Our story begins over 100 years ago with J.H. Sanford making and selling mattresses for Lovell Mattress around his neighborhood of Rome in the early 1900's. His son, Claude Sanford (Pictured here), a WWII Vet, learned from his father and opened up his own mattress company in the 1930’s called Sanford Mattress. Sanford mattress made mattresses for the local colleges, boarding schools, and local furniture stores.

In 1973, Terry Spears, Claude's son-in-law decided to quit his job delivering bread in Rome and go in business for himself. He and his brother started Spears Mattress and quickly became the largest independent mattress manufacturing company in the country. Spears Mattress boasted a vertically integrated facility that was 350,000 square foot big with a spring manufacturing facility, over 50 retail stores under the names of MattressMax and Mattress Barn, and could produce 1400-1800 mattresses per day in the early 2000’s. Terry employed over 180 people, serviced 13 states, and produced mattresses for multiple Top 100 Furniture Stores. Englander, Lady Americana, Southern Cross, and Spears were all brands of bedding Spears manufactured over the 40 years of being in business. In 2006, Terry decided to sell his company and in 2011 he would retire from the mattress business.