A Little More American of Martinsville History

I've touched on the history of American of Martinsville a little when I was trying to track down what line our American of Martinsville bar is from. (Turns out it's from the Dania collection.)

For some reason it never occurred to me that Martinsville might actually be a city where they made all the American of Martinsville furniture. In modern copywriting and naming you'd never throw the name of the town you're from in your company's name because you never know when you're going to expand or move out of town. But I guess American of Martinsville planned to stick around, and stick around they did, for over 100 years.

And the city of Martinsville has a little history on their furniture making legacy, which includes American of Martinsville, Bassett Furniture and Hooker Furniture Company. The American of Martinsville portion of that history is:

In 1906, American Furniture Company was founded by two Martinsville tobacco men, Ancil Witten and Charles Keesee. With 12 other local business leaders, these men raised an original capitalization of $30,000. The company has grown substantially and first surpassed $100 million in sales in 1989. Today, the company specializes in producing furniture for the hotel and healthcare industries, and operates under the name American of Martinsville. Open a dresser drawer the next time you stay in a hotel and, chances are, you'll see an American of Martinsville logo.