupton City, opened in 1923, named for local financier John T. Lupton. Lupton funded the Dixie Mercerizing Company in its early stages and held a controlling interest. The company began expanding in the late 1940s, acquiring additional textile plants including Rockfish Mills, North Carolina, in 1947, and Royston Mills, Georgia, in 1955. In 1965, the Dixie Mercerizing Company officially changed its name to Dixie Yarns, Inc. The company now concentrates on floor covering manufacture and operates under the name The Dixie Group.

Arendale, Marirose. “Lupton City: Chattanooga’s Model Mill Village.” Tennessee Historical Quarterly, vol. 43, no. 1, 1984, pp. 68–78. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42626423.

Biddle-Douglass, Teresa. “Dixie Spinning Mills.” Tennessee Encyclopedia. Tennessee Historical Society, last updated March 1, 2018. https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/dixie-spinning-mills/.

“Our Heritage.” The Dixie Group. Accessed May 11, 2023. https://www.thedixiegroup.com/About/Heritage.

Scarbrough, Meg, “The Dixie Group: Celebrating 100 Years.” Floor Focus, October 2020. https://digitaleditions.sheridan.com/publication/?i=674781&article_id=3773230&view=articleBrowser.