i-\ t -^.* /\«>^\ 0»*.^t>o • ^ at • - ***** :&£&' ^ v : MMM°* ^^ /I ■°ym : ;«.*>> ■ ,-iq, ^ >bV° A 1 %? i Dam of The Rittenhouse Mill in Germantown, Penn. Site of the First Paper-Mill in the United States, 1690 A HISTORY OF PAPER-MANUFACTURING IN THE UNITED STATES, 1690-1916 BY LYMAN HORACE WEEKS Author of "An Historical Digest of the Provincial Press," "Legal and Judicial History of New York," "Prominent Families of New York," "Book of Bruce," etc., etc. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK The Loekwood Trade Journal Company 1916. Copyright, 1916, By The Lockwood Trade JourDal Company All rights reserved. APR II 1917 'CIA457981 / * PREFACE MANY books have been written concerning the purely technical sides of paper-making and much about the origin and history of the craft among the peoples of the old world. Also there have been considerable accounts of special features of it in this country; descriptions of individual mills ; sketches of manufacturers, inventors and scientists ; considerations of the introduction and improve- ment of new methods, new materials and new machinery and their influence; records of organizations, and so on. All this latter, however — though wholly admirable, inter- esting and valuable in itself — has been of a desultory and disconnected character: mainly chapters in books, maga- zines and newspapers; papers read before business asso- ciations, conventions and societies ; addresses and discus- sions in legislative bodies, and essays and treatises in scien- tific periodicals. This History covers the field differently. It is the only I attempt that has been made to bring into one complete, compact narrative all the material facts relating to the industry and to present in an exhaustive and comprehen- sive manner, on the purely historical side, the annals of this branch of American manufacturing, from the erecting of the first little mill in Philadelphia, in 1690, to the opening years of .the twentieth century. What has been done in this way for coal-mining, agriculture, many branches of manufacturing, oil production, the iron and steel industries and other American industrial activities has been here attempted for paper-making. Gathering material for this History has occupied much of the time of the author for several years past, in con- junction with research along other historical lines. It is confidently believed that, in the preparation of the work, the ground has been covered broadly and soundly, con- VIII PREFACE sidering the limitations of the subject and the scanty sources of information. The extent of the reading and investigation undertaken therewith is, in a measure, indi- cated by the authorities consulted, references to which have been copiously given. In addition, much has been derived from the personal knowledge of individuals who have been active in the industry in contemporaneous times. Short-comings and errors exist in the work. No one can be more conscious of that than the author. Such is an unfortunate but an inevitable concomitant of a com- pilation of this sort, dependent, as it is, for its subject- matter, upon records that, in the remote past most notably, are meagre and often unreliable and contradictory. It is hoped, however, that any errancy of that kind may not materially detract from the interest of the work as a nar- rative or from its historical value. If it 4iall have suc- ceeded in preserving in enduring form the otherwise fugitive records of one of the great industries of the United States, and if it may find acceptance as a not un- worthy contribution to the literature of American indus- trial history, its main purpose will have been substan- tially accomplished. Lyman Horace Weeks. CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE Page 1 BUILDING THE FIRST MILLS Three Pioneer Establishments in Pennsylvania — Ritten- HOUSE AND De WeES IN GeRMANTOWN AND WlLLCOX IN Chester County — William Bradford, the Printer, a Promoter of Paper Manufacturing — The Mills of Ritten- house and wlllcox became permanent and successful CHAPTER TWO 15 OTHER MILLS OF THE COLONIES A Second Venture Is Made by Bradford the Printer — First Mills Are Established in Massachusetts, Maine, Con- necticut, New York and Elsewhere — The Mill of the Ephrata German Community in Pennsylvania — Saur, Famous Printer of the German Bible, Also Builds a Mill CHAPTER THREE 41 A PAPER POVERTY Mills of the Colonial Period Were Few in Number and Poorly Equipped — Importations Were Slow and Scant — News- ' papers Resorted to Curious Makeshifts — Extraordinary Scarcity During the Revolution — Legislative Action to Encourage Manufacturing and Conserve the Supply CONTENTS Page CHAPTER FOUR 57 EQUIPMENT AND RAW MATERIAL Colonial Paper Was All Hand-made — Machinery Unknown — Mills Hampered by Difficulty in Procuring Raw Mate- rials — Newspapers and Legislatures Implored People to Help by Saving Rags — The Early Methods of Manufac- turing — Some Prices of Paper in 1729, 1780 and 1792 77 CHAPTER FIVE AFTER THE REVOLUTION Slow Industrial Growth of the Nation — Paper-making Still Confined Mostly to Pennsylvania, New York, Connecti- cut and Massachusetts — New Mills in Those and Other States — Legislative Encouragement to Manufacturers — First Inventors — Tariff Measures of the Government y 104 CHAPTER SIX INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Mills Increased in Number in the First Decade — Statistics from the Census of 1810 and Isaiah Thomas' Estimate — Business Depression After the War of 1812 — Tariff Pro- tection for Paper — Rags Still Continued to Be Very Scarce — Some Prices That Prevailed in 1815 and 1821 122 CHAPTER SEVEN A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY. The Famous Ames Manufacturers and Their Work — First Mills in Berkshire County, Mass. — Other Mills, Old and New, in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Elsewhere — Scant Statistics from the Census of 1820 — Old-time Mill Equipment and the Old-time Papermakers CONTENTS XI CHAPTER EIGHT Page - 148 IN MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES Beginning in Central and Northern New York — Mills That Endured Substantially Unchanged for a Hundred Years — The Famous Mill of the Gilpin Brothers in Delaware — — Planting the Industry in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee CHAPTER NINE 170 THE INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY Hollander Engines for Pulp-Beating — Invention of the Four- drinier and Its Importation into the United States — Americans Invent and Improve Cylinder Machines — Other Inventors and Inventions — Radical Changes in Manu- facturing Methods Are Gradually Introduced CHAPTER TEN 191 A CENTURY AND A HALF OF GROWTH Feeling the Stimulus of the New Machinery — Tariff Agi- tation — Mills in the East Grow in Size and Importance — The Beginning of the Industry in Indiana and Other States — Making Straw- Paper in Columbia County, New York — Mill Statistics from the Census of 1840 CHAPTER ELEVEN 211 THE SEARCH FOR RAW MATERIAL Scarcity of the Staple Linen Stock Ever Present — Numerous Vegetable Fibres are Tried — Curious Tales of Many Hope- ful Experimenters — Straw the First Considerable Addi- tion — Finally, Pulp from Wood Comes in and Revolu- tionizes Papermaking — The Great Wood Pulp Processes XII CONTENTS Page CHAPTER TWELVE 239; BEFORE AND DURING THE CIVIL WAR Changing Conditions Stimulate Manufacturing in New Eng- land and the Middle States — First Mills in Fitchburg and Holyoke, Massachusetts — Big Increase in Straw- Paper Making in New York— Developments of the Black River Country — Destruction of the Industry in the South 314 270 CHAPTER THIRTEEN AN ERA OF PROSPERITY In the Years Following the Civil War — A Unique Directory of 1864 — Growth of the Industry in Ohio — Futile Attempts to Start Paper-Making in Utah — Founding the Industry in the north-west — rapid advancement in holyoke, mas- SACHUSETTS- — Some Amazing Prices of that Period 288 CHAPTER FOURTEEN MODERN EXPANSION Mills Increased in Number and in Size in All Parts of the United States — Machinery Expansion — The Rise of Big Corporations — New Men, New Methods and New Accom- plishments — Growth of Foreign Trade — Exporting is Be- gun in Competition for the Markets of the World CHAPTER FIFTEEN INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Latest Census Figures — A Wood-Pulp Issue With Canada — Exports From the Dominion Increased — The Great Europ- ean War and Its Effects — Scarcity of Paper Stock . and Other Materials — A Paper-Famine With Rising Prices — A Sectional and State Review of the Industry ILLUSTRATIONS Rittenhouse Mill-Dam Third Rittenhouse Mill Rittenhouse Water Mark Willcox Ivy Mill Ivy Mills Water Mark Daniel Henchman Thomas Hancock Samuel Waldo Ephrata Mills Water Mark Ephrata Mills Christopher Leffingwell A Printer's Paper Economy Nathan Sellers Advertisement for Rags Interior of an Old Mill Eden Vale Mill Christopher Gore Isaiah Thomas Mill Isaiah Thomas . Benjamin Franklin Robert R. Livingston Seth Hawley David Ames Zenas Crane David Carson Daniel Vose John Roberts Seth Bemis Caleb Burbank . David Humphrey Frontispiece 7 9 12 13 20 22 25 30 32 36 44 54 61 68 82 84 86 88 93 99 116 124 128 130 131 134 136 138 140 XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Humphreysville Mill .141 Samuel Phillips ... 144 Eckstein Mill . . 147 Nathaniel Rochester . 149 Eagle Mill, Exterior : 150 Eagle Mill, Interior . . 151 George W. Knowlton . 154 Gilpin Mill . 158 Sunnydale Mill, Exterior . 164 Sunnydale Mill, Interior . . 166 Smallest Paper Machine . . 177 John Ames . 179 Peter Adams . 181 William Staniar . 183 Cornelius Van Houten . 185 Lemuel Crehore 198 Thomas Rice, Jr. 200 James M. Willcox . 205 George A. Shryock . 221 Hugh Burgess 227 Royer's Ford Wood-Pulp Mill 228 Benjamin C. Tilghmart 231 George N. Fletcher . 232 Alpena Pulp-Mill 233 Albrecht Pagenstecher 235 First Bill for American YVood-I 5 ulp . 236 Curtisville Pulp-Mill * • 237 Elizur Smith .... '■ 242 Byron Weston 245 J. C. Parsons 246 Parsons' Mill 247 Aaron Bagg 248 William Whiting 249 James H. Newton 250 Wells Southworth 251 Carew Mill 252 Joseph Carew . • 253 Alvah Crocker * 254 G. S. Burbank . ' 255 George Bird 256 list of illustration; s XV Charles H. Dexter ...... . 258 Illustrious Remington . 261 B^B. Taggart .... . 262 Martin Nixon .... . 264 William H. Nixon . 265 A Paper-Mill Trade Mark . 267 Joseph McDowell . 268 D. E. Mead .... . 276 A. E. Harding . . 278 Thomas Beckett . 278 Adam Laurie . 279 Thomas Howard . 282 Howard Lockwood . . 299 George F. Steele . 300 William A. Russell . . 303 Arthur C. Hastings . . 305 O. C. Barber . . 306 John G. Luke . . 309 William H. Parsons . . 311 The Oxford Mill . . 320 S. D. Warren . . 322 W. H. Sharp 323 VV. N. Caldwell . 323 A. W. Esleeck . . 324 George W. Wheelwright . 324 Mark Hollingsworth . . 326 Edwin R. Redhead . . * . 328 John F. King . . 328 J. A. Outterson . . 329 B. B. Taggart . . 329 Augustus G. Paine . . 333 Bloomfield H. Moore . 335 E. L. Embree . . 337 F. L. Moore . 337 J. A. Kimberly . . 340 G. E. Bardeen . . 341 E. R. Behrend . . 341 A. B. Daniels . . . 343 George A. Whiting . . 344 HISTORY OF PAPER-MANUFACTURING CHAPTER ONE BUILDING THE FIRST MILLS Three Pioneer Establishments in Pennsylvania — RlTTENHOUSE AND De WEES IN GERMANTOWN AND Willcox in Chester County — William Bradford, the Printer, a Promoter of Paper-Manufactur- ing — The Mills of Rittenhouse and Willcox Became Permanent and Successful Ventures WHEN the American pioneers began their voyaging, across the Atlantic to settle in the new world, in the seventeenth century, the business of manufac- turing paper, as it is known in modern times, had not gained much headway in those parts of Europe whence they came. The age of papyrus and parchment was, it is true, practically at an end after five thousand years of his- tory, but paper from rags was slow in coming into general use in place thereof. Rag paper, first known in China about the beginning of the Christian era, was brought to Europe by the Saracens in the eighth century. Firmly established in Spain the process was there improved until, in the tenth and following centuries, Spanish paper became justly famous. Gradually artist workmen introduced their craft into France, Italy, Austria and Germany, and in those countries paper-manufacturing was common by the four- teenth century. England and Holland, destined to become great paper-manufacturing centers, were laggards in tak- ing hold of the industry which was still considered to be very much of a mystery. In England, as late as 1690, there were few mills and the total product was less than 1 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES £25,000 in value. Holland had its first paper-mill only a few years prior to that date. For other reasons also, paper-making was not an early occupation of the American colonists. Clearing the wilder- ness, trading with the Indians for furs, making farms, es- tablishing towns and villages — these were the tasks that, in the beginning, pressed most upon the attention of the settlers. Their energies were, of necessity, directed to the engrossing work of providing shelter, food and clothing for themselves, to the exclusion of nearly all else, and primary needs were for implements and materials that should serve such ends. To a considerable extent the first pilgrims brought these things with them and then, in the imme- diate subsequent years, continued to import them from the old country. But Europe was too far distant in the days of the slow sailing vessel, and so, almost at the out- set, arose the demand for home industrial enterprises of the simplest sort. Rivers furnished abundant water power and as soon as possible grist mills, lumber mills and full- ing mills were built. Then iron was discovered in Vir- ginia, Massachusetts, New Jersey and elsewhere, and mines were opened and furnaces started. Manufacturing in the first colonial century was practically confined to ship-building yards, a few rude iron furnaces, potasheries, fulling, grain and lumber mills, and tanneries. Paper was not as yet a vital necessity. Newspapers did not exist until after 1700. There were few books except those brought from abroad. A printing press was set up in Cambridge, in the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1638, and others in Boston, New York and Philadelphia before the end of the century; but the printed output was small, less than one thousand books and pamphlets in sixty-two years, 1639-1700. Correspondence was not extensive and writing was largely left to the ministers and the officials. Our forefathers knew little of the manifold other uses and demands for paper that were to arise in the years to come. Their needs were altogether easily supplied by importing from England and Holland. Even the starting of the first paper-mill, in 1690, does not seem to have been a result of any urgent call from the 2 BUILDING THE FIRST MILLS community. Rather it came out of the combination of the small needs of a single printer in Philadelphia and the am- bition of a newly-arrived German paper-maker ; the printer and the paper-maker made an ideal partnership for estab- lishing an infant industry in a field that had not yet been entered upon. Prior to this time it is probable that few, if any, of the new Americans, who were mostly from England and Hol- land, knew much about paper-making practically. France and Germany were then leading paper-making countries and neither the French nor the Germans arrived in the colonies in any considerable numbers until the late part of the seventeenth century. Printing had grown to more sub- stantial business importance in Boston than in any other colonial center, but even there the need of a paper supply independent of importation was not seriously felt ; nor does it appear that paper-makers could have been found to run a mill even if one had been built. The actual beginning of this new enterprise in Phila- delphia was in September, 1690, when Robert Turner, William Bradford, Thomas Tresse and William Ritten- house entered into an agreement with Samuel Carpenter for the lease of a tract of land of twenty acres on the banks of the Wissahickon creek for a site. The mill was built the same year, but the title to the land was not passed until February 12, 1706, by which time William Ritten- house had become sole owner. By the terms of the lease, for nine hundred and ninety years from September 29, 1690, an annual rental of "five shillings sterling money of England" was to be paid. The mill stood in a little ravine on the banks of a stream, called Paper-Mill Run, that emptied into the Wissahickon creek, through Germantown, now a part of the city of Philadelphia, about two miles above the junction of the Wissahickon with the Schuylkill river. Bradford was the moving spirit in this enterprise. He had come from England to Pennsylvania for the express purpose of setting up a press in Philadelphia. In London he had been a skillful printer and his professional abilities and forceful personality made him a man of prominence 3 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES and influence in the colony until a falling- out with the authorities in 1693 led to his removal to New York where he became pre-eminently the first famous American printer and publisher. In 1686_ he printed his first book, Kalen- darium Pennsylvaniense. Once he was started in busi- ness other books and pamphlets came from his shop and soon he felt the inconvenience of depending - for his print- ing upon such paper as he could bring over from Europe. His position placed him in intimate association with the leading men of the colony and no doubt his representations were influential in bringing the necessary monetary sup- port to the undertaking. Samuel Carpenter and Robert Turner were men of wealth, extensive land owners, and friends and advisers of William Penn. Thomas Tresse was a rich iron monger. Willem or Wilhelm Ruddinghuysen, or Rittinghuysen, or Rittershausen — in English William Rittenhouse — was born in 1644 near the city of Miilheim on the river Ruhr, in the principality of Broich which lay between the river Rhine and Westphalia. It is believed that he was the son of George Rittershausen and Maria Hagershoffs. He be- longed to a family of distinction, some of whose members were prominent in public and professional life. Several of his paternal ancestors were paper-makers in Germany and Holland and when he, in Amsterdam in 1678, took the oath of citizenship there, he subscribed himself, "Willem Ruddinghuysen, van Miilheim, papermaker." At one time he was in Arnheim, where he probably followed his trade. With his sons Nicholas (Claus) and Gerhard (Garrett), and his daughter Elizabeth, he came to America and was settled in Germantown, Penn., in 1688, though he may have been in the country before that date. He was a Men- nonite, the first minister of that church in Germantown, and the first Mennonite bishop in America. 1 In a modest way the mill was a success from the start. If it did not indeed "fill a long-felt want" it was at least promptly recognized as an interesting addition to the in- dustrial life of the colony. Several early writers on Penn- 1 Daniel K. Cassell : A Genea-Bio graphical History of the Rit- tenhouse Family, pp. 47-66. BUILDING THE FIRST MILLS sylvania referred to it. Pennsylvania's first poet, who wrote a metrical description of the colony, thus sang of the mill : "The German-Town, of which I spoke before, Which is, at least, in length one Mile and More, Where lives High-German People, and Low-Dutch, Whose Trade in weaving Linnin Cloth is much, There grows the Flax, as also you may know. That from the same they do divide the Tow; Their Trade fits well within their Habitation, We find Conveniences for their Occupation, One Trade brings in imployment for another, So that we may suppose each trade a Brother ; From Linnin Rags good Paper doth derive, The First Trade keeps the second Trade alive : Without the first the second cannot be, Therefore since these two can so well agree, Convenience doth approve to place them nigh, One in the German-Town, 'tother hard by. A Paper Mill near German-Town doth stand, So that the Flax, which first springs from the Land, First Flax, then Yarn, and then they must begin, To weave the same, which they took pains to spin. Also when on our backs it is well worn, Some of the same remains Ragged and Torn ; Then of those Rags our paper it is made, Which in process of time doth waste and fade ; So what comes from the Earth, appeareth plain, The same in Time returns to Earth again." 2 Another rhyming historian, writing about 1693, had these lines about Bradford and the paper-mill which had already become locally celebrated : "Here dwelt a Printer, and, I find, That he can both print books and bind ; He wants not paper, ink, nor skill, He's owner of a paper-mill : The paper-mill is here, hard by, And makes good paper frequently. But the printer, as I here tell, Is gone unto New York to dwell. No doubt but he will lay up bags If he can get good store of rags. 2 Richard Frame : A Short Description of Pennsylvania. Printed and sold by William Bradford in Philadelphia, 1692. PAPER MA NUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES Kind friends when thy old shift is rent Let it to th' paper mill be sent." 3 A few years later an Englishman, writing in London concerning Pennsylvania, informed his readers that "all sorts of good Paper are made in the German-Town" 4 As the practical man who alone was able to make the mill a success, William Rittenhouse ultimately became the sole owner. Turner disposed of his quarter interest in 1697, Tresse in 1701 and Bradford in 1704. Bradford de- pended upon the mill even after the removal of his print- ing business to New York; in 1697 he rented his part of the property to the Rittenhouses upon these terms : "That they the sd. W m - and Clause Rittenhouse shall pay and deliver to sd. William Bradford, his Executors or assigns or their order in Philadelphia y e full quan- tity of Seven Ream of printing paper, Two Ream of good writing paper and two Ream of blue paper, yearly and every year during y e sd. Term of Ten years. . . . . . Also it is further Covenanted That during y e sd. Ten years y e sd. William and Clause Rittenhouse shall lett y e said W m - Bradford his Execu- tors or Assigns have y e refusal of all y e printing paper that they make and he shall take y e same at Ten shill- ings pr. Ream, As also y e sd. Bradford shall have y e refusal of five Ream of writing paper and Thirty Ream of brown paper yearly and every year during y e sd. Term of Ten years, y c writing paper to be at 20 s and y e brown paper at 6 s pr. Ream." 5 From this it is evident that Bradford was to receive annually, for his share of the mill, paper valued at £6 2s, that is, £61 for the term of ten years. In addition he also had a monopoly of the total product of the mill, which was actually all the paper made in the colonies, from Septem- ber, 1697, to September, 1707. In 1701 a freshet overran the banks of the Wissahickon * John Holme : A True Relation of the Flourishing State of Pennsylvania. Printed in the Bulletin [Proceedings] of the Penn- sylvania Historical Society, I., No. 13, December, 1847, p. 172. 4 Gabriel Thomas : An Historical and Geographical Account of the Proviyvce and County of Pennsylvania and New Jersey in America. London, 1698. " Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XX., pp. 323-4. *J !-d PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES and the paper-mill was swept away. The biographer of David Rittenhouse wrote regarding this that he had seen : "A paper in the handwriting of William Penn, and subscribed with his name, certifying that 'William Rit- tinghousen and Claus his son,' then 'part owners of the paper-mill near Germantown,' had recently sustained a very great loss by a violent and sudden flood, which carried away the said mill, with a considerable quantity of paper, materials and tools, with other things therein, whereby they were reduced to great distress ; and therefore, recommending to such persons as should be disposed to lend them aid, to give the sufferers, 'relief and encouragement, in their needful and commendable employment' as they were 'desirous to set up the paper- mill again.' " G In the following year a new mill was built a short dis- tance from the site of the old one. At that time there was correspondence between Rittenhouse and Bradford con- cerning the transfer of the interest which the latter still held in the property, and in one of the letters the value of the materials saved from the wreck — lumber, iron and press — was stated at £15, 2s, Ad. In 1706 William Rittenhouse deeded to his eldest son, Claus, a three-quarters interest in the mill and when he died intestate in 1708 the remaining quarter went to the same son. Claus Rittenhouse, who thus succeeded his father and became the second paper-mill proprietor in the colonies, was born in Holland in 1666, and died in German- town in 1734. He continued to make writing, printing, brown and blue papers and pasteboard, supplying Brad- ford in New York and the home market in Germantown and Philadelphia. Upon his death the mill became the property of his eldest son, William, whose brother Matthias carried on the manufacturing there until 1730. In subsequent generations the building was reconstructed in whole or in part several times, but continued to be used as a paper-mill. Finally, however, it was converted into a cotton-nrill. Later the site was incorporated in Phila- delphia's great Fairmount park. "William Barton: Memoirs of the Life of David Rittenhouse, p. 83. BUILDING THE FIRST MILLS In a later generation a third mill was built farther down on Paper Mill Run by the third William Rittenhouse. This building remained standing nearly to the close of the nine- teenth century. Other mills were erected in the vicinity, one on Paper Mill Run, and two on the Wissahickon creek, all operated by members of the Rittenhouse family. Neither the capacity of this mill nor the quantity of paper actually produced is known. All was handwork and each sheet was made separately. Several days were re- quired for the finishing of a sheet of dry perfected paper. "A day's work for three men was four and a half reams of newspaper 20 x 30. So that there might have been made annually at the Rittenhouse mill from 1,200 to 1,500 reams of paper of all kinds but this is mere conjecture. Small as was its capacity, it was all im- portant to the community at large, for the home supply of Pennsylvania was dependent upon it." 7 Most if not all the paper made in the Rittenhouse mill was water-marked. The first water-mark used was the single word "Company." The second was a double; on one-half the sheet was the monogram WR and on the other half a shield, surmounted by a fleur-de-lis crest and bear- ing on its face a clover leaf — which was the town seal of Germantown — and beneath this the word "Pensilvania" in black letters. Another mark was K R, the initials of Klaas (Claus) Rittenhouse, and later was I R for Jacob Rittenhouse, grandson of the founder. These marks are on correspondence sheets, books and newspapers of the first half of the eight- eenth century and later. Will- iam Bradford for his New York Gazette, established in November, 1725; and Andrew Bradford, his son, for his Early Water Mark of the Rittenhouse Paper. 7 Horatio Gates Jones : Historical Sketch of the Rittenhouse Paper-Mill; in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biog- raphy, XX., p. 325. PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES American Weekly Mercury, of Philadelphia, established in December, 1719, the third newspaper in the American colonies, used Rittenhouse paper thus water-marked. The second paper-mill in the colonies was a direct out- growth of the Rittenhouse mill. It was built in 1710, by William De Wees, on the west side of the Wissahickon creek, in that part of Germantown then known as Crefield, not far from the Rittenhouse mill. William De Wees was a native of Holland, where he was born in 1677. He was brought to New York by his parents, Garrett Hendrick and Zytian De Wees, in 1688. His sister, Wilhelmina De Wees, in 1689, in the Reformed Church of New York, was married to Nicholas Rittenhuysen, who was then en- tered in the records as "a young man of Arnheim, living on the Delaware river." 8 This marriage was followed by the moving of the De Wees family to Germantown where William became an apprentice in. the paper-mill of his brother-in-law's father, probably remaining there until he started his own mill. In 1713 he sold his mill, with a hun- dred acres of land, to Abraham Tunis, William Streeper, Claus Ruttinghuysen and John Gorgas for £145. In 1729 he entered into a business agre ment with Henry Antes, his son-in-law, the two to run a combination grist and paper-mill. This mill was also located in Germantown. An indenture of February 20, 1731, describes the land purchased by De Wees in Crefield, in March, 1729, and the two bolting mills and mill house "built and erected, found and provided, at the joint and equal cost and charge of William De Wees and Henry Antes." The digging and making of the dams of the mill race and the providing and putting in the gears of the paper-mill were at the charge of De Wees. For the money and labor expended by Antes and cash £25, a one-half interest in the mills and ground was conveyed to him. It was also provided that the paper- mill should be served only by the over-plus of water after the needs of the grist mills had been first met. 9 William De Wees parted with his mill before he died * New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, X., p. 131. ' Deed Book F, 5, p. 197, Philadelphia Recorder's Office. 10 BUILDING THE FIRST MILLS in 1745. His will, of November 22, 1744, did not mention it specifically although he bequeathed to his son Garrett his "dwelling house, grist-mill, land and plantation situate in Germantown with the buildings." But his son, Henry De Wees, succeeded him as a paper-maker. On a Phila- delphia map of 1746, "Hy De Wees' Paper-mill" is located at that place. During the revolution Henry De Wees made cartridge paper for the continental army. The first historian of American printing wrote that, as early as 1728, William De Wees and John Gorgas had a mill on the Wissahickon where "they manufactured an imitation of asses-skin paper for memorandum books, which was well executed." In support of this statement it was added that : "John Brighter, an aged paper-maker, who con- ducted a mill for more than half a century in Penn- sylvania, and who gave this account, observed that this kind of paper was made of rotten stone, which is found in several places near and to the northward of Philadelphia, and that the method of cleaning this paper was to throw it into the fire for a short time when it was taken out perfectly fair." 10 This description would seem to indicate an asbestos paper. The same authority says that William De Wees, Jr., operated a paper-mill on the Wissahickon in 1736. 11 But there is no record of this in the history of the family, which, on the contrary, says that comparatively little is known about the younger William De Wees. 12 Nearly forty years elapsed before the third Pennsylvania paper-mill came into existence. This was in the township of Concord, twenty miles from the city of Philadelphia, on the west branch of the Chester creek in that part of Chester county which afterward was Delaware county. Thomas Willcox, an Englishman, came to Concord in 1725, or earlier perhaps. In 1726 he and Thomas Brown built a mill-dam on the west branch, leasing land for the 10 Isaiah Thomas : The History of Printing in America, I., p. 53. 11 Isaiah Thomas : The History of Printing in America, I., p. 24. 12 Mrs. Philip E. La Munyan : The De Wees Family. 11 PAPE R MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES purpose on agreement to pay "yearly & for every year ye sum of one shilling of current lawful money of this prov- ince." On this land, in August, 1729, he built a paper- mill and entered into a partnership with Brown to make and sell paper. He had learned paper-making before com- ing to America and the arrangement was that he should receive three-fifths of the profits of the joint undertaking in consideration of instructing Brown who, evidently knew nothing about the business. The Willcox Ivy Mill, 1729. Reproduced from Ashmead's History of Delaware County, Penn. Little is known of the history of this mill during its first fifty years. The value placed upon the property is indicated by the fact that, in the beginning, Brown paid to Willcox £150 for his half interest, and that when he retired from active participation in the business, in 1732, he leased to Willcox his half interest in the land, mill and equipment, for a term of seven years, at a yearly rental of £13. Subsequently he reconveyed his interest to Willcox who thus became the sole owner. This and other adja- 12 BUILDING THE FIRST MILLS cent property has remained in possession of descendants of Thomas Willcox to the present day. 13 When Thomas Willcox died, in 1772, he was succeeded by his son, Mark, who had, in fact, been the poetical operator of the mill for some years previous. Mark Will- cox retained ownership until his death, but, after 1808, he had his sons associated with him, the last surviving one in- heriting the property and continuing the business" until 1854. Attention has been called to the remarkable fact that at the time of the death of Mark Willcox, in 1827: "Two men. of two generations, father and son, had conducted the mill ninety-eight years. The ponder- ous machinery, however, of modern mills, silenced it long ago, but it still stands [1884] a silent relic of its early time. Its wheel has long since decayed; its stone gable is thickly covered with the venerable ivy- vine whose root came over the ocean, in 1718, from near the old Ivy Bridge in Devonshire." 14 The first output of the Willcox mill is said to have been fullers' press board. Later, printing paper was made, some of it for Benjamin Franklin, who became a close friend of Willcox and much interested in his undertaking. After 1775 the mill was devoted almost entirely to making gov- ernment paper for the conti- nental bills, loan certificates and bills of exchange. Ulti- mately, its product was prin- cipally banknote paper for the Water Mark of the Will- Un j ted States and various in- cox Ivy Mills Paper. dividual states, banks, foreign Reproduced from Joseph Will- countries and nrivate individ- cox's ivy Mills, 1729-1866. countries ana privare maivia uals. At the time of the revolution and before, the government authorities de- pended entirely upon this mill for paper for currency pur- poses and placed implicit confidence in it. "Joseph Willcox: The Ivy Mills, 1729-1866. w Henry Graham Ashmead : History of Delaware County, Penn- sylvania, p. 494. 13 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES "When the old Colonies, much more than a century ago, found themselves obliged to issue paper money, the currency paper used by all of them was manufac- tured by Thomas Willcox, at Ivy Mills, and mostly printed in Philadelphia. No other currency paper was used upon the continent than that made at the old Ivy Mills. Many years later, in the necessities of the newly confederated states, the paper for all the continental currency was supplied from the same es- tablishment. There was no other possessing experi- ence in the manufacture, and during the revolution- ary war, paper could not be imported. Again, in the war of 1812, the government was obliged to issue paper money, and again recourse was had to the old Ivy Mill to supply its necessities." 15 1 John Hill Martin : History of Chester and Its Vicinity, p. 233. 14 CHAPTER TWO OTHER MILLS OF THE COLONIES A Second Venture is Made by Bradford the Printer — First Mills are Established in Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, New York and Elsewhere — The Mills of the Ephrata German Community in Pennsylvania — Saur, Famous Printer of the First German Bible, Also Builds a Mill AS has already been shown in the preceding chapter three small mills alone represented the infant in- dustry of paper-making until well into the second quart- er of the eighteenth century. A growing need for paper existed, such as even importation was not able adequately to supply ; but conditions were unfavorable to expansion of the business. Skilled workmen were scarce and rags were more scarce ; it was difficult to procure even the simple tools needed, such as vats, presses and moulds, and they were expensive ; the domestic market for paper was irreg- ular, and altogether the cost of production was relatively so high that a better quality of imported paper could be sold for no more than that of domestic make. The in- dustry, such "as it was, continued to be merely local, re- sponsive to and meeting local demands almost entirely, principally those of printers like the Bradfords and others. William Bradford could never divest himself of the desire to own and operate a paper-mill as an adjunct to his press. He was one of the most energetic men of his time in Philadelphia and New York, shrewd, calculating, re- sourceful and dominating. Had he been of 1900 instead of 1700 he would have shone pre-eminently as one of our 15 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES modern hustlers. Within three months after his arrival in Philadelphia he had set up his press and printed an almanac, a big achievement for that time and under the conditions then prevailing. Instrumental in having the first American paper-mill built, partly to supply the needs of his printing establishment in Philadelphia, and in secur- ing to himself a monopoly of the output of that mill, even after he had removed to New York city, his hunger for paper was only measurably appeased. Aside from the general need for writing paper, the press of his son, Andrew Bradford — who began printing in Philadelphia in 1710 and there started The American Weekly Mercury — added to the demand upon the limited domestic supply ; both father and son continued to use all the paper that they could draw from Rittenhouse and De Wees but that was far from sufficient. So it came about that, in 1724, he conceived the idea of securing a concession from the New York authorities, for starting a mill in that colony. On July 6 of that year he petitioned the general assembly "to admit him to bring in a bill to entitle him to the sole making of paper in the province." The bill was introduced and finally passed on July 14, when the assembly "ordered that Mr. Jansen do carry the Bill to the Council and desire their concurrence thereto." 16 In the council the proposed measure received short shrift, for the governor was not inclined to encour- age any new colonial manufacturing if he could avoid it. The records state that, on July 16, this message was re- ceived by the council: "from the Assembly by Mr. Jansen dated the 14th Instant with the Bill entituled, An Act to. Encourage William . Bradford and his Assignes to make Paper and to prohibit all other persons from making the same in this Province during the space of fifteen years and Desiring the Concurrence of this Board thereto." The bill was read the first time and ordered to a second reading. At the next meeting of the council, July 18, the bill was read the second time, referred to a committee, re- 14 Journal of the Votes and Proceedings of ihe General Assembly of the Colony of New York, L, pp. 508-510. 16 OTHER MILLS OF THE COLONIES ported back and then, "The question being put, Whether the said bill be read the Third time ? It was carryed in the negative." 17 Such seems to have been the end of the first attempt to start a paper-mill in that colony. However, a few years after, Bradford succeeded in hav- ing a mill, this time in Elizabethtown, N. J. By whom and when the mill was built and by whom first managed is not known. 18 It is said that Bradford bought it in 1728 in order to supply his newspaper, The New York Gazette, started in 1725, and that of his son, Andrew Bradford, in Philadelphia, the mill being very conveniently located be- tween the two cities. How long he owned this mill can- not be said. That it was held by him in 1729 and was in existence as late as 1735 is shown by two newspaper ad- vertisements of those dates : "An Indented Servant Man, named James Roberts, is Run away from William Bradford's Paper-Mill at Elizabeth Town in New Jersey. . . . He is a West-Country-man, has been about one year in the Country, and is a Paper-maker by Trade." 19 "On Wednesday, the 23 of April next, at the Paper- Mill in Elizabeth-Town, there will be sold at Publick Vendue to the highest Bidder, all sorts of Household Goods, Cattle, Horses, Hogs, Cart, Plows, Harrows with Iron Teeth, and other Utinsels : The Plantation adjoining to the said Mill will also be sold. . . ," 20 Between 1639 — when the first press was set up in Cam- bridge, Mass. — and 1728, there were thirty-five or pos- sibly thirty-seven printers in the colonies, twenty-three of whom were in Boston, nine in Philadelphia and two in New York. The output in those years was three thousand and sixty-seven books, pamphlets and broadsides. 21 There were also six newspapers, all published weekly : The Boston Nezus-Letter, The Boston Gazette, The American Weekly Mercury of Philadelphia, The Nezv-En gland Courant of "Journal of the Legislative Council of the Colony of New York pp. 512-514. 18 Edwin F. H£tneld: History of Elisabeth, N. J., p. 324. 19 The American Weekly Mercury, Philadelphia, July 3 and 10, 1729. 20 The New York Gazette, April 7, 1735. 21 Charles Evans : American Bibliography. 17 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES Boston, The New York Gazette, and The New-England Weekly Journal of Boston. These had been in existence from one to twenty-four years, the oldest, The Boston News-Letter, having been established in 1704. The num- ber of weekly issues of these newspapers prior to 1728 was about three thousand, making, with the books, pamph- lets and broadsides, nearly eight thousand as the total num- ber of imprints. The editions were not large in any in- stance, never, at the most, exceeding a few thousand copies, or of the pamphlets, probably only a few hundred. Considering now the first quarter of the eighteenth cen- tury, the printers of Boston outnumbered those of the rest of the country two to one ; four of the six American news- papers were published in Boston ; two-thirds of the books and pamphlets of the period bore a Boston imprint. East- ern Massachusetts was easily the literary and typographic center. Yet, despite these facts, there was no paper-mill in this locality until after 1728. Why Philadelphia should have established this industry so far in advance of Boston, which would seem to have been earlier in need of it, is not clear. Perhaps the individual activity of William Brad- ford may have had much to do with that. Also the com- mercial connection of Boston with England was so inti- mate and well developed that importation was not inade- quate to the domestic needs. Whatsoever may have been the reason, however, there were three mills in Pennsylvania and one in New Jersey before the first in New England. Starting a paper-mill in those days was a serious affair. Even though the contemplated mill might be ever so in- significantly small and unimportant an ambitious man could not go out and invest his capital in site, water-power and building and proceed to work unrestrainedly. Paper- making was regarded as a sort of public utility — as indeed were other manufacturing industries — and it came under the watchful supervision of the public service commissions or trade commissions of that time, that is the great and general court, or the assembly, or the governor and coun- cil, as the authority might be in different colonies. Per- mission to engage in the business was a prerogative of the government and a monopoly, for an indicated term of 18 OTHER MILLS OF THE COLONIES years, was asked for and generally included, if the per- mission was accorded at all. The grant was a ponderous, impressive document, elaborate with specifications and re- quirements. Such was the charter granted, upon petition, to several substantial citizens of Boston, in 1728, by the great and general court of the province of the Massa- chusetts Bay. The measure, passed on September 13 of that year, reads as follows in the legislative records : An Act for the Encouragement of Making Paper. tiTT7"HEREAS the Making Paper zvithin this VV Province will be of Public Benefit and Service; But inasmuch as the Erecting Mills for that purpose and providing Workmen and Materials for the Effecting that Undertaking will necessarily de- mand a considerable Disburse of Money for some time before any profit, or gain can arise there-from; And whereas Daniel Henchman, Gillam Phillips, Ben- jamin Faneuil and Thomas Hancock, together with Henry Dering, are willing & desirous to Undertake the Manufacturing Paper; Wherefore, for the Pro- moting so beneficial a Design ; "Be it Enacted by His Excellency the Governour, Council and Representatives in General Court Assem- bled, and by the Authority of the same, That the sole Privilege and Benefit of making Paper within this Province shall be to the said Daniel Henchman, Gillam Phillips, Benjamin Faneuil, Thomas Hancock and Henry Dering, and to their Associates, for and during the Term of Ten Years from and after the Tenth Day of December next ensuing: provided the aforesaid Daniel Henchman, Gillam Phillips, Benja- min Faneuil, Thomas Hancock and Henry Dering, shall make or cause to be made within this Province, in the space of Twelve Months next after the Tenth Day of December, next, Two hundred Rheam of good Merchantable Brown Paper, and Printing Paper, Sixty Rheam thereof at least to be Printing Paper, and within the space of Twelve Months then next coming, shall cause to be made within this Prov- ince Fifty Rheam of good Merchantable Writing Paper, of equal goodness with the Paper commonly stampt with the London arms, over and above the aforesaid Two hundred Rheam of Brown Paper, and Printing Paper. "AND further, That the aforesaid Daniel Hench- 19 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES man, Gillam Phillips, Benjamin Faneuil, and Thomas Hancock, together with Henry Bering, proceed and make Twenty-five Rheam of finer & better Writing Paper in this Province, as aforesaid, at or before the Tenth Day of December, which will be in the Year of Our Lord One thousand seven hundred & thirty-one and continue to make the Quantities and Species of paper before Enumerated in the aforesaid Two Years, and that they make or cause to be made within the space of Twelve Months, from and after the said Tenth of December 1731. Five hundred Rheam of good Merchantable Writing and Printing Paper, One One nf the Proprietors of the First Massachusetts Paper-Mill. Reproduced from Oliver A. Roberts' History of the Military Co. of the Massachusetts. 20 OTHER MILLS OF THE COLONIES hundred and fifty Rheam thereof at least to be Writ- ing Paper, and continue to make the like Quantity of Five hundred Rheam, as aforesaid, every Year, for and during the remaining part of the said Ten Years ; and if any person or persons shall make any Paper within this Province, without leave first had and ob- tained from the said Daniel Henchman, Gillam Phil- lips, Benjamin Faneuil, Thomas Hancock and Henry Dering, he or they so making the same shall pay Twenty Shillings for every Rheam of Paper Manu- factured in this Province, as aforesaid ; One half of the said Twenty Shillings to be to and for the Under- takers Daniel Henchman, Gillam Phillips, Benjamin Faneuil, Thomas Hancock and Henry Dering, and their Associates; the other half to the use of the Poor of the Town where the Paper shall be exposed to Sale, or brought and found, to be recovered by the said Undertakers, by Bill, Plaint or Information in any of His Majesties Courts of Record within the County, where the offence shall be committed, or be- fore any Justice of the Peace in the same County, where the forfeiture shall not exceed Forty Shil- lings." 22 This company of paper-makers, who thus initiated the business in the Massachusetts colony, was a sort of family affair. Daniel Henchman, the senior promoter, was a rich man, a book-binder, publisher and bookseller of Boston, and Thomas Hancock was his son-in-law. Hancock was also a bookseller and a stationer, becom- ing one of Boston's wealthiest merchants; and he was the uncle of the more famous John Hancock of the revo- lution period. Benjamin Faneuil was the father of the celebrated Peter Faneuil. Gillam Phillips was a son- in-law of the elder Faneuil. Henry Dering was the superintendent and agent. More than twenty years before, a mill with raceway had been built on the Milton side of the Neponset river, seven or eight miles from Boston. This was now leased by Henchman and his associates who also erected a house for their workmen, the upper story of which was left as an 22 Chapter XV of the Acts and Laws passed by the Great and General Court in 1728. Acts and Resolves of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, II., p. 518. 21 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES open loft for drying the paper by exposure to the air. The business was slow in being fully started. From the be- ginning difficulty was experienced in securing capable workmen and work was carried on only in a small and rather desultory way for several years. In 1731 Hench- man exhibited to the great and general court in Boston a sample sheet of paper made there, but the mill was prob- ably productive before that date. Soon it became such a local institution that it was alluded to in the letters and the newspapers of the time. One Boston newspaper in 1733 made incidental reference to it in a rhymed advertisement. Thomas Hancock. Part Proprietor of the First Paper-Mill in Massachusetts. From an engraving after the Copley portrait in Memorial Hall, Harvard University. 22 OTHER MILLS OF THE COLONIES "In Milton, near the Paper Mill, A new built house to rent: Ask of the Printer and you will Know further to content." Henchman first employed Henry Woodman, an English- man, as foreman. After a few years of unsuccess, Dering and Woodman retired. Jeremiah Smith was then engaged to take charge and finally he became the sole owner, pur- chasing the leased mill and adjoining land in 1741. To assist him he procured Abijah Smith, an American paper- maker, and as foreman John Hazleton, an Englishman. Hazleton was a soldier in one of the British regiments stationed in Boston, and a furlough was granted him to work in the mill, so much was the need of encouraging the manufacture of paper. Shortly, however, when his regi- ment was ordered to service in Canada, he rejoined the colors, and was among those who met death on the plains of Abraham. Smith continued in the mill until he was an old man, and associated with him in his later years was his son-in-law, James Boies, and Richard Clarke, an ex- perienced paper-maker from New York, who was said to have a superior knowledge of the business and was able to make his own moulds. 23 In December, 1763, James Boies — or Boyce, as the name was often spelled — and Richard Clarke petitioned the great and general court of Massachusetts, reciting their work in making paper, and employing people "in picking up Raggs and Ropes of which the Paper is made" and ask- ing "a Bounty for their encouragement of this Mystery." Upon this petition the legislative body took action as fol- lows: "And as the Paper Mills upon the milton Stream have been very advantageous to the Province but are now in a ruinous Condition ; therefore in order to their being repaired "Resolved That the Treasurer be directed to pay into the hands of the Petitioners the Sum of Four ™E. B. Crane: Early Paper Mills in Massachusetts: in Collec- tions of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, VII., p. 115. William Goold :_ Early Papcrmills of New England; in The Neiv England Historic-Genealogical Register, XXIX., p. 158. 23 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES hundred pounds, taking their Obligation without In- terest with Sufficient Security for the repayment thereof." 24 A second mill was built by Boies and he was joined by Clarke, the two being in partnership in this enterprise for several years. The second mill was burned in 1768, but was promptly rebuilt. A third mill was owned in 1771 by Boies and Hugh McLean, his son-in-law. In 1773, George Clarke, son of Richard Clarke, added a fourth mill to this group which had thus expanded in fifty years. The Boies & McLean mill was burned in 1782. Others identified with the mill before the end of the cen- tury were Daniel Vose, who married a daughter of Jere- miah Smith, and Jeremiah Smith Boies, son of James Boies. In 1795 Jeremiah Smith Boies erected another building for the purpose of making paper, chocolate and starch. He employed, as foreman, Mark Hollingsworth from New Jersey, and that introduced into this locality the family of great paper-manufacturers of that name. 25 These early paper-manufacturers were men of more than ordinary note in their day. Jeremiah Smith was a native of Ireland, coming to Boston in 1726. He was an intimate friend of Governor Thomas Hutchinson and socially prominent. James Boies, who was also an Irish- man, born in 1702, lived in Milton until his death in 1796, at the advanced age of ninety-six. He served with General Wolfe in the battle on the plains of Abra- ham before Quebec, in 1759, and during the revolu- tion was a trusted adviser of the patriots in Dorchester, Mass. He took an active part in constructing, during the night of March 4, 1775, the fortifications on Dorchester Heights which compelled the evacuation of Boston by the British troops. Hugh McLean, born in Ireland in 1724, died in Milton at the age of seventy-five. 2 " Soon after 1730, Samuel Waldo and Thomas West- 24 Acts and Resolves of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, XVII, p. 443. 25 Albert K. Teele : The History of Milton, Mass., p. 371. 25 Journal of The American-Irish Historical Society, VI, p. 79 and VII, p. 86. 24 OTHER MILLS OF THE COLONIES brook planned to build a mill in Falmouth, Me., and Rich- ard Fry, a paper-maker from England, was associated with them in the enterprise, possibly being the original pro- moter. Information regarding the affair is derived chiefly from papers in the court files of Suffolk county, Mass. In 1739 Fry was confined in jail in Boston, on account of a debtor judgment of £70 sterling obtained against him by Waldo and Westbrook in the superior court sitting in Samuel Waldo. Principal Proprietor of the First Paper-Mil] in Maine. Reproduced from an engraving after the oil painting in Bowdoin College. 25 PAPER MANUF ACTURING in the UNITED STATES York, Me. From the jail, on June 22, he petitioned Gov- ernor Jonathan Belcher and the council and house of rep- resentatives of the province of the Massachusetts Bay for relief, averring that : "Your petitioner indented with Mr. Samuel Waldo in the year 1731 in London, to have built, within ten months after my arrival in New England, a paper mill. Your petioner arrived in New England in the year 1731 and waited four years wholy at his own ex- pense, till such time as the said mills were built. Your petioner willing to promote the good of his country, drew a plan for sundry sorts of mills to be built, which was across Presumscot river in Falmouth ; which scheme the said Waldo and Westbrook came into and built the said mills. And your petitioner sent for one Mr. John Collier from England, which took the lease of the said mills at two hundred pounds sterling per annum for twenty one years. Your petitioner was to pay sixty-four pounds sterling per ann. for twenty- one years for the papermills." Fry sought leave to bring a writ of review of his case to be tried in Suffolk county, and also to have a grant of land to recompense him for his expenses in leaving England and for his work in the province. The council was not at all impressed by his claim and his petition was dismissed. Although the petition says that the mills were "across the Presumscot river" other papers in the Suffolk county court files show that it was built on the banks of the Stroudwater river, a small stream near the Westbrook residence, Harrow House, in the outskirts of Falmouth, afterwards Portland, Me. A note about it is in the diary of the Reverend Thomas Smith, minister in Falmouth, under date of September 5, 1733. "We all rode in the Colonel's new road to see where the paper-mill is to be set." 27 Beyond the statement in the Fry petition, contradicted by court papers, as has been pointed out, no trace has been found of a mill on the Presumpscot. That on the Stroud- water was operated for some years. Workmen from Eng- 27 William Willis : Journals of the Rev. Thomas Smith and the Rev. Samuel Deane, p. 79. 26 OTHER MILLS OF THE COLONIES land were employed and it is said that, at one time, they destroyed the machinery, being dissatisfied with the low wages paid them. Waldo and Westbrook could manu- facture only by arrangement with Daniel Henchman and his associates of Boston whose charter gave them exclusive rights in Massachusetts Bay, of which province the Maine territory was then part ; and their only market was Bos- ton. The mill was finally burned but remains of the dam and foundations of the building existed as late as 1875. 28 According to the papers in the suit against him, Fry had an active part in the operation of the mill. Waldo and Westbrook leased the mill to him, in 1734, for a term of twenty-one years at an annual rental of £40 sterling, pay- able quarterly, and they also agreed to build and lease a house for him to live in and "to lease to him the saw-mill that stood by the same dam if that should interfere with water needed for the paper-mill. Fry occupied the prop- erty until December 25, 1736, but failed to pay his rent. He delivered to his landlords fifty reams of paper valued at £10. That was credited to him on the account for un- paid rent and it was for the balance that suit was brought and judgment obtained which held him in jail for several years. 29 After leaving Maine Fry was in business in Bos- ton as this advertisement shows : "This is to give notice, That Richard Fry, Sta- tioner, Bookseller, Paper-Maker & Rag Merchant from the City of London, keeps at Mr. Tho. Fleet/, Printer, at the Heart & Crown in Cornhill, Boston ; where said Fry is ready to accommodate all Gentle- men, Merchants and Tradesmen, I return the Publick Thanks for following the Direction of my former Advertisement for gathering Rags, and hope they will still continue the like method, having re- ceived upwards of Seven Thousand Weight al- ready"™ 28 William Goold : Early Papermills in New England; in The New England Historic-Genealogical Register, XXIX., pp. 159-163. 29 Andrew McFarland Davis: Introduction to Richard Fry's A Scheme for a Paper Currency; in Club for Colonial Reprints, Providence, R. I. 80 The Weekly Rehearsal, May 1, 1732. The New England Weekly Journal, April 24, 1732. 27 PAPER MANUF ACTURING in the UNITED STATES Again in 1734 Fry specially advertised his connection with this mill, mentioning- his interest in it three years before, that is in 1731. "It is now almost Three Years, since I Published an Advertisement, to shew you the excellent Economy of the Dutch, in the Paper Manufactory, in order to induce you to follow so laudable an Example; but I am sorry to say, I have had but small Effects of as yet : When Gentlemen have been at great Expense to serve the Public, as well as their own private In- terest, it is the Duty of every Person, as much as in them lies, to help forward so useful a Manufactory; Therefore I intreat all those that are Lovers of their Country, to be very careful of their Linncn Rags, and send them to Joseph Stocker in Spring Lane, Boston, and they shall receive ready Money for the same." 31 It has been suggested that Fry may have been also in- terested in the paper-mill in Milton, Mass., but no evi- dence of such connection exists. More likely, as a shrewd wide-awake business man — for such he appears to have been — he was doing his best to get a corner on the few rags in the community, so as to sell again to the needy mills in Maine and Massachusetts. Fry was a picturesque figure in the business life of Boston. He was a litigious individual, and the court records of Suffolk county are laden with cases in which he was plaintiff or defendant. While in jail he evolved a scheme for a paper currency that he submitted to the provincial government only to have it declined, but ultimately to become a treasured rare Americana of later generations. He died in 1745. His widow, Martha Fry, of Boston, took out papers of ad- ministration on his estate, describing herself as a "paper- maker," which would indicate that he may have main- tained some connection with the business until his death. Samuel Waldo was a Boston man of wealth, prominence and influence, much of his wealth being in real estate. He removed to Falmouth and in the western part of Maine acquired possession of the great "Waldo patent," a tract of land of fully five-hundred thousand acres. Easily he was the foremost man of his time in that section. According to 81 The Boston Ncws-Lcttcr, October 17, and November 8, 1734. 28 OTHER MILLS OF THE COLONIES one of his biographers he was ambitious, avaricious and unscrupulous, and if the judgment of some of his con- temporaries was correct, he did not permit friendship or other considerations to interfere over-much with any measures that he planned for advancement or acquisition. In the Louisburg expedition, in 1745, he was a brigadier- general, second in command of the Masaschusetts troops. Thomas Westbrook was a farmer and an owner of real estate. He was associated with Waldo in land speculation in which he was ruined, and he died broken-hearted, by reason of, it is said, the perfidy of his business associate. The fourth Pennsylvania mill, which followed the Rit- tenhouse by forty-six years and the Willcox by seven or more years, was, like others of its predecessors and con- temporaries, principally a printer's mill. This was Die Papier-Muhle der Bruderschaft zu Ephrata, built at Ephrata, Lancaster county, on the banks of the Cocalico creek. Ephrata was a communistic and ascetic settlement of a branch of the Pietists of Germany who came to Penn- sylvania early in the eighteenth century. The members of the community lived in a kloster or convent under monastic rules of celibacy and austerity. They set up several establishments such as grist mills and saw mills and soon the community became a great industrial center. A grist mill was built about 1736 and a paper-mill soon after. At first the Eckerling brothers were in charge of the mill, but after they had been expelled from the community be- cause it was feared that they were becoming too material- istic and practical, the work was directed by Samuel Funk and Jacob Funk, both experienced paper-makers. The principal product of the mill was a coarse printing- paper and what was known as "macalatur," though some finer kinds of writing and printing were made. Ordinary grades of printing were made upon plain sieves without water-mark, but other grades were water-marked. The wire sieves were a domestic product from Isaac Langlc, of Germantown, who died in 1743. It was claimed, at one time, that this mill was turning out more paper than any other similar establishment in the colonies. References in the Chronicon Ephretense show that the mill was work- 29 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES ing as late as 1784. In the diary of Brother Kenon — Jacob Funk — is an entry that on September 1, 1784, "between 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning the new building was set on fire but luckily the fire was extinguished." Ephrata paper was variously water-marked. An early mark was a large design rudely made, "adopted by the Water-Mark of the Paper of the Ephrata Mills of the Zionitic Brother- hood, made about 1740. Water-Mark of the Eph- rata Mills' Paper Used in the Saur German Bible, 1743. Zionitic brotherhood and intended for the distinctly mystical publications" of Ephrata. Its conspicuous feature was a Latin cross surmounted by a scroll on which was graven the word "Zion." Extending from the top of the upright to the ends of the arm of the cross were two keys, these referring to The Keys of Solomon, a mystical book of the seventeenth century held in high esteem by the brotherhood. The foot of the cross rested upon a panel upon which was the word "Efrata" and the whole design was surrounded, as in a frame, by an ornamental scroll. This mark is seen on the paper of a book printed at Ephrata before 1745. After the Eckerling period other marks were used particularly indicating the management of the mill by the Funk brothers. One of these, on the fly leaf of a Saur Bible, was the figure 4 — the mystical perfect number — and the initials R F — the private mark of the Funk family. Another mark on the paper of some of the publications of the society was F B, standing for Brother 30 OTHER MILLS OF THE COLONIES Funk. Then there was a post horn in heart shape with E F, standing for Efrata, in the center; the letters E F on fine writing paper ; and sometimes the full name Efrata in letters nearly an inch tall. 3 - Other early Philadelphia paper-makers, though more celebrated as printers, were Christopher Saur — Sower in English — and Christopher, his son. Saur was a German, a university graduate, educated in medicine and with busi- ness experience. He came to America in 1724 and settled in Germantown, where he was a farmer and established various branches of manufacturing. He set up a print- ing press in 1738 and was one of leading printers in the colonies. His paper-mill, built in 1744, or before, was located on a branch of the Frankford river, near the falls of the Schuylkill, not far from what is now Manayunk. The needs of his printing impelled him to try the paper- making business. He printed many books, the most famous of which was the German Bible known by his name, the second Bible printed in America, as is shown by the imprint "Germantown Printed by Christoph Saur 1 743 "33 s ome f ti le p a p er f or this Bible, perhaps indeed all, came from the mill in Ephrata, but it is possible that the Saur mill may have supplied a portion of the stock. In the prospectus for this Bible, sent out in 1739, Saur apologized for the seeming high price asked for it — four- teen shillings — saying that the paper he should use cost at least four times as much as like paper cost in Germany. Upon his death in 1758, Saur bequeathed the mill and its appurtenances and other property to his son Christopher, who became one of the foremost Pennsylvania men of his day in wealth and in business activity and success. He had a large printing business and "employed two or more mills in manufacturing paper." 34 But during the revolu- tion trouble befell him and when he died, in 1784, he was a poor and broken man. On religious principle a non- resistant, as his father had been before him, he would not M J. F. Sackse : The Ephrata Paper Mill. In Papers of Lancaster County [Perm.] Historical Society, I., p. 323-345. M Isaiah Thomas : The History of Printing in America, I., p. 24. 84 Henry Simpson : Lives of Eminent Philadelphians (1859), p. 906. 31 < n £ 05 w w Pw & M „ O > U B H t> 1* u »-! « « H w H to < o U < J H < g H ri £ M n Ph 1-1 W & PQ « o w o M w H « w 03 a i — i H J PQ g OTHER MILLS OF THE COLONIES participate in the colonial uprising against the British rule, while one of his sons was suspected of being in full sym- pathy with the British authorities in Philadelphia. Ac- cused of toryism he was placed under arrest in 1778, and, in August of that year, all his property was confiscated and sold, the sale amounting to £17,640. 35 A Philadelphia historian gives an account of the con- fiscation and sale of forfeited estates of accused tories in December, 1779, by the government confiscation agent and quotes this entry among the records of such sales : "Chris- topher Saur, house, paper-mill, saw-mill, mill-dam, etc., Wissahickon road, Roxborough, sold to Jacob Morgan, Jr., for £5,150." 36 It appears that Virginia had a paper-mill in 1744, the first in that colony. William Parks built it in Williams- burg to feed his printing presses. Parks was the first edi- tor and newspaper publisher in Virginia. He came from England and established The Maryland Gazette at Annap- olis in 1727, continuing there for eight years. Then, by invitation of the college authorities in Williamsburg, Va., he removed to that place, opened a book-store, set up a printing-press and established, in 1736, The Virginia Ga- zette. Concerning this mill the Virginia historian, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, has written in his Williamsburg, the Old Colonial Capital: "In 1744 William Parks erected a paper-mill on a branch of Archer's Hope Creek behind the present hospital for the insane, and some verses were printed in The Virginia Gazette to celebrate the enterprise of the editor." The versified tribute from a friendly contributor, to which Tyler referred, was printed in the issue of the Gazette for July 26, 1744, and in it, the writer joined praise of paper with the plea for rags, customary to the period. As reprinted in the Virginia Magazine of History and Bi- ography, April, 1900, it was as follows : 35 Charles G. Sower : Genealogical Chart of the Descendants of Christopher Sower. 36 J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott : History of Phila- delphia, I., p. 397. 33 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES THE PAPER MILL. Inscrib'd to Mr. Parks. In nova, fert Ammis, mutates dicere formas, Corpora. Ovid, Tho' sage Philosophers have said, Of nothing, can be nothing made; Yet much thy Mill, O Parks brings forth From what we reckon nothing worth. Hail kind Machine! — The Muse shall praise Thy Labours, that receive her Lays. Soon as the Learn'd denounce the War From pratling Box, or wrangling Bar, Straight, Pen and Paper range the Fight; They meet, they close, in Black & White The Substances of what we think, Tho' born in Thought, must live in Ink. Whilst willing Mem'ry lends her Aid, She finds herself by Time betrayed. Nor can thy Name, Dear Molly, live Without those Helps the Mill must give ; The Sheet now hastens to declare, How lovely thou, and — my Despair. Unwitting Youths, whose Eyes or Breast, Involve in Sighs, and spoil of Rest; Unskill'd to say their piteous Case, But miss the Girl for want of Brass, May paint their Anguish on the Sheet ; For Paper cannot blush, I weet. And Phillis (for Bissextile Year Does only once in Four appear, When Maids, in dread to lie alone Have Leave to bid the men come on), Each Day may write to lure the Youth She longs to wed, or fool, or — both. Ye Brave, whose Deeds shall vie with Time, Whilst Mill can turn, or Poet rhime Your Tatters hoard for future Quires ; So Need demands, so Parks desires. (And long that gen'rous Patriot live Who for soft Rags, hard Cash will give!) The Shirt, Cravat, the Cap, again Shall meet your Hands, with Mails from Spain; The Surplice, which, when whole or new, With Pride the Sexton's Wife could view, Tho' worn by Time and gone to rack, It quits its Rev'rend Master's Back ; The same again the Priest may see Bound up in Sacred Liturgy. 34 OTHER MILLS OF THE COLONIES Ye Fair, renown'd in Cupid's Field, Who fain would tell what Hearts you've killed ; Each Shift decay'd, lay by with care ; Or Apron rubb'd to bits at — Pray'r, One Shift ten Sonnets may contain, To gild your Charms, and make you vain ; One Cap, a Billet-doux may shape, As full of Whim, as when a Cap, And modest 'Kerchiefs Sacred held May sing the Breasts they once conceal 'd. Nice Delia's Smock, which, neat and whole, No Man durst finger for his Soul ; Turn'd to Gazette, now all the Town, May take it up, or smooth it down. Whilst Delia may with it dispence, And no Affront to Innocence. The Bards, besure, their Aids will lend ; The Printer is the Poet's Friend ; Both cram the News and stuff the Mills, For Bards have Rags, and — little else. Your humble Servant, /. Dumbleton. Tyler, in his Williamsburg, also states that it is believed the mill was in use as late as 1770. In a report made to the London Lords of Trade, relative to the affairs of the colony at this time — printed in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography for 1896 — Governor William Gooch recorded the fact that "We have likewise a Paper- Mill." There seems to have been no other contemporary evi- dence of the existence of this mill. Parks died in 1750 on the ocean, returning to England. His will, which was probated in Yorktown, Va., June 18 of that year, has no reference to any mill owned by him at that time. His estate was valued at £ 6,211 15s. 9d. Connecticut had no paper-mill until after the middle of the century. Christopher Lefflngwell erected a mill upon the banks of the Yantic river in Norwich in 1776 and there made all kinds of paper, printing, writing, wrapping, car- tridge and sheathing. The quantity annually produced has been estimated at one thousand three hundred reams, and the prices commanded varied from 4s 6d to 45s per ream. Ten or twelve hands were employed. The mill 35 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES was an object of great interest in the community. A private letter, written in October, 1767, said of it: "The Paper-mill at Norwich is plentifully supplied with rags, and has full demand for its paper. Mr. Throop tells me that he had viewed it when at work ; that it is a curiosity ; that they mould and make ready for the Press about ten sheets per minute by the watch." 37 Although admittedly the mill was erected to meet a pressing eco- nomic necessity of the community it was not financially successful in the beginning and gov- ernment aid was asked for to keep it going as an undertaking of public importance. In May, 1769, the general assem- bly of the colony grant- ed to Leffingwell an annual bounty of "two pence the quire on all good writing paper, and one penny the quire on all printing and coarser paper" that should be manufactured by him. 38 In 1772 the assembly resolved "that the . pay- ment of said bounty be discontinued for the future, and said grant is hereby repealed." The bounty paid to Leffing- "' Frances M. Caulkins : History of Norwich, Connecticut, p. 607. 38 The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, XIII., pp. 212 and 580. 36 Christopher Leffingwell. Reproduced by permission from Mary E. Perkins' Old Houses of the Antient Town of Nonuich, Conn. OTHER MILLS OF THE COLONIES well amounted to £81, \6s, Sd. In 1775 the edition of The Connecticut Gazette containing an account of the battle of Lexington and Concord was printed on paper from this mill. In the following year Leffingwell had his son-in-law, Thomas Hubbard, associated with him and the mill in the hands of Hubbard and his descendants continued in opera- tion far into the next century. Nearly fifty years elapsed from the time when Bradford essayed to start a mill in New York before the first in that colony was eventually established. This was on Long Island under the encouragement of another printer, Hugh Gaine, who was scarcely less distinguished in his calling than Bradford had been. It was built in Hempstead, on the shore of Hempstead bay, about 1768, by Hendrick Onderdonk and Henry Remsen. "The first grist mill on this part of the island, it is believed, was erected here about a century since [1743] by Henrick Onderdonk, and he and his son Andrew afterwards built a paper mill also, which was, it is presumed, the first established in this state. Hugh Gaine, a noted printer and bookseller in the city, was connected with these gentlemen in the manufactory of paper, which has been continued at this place ever since. 6 Writing from New York, under date of May 7, 1768, to Lord Hillsborough, of the London Board of Trade, concerning manufactures in the colony, Governor Henry Moore said that he would "be particularly attentive to any new Establishments of which we have no instances since my last letter, except in the paper-mill begun to be erected within these few days, at a small distance from the Town.'' 40 Probably this reference was to the Hempstead mill although the date does not quite agree with the ap- proximate date assumed by the historian Thompson. In the provincial convention of Maryland, May 25, 1776, James Dorsett came forwaid with a proposition to build a paper-mill. Dorsett was a member of the convention and that body promptly took action as follows : Benjamin F. Thompson: The History of Long Island, I., p. 58. The Documentary History of the State of New York, I., p. 736. 37 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES "Resolved, That the sum of four hundred Pounds, common money be advanced to James Dorsett, of Baltimore County, he giving bond with sufficient se- curity to repay the same within two years, without interest, either in cash or Writing or Cartridge Paper, or in such proportions of each as this or a future Convention, or Council of Safety in their recess, shall direct and order ; that is to say : one-third part thereof within twelve months, and the other two-thirds within the date of said bond ; he at the same time engaging to build a Mill for that purpose within six months from the date of his said contract; and to sell to the inhabitants of this Province any kind of paper which he may make as cheap as the same can or shall be sold at any Mill in the Province of Pennsylvania." Confirming this resolution of the convention the Mary- land Council of Safety, June 5, 1776, ordered that the treasurer of the Western-Shore should "pay to Mr. James Dorsett £400, like [common] money, to enable him to erect a Paper-Mill." 41 An early attempt was made to begin paper-making in North Carolina. The German Moravians who originally settled in that state established several industries there before they moved north into Pennsylvania. Among these was a paper-mill which was started in Salem, as early as 1766, according to some authorities. More than half a century later this mill was still in existence ; as a North Carolina historian recorded it: "In the neighborhood of the town are several mills built in the Middle or Bushy fork and other small branches, as paper &c." 42 This one lone mill was quite incapable of meeting public needs in that part of the country, as is revealed in the correspondence of that time, private and official. When the colonial congress of North Carolina met in Hillsbor- ough, in September, 1775, the state of the manufactures of the colony was seriously considered and action taken 41 Peter Force: American Archives, 4th Series, V., p. 1600 and VI.. p. 1467. Archives of Maryland, II., p. 465. "Francois Xavier Martin: The History of North Carolina, I., appendix, p. liii. 38 OTHER MILLS OF THE COLONIES to encourage them. To the end that a paper-mill might be secured it was resolved : "That a premium of two hundred and fifty pounds be given to the first person who shall erect and build a mill for manufacturing of Brown, whited Brown, and good writing paper, and which mill shall be actu- ally set to work, and thirty Reams of Brown, thirty Reams of whited Brown, and thirty reams of writing paper, at least be produced to the provincial Council, and approved of by the said Council within eighteen months from this time ; the .Brown paper to be of equal goodness to Brown paper imported from Great Britain of the price of two Shillings and sixpence Sterling per Ream, the whited Brown equal in good- ness to whited Brown paper imported of the price of three Shillings Stirling per Ream, and writing paper equal in goodness as aforesaid to Eight Shillings Sterling per Ream." 48 It was not until more than two years later that there was any response to that appeal, as far as the records indi- cate. In December, 1777, John Holgan, of Orange county, appeared before the congress and secured favorable action upon his petition that the premium should be paid to him if he should be able to produce the paper as required within eight months. In August of the next year Holgan again appeared and, saying that he had erected a mill but had been unable to make the full quantity of paper on ac- count of the lack of water, secured an extension of time of six months. Further evidence of the existence of this mill is in an advertisement "for rags for the Paper Mill just erected near Hillsborough in Orange County," printed in the North Carolina Gazette, November 14, 1777. 4 * The provincial congress of South Carolina, in session in November, 1775, considered the subject of the encour- agement of manufacturing in the colony, especially salt- petre, sulphur, bar-iron and steel, nail rods, gun locks, paper, lead and linens. Among other resolutions one was passed : "That a premium of five hundred Pounds cur- 43 William L. Saunders : Colonial Records of North Carolina, X., p. 217. 44 Walter Clark : State Records of North Carolina, XT., p. 804, XII., pp. 413, 417, 812, 875. 39 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES rency be given to the person who shall first erect and es- tablish a proper Paper Mill in this Colony, upon produc- ing three reams of good writing paper, manufactured thereat." Probably in response to this appeal, William Bellamy appeared before the congress, March 22, 1776, and presented a proposal for erecting "a proper Mill, for making Paper, and cutting Files at the same time," and the congress, favorably considering the proposition, voted : "That the sum of three thousand Pounds, currency be advanced to the said William Bellamy, out of the Colony Treasury, on loan, for the term of five years, free of interest, in consideration, and for the express purpose of his forthwith erecting a proper Mill for making Paper and cutting Files, in as great perfec- tion as in any part of Europe; he, the said Bellamy, giving undeniable security . . . for the perform- ance thereof, and for repayment of the said sum." 45 45 Peter Force: American Archives, 4th Series, IV., p. 72. V., pp. 598 and 606. 40 CHAPTER THREE A PAPER POVERTY Mills of the Colonial Period were Few in Number and Poorly Equipped — Importations were Slow and Scant — Newspapers Resorted to Curious Make-shifts — Extraordinary Scarcity During the Revolution — Legislative Action to Encour- age Manufacturing and Conserve Supply OAPER-MAKING did not keep pace with paper- -*• using. Despite the starting of a few mills the scarcity of paper was more and more decidedly felt in all parts of the country from 1700 on. Public needs steadily increased with the growth of population and the resultant social, industrial and commercial expansion and this in- creased need was quite in excess of the ability of the market, domestic or foreign, adequately to meet. Partly this was owing to the financial insufficiency of the mass of the people and partly to the difficulties attending the estab- lishment of a new industry where there was a dearth of the indispensable raw materials. Much, however, was fairly chargeable to the studied and persistent opposition of the mother country, though, in this particular, the situ- ation was not peculiar to paper ; it prevailed in the case of nearly all manufactured necessities. In connection herewith there is no call to dwell at length upon the familiar history of the colonial period. As soon as there were indications that manufacturing industries were likely to develop in the colonies the jealousy of the British manufacturers was aroused, for they had always regarded America as altogether an exclusive market for their goods. The British government, acutely responsive 41 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES to such argument, and also alive to the political importance of deriving revenue from the colonies and at the same time keeping them under control, discouraged and in every way endeavored to prevent the establishment of manufacturing enterprises that might be expected adversely to affect the interests of the mother country. As regards paper a single instance will suffice to illus- trate this watchfulness. In 1732 and 1733 the subject of the pernicious industrial activity of the colonies was brought up in parliament and the lords' commissioners for trade and plantations were commanded, June 15, 1733, to investigate, and to prepare "an account of the Laws made, Manufactures set up, and Trade carried on, in any of His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations in America which may have affected the Trade, Navigation, and Manufacturers of this Kingdom." The report made by the commissioners stated, among other things, that: "In the Massachusetts Bay, an Act passed in the Year 1728, intituled, An Act for the Encouragement of Making Paper. This Manufacture . . . has hitherto made but a small Progress, and can hardly be said, in a strict Sense, to interfere with our own Paper, because almost all the Paper sent to New Eng- land is foreign Manufacture ; but it certainly inter- feres with the Profit made by our British Merchants upon the foreign Paper sent to this Province. How- ever no Complaint has ever been made to Us against this Law." "Mr. Belcher, the present Governor of this Province [Massachusetts Bay] . . . acquainted us . . . That about Three Years ago a Paper Mill was set up, which makes to the Value of about Two hundred pounds Sterling per annum. And he hath since in- formed us that there hath lately been a new Paper Mill set up at Falmouth in Casco Bay, which at that Time [1731] had not begun to work for want of Materials." 48 " The Belcher Papers: In Collections of the Massachusetts His- torical Society, Sixth Series, VI., pp. 68, 70 and 489. David Mac- pherson : Annals of Commerce, III., p. 186. Representation of the Board of Trade, relating to the Laws made, &c. in His Majesty's Plantations in America to the House of Lords, January 23, 1734. pp. 5 and 12. 42 A PAPER POVERTY The mills referred to were that in Milton, Massachu- setts, and that of Waldo and Westbrook in Maine. Notwithstanding all efforts to repress domestic indus- tries and to hold colonial trade at the command of the British manufacturers and shippers, importations were not easy nor voluminous and most imported goods were costly. This was particularly true of paper. England, still be- hind in this branch of manufacturing, could in no wise supply the colonial market which continued to be starved ; for the domestic mills that had sprung up were as yet so few in number and so limited in capacity that they were far from being able to make up the deficiency. Then came the stamp act of 1765, and, in 1767, the Townshend measures placing import duties upon glass, paper, pasteboard, lead, painters' colors and tea. Ulti- mately this legislation was beneficial since it provoked the industrial and political revolt that led to independence. For the moment however it only served to intensify feeling against trade restrictions and to aggravate the economic situation. The non-importation and non-intercourse agree- ments of the colonists gave added impulse to native enter- prise, but it was years before industrial stringency could be brought to an end, in paper as in all else. Many makeshifts were resorted to in meeting difficulties that arose from this shortage of paper. Newspapers par- ticularly were great sufferers for they were the largest consumers, and evidence of the straits into which they were forced has been fully preserved in them. In some instances the regular weekly issues were omitted because there was no paper. Frequently they were printed upon paper of diverse sizes, colors and qualities, whatever the worried printer might be able to find. Often curious typographical vagaries were compelled by the necessity of economizing. Printed matter was squeezed in on the margins, outside the usual width of the printed page, sometimes in narrower column measure than in the body of the paper. 47 The New York Mercury, 9 The Boston News-Letter, May 29, 1760. The New York Mer- cury, July 30, December 3 and December 31, 1764; February 18, March 4, and May 20, 1765. 43 For Sale, at Curler's Vtadue-Roorr), Tin* Day, Check Lutfli, Sheeting, Inih Lisvana, Broad Clotht.Foreftdo. < i >»Je», leant, F turiani, Meat end W«n»« Si'i -', do. NijlU- Clflj Show, Boott, Fell, CaaW »ad Be*»*r H»i, GoW laced, do. 4tc. Ami on TtK&tjF, I* titt Gfxrego-Markce, a quantity o* damaged Goods. damIgedgoods. TO-Mort -o» »«I b« fold a* the Merchant '» Coffee- Bon*, 1> o'Ciock, • Qwaotitr of tUraiMd Sail Dock, Mo. I, a, and j. and Check Linen, Alfe «»ew Ba«« of Hard Soap. TO-MORROW, AT j o'clock in the Alttfnooo, will be IbW k Vendue, the Houfe an >>r to pr, Bard'i » tit a >*iy Commodity, Lot, and the Psnirntiuna large, being 5< Feet >« length on both Sides j and in Pi-oat and Rear ax F«i, Botch »»»» X«» »xr«»»tV« »» » «« »x t» »« « »< «» * *:,»<•<* ! ®o be testa, at paMfr vBtniwf > y// P«»V/\ Pergereaut Pmdue- Store, AT the Hou* of WtUnm Hawtkra*, opfwtjt* '8«rlinr'<- Stlp, oo Trmr««y the atft Itift. t»<> MEM JapptuTd Cafe Eigbt-Day Clock,, aCtoc* wttiwiBa'Ca*, atSUvtr Tankard, Tea-Pot, Sugar-Box, and Spoooa, — And every Bay teejpoled tor Sale, at laid Store, ttfcf rwHomng ©God,, *t*,. Scarier CAoakx, feme Reoionnhl «t te». iiaiWMvi, Plot*, Jap- pa»"d Waittra, Do. 8i > iticoata, Glafa Lanthnrn,, Shoo, &c, &c. ■ : . aett, at tot Mercbant'a Coflee-Houft.tbe ) '„« or ifaac txtteueh, to Queen t:rv*t. oppofite the Treafurer't, ' ■Co tt feoto at pttfetit lifn&K, By ISAAC MAN, and JOSEPH FORM AN, ,Oo lot loth Day o* March «?»J, on tile PYnrnlct ( THE Moum-plealattt Forge, « SpniiaSeM, New-Jti fey j con- tilting ot two fciea and one hammer, known by (he name ol irbertrom fctiaaberh- d lying • Work,, eight c tbrge, and about t nd a hart i ,i,a i - ._ be bad l*r a trifle, very handy j i*,id a number < e^hbanrs nave obliged theromve* by wrttinge under their Midi, to turnno ntoodttt n««0wofy««r» i tuffit ] within three S;V< :-■; ;s The *wti of the .i't fiirgt i', allowed by men <*f judgement, to DC a? comnkat There is a ftrong dam, iiftam fii'eain, not liable to tail by drought, e; it ia allh fed hy fpnoge, and confennentl) ,j/d by t'rott, Tliere tstundry d»e:iinr h- Jtack (mitb'a (bop and' y rtcady and itablt to be i eoal-bmrta, Sam, 3 garden, and many other tpremilea. There »id alfo be fold, coait, orfd wood,horfee, . : ., #.,*#»**.#* **»*«**»«; »*•«••«••• •*•«**«• Extraordinary Encouragement, FOR fober, bonctt. Butt ioilvivrKm:. Hr mt-ra, Carpeottra, Mill. Wrighta, Win ' la Coogew, and J>.4t Voiidera « !hePerfbn that drivers the fecond greatefl- Quan- "| l / 2 Reams Brown pa- per at 4/6 By 1 Ream writing paper 1 9 71 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES January 17 By 5 Reams Brown paper . at 4/6 1 2 6 March 6 By 5 Reams Brown paper at 4/6 By 2*/ 2 Reams Printing paper at 7/6 2 13 1730 April 6 By ]/ 2 Ream writing at 14 7 £36 12 3 In Massachusetts, toward the end of the century, the mills usually had two vats and employed ten men and as many boys and girls. The annual product was about seventy thousand reams of writing, printing and wrapping paper. A two- vat mill required a capital of about $10,000 and its capacity of production annually was from two to three thousand reams of all kinds. Printing paper then com- manded a price of from three to three and a half dollars per ream and considerable had to be carried in reserve for customers. The mill in Andover, according to the testi- mony of one of its owners, a year after it had started in 1791, was carrying stock "in paper of different qualities" to the value of "not less than three thousand dollars," also rags and utensils worth "not less than a thousand more," and "credits to the amount of nearly two thousand." This was not a large business even for that time but evidently it was sufficiently complicated to give the owners some cause for worry. In central Massachusetts, in 1777, the price paid for linen or cotton and linen rags was three pence per pound ; in 1778, eight pence ; in 1779, twelve pence, eighteen pence and two shillings; in 1780, three shillings and six shillings and in 1781, ten shillings. A rising market surely. The Troy, N. Y., mill, in 1792 and after, offered three pence per pound for clean white rags and two pence for blue, brown or checked rags. About the same time the pioneer mill in western Pennsylvania was offering four cents per pound for white rags and was selling all the paper that it could produce for one dollar per quire. In 1787 Colonel Nicholas Long requisitioned the governor of North Caro- lina for supplies for his military camp and submitted in his estimate that he should need "specie to purchase 20 72 EQUI PMENT AND RAW MATERIAL Reams Writing Paper £120." 88 In 1780 James Davis, the state printer, presented to the general assembly of North Carolina a memorial reciting the difficulties under which he labored and the losses he sustained in printing for the state. Therein he referred to the "very extraordinary Rise in Paper, that Article now selling at Newbern from Eighty to one Hundred pounds per Ream." This was a war price, but even at that, it seems bigger than it probably was in reality for the pound was not the pound sterling but the colonial pound which in federal currency was about three dollars and thirty-three cents. 89 Wages were considered high, but measured by present- day standards they seem absurdly small. Thomas Hough- ton of the mill in Andover, Mass., wrote to his former home in England, in 1789, saying that he' wished he had some English workmen with him, adding: "The wages is a great inducement; for good ones, used to writing paper in every stage we would give fifteen shillings per week and board, or fifteen shil- lings per week and an addition equal to board." 90 This indicates a weekly wage of about twenty shillings, equal to about five dollars, federal currency at that time. Allowing for the difference in purchasing power of money, then and now, this can scarcely be regarded as a big wage. Trained labor in New England then commanded from three to four shillings per day. Toward the close of the century the industry had suc- ceeded in making considerable advance and was in a fair way to become a very important manufacture, in the num- ber of mills at work, in the quantity and quality of produc- tion, and in an ability more nearly to meet the growing domestic demand. It still labored under difficulties and its shortcomings, especially as compared with its later attain- ments, may not be overlooked. But it had accomplished much in the economic life of the people and had reached a point where it attracted national attention. 88 Walter Clark : State Records of North Carolina, XVI., p. 536. 89 Walter Clark : State Records of North Carolina, XV., p. 223 "Sarah L. Bailey: Historical Sketches of Andover, p. 581. 73 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES Few historians, even among those who have essayed particularly to review the economic and industrial devel- opment of the country, have gone far enough or carefully enough into examination of the records to appreciate the actual facts concerning the state of this industry at the beginning of our national existence. Undiscriminating observers seem to have been content to measure it by its more obvious deficiencies, and there let the case rest with- out proceeding further. A popular American historian, writing of the period about 1784, has said: "Paper was both scarce and expensive. Some few mills had recently been put up in Pennsylvania, but the machinery was rude, the workmen unskilled, the number of reams turned out each month by no means equal to the demand, and the quality of the paper not much better than that at present used for printing hand bills and posters. Bristol board seems not to have been made in the country and so little of it was brought in from abroad that the loss of it was severely felt." 91 The foregoing may be accepted as fairly expressing a common opinion among those who have not cared to in- vestigate the matter fully. It is, however, far from being a complete or accurate presentment. Paper was scarce and expensive, it is true, but, all considered, not relatively more so than other things at the close of the revolution. As usual, war had been destructive in this as in other manufacturing industries and, in general, the paper-mill condition reflected the condition of the country. Demand upon domestic productiveness had been abnormally aug- mented by the cutting off of importations during the war and in the same way raw materials and machinery had been less procurable. Thus from both points domestic productivity had not yet been able wholly to master the situation. But, steadily it was approaching that goal. In the last decade and a half of the century, the mills were not "few . . . recently put up in Pennsylvania." As has been shown in other chapters of this work, several had been successfully working in Pennsylvania, Massa- 81 John Bach McMaster : A History of the People of the United States, I., p. 79. 74 EQUIPMENT AND RAW MATERIAL chusetts and elsewhere for from fifty to one hundred years while a very considerable number of later day — from 1750 on — were firmly established in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Dela- ware and North Carolina. The total annual output cannot be now known but it was not small. Of course the ma- chinery was, in no wise, comparable with that of today. In fact machinery was nearly a negligible quantity, though in that respect the mills were not materially inferior to those elsewhere in the world. Much of it had been imported from Europe, though the war had, for the time being, in- terfered with that source of supply. Workmen were not unskilled. Many of them, especially the master workmen, were fully capable, having learned the trade in England, Germany, Holland or France, while for fifty years mills of the colonies had been educating men and women to the work; even then women were employed. Bristol board probably was not made but absence of it was not "severely felt" for our ancestors had limited need for it. Manifestly absurd to anyone who knows about the paper of that period is the statement that "the quality of the paper [was] not much better than that at present used for printing hand-bills and posters." Some of the paper cer- tainly was not superior; in fact none of it was equal to the best that is now made. But the worst was better than the worst of today and there was little indeed that would suffer in comparison with the medium quality of the twen- tieth century. As has been already noted, rags were apt to be carelessly sorted, pulp was not bleached, machinery was not always efficient and processes were far from per- fect. That, however, the best paper was in many respects very good indeed, examination of newspapers, books, pam- phlets, broadsides and other prints, and of correspondence, account books, and so on gives evidence. Much was lacking in purity and regularity of color; this is more observable in the white or natural color paper than in the blue or brown; in texture and in strength it was generally admirable. Newspapers and books printed in the middle of the eighteenth century and before have endured, in well-nigh perfect condition, for one hundred 75 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES and fifty years or more, despite much handling and lack of care. At most, their pages have merely browned with age. Is it supposable that as much will be said of the printed sheets of 1900 after another one hundred and fifty years ? The anxiety of librarians and book-lovers over the already perishing condition of newspapers and books of the present generation should be sufficient answer to that. Compare a New York newspaper of 1750 with one of 1900 and note the superior enduring quality of the former. Plentiful testimony on this point has been offered. The two references following will suffice. Horatio Gates Jones made an exhaustive study into the history of the Rittenhouse mill. In his report to the His- torical Society of Pennsylvania, May 11, 1863, he dwelt upon the character of paper there produced, adding: "A particular feature in the sketch, and in keeping with the subject, is the fact that the paper on which it is written was made at the first paper mill in America, by the first paper-maker and his son, prior to the year 1699." 92 In an address delivered at the celebration by the New York Historical Society, May 20, 1863, of the two hun- dredth birthday of William Bradford, John William Wal- lace, also referring to the Rittenhouse mills, said : "From this mill came excellent paper as I can testify, to write or print on. What I read you is written on it. I hold you up a sheet of it." Still it must not be assumed that all the paper was of this good quality. Some of it was inferior and especially so in a period long after the first years of the in- dustry. Adulterations had become known and were prac- ticed, though not in all the mills. Some of the paper early in the ninteenth century was not as good as that of a hundred years before. It is said that once, in 1816, a set of Bibles crumbled to pieces two years after printing. For quick perishability that paper was a fair rival of consid- erable that was made seventy or more years later. M The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XX., p. 333. 76 CHAPTER FIVE AFTER THE REVOLUTION Slow Industrial Growth of the Nation — Paper-Mak- ing Still Confined Mostly to Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts — New Mills in Those and Other States — Legislative Encouragement to Manufacturers — First In- ventors — Tariff Measures of the Government IN the two decades and more immediately before inde- pendence from Great Britain had been achieved the American colonies had passed through a very varied experience in their industrial and commercial interests. At one time discouraged and in every conceivable way ham- pered by opposing influences and adverse legislation in the mother country, these interests were ultimately stimulated to a modestly steady and healthful growth by the non- intercourse measures that the political situation developed. Then the war went still further in bringing about a nearly complete commercial severance from Europe, and, to that extent, encouraged the growth of domestic manufactures and shipping. But the war had its disadvantages as well. The parlia- mentary restraints that had immediately preceded the seven years' contest had not been without deleterious results, and in the end the states had been left exhausted in men and in means. There had been none of that fictitious boom and business inflation that has often accompanied war and ultimately encouraged industry. Prosperity did not at once ensue. Large importations set in, and the consequent heavy drains of specie from the country brought financial 77 PAP ER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATE'S distress. Money was scarce and credit fell to a low ebb; the people were poor, generally speaking, and too widely separated from each other to have many common interests or to feel much mutuality in enterprise; labor was scarce and wages were high; the public debt was large and bur- densome, and business suffered under a worthless paper currency. Still the outlook was not wholly dark. During the more than a century and a half of colonial existence the people, already of a mixed European racial origin, had developed what has come to be known as the American character, and by patient toil, sturdy self-reliance and energetic utilization of the natural resources of the country they had succeeded in building up domestic industries to very considerable aggregate value. Some of these industries had even been able to furnish small surpluses for exportation, though most of them were still in the infant state. The best that could be said of them was that they were fairly well estab- lished and gave promise for the future as soon as stable conditions should gradually come into existence. It was upon this foundation that the substantial advancement and expansion of American industry could safely be predicated. Paper-making, as has been shown in the preceding chap- ters, had suffered severely in this period, and it was slower than some other industries in recovering from the post- revolution depression. Many observers were exceedingly sceptical in regard to its immediate future, and the facts of the situation seemed amply to justify their Jeremiah pessimism. A distinguished Frenchman, statesman and political enconomist, traveling in the United States near the end of the century, inspected many mills and wrote concerning them : "Besides the dearness of workmanship, their popu- lation cannot furnish them rags in quantities sufficient to establish paper mills whose productions would be equal to the consumption of the inhabitants. ... In proportion to the knowledge which nations may ac- quire, and to the liberty of the press, which may be enjoyed in America, a prodigious quantity of paper must be consumed there; but can the population of this country produce rags in the same proportion? It 78 AFTER THE REVOLUTION cannot reasonably be hoped that it will. It is there- fore probable that the American markets will not for a long time be provided with any other than European paper, and that this will find a place there." 93 This was a common opinion at that time, and the French writer evidently was influenced in his conclusions by the beliefs of the many practical men of affairs and publicists whom he met here. Certainly that generation did not see much encouragement in the prevailing conditions. It would not be possible, nor even if possible, would it be particularly interesting or profitable, to make a catalogue of all the mills of the first hundred years of American paper-making, especially those of later date than 1750 or 1760. They were sufficiently numerous, all things con- sidered, except during the war, when, as we have seen, they were not capable of supplying the deficiency caused by the interruption of trade with Europe. Broadly speaking, however, they were not strong establishments, either finan- cially or mechanically. Most of them had only ephemeral existence and little or nothing about them has been pre- served in contemporaneous records; their history, slight and unimportant at the best, was long ago buried beneath the dead weeds of forgetfulness. On the other hand, some of them — though these were few in number and begun in a small way — were, in the course of time, developed into substantial and profitable business enterprises enduring, either in themselves or in their actual successors, into far later times. Evidence regarding even the most important of the mills of the last quarter of the century is fragmentary and not wholly reliable. As near as can be ascertained, there were probably not above eighty or ninety mills in the country when the war ended. Soon, however, under the stimulus of increased demand and protecting tariff legislation, a few mills began to spring up slowly, particularly in the middle states. De Warville, writing in 1787, said that he had been informed of sixty-three mills — forty-eight in Pennsylvania 93 J. P. Brissot De Warville : New Travels in the United States of America. London Edition, 1794, II., p. 168. 79 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES and fifteen in Delaware — their annual production being valued at $250,000. At the same time there were mills in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina and elsewhere. In the debate on imports in the national house of representatives, April 17, 1789, Representative Clymer of Pennsylvania stated that, "the paper mills of Pennsylvania were so numerous as to be able to supply a very extensive demand in that and the neighboring States ; they annually produce about 7,000 reams of various kinds, which is sold as cheap as can be imported." 94 Massachusetts had made a considerable progress during the fifty years that had elapsed from the establishment of the first little mill in Milton in 1728-1730. Thomas Hough- ton, part owner of a mill in Andover, Mass., wrote, in the latter part of the century, that there were many mills within twenty and thirty miles of the place where he was located. One authority has said that in 1796 there were three mills in Milton and six, all told, on the Neponset river. Another has said that there were twelve in Massa- chusetts in 1794 and, again, that there were twenty in the state between 1794 and 1796. Of these seven were located on the Charles river, several of which were in Waltham and Newton, and one each in Worcester, Springfield, Andover and Sutton. The annual production of all the mills in the state was valued at about $100,000. A mill that attained to considerable importance in the state at this time was that which was put in operation in 1779 on the banks of the Charles river, in Newton, about eight miles out of Boston. There a dam was built by David Bemis and Enos Sumner, who sold a site to James McDougal of Boston, Michael Carney of the now fam- ous Milton mill and Nathaniel Patten, a paper-maker from Hartford, Conn. ; and they erected a mill which shortly passed into the hands of Bemis, and, after his death in 1790, became the property of his sons, Luke Bemis and Isaac Bemis. The mill was burned in 1792 or 1793, and the owners petitioned the great and general "Joseph Gales: The Debates and Proceedings, of the Congress of the United States (1834), I., p. 167. 80 AFTER THE REVOLUTION court of the state for relief in their distress. The response of the legislative body to this appeal is a good example of the governmental paternalism that largely prevailed in those days. The necessity of extending state financial assistance to private business enterprises, as a war meas- ure, during the revolution just brought to a close, had remained as a public policy of more or less general accept- ance. In June following the destruction of the Bemis mill by fire the great and general court acted favorably upon the petition of the owners : "Representing their great sufferings in the loss of their stock and paper-mills by fire; and in considera- tion of the public advantage to be derived from the encouragement of the manufacture of paper within this Commonwealth : "Resolved, That there be loaned from the Treasury of this Commonwealth the sum of one thousand pounds to the said Luke Bemis and Isaac Bemis, upon their bonds, with good and sufficient security to this Commonwealth, for the repayment of the same sum at the end of five years; and also to be conditioned that the said Luke and Isaac shall rebuild, or cause to be rebuilt, within two years from the making of such loan, suitable paper-mills of at least equal size and extent of the mills lately destroyed by fire, and by themselves or their assigns shall prosecute the manufacture of paper therein." 95 It does not appear that the mill was immediately profit- ably conducted, for, in 1799, the owners again petitioned the great and general court for an extension of time on the entire loan and, later in the same year, they petitioned and received permission to further postpone their first payment. How, if at all, they finally discharged their obligations the record does not say. But the business was carried on with more or less success for nearly fifty years. Ultimately it was abandoned and the building was turned into a cotton factory and then into a hosiery mill. When the first rail- road came there the place took the name of Bemis Station, an appellation that adhered to it forever after. Locally "'Resolves of the General Court, the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts, 1793-94, p. 10. Ibid, 1798, p. 51. Ibid, p. 18. 81 w ro o ON Z t>« Q % u D, o rinted is a new busi- ness in America ; and but lately introduced into Great- britain [sic] ; it is the first manufactured by the editor." The Thomas mill, which was in Quinsigamond village,- Worcester, on the Blackstone river, was supplied with two Isaiah Thomas. Printer, Publisher, Editor and Paper-Mill Proprietor. vats of about one hundred and ten pounds capacity, and they ran usually fifteen hours each day, employing ten men and eleven girls. From twelve hundred to fourteen hun- dred pounds of hand-made paper were turned out weekly. The skilled engineer who managed the plant received about three dollars per week ; vat-man and coucher, three and a half dollars each, without board; ordinary workmen and girls, seventy-five cents per week each ; boys, sixty cents AFTER THE REVOLUTION each, with their board in addition. These were the wages that generally prevailed in all the mills throughout the country at this time and later. 103 A third mill in Worcester county, before the century L ended, was that of Nichols & Kendall in Leominster, put in operation in 1796. Rhode Island had its first paper-mill in 1780. Samuel Thurber owned a dam across the Moshassuck river in the town of Providence and he and his three sons, Martin, Samuel and Edward, built a mill. There, in the first years of the next century, bank-note paper was made for the first banks established locally. Two other mills were in Olneyville, a suburb of Providence, in the closing years of the century. One was known as the "Brown George" and the other as the "Rising Sun." Both were owned by Christopher Olney, who marketed his paper from a ware- house in the city. 104 In Connecticut before the end of the century the Leffing- well mill of Norwich was followed by several others. On the Hockanum river, in East Hartford, afterward Man- chester, at the opening of the revolution Ebenezer Watson and Austin Ledyard had a mill, the second in the state. Wat- son owned the Connecticut Courant and this mill was started to supply the press of his newspaper. It also made the greater part of the writing paper used in the Connecti- cut colony and in the continental army in that part of the country. In 1778 the mill was destroyed by an incendiary fire. In a memorial to the general assembly of the state, & petitioning for relief, the owners fixed their loss at $20,(XX|r' and stated that their engagement with the Courant calles for paper of a weekly issue of eight thousand copies. 1 ? 6 Both Watson and Ledyard had died and the property was owned by their widows, Hannah Watson and Sam 1 ~ J . 1 I?UJ i^H r^fgf^w ■•'.' Robert R. Livingston. Inventor of an Improved Process in Paper-Making, 1799. Paper-hangings or wallpaper came into the colonies as early as 1737, but in scant amount until well after the mid- dle of the century. It was not used by pasting on the wall, as in later generations, but was suspended against the wall or on wooden frames as tapestries. Its use was frowned upon by the church as a sinful display of luxury and pride 121 His name is also given as Biddle, but in the records of the patent' office it is Biddis. 99 PAPER MANUFACTURING m the UNITED STATES and, as it was all imported from England and France and was costly, those two reasons operated to prevent, for a long time, its general adoption. Finally, native manufac- turers became interested and, in 1763 and again in 1766, samples of the domestic product were exhibited. In 1789, or soon after, John Carnes of Delaware engaged in the manufacture of paper-hangings on a large scale. He had been the United States consular representative at Lyons, France, and there had learned something about the busi- ness. Associating himself with Burrell Carnes and two French workmen by the name of Le Collay and Chardon he was established in Philadelphia. The breaking out of the revolution stopped the advance of the industry, but after the war had been brought to an end manufacture was taken up again and use rapidly in- creased. Much was still imported from England and France and in 1787 France, in order further to increase the demand removed the export duty on what was bought by the United States. About the same time mills for paper-hangings were running in Boston, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In nine months they turned out ten thousand pieces. By 1794 the Boston mills were producing twenty-four thousand pieces annually, for the demand of that part of the country. Within the first decade of the next century the mills in and near Philadelphia were producing 140,000 pieces annually, valued at $97,417, and at the same time mills of Providence, R. I., were making eight thousand pieces. These early hangings were ordinary in appearance but became quickly popular. They were made from the coarsest and cheapest rags and woolen stuff", in sheets thirty inches long, pasted together; the patterns were stamped upon them with wooden blocks by hand. 122 In 1786 the Society of Sciences of Philadelphia offered a premium for the discovery or invention of a process for protecting paper from the attacks of insects and also a premium for the best method of making paper for the 122 J. L. Bishop: A History of American Manufactures (1868), I., p. 209. A. S. Bolles : Industrial History of the United States (1879), p. 467. 100 AFTER THE REVOLUTION West Indies — particularly San Domingo — especially de- signed for resisting the attacks of insects peculiar to that region. Several plans were submitted with samples, all of them proposing to use a sizing in which should be mixed ingredients fatal to insect life, but none was consid- ered worthy of endorsement by the society. 123 It has already been narrated how before and during the revolution state encouragement in various ways was given to those who would engage in paper-making. With the beginning of national existence this policy was continued, only now it was not merely for the purpose of stimulating and developing the industry but also for protecting it from foreign competition. An early effort in this direction was made in 1785 when the legislature of Massachusetts im- posed a duty on all foreign vellum and paper. But the people had not yet wholly overcome their repugnance to taxation and the measure did not receive popular approval ; accordingly it was repealed. As long as the states continued under the old confedera- tion there could be no encouragement in a broad general way to domestic industries. The confederation had no power to enact commercial legislation or to enforce treaties and the individual states were distraut by inharmonious and often conflicting laws. The new constitution of 1787 and the government organized under it were regarded by the agricultural, commercial and manufacturing classes as giving assurance of the future where, before, doubt and uncertainty had prevailed. All departments of business were infused with a new spirit of hopefulness and enter- prise. Manufacturing, although still considered subordi- nate in importance to agriculture and commerce, showed signs of a development that promised to be expansive and healthful. American labor began steadily, though slowly at first, to change its form from a general system of man- ual operations, isolated and local, to the organized efforts of regular establishments with associated capital and cor- porate privileges, employing more or less of the new ma- 123 J. L. Bishop: A History of American Manufactures (1868), I., p. 206. 101 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES chinery which was then coming into use in Europe. The productive classes regarded the constitution of 1787 as conferring the power and right of protection to the infant manufactures of the country in order to encourage their increase and reasonably to insure their success. When the first congress assembled in March, 1789, one of the first petitions presented to that body was from seven hundred of the mechanics, tradesmen and others of the town of Baltimore lamenting the decline of manufactures and trades since the revolution and asking an early atten- tion to the encouragement of American manufactures by imposing on "all foreign articles which could be made in America, such duties as would give a decided preference to their labors." This petition was followed by memorials of similar tenor from tradesmen, manufacturers and mechan- ics of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston and elsewhere. In response to these expressions of public opinion and in accord with the general views of the founders of the republic the first revenue bill which be- came the basis of subsequent tariff acts was passed. 124 In the debate on this subject in the national house of representatives, April 17, 1789, Representative Clymer of Pennsylvania urged the claims of the paper-makers of his state, saying that "this manufacture is certainly an impor- tant one, and having grown up under legislative encour- agement it will be wise to continue it." A duty of seven and one-half per cent ad valorem was laid on blank books, writing, printing and wrapping paper, paper-hangings and pasteboard, and, at the same time, provision was made for the admission of rags free of duty. 125 Such, however, was the hesitancy of our law-makers at that time in regard to matters of taxation and tariff that this enactment was de- creed for a temporary period only — from August 1, 1789, to August 31, 1790. Before its expiration in 1790 its term of life was extended and some additions were made to it, parchment and vellum being placed in the paper schedule. 124 J. Leander Bishop : A History of American Manufactures, (1868), II., p. 15. ^Joseph Gales : The Debates and Proceedings of the Congress of the United States, Washington, 1834, I., p. 174. 102 AFTER THE REVOLUTION In 1792 the duty on paper-hangings was placed at fifteen per cent and that on sheathing and cartridge paper at ten per cent. By enactment of June 7, 1794, five per cent, more was added to the duty on sheathing and cartridge. That was the extent of tariff legislation on paper in its various forms prior to 1800. 128 Alexander Hamilton, first secretary of the treasury of the United States, in his famous report on manufactures, communicated to the house of representatives, December 5, 1791, referred to paper as follows: "Manufactories of paper are among those which are arrived at the greatest maturity in the United States, and are most adequate to national supply. That of paper-hanging is a branch in which respectable progress has been made. Nothing material seems wanting to the further success of this valuable branch which is already protected by a competent duty on similar imported articles. In the enumeration of the several kinds made subject to that duty, sheathing and cartridge paper have been omitted. These being the most simple manufactures of the sort, and necessary to military supply, as well as ship building, recom- mend themselves equally with those of other descrip- tions to encouragement, and appear to be as fully within the compass of domestic exertions." 127 128 Tariff Acts Passed by the Congress of the United States from 1789 to 1909, House Document, 671, 61 st Congress, 2d Session (1909), pp. 14, 17, 35 and 41. 127 Gales and Seaton : Annals of the Congress of the United States 1791-1793 (1849), p. 1030. Henry Cabot Lodge: The Works of Alexander Hamilton (1885), III., p. 409. 103 CHAPTER SIX INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Mills Increased in Number in the First Decades — Statistics from the Census of 1810 and Isaiah Thomas' Estimate — Business Depression After the War of 1812 — Tariff Protection for Paper — — Rags Still Continued to Be Scarce — Some Prices That Prevailed in 1815 and 182] IN business there is no sharp line of demarkation be- tween one year and another, one decade and another, one century and another. Industry moves along, up or down, as the case may be, without regard to chronology and affected by influences and conditions quite other than time. Manufacturing, in all lines, in the United States, advanced rather slowly into the nineteenth century. It felt the stimulus of the new national life and the en- couragement of tariff protection but did not spring forward with bounding leaps. Paper manufacturing was not more active than other occupations. In scope, in methods and in general character, it continued about as it had been going on in the preceding decade or more, and the first quarter of the century had nearly passed before any decided change or very consider- able development in it was exhibited. Hamilton's state- ment, in 1791, that "manufactories of paper are among those which are arrived at the greatest maturity in the United States," may be accepted only with a great deal of reserve as it was plainly a broad generalization rather than a frank presentation of certifiable fact. When the century opened there were probably a few 104 INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY more than one hundred paper-mills in the country. Most of these, as their predecessors for a generation or more had been, were small affairs, feeble in every respect, in capital invested, in equipment, in methods used, in persons em- ployed and in amount of annual product. Some of them were establishments of size and industrial importance, measured by the standards of that time, but still infantile in comparison with the majestic mills of to-day. Gradually the number increased, until, by 1810 or thereabout, probably more than two hundred mills were in operation. These figures are obtained from the third federal census report and from results secured, at about the same time, by a pri- vate investigator, supplemented by information from local histories and other sources. A resolution of the national house of representatives, June 7, 1809, called upon the secretary of the treasury, Albert Gallatin, to report on the subject of the manufac- tures of the country. The report which ensued, although not submitted until nearly a year later, was generally in- complete and defective. The difficulties which, it had been found, hindered the securing even of this scant informa- tion constituted the prime reasons for endeavoring to gather more comprehensive and accurate statistics in con- nection with the impending taking of the third decennial census. Mr. Gallatin was able to report only very meagrely concerning the manufacturing of paper. He said: "Some foreign paper is still imported, but the greater part of the consumption is of American manu- facture; and it is believed that, if sufficient attention was everywhere paid to the preservation of rags, a quantity equal to the demand would be made in the United States. Paper mills are erected in every part of the Union. There are twenty-one in the states of New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island and Dela- ware, alone, and ten in only five counties of the states of New York and Maryland. Eleven of those mills employ a capital of two hundred thousand dollars, and 180 workmen, and make annually one hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of paper. . . . But sufficient data have not been obtained to form an esti- mate of the annual aggregate value of the paper made . . . other than what may be inferred from the 105 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES population. The manufactures of hanging paper and playing cards are also extensive." 128 Immediately following the presentation of this report in 1810 came the planning for the census. In this the first effort was made by the government to gather substantial statistics relating to all the manufacturing interests of the country, information that was felt to be needful in the con- sideration of tariff and other legislation affecting business development. The marshals and their assistants were di- rected to make an account of the several manufacturing establishments and manufactures in their respective dis- tricts with an enumeration of their annual product and other details. Commendable in intent as this plan was it was anything but successful in its results. Only a limited time was possible in which to do the work. Schedules and instructions were not drawn up and furnished to the census- takers so that uniform and complete information should be secured. Manufacturers were not yet accustomed to such investigations and their reluctance to supply facts con- cerning their business affairs could not be readily overcome. Therefore the returns as finally made were irregular, deficient and to some extent erroneous. "Accounts from the different states and territories, and even from divisions of the same state, varied with the divergent views of the agents, their intelligence, industry and other qualifications." The returns fell far short of presenting a full and reliable statement of the actual number and condition of the manu- factures of the country. From Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Virginia the returns were more nearly complete, but even in those much was lacking to a thoroughly comprehensive and dependable exhibit. In other states and territories the deficiencies were even more marked. In general no attempt was made to take account of capital invested, raw material used, number of hands employed and cost of labor. At the most only the number of establish- ments, the machinery, and the quantity and value of prod- 128 Report of Secretary of the Treasury Gallatin to the House of Representatives, April 17, 1810. In Gales and Seaton : American State Papers, Class III., Finance (1832), p. 428. 106 INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY uct were given ; and even in these particulars errors and omissions were abundant. In evidence of these deficiencies many examples have been cited. "Thus the number of printing offices — stated by Mr. [Isaiah] Thomas, a competent authority, at more than 400 in 1810 — was returned by the marshals as 110. Bookbinders, calico printers and dyeing establishments were returned only for one state. No glass works were returned for Massachusetts, which had long made and exported glass of a superior quality to other states. Bark mills were given for only one state ; car-r riage makers for three ; blacksmiths' shops for five ; hatters for four; tin and copperware shops for two — and these the least considerable in that branch. The number of tallow candle factories in Massachusetts was not given, although that state was credited with nearly one-half the product in that branch, and the same was the case with morocco factories." 129 Despite all these shortcomings, however, the returns were interesting as the first systematic official statement of Amer- ican manufactures and they contained a great deal of des- ultory information that was valuable. After futile attempts had been made to digest and arrange this mass of material into some comprehensible form, the secretary of the treas- ury, in obedience to a joint resolution of both houses of con- gress, submitted the papers for examination and review to Mr. Tench Coxe of Philadelphia, a recognized authority at that time, on statistics and economics. Mr. Coxe returned to congress in June, 1813, the results of his work, and in his analysis we have the first understandable account, meagre though it is, of the manufacturing pursuits of the country. Paper-making did not figure large in that census report. The marshals returned a summary of $127,694,602 as the value of all the manufactured products of the country and of that amount the sum of $1,939,285 was credited to manu- factures of paper, pasteboard, cards, etc. From a consid- eration of all the reported details and estimation of manu- 1S *J. L. Bishop: A History of American Manufacturers (1868), II., p. 159. 107 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES factures which were omitted or imperfectly returned Mr. Coxe amended the figures of the marshals by extending them to $172,762,676, slightly more than thirty-five per cent. On that basis of calculation the value of products under the paper-making schedule would rise to more than $2,600,000 which would probably be not an overestimate. Paper and its derivatives, then, constituted only about two and one-half per cent of the total manufactures of the country. The following statement accompanied the report : States, Territories Value of and Districts Mills Reams Product Maine 2 4,500 $16,000 Massachusetts 23 95,129 290,951 New Hampshire 6 42,450 Vermont 11 23,350 70,050 Rhode Island 3 14,625 53,297 Connecticut 19 82,188 New York 28 77,756 233,268 New Jersey 14 10,380 49,750 Pennsylvania 64 165,981 626,749 Delaware 4 75,000 Maryland 9 22,200 77,515 Virginia 4 3,000 22,400 Ohio 2 10,000 Kentucky 6 6,200 18,600 North Carolina.. ... . 3 2,400 6,000 East Tennessee 2 — — 15,500 South Carolina 1 District of Columbia. 1 202 425,521 1,689,718 A few more than one half of these mills were in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and more than sixty were in New England, while those remaining were scat- tered in nine smaller states and territories, among which Maryland was conspicuous with nine and Kentucky with six. In addition to the foregoing tabulation of products the mills of Massachusetts were credited with twenty-two thousand five hundred rolls of paper, Rhode Island with 108 INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY eighty-eight and three-quarter tons and Pennsylvania with three hundred and forty tons. 130 At the same time that the United States marshals and their assistants were engaged in collecting these facts, Mr. Isaiah Thomas was carrying on a similar investigation and evidently with more conscientiousness and intelligence. He found that the total number of mills which he could trace was one hundred and ninety-five, and was certain that more existed. His statement of the result of his re- search was : "My endeavors to obtain an accurate account of the paper mills in the United States have not succeeded agreeably to my wishes, as I am not enabled to pro- cure a complete list of the mills, and the quantity of paper manufactured in all the states. I have not re- ceived any particulars that can be relied on from some of the states ; but I believe the following statement will come near the truth. From the information I have collected it appears that the mills for manufac- turing paper are in number about one hundred and eighty-five [sic], viz.: in New Hampshire, 7; Massa- chusetts, 40; Rhode Island, 4; Connecticut, 17; Ver- mont, 9; New York, 12; Delaware, 10; Maryland, 3; Virginia, 4 ; South Carolina, 1 ; Kentucky, 6 ; Ten- nessee, 4 ; Pennsylvania, about sixty ; in all other states and territories, say 18. Total 195, in the year 1810. "At these mills it may be estimated that there are manufactured annually 50,000 reams of paper, which is consumed in the publication of 22,500,000 news- papers. This kind of paper is at various prices ac- cording to the quality and size, and will average three dollars per ream; at which this quantity will amount to 150,000 dollars. The weight of the paper will be about 500 tons. "The paper manufactured and used for book print- ing may be calculated at about 70,000 reams per an- num, a considerable part of which is used for spelling and other small school books. This paper is also of various qualities and prices, of which the average may be three dollars and a half per ream, and at that price it will amount to 245,000 dollars, and may weigh about 630 tons. 188 Gales and Seaton : American State Papers, Class III., Fin- ance (1832), II., pp. 666 and 706. 109 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES "Of writing paper, supposing each mill should make 600 reams per annum, it will amount to 110,000 reams, which at the average price of three dollars per ream will be equal in value to 333,000 dollars, and the weight of it will be about 650 tons. "Of wrapping paper the quantity made may be com- puted at least at 100,000 reams, which will amount to about 83,000 dollars. "Beside the preceding articles, of paper for hang- ings, for clothiers, for cards, bonnets, cartridge paper, paste-boards, etc., a sufficient quantity is made for home consumption. "Most of the mills in New England have two vats each. Some in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland have three or more. Those with two vats can make, of various descriptions of paper, from 2,000 to 3,000 reams per annum. A mill with two vats requires a capital of about 10,000 dollars, and employs twelve or more persons, consisting of men, boys and girls. Collecting rags, making paper, etc., may be said to give employment to not less than 2,500 persons in the United States. "Some of the mills are known to make upwards of 3,000 reams of writing paper per annum; a few do not make any; but there are not many that make less than 500 reams. The quantity of rags, old sails, ropes, junk, and other substances of which various kinds of paper and paste-boards are made, may be computed to amount to not less than three thousand five hundred tons yearly." 131 During the second struggle with Great Britain, 1812- 1816, paper-manufacturing, in common with other indus- tries, was very much hampered by the continued shortage of raw material and the difficulty of procuring moulds and engines from abroad. Rise in the wages paid to workmen and in the cost of all machinery and materials led to high prices and a contracted production that materially affected the users of paper who were also deprived of the impor- tations that they had heretofore been able to rely upon. War brought other troubles, aggravating though minor, to the printers. British ships infested American waters 131 Isaiah Thomas: The History of Printing in America, I., p. 25. Vol. V. of Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society (1874). 110 INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY and interfered with domestic commerce. Even closed-in waters, like Long Island Sound, were not free from them and. ships sailing in and out of the port of New York were often in danger. One incident of the kind was recorded by one of the victims who, however, as will be seen from his announcement, endeavored to turn it to his advantage, as much as might be. On October 9, 1814, the packet Susan, commanded by Captain John Miles, sailing from New York to New Haven, Conn., was captured by a Brit- ish sloop of war off the harbor of Bridgeport. Part of her cargo was printing paper for the New Haven newspapers as appears from the following : "Our Patrons must pardon us for giving them a very inferior quality of paper this week. Fortune has frowned upon the printer, and placed in the hands of the enemy, by the capture of the Susan, our stock of paper for several months, worth between 200 and 300 dollars. It will be obtained, however, by paying nearly its value over again. Our friends who are in arrears at this office, it is hoped, will not remember to forget the publisher at this time." 132 On the whole, however, paper-making seems to have been less affected than other manufacturing by conditions aris- ing from the war. In many lines of business there had been a certain unhealthful inflation in consequence of in- creased domestic demand and naturally resultant high prices ; and much capital was put into new undertakings which despite all drawbacks were quite generally profitable. Paper-manufacturing does not appear to have taken much, if any part, in this expansion, and its development proceeded normally and if anything rather slowly. Never- theless it could not escape from the general business de- pression that followed the war, mostly brought about by the flooding of the market with foreign goods under a policy which was declared openly in the British parliament to be quite worth while "in order by the glut to stifle in the cradle the rising manufactures in the United States, which the war had forced into existence, contrary to the natural course of things." Thus declared Lord Brougham, his 'New Haven Columbian Register, October 18, 1814. Ill PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES "contrary to the natural course of things" being merely, intentional or otherwise, a euphemistic expression of "con- trary to the interests of Great Britain." Much of the investigating, debating and legislating in the early congresses of the United States pertained to the establishing and upbuilding of American industries and their protection from imperious foreign competition. The experiences of the colonial and revolutionary periods had not been forgotten by the generations that had come since then, and like problems seemed to be still pressing. In February, 1816, the secretary of the treasury, A. J. Dallas, at request of Congress, transmitted to that body a review of the existing tariff of the United States and a proposition for changes in the tariff duties. In this communication he divided the manufactures of the country into three classes, in the first of which, "manufactures which are firmly and permanently established, and which wholly, or almost wholly, supply the demand for domestic use and consump- tion," he placed paper of every description and blank books. In a schedule of articles to be imported free of duty under his proposed general tariff he placed "rags, of any kind of cloth," and advised a duty of thirty-five per cent, on "paper of every description, paper hangings, blank books, paste- board, parchment, vellum and printed books." The duty then existing on paper was fifteen per cent., and the pro- posed duty represented an increase of 133^ per cent., a larger increase than that upon any other articles except clothing and woolens. 133 During these years petitions continued constantly to come to Congress from all parts of the country urging prohibition of or increased duties on foreign manufactures, but these were not always immediately responded to in a manner effectively to meet the situation. The tariff acts of 1816 and 1818 were only measurably successful. Em- barrassments, still in consequence of the unchecked im- portation of foreign goods, and the inflated and depre- ciated paper currency, continued to press heavily upon the 133 Gales and Seaton : American State Papers, Class HI. Fi- nance (1832), III, pp. 85-93. 112 INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY manufacturing interests and culminated, in 1819, in ex- treme business distress. A memorial of the Society of Paper-Makers of the States of Pennsylvania and Delaware, of which Mark Willcox was president and Thomas Gilpin secretary, was presented to Congress in 1820, asking for further tariff protection. In this memorial it was stated that in the dis- trict represented by the society there had been erected seventy paper-mills, which were in full operation until interfered with by importations after the war. These mills had ninety-five vats which' had cost to install about $500,000; they gave employment to nine hundred and fifty persons, half of them women and children, at a total amount of annual wages of $217,000; they consumed an- nually two thousand six hundred tons of rags, valued at $260,000, and produced about $800,000 worth of paper a year. Owing to the depression in business there were, in 1820, only seventeen vats working, paying an annual amount of wages of $45,000, having a production of $136,000 annually, and thus leaving unemployed seven hundred and fifty-five persons, with a loss of two thou- sand one hundred and twenty-eight tons of rags con- sumed, valued, $212,800, with loss of $624,000 in manufac- tured product. The memorialists asked that a duty of twenty-five cents per pound be imposed on all writing, printing and copper-plate papers and fifteen cents per pound on all others. 131 Rags continued to be quite as indispensable and quite as difficult to procure, throughout this period, as they had been in the preceding generations. For more than a hun- dred years the education of the public in the importance of saving rags in order to have paper had gone on unremit- tingly, but still all that was desired and necessary in that direction had not been accomplished. The system of calling for rags from house to house, that lasted until well toward the end of the century, had been started and resulted in much, but not enough, and it was to be long before impor- 184 Gales and Seaton : American State Papers, Class III., Fi- nance, III., (1832), p. 462. 113 PAPER MANUFACTURING m the UNITED STATES tations from abroad relieved the situation to any material degree. The tin-peddler with his wagon laden with tin- ware, and all sorts of other things for household needs, which he would swap for old rags, was a familiar sight in the country towns ; in fact, he became for a time a national institution. Many are the "old boys" of the present gen- eration who remember how as "young boys" they earned their first pennies for candy or for the circus by hunting and saving rags anent the coming of these itinerant barterers. And yet withal the mill's were constrained to continue, without relaxing, the same strenuous campaign that had gone on for years, begging for the wherewithal to keep their mills going. A few illustrations will sufficiently serve as examples of methods that were still pursued throughout the country. When Zenas Crane and his part- ners were ready to build the first mill in western Massa- chusetts this was the way in which they made known their intentions and their needs : "AMERICANS! "Encourage Your Own Manufactories "And They Will Improve. "Ladies, Save Your RAGS ! "As the Subscribers have it in contemplation to erect a paper mill in Dalton the ensuing spring; and the business being very beneficial to the community at large, they flatter themselves that they shall meet with due encouragement. And that every woman who has the good of her country, and the interests of her own family, at heart, will patronize them by saving her rags, and sending them to their Manufac- tory, or to the nearest Store Keeper ; for which the Subscribers will give a generous price. "Henry Wiswell, "Zenas Crane, "John Willard. "Worcester, February 8, 1801." 135 John Clark & Co., who leased and operated the first mill built in the Black river country, soon after 1807, gave The PittsHeld Sun, February 8, 1801. 114 INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY notice that they wanted rags, which would be received for them in the principal stores in upper Canada and the Black river country. To their advertisement they added a poetic plea to the ladies to help them. "Sweet ladies, pray be not offended, Nor mind the jest of sneering wags; No harm, believe us, is intended, When humbly we request your rags. "The scraps, which you reject, unfit To clothe the tenant of a hovel, May shine in sentiment and wit, And help to make a charming novel. "The cap exalted thoughts will raise, The ruffle in description flourish ; Whilst on the glowing work we gaze, The thought will love excite and nourish. "Each beau in study will engage, His fancy doubtless will be warmer, When writing on the milk-white page, Which once, perhaps, adorn'd his charmer. "Though foreigners may sneer and vapor, We no longer forc'd their books to buy, Our gentle Belles will furnish paper, Our sighing Beau will wit supply." 136 Seth Hawley, a native of Connecticut, moved to Moreau, Saratoga county, N. Y., in 1793 and, in 1808, with his younger brother, Alpheus Hawley, erected there a paper mill. This was the fervid appeal that they put out in order to secure the necessary raw material for their enterprise : "Save Your Rags! "This exclamation is particularly addressed to the ladies, both young, old and middle aged, throughout the northern part of this state, by the subscribers, who have erected a paper mill in the town of Moreau, near Fort Edward. Nor is it thought that this appeal to our fair country women will prove unavailing when they reflect that without their assistance they cannot be supplied with the useful article of paper. If the necessary stock is denied the paper mills, young "* Franklin B. Hough : A History of Lewis County in the State of Nezv York (1860), p. 181. The Black River Gazette, Novem- ber 9, 1907. 115 Seth Hawley. A Pioneer Paper-Manufacturer of New York. Reproduced from an old engraving in Hawley's The Hawley Record. INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY maidens must languish in vain for tender epistles from their respective swains ; bachelors may be reduced to the necessity of a personal attendance upon the fair, when a written communication would be an excellent substitute. For clean cotton and linen rags of every color and description, matrons can be furnished with bibles, spectacles and snuff; mothers with grammars, spelling books and primers for their children ; and young misses may be supplied with bonnets, ribbons and ear rings for the decoration of their persons (by means of which they may obtain husbands) ; or by sending them to the mill they may receive cash." 137 Early in the century David Buel of Troy, who was one of the leading men in business and public affairs in that section of the state, and for many years postmaster, owned and operated a mill on Wynantskill. This was swept away by a freshet in 1814, but a few years later, on another site, he erected a second mill, which continued to be used under various owners for more than fifty years. 138 Buel had given active encouragement to the gathering of rags for the first mill near Troy in 1792, and now he found himself obliged to make similar earnest pleas on behalf of his own enterprise. This was the way in which he called for the paper-maker's staple : "Please Save Your Rags. The press contributes more to the diffusion of knowledge and information than any other medium ; rags are the primary requisite in the manufacture of paper, and without paper the newspapers of our country, those cheap, useful and agreeable companions of the citizen and the farmer, which, in a political and moral view, are of the highest national importance, must decline and be extinguished. The paper mills of the State, could the poor and the opulent, the farmer and the mechanic, be persuaded into a laudable frugality of saving rags, would turn out ample supplies of American paper to answer all demands. The people of Massachusetts and Con- necticut, with true American zeal, have introduced this exemplary saving into the economy of their 137 Elias S. Hawley: The Hawley Record (1890), p. 479. Joel Munsell : Chronology of Paper-making (1876), p. 64. 1M Arthur J. Weise: Troy's One Hundred Years (1891), p. 274. Arthur J. Weise: Troy and Vicinity (1886), p. 229. 117 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES houses. The latter, by fair circulation, makes yearly a saving- of rags to the actual amount of $50,000. The ladies in several of the large towns display an elegant work bag as part of the furniture of their parlors, in which every rag that is used in the paper mill is care- fully preserved. Were this example imitated, this State would not be drained of its circulating cash for paper and other manufactures which American artists can furnish. The poor, by the mere saving of rags, may be enabled to procure paper and books for school and family use and more agreeable articles of dress or consumption. The rich who regard the interests of their country will direct their children or domestics to place a bag or box in some convenient place as a deposit for rags, that none be lost by being swept into the street or fire, the sales of which savings will re- ward the attention of the faithful servant and encour- age the prosperous habit of prudence and enter- prise.' "189 In 1815 Cramer, Spear & Eichbaum of Pittsburg, Penn., were operating a paper-mill in connection with their print- ing and publishing business. In an announcement of this they put in the usual plea for rags : "C. S. & E. have in complete operation their Paper Mill on Little Beaver, from which they will receive a constant supply of the various kinds of writing paper, wrapping paper, bonnet and fuller's boards, etc." "Rags! Rags! "We again entreat our economical and industrious housewives to take care that not an atom of this val- uable article is lost. 'To them you are indebted for your bible, the edu- cation of your children; and the fair maid, however nice, in handling those nasty things, will have the means of holding a correspondence with what she holds most dear on this earth — a sweetheart — see how important. "For good clean linen and cotton RAGS, four cents in cash and five in books, is given per pound at the Franklin Head Bookstore" 14 " Until the new century was well under way importations lw Joel Munsell: Chronology of Paper and Paper-making (1876), p. 57. 119 Cramer's Pittsburg Almanac, 1815. 118 INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY of paper continued to be heavy despite all efforts to pre- vent it. Much of the writing paper of this period, as the correspondence that has been preserved gives evidence, bore the royal arms and other foreign watermarks. Letters of Harmar, St. Clair, Wilkinson, Wayne and others of the post-revolution period and later show this. Prior to 1820 the United States senate used paper that was manufac- tured in Europe ; some of it had the water-mark, "Na- poleon, Empereur et Roi, 1813." This use of foreign paper continued despite the offer of the Gilpin mills to furnish equally good paper at twenty-five per cent, less cost. About, or soon after, 1820 Simeon and Asa Butler of Suf- field, Conn., supplied to the national senate the first American-made paper used by that legislative body. Prices for paper were then high, all things considered. One record of the prevailing prices has been preserved in a report presented to the national house of representa- tives, in January, 1821, by the committee on manufactures. The committee favored imposing higher tariff duties for the protection of manufactures, and included in their re- port a statement of the kinds of paper then made in the United States, with ream weights and wholesale prices. Pounds Value Kind of Paper. Per Ream. Per Ream. Quarto post Folio post Stout demy writing Stout medium writing Stout royal writing Stout super-royal writing Stout imperial writing Foolscap writing No. 1 No. 2 Demv Medium 7 No. 3 No. 1 No No. 3 No. 4 No. 5 No. 1 7 $4.00 16 9.00 22 10.00 28 22.00 34 16.00 40 18.00 45 20.00 15 4.00 13 3.50 12 3.00 16 5.00 16 4.50 16 4.00 16 3.25 16 2.75 18 6.00 119 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES Medium writing No. 2 18 $5.00 " No. 3 18 4.50 " No. 4 18 3.75 " No. 5 18 3.00 Royal " No. 1 20 7.00 " No. 2 20 6.00 " No. 3 20 5.00 " No. 4 20 4.00 " No. 5 20 3.50 Super-royal No. 4 22 4. 50 Super-royal No. 5 22 4.00 Imperial No. 4 25 4.75 Imperial No. 5 25 4.25 Fuller's press papers were generally sold at twenty cents per pound. Sheathing paper and paper used by sugar re- finers sold for about eight cents per pound. Common wrapping paper, sold by the ream, was graded in different sizes, as cap, pot, crown, demy, royal, super-royal, and so on, and sold at from six to eight cents per pound. Tissue paper, used mostly for protecting copper-plate engravings in books, was commonly made on medium-sized moulds, weighed about six pounds per ream and was worth about six dollars per ream, commanding its high price on ac- count of its being made in part out of new stuff. Super-royal printing was seldom finer than No. 4. ]41 Standard sizes of moulds used in the manufacture of hand-made paper were: Foolscap, 14}ixl6j4 inches; littrice, 15^x16%; demy, 16x21; extra royal, 21^x25^; super royal, 20%x27y 2 ; imperial, 22^x30}-^ ; post, 17x 21^2 ; medium, 18x23 ; royal, 21x24 ; manslaughter, 22x32 ; atlas, 26^x33. Bank paper was made foolscap. Papers were assorted into four grades, styled in the order of their perfection : whole, first retree, second retree, third retree or broken. Each ream consisted of eighteen quires of its par- ticular grade and two quires of broken sheets, one on the top and one on the bottom of the ream. Newspapers were often printed on paper of the second or third quality. 141 Gales and Seaton : American State Papers, Class III., Fi- nance, III. (1832), p. 628. 120 INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY For some years after the erection of Joseph Markle's first mill at West Newton, Penn., Pittsburg was head- quarters for the sale of all kinds of paper. An advertise- ment in Cramer's Pittsburg Almanac, for 1815, published by Cramer, Spear and Eichbaum, printers, booksellers and publishers of that city, gives the prices that prevailed at that time in that part of the country. "C. S. & E. Having their PAPER MILL in com- plete operation, will be enabled to furnish at all times the various sizes and qualities of paper on the fol- lowing terms : Royal Writing $22 00 per ream. Medium do 1st quality 18 00 do Medium do 2nd quality .... 14 00 do Demi do 10 00 do Folio Post 9 00 do Quarto do 4 50 do Fancy do 5 00 do Foolscap No. 1 4 50 do do No. 1, retree 4 00 do do No. 2 4 00 do do No. 2, retree 3 50 do do No 3 3 50 do do No. 3, retree 3 25 do Medium Wrapping 2 75 do Crown do 2 25 do Foolscap do 1 75 do Bonnet Boards 9 50 per gross. Fullers do from 25 to 33^ per lb." 121 CHAPTER SEVEN A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY The Famous Ames Manufacturers and Their Work — First Mills in Berkshire County, Mass. — Other Mills, Old and New, in Massachusetts, Con- necticut and Elsewhere — Scant Statistics From the Fourth Decennial Census, in 1820 — Old- Time Mill Equipment and Old-Time Papermakers ADVANCED fully into the second century of its existence American paper-manufacturing had finally established itself in a fixed position among the fore- most manual activities of the new nation. Compared with some other lines of business it was not yet predominantly important, in capital invested, in people employed, in raw material used or in annual output. Still, even though relatively small in those respects, no longer was it merely a local or neighborhood affair, as generally it had been in the past, save in the instance of those few mills that had achieved wider distinction by reason of success in grow- ing bigger, in broadening their scope of operations and in extending their markets. In the census-taking of 1810, it was one of the twenty-three industries specifically in- cluded and only ten stood ahead of it in the value of its manufactured product. It ranked below woollen, cotton and silk goods, machinery and carding-cloths, hats, manufactures of iron, manufactures of gold and silver, soap and oil products, manufactures of hides and skins, liquors, manufactures of wood, and cables and cordage. It was superior to soap and oil products, refined sugars, glass and earthenware, and tobacco. 122 A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY When, as down to the breaking out of the revolution, less than twenty mills in eight colonies — and those mostly indeed in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts — had covered the entire industry, the particular, detailed history of those several establishments, even though only few of them ever rose to commanding importance, was, in the largest sense, a comprehensive history of the whole. Now, however, the individual mill, save in exceptional instances, began to count for less than heretofore, for its conspicuous and influential identity was merged in the broader con- siderations of the entire institution. The industry had grown and expanded beyond the measure of any of its single representatives, was gradually becoming more and more of national consequence, was making a not insig- nificant part of the history of the country, was affecting and being affected by others, and was exercising a con- siderable and steadily increasing influence upon the life of the people. It became involved in the questions of the tariffs ; it was often a prime factor in establishing and assisting in the growth of new communities. It is in these later aspects that the history of the industry becomes more impressively interesting and more vitally important. From this point on the record is one of devel- opment in widely separated parts of the country, of the opening of new paper-manufacturing centers, of the intro- duction of machinery and of improvements in methods. This ripening growth covered the best part of the first half of the century, before the industry began to show that it was soundly on the way to being fully rounded out and substantially established in its modern conditions. Notwithstanding the census of 1810 and the personal investigations made by Isaiah Thomas, about the same time, indicated that the number of mills in the country was approximately one hundred and eighty to two hun- dred, the actual number existing in this period continued to be more or less an unknown quantity. Several things contributed to this paucity of accurate information. Most of all, in the majority of cases the mills were small affairs and existed only temporarily; they sprang up almost in a night, as it were, were burned in a few months, or a few 123 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES years and were not rebuilt. In their way they were as hard to find and as hard to keep track of as the proverbial elusive flea. Some of them, however, stand out conspicu- ously, as they were eminent in size, in magnitude of opera- tions and in financial solidity or were founders of sec- tional manufacturing centers ; and as such they command special attention. Perhaps two score of them, all told, were ^s Jm -K'. ., , rifwB J 9^v ., . 4 , ■ . " - :* "'^^saBH .. ¥y p David Ames. A Famous Pioneer Paper-Manufacturer of Massachusetts. of such consequence in the first quarter of the century, mainly in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware. For a period of nearly forty years the Ameses of Spring- field, Mass., were great paper-manufactures. David 124 A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY Ames, a soldier of the revolution, was sent to Springfield, in 1794, in the second presidential term of Washington, to estabish the national armory in that place, being commis- sioned a colonel. After eight years in that position he resigned and went into the business of paper-manufactur- ing, purchasing a mill which had been built in Springfield about 1800. This mill was the regulation small affair, having two vats and two rag engines, each of one hundred and twenty pounds capacity. The machinery was mostly of wood, and power was derived from an undershot wheel. It was not until 1820 that iron gearing was put in and by that time its capacity had nearly doubled. Sons of the original proprietor, David, Jr., and John, were admitted to partnership and the firm entered upon a career of prosperity. John Ames was the inventor of the family and a cylinder machine and other devices and processes originated by him contributed much to their success. From the outset the firm, which became known as D. & J. Ames, prospered wonderfully, making money rapidly and growing until it was one of the largest and most powerful in the country. They purchased mills that had been established near Springfield and also built a twelve-engine mill in South Hadley Falls. At one time they operated five mills, were running sixteen engines, were using three tons of rags daily and producing eighty reams of the largest size printing paper and one hundred and eighty reams of foolscap or letter. One of the best properties acquired by the Ameses was on the Chicopee river in that northern part of Springfield which later became the town of Chicopee. There, in 1806, a mill was built by William Bowman, Benjamin Cox and Lemuel Cox, who continued to manufacture paper for fif- teen years or upward. Chauncey Brewer and Joshua Frost bought the property and maintained the mill in operation for five or six years more, when they sold it to David Ames. Machinery was introduced by the Ameses, who were succeeded, in 1853, by John Valentine. Thus the mill was operated for nearly or more than half a century. The product of the Ames mills was book, news and 125 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES writing and the members of the firm were credited with being particularly shrewd and sometimes not over-scrupu- lous in manufacturing and business methods. It has been said that all kinds and grades of paper made by them were produced from the same stock and by the same process. Their book and news sold for nine cents a pound, and at times it was cut up, ruled and sold as writing for eighteen cents a pound. When rags became high in price they bought cardboard shavings in New York at two and one- half cents a pound, worked them with rags and sold the paper made from this stock at twenty-five cents a pound. About this time some manufacturers in England devised a method of loading their pulp with sulphate of lime or gypsum to an extent of twelve per cent in order to give weight to their paper. This practice soon became known in Europe and in the United States, and the Ameses have been credited with adopting it in some of their mills, according to the testimony of a later-day manufacturer who, as a boy, was one of their apprentices. "One way they had of adding weight was from an old gypsum mine near their Water Shops mill in Springfield. This they mined and crushed with a crude grinder, and after screening a little, wheeled it to the side of the beaters and shovelled in all they thought the stuff would carry. One of the effects of this kind of pulp was to make the paper quite gritty, almost like very fine sand paper. The old cylinder machine with one large fire dryer was run about twelve hours per day and during this time the gypsum would accumulate on the dryer so thick that very little heat could get through it. A good strong scraper was then employed to clean it and the machine was ready to go ahead again." li2 During the panic of 1837 the Ameses met with disaster, and, after dragging along in a crippled financial condition for a few years, sold their property. Their original mill in Springfield was purchased by Greenleaf & Taylor, and finally was destroyed by fire. David Ames, Sr., died Aug- ust 6, 1847, aged eighty-seven years. His son, David "'George W. Thompson: in The Paper Trade Journal, October 16, 1897. 126 A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY Ames, died March 12, 1883, aged ninety-two. John Ames died January 25, 1890, aged ninety. Now were the beginnings of that paper-manufacturing which ultimately made the western part of the state of Massachusetts one of the centers of the industry in the United States and internationally celebrated. The start- ing of a little mill in Berkshire county, in 1801, was ap- parently no more important than hundreds of similar undertakings that had preceded or were to come after it in all parts of the country. Ordinarily it would have been only an almost insignificant local event to be passed by indifferently in any historical review of the subject. But the man and the place contributed to achieve for it more than simple neighborhood fame. It was the pre- cursor of big things in its following; it blazed the way for a century of surpassing paper-making development; it laid the foundation for establishments that have had no superiors and few rivals in their respective lines. As a pioneer and as a powerful influence in leading and de- veloping, under favorable conditions, a notable part of the industry to which it belonged, the little Dalton mill rightly commands something more than mere casual notice and takes a conspicuous place as an historical landmark. Twenty-three years before, in 1779, the people of the town of Pittsfield were impressed with the importance of having paper made in their part of the state. In town meeting they voted instructions to their representatives to the great and general court in Boston, to use their "best endeavors, that any petition which may be preferred from this town, or from any individual of it respecting the erecting a Paper-mill in this town, be attended to and espoused by you in the General Court." Nothing seems to have been done about this at the time, however, and it was after 1800 that the desired paper-mill for the extreme western part of the state was a reality. Zenas Crane, the pioneer paper-manufacturer of the Berkshires, came from the eastern part of Massachusetts, the home of his parents being in Canton, Norfolk county, in the neighborhood of the first Massachusetts paper-mill of 1728 in Milton. His elder brother, Stephen Crane, Jr., 127 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES learned the trade in that mill and then established himself a few miles away in Newton Lower Falls. In the Newton mill the younger boy acquired the rudiments of the busi- ness. From Newton he moved on to Worcester, where he worked for some time in the mill of General Caleb Bur- Founder of Paper-Manufacturing in Berkshire County, Mass. bank. There he had wider experience and gained a more thorough knowledge of the details of his chosen vocation. Having reached this stage of preparedness, he deter- mined to have a mill of his own and to this end, in 1799, when he was twenty-two years of age, he journeyed to the 128 A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY western part of the state, and there, in the town of Dalton, selected a site for the first paper-mill in Massachusetts west of the Connecticut river. Not until two years later was the mill built, as appears from an advertisement for rags, printed by Crane and his two partners in the Pitts- field Sun, February 8, 1801. 148 John Willard dropped out of the firm before the enter- prise was fully started, Daniel Gilbert taking his place. In December, 1801, a mill had been erected on a lot of land a little more than fourteen acres in extent, with a water privilege and for this they paid one hundred and ninety-four dollars. The building was a one-vat mill, with a drying loft in the upper story, and it had a capacity for day's work of twenty posts — one hundred and twenty-five sheets of paper. Various sizes of book and news papers were made, but the writing paper was in foolscap and folio only. Two newspapers of the county used most of the news that the mill produced, and the overplus, both of writing and printing, went to the nearby market in Al- bany. For several years the annual production was about twenty tons. Mr. Crane was the superintendent and gen- eral manager and had a weekly salary of nine dollars. In 1807 Mr. Crane retired, selling his interest in the mill to his partners, but three years later he came back into the business and bought part of another mill — the second in Dalton, built in 1809. This became famous as the Old Red Mill and in 1822 Mr. Crane became sole proprietor of the business, maintaining his active control of it until 1842, three years before his death. Further account of the Old Red Mill and its successors belongs in the history of the Cranes of three generations and their notable activities in the field of paper-manufacturing. After 1807 Wiswall & Carson owned the first Dalton mill. In subsequent years it was managed by David Car- son, his sons, Thomas G., William W., and David J., all of them expert paper-makers and, still later, down to con- temporaneous times, principally by other members of the Carson family. See page 114, ante. 129 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES David Carson. A Pioneer Paper-Manufacturer in Western Massachusetts. Reproduced from an old wood engraving. After the start had been made by Zenas Crane and his associates paper-making in the Berkshires went steadily on, though slowly at first. News of the natural advantages of the section spread and especially did the excellence of waterpower that could be secured, the salubrity of the mountain air and the purity of the water peculiarly adapted to paper-making, command the attention of paper-makers who presently began to journey thither. Samuel Church came from East Hartford, Conn., to the town of Lee in 1806 and built there a two-vat mill and two years later Luman Church built another mill in Lee, the third in the county. No further additions were made to the industry in this little town until 1822 when Charles M. Owen and 130 A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY Thomas Hurlbut arrived and began to manufacture in one of the Church mills in a small way, employing four men and six women and producing ten reams of letter paper a day. Their energy and natural ability led to the rapid ex- pansion of their business and they were soon in the fore- front ; but that is a story of a later period. J3etween 1810 and 1825 there were in existence, at different times, in Massachusetts, from twenty to thirty mills, possibly a few more. Aside from those already re- ferred to in Springfield, Dalton and Lee they were prin- cipally located in Milton, Newton, Waltham and Worces- Daniel Vose. One-Time Owner of the Mill in Milton, Mass. 131 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES ter. Most of them were small and scantily equipped and — established only to meet local needs — perished when the conditions altered that gave them birth. Several, how- ever, were more enduring and have lasted into the twentieth century with little if any material change except as has resulted from the introduction of modern machin- ery and the expansion of business. After the passing of a hundred years the first mill in Milton still remained active, although it had been long out-distanced by some of its more pretentious later rivals, in size and importance of operations. Daniel Vose, the son-in-law of Jeremiah Smith, had acquired the property from his father-in-law about the time of the revolution and held it nearly until his death. Vose, who was born in Milton in 1741 and died there in 1807, was, during the greater part of his mature life, the leading business man of his native place and active in civil and military affairs. He was in every way a worthy successor to the first paper- mill men of Massachusetts. John Sullivan and Joseph Dodge operated the mill for a few years but it was later leased to Isaac Sanderson of Watertown, who in 1810 acquired ownership of it. San- derson was an experienced paper-maker and a clever in- ventor. In 1803, according to a local historian, he manu- factured for the Boston custom house the first folio post and quarto letter paper ever made in New England. In 1817 he built a new mill near the old one and put in a wrought iron tub-wheel, the first iron water wheel used in that section. He retained control of the mill until 1834. 1 * 4 By succession to Jeremiah Smith Boies and Hugh Mc- Lean, the business in two of the Milton mills passed into the hands of Amasa Fuller, George Bird, Henry Cox, Richardson Fuller, Benjamin F. Crehore, Jarvis Fenno, Ebenezer Steadman, Joseph Randall and John Savels, through a period of nearly thirty years. The McLean property was purchased by Edmund Tileston and Mark Hollingsworth, in 1809, and that of Boies by the same partners, in 1828. Tileston and Hollingsworth thus came ** Albert K. Teele : The History of Milton, Mass. (1887), p. 371. 132 A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY into possession of both these historic mills which they pro- ceeded to enlarge and remodel, thus laying the foundation of the business that was to endure as a family possession unbroken for another hundred years. 146 In the eastern part of Massachusetts, Middlesex county had developed manufacturing on a large scale along widely divergent lines. Paper-manufacturing was established in several towns during the last quarter of the eighteenth century and in the first quarter of the next century. There were mills in Waltham, Ashland, Newton, Watertown, Shirley, Framingham and Pepperell. In Newton only did the industry grow to notable proportions, but the opera- tions in other places were not devoid of interest. A little mill in Waltham was the third in that town, built by Nathan and Amos Warren in 1802. Located on Stony brook, a stream that branches off the Charles river, it became the property of John Gibbs about 1820. In 1835 John and Stephen Roberts purchased the mill, Stephen Roberts having had practical experience in sev- eral Massachusetts mills. In a few years John Roberts became the sole proprietor and in his hands and those of his descendants the mill has remained until the present time. For more than half a century it was operated by John Roberts and his son William Roberts and now — in 1916 — is owned and operated by The John Roberts & Son Company, Incorporated. The mill, which years ago super- seded the original wooden structure that was burned in 1844, is a picturesque stone building, old-fashioned in appearance but modernly equipped, in a country suburb of the city that has been known there for several genera- tions as Roberts' Station. The record of this mill, as it was conducted in the hands of its long-time proprietor, is another illustration of the success that in early days came to many a small estab- lishment skillfully operated on a specialty. John Robejts was one of the first American manufacturers to introduce the Fourdrinier machine and he added improvements in machinery and new methods of his own devising. Among 141 Albert K. Teele: The History of Milton, Mass. (1887), pp. 372-375. 133 PA PER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES his inventions was a machine for tarring sheathing-paper used for building purposes and the Roberts mill soon be- came widely known for its high grade of standard tarred paper. At one time the mill was almost exclusively occu- pied with this product. Beginning with coarse wrapping paper Roberts was shortly one of the first manufacturers John Roberts. Proprietor of one of the first mills in Waltham, Mass. in the country to make fine grade hardware papers. In 1916 the mill was making asbestos paper, a logical ad- vancement from the original tarred roofing paper. 146 14, D. H. Hurd: History of Middlesex County, Mass. (1890), III., p. 757. 134 A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY Jonas Parker and Thomas Parker, natives of Shirley, learned paper-making in one of the Waltham mills, and returning home built the first mill in that town, on the Catacoonamaug river. It was an humble effort with one vat and one engine. Later came a larger establishment built by Edgarton & Co., the senior partner of this firm having had an interest in the first mill. Special distinction attached to this mill through the skill of its superintendent, Henry P. Howe, who conceived the idea of fire-drying as a substitute for the old-fashioned, slow air-drying process. His fire-dryer machine was patented and put into opera- tion with eminently satisfactory results. Howe gave up paper-making and engaged in the manufacture of paper- making machinery. The fire-dryer, which had promise of great results, was finally superseded by the steam- drying process. The Edgarton mill, under different opera- tors, continued until 1837 when it was destroyed by fire. Another mill erected on the site was operated for some ten years, to about the middle of the century, when it was burned and the manufacture of woollen goods was sub- stituted for that of paper. 147 When John Ware, from Sherborn, established himself at the lower falls in Newton, in 1789, he purchased four- teen acres of land including a dam, water courses, mills, a forge, a dwelling-house and a barn. Only a small part of his investment was the paper-mill which he built the following year, but this was the beginning of what made Newton Lower Falls a great paper-manufacturing place. During the next forty years many changes were made in the ownership of this and other properties de- pendent upon the water-power of the Charles river at this point. Between the years of 1812 and 1832 upwards of thirty sales and transfers were made. An adjustment of the differences existing between the various owners, regarding water-rights, was made in 1816 and it ap- peared that then there were five paper-mills, the owners of which were Simon Eliot, Solomon Curtis, William Hurd, Moses Grant, John Ware, and Charles Bemis, Eliot & MT Seth Chandler: in History of Middlesex County, Massachu- setts (1880), II., p. 299. 135 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES Curtis and Hurd & Bemis being two partnership concerns. It was nearly twenty years subsequent to this date when paper-manufacturing in this village fully entered upon the career that made its history such a large part of the Seth Bemis. A Later Proprietor of an Early Massachusetts Mill. industry in contemporaneous times in the hands particu- larly of the Crehores, Curtises and Rices. 148 Seth Bemis, who was born in 1775 and died in 1851, was the youngest son of David Bemis. He succeeded his father 148 D. H. Hurd : History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts (1890), III., p. 102. 136 A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY and his brothers in the manufacturing enterprises of the family on the banks of the Charles river in Watertown and Newton, owning the paper-mill at Bemis Station after 1821. But his greater business success was in the manu- facturing of cotton and woollen goods and the preparation of dye-stuffs. Despite many discouragements the mill in Andover owned by Samuel Phillips and Thomas Houghton man- aged to exist in fairly prosperous condition until into this century. It stood for twenty years, being burned in 1811. Rebuilt in the following year, it was producing, in 1829, paper to the value of $10,000 annually and was giving employment to sixteen to twenty persons. Sons of Phillips and Houghton succeeded their fathers in the business, but after 1820 the mill passed into possession of others and finally became the property of Amos Blanchard, Daniel Poor and Abel Blanchard. Ultimately it was transformed into a woollen mill and paper-manufacturing in this town ended. 149 Changes occurred in the ownership and operation of the first mills that had been started in central Massachu- setts. Abijah Burbank, who built the mill in Sutton be- fore the revolution, was in time succeeded by his son, Gen- eral Caleb Burbank, who associated with him his brother, Elijah Burbank. Under these brothers the property was greatly improved and its capacity enlarged. With the ad- vent of machinery, cylinders were put in and rag cutters, tub-wheels and new engines so that between 1828 and 1835 it was quite an up-to-date establishment. General Burbank was a notable figure in his generation, a pub- lisher, a man of diversified business interests, influential and wealthy. But trouble came in the financial panic of 1836 and with many others the Burbanks went under. The mill passed into other hands but was operated until nearly the opening of the civil war. The Thomas mill, which had become another Burbank property, was, after about 1811, owned solely by Elijah 14 °Abiel Abbott: History of Andover, Massachusetts (1829), p. 195. . S. F. Bailey : Historical Sketches of Andover, Massachu- setts (1880), p. 585. 137 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES Burbank who made wrapping paper in it. He ran the mill until 1834 when the Quinsigamond Paper Company pur- chased it and, putting in new machinery, turned it to its initial purpose of producing printing paper, making about three hundred reams per week. The mills of Providence, R. I., endured well into this century. Those owned by Christopher Olney became the Major-General Caleb Burbank. An Early Paper-Mill Owner in Central Massachusetts. 138 A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY property of Wheaton & Eddy after the death of the origi- nal proprietor and finally they were owned by Richard Waterman. In a short time, however, they were dis- continued. Another historic eighteenth century mill that existed in one form or another for nearly a hundred years was that of Colonel Matthew Lyon in Fairhaven, Vt. After 1800 it passed out of the hands of James Lyon, son of Colonel Lyon, and was owned by Josiah Norton. Burned in 1806, it was rebuilt and lasted until 1831, when it was again burned and again rebuilt. It endured until well toward the end of the century, but at the last in a very small way. 160 The third mill in Maine followed those that had pre- ceded it in Falmouth by more than eighty years. It was in 1811 or 1812 that Robert H. Gardiner and John Savels started this in the town of Gardiner, on the Cobbassee river. Gardiner owned the mill site and Savels, who was the practical man, having learned his trade in one of the mills of Milton, Mass., managed the business. The out- put was writing paper. In 1820 Gardiner sold his interest in the property to his partner. Savels died in 1824 and under various ownerships and managements the mill con- tinued to be operated until after the middle of the century. Other Maine mills started in this period were: that of George Cox & Co. — Cox being from the Milton mill — built, in 1823, on Seven Mile brook in Vassalborough, and burned in 1843 ; that of Harris & Cox and Rand & Stock- bridge in North Yarmouth from 1816 to 1836, and that of Joseph F. Day in Union from 1816 to 1843. General David Humphreys, of Seymour, Conn., was one of the most energetic Americans of post-revolutionary times in encouraging in a practical manner the manufactur- ing industries of the country. He was a Yale graduate, a general in the revolution, the first United States minister to Portugal, in 1791, and minister plenipotentiary to Spain from 1798; he was also a poet as well as a soldier and "•H. P. Smith and W. S. Rann: History of Rutland County, Vermont (1886), p. 604. PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES diplomat. When he returned home from Spain in 1802 he brought a herd of choice merino sheep and engaged actively in raising wool and in woollen manufacturing in his native state. His woollen mills were the beginning of the village of Humphreysville to which he gave his name. To his other enterprises he added a paper-mill in 1805 and, General David Humphrey, Soldier, Diplomat, Poet and Manufacturer. starting it in operation in a very modest way, produced from it four or five reams per day for several years. Sub- sequently the mill passed through the hands of several owners, and news, tissue and other papers were made in it. In 1850 it was torn down and a successor to it, erected on another site a short distance away, was burned in 1885 and not rebuilt. 140 A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY In the southern part of Connecticut, where Christopher Leffingwell built the first mill in the colony in 1766, not much more interest was manifested in this industry until well into the next century. Between 1790 and 1800 An- drew Huntington put up a mill on the Yantic river in Norwich, near or on the site of the old Leffingwell mill, and some years later Amos H. Hubbard owned and op- erated a mill in the same town, achieving the distinction of installing there, in 1830, the first Fourdrinier machine in that section of the state. First alone, then for twenty years The Humphreysville Paper-Mill. A Wood Engraving on Wrappers for the Paper Made in the Mill. Reproduced by permission from Campbell, Sharpe & Bassett's Seymour, Past and Present. in association with his brother Russell Hubbard, he con- tinued in the business until 1857, part of the time operat- ing two mills. It has been estimated that by 1820 the annual average production of the paper-mills of the United States was about $3,000,000, the cost of materials and labor in the manufacturing about $2,000,000, the number of persons employed five thousand, of whom one thousand seven hundred were males over sixteen years of age, the others 141 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES women and children. 181 Undoubtedly these figures were largely guesswork, for then there was no possible way to obtain accurate information in regard to the industry. The failure of the manufacturing statistical part of the census of 1810 has been pointed out and other investiga- tions afforded no surer basis for conclusions. A second attempt was made in the taking of the fourth census, that of 1820, to gather more complete industrial sta- tistics than before, but the effort was again dolefully un- successful. The schedules were calculated to enumerate the number of establishments in the several counties of the states ; the nature and names of the articles manufactured ; the market value of the annual product; the kind, quan- tity and cost of raw materials annually used; the number of persons employed ; the total quantity and kind of ma- chinery installed and the quantity in operation ; the amount of capital invested; the amount of annual wages; the amount of contingent expenses, and general information regarding the establishments, conditions of business, and so on. In the final summing up, however, many mills were not reported, others declined to supply complete informa- tion, others refused to furnish any information whatsoever, the enumerators often failed to fill the blanks and the actual number of mills is nowhere given. A reading of the tabulation from the facts and figures collected by the enumerators, can at the best give only an approximate idea of the condition of any industry that may be exam- ined, or, as for that matter, of the manufacturing of the country as a whole. In respect to paper-manufacturing quite as markedly as in the case of other industries the report was inaccurate and inconclusive but nevertheless it is not wholly devoid of interest and value, when allowance has been made for its many shortcomings. It is not necessary to analyze the report in detail, but an examination of the tabulated re- turns for two of the states will sufficiently illustrate how inefficient and unreliable were the returns everywhere. m Joel Munsell: Chronology of Paper and Paper-Making <1876), p. 73. A 142 A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY In Massachusetts, for Middlesex county, the amount of the annual product is given at $55,392, the machinery used, nine engines, eight vats, moulds, etc., and people em- ployed, one hundred and seven, but the number of mills is not stated, although it is known that probably a dozen or more were then in operation there. In Worcester county the annual product is given as $23,160, with four vats, three presses and three engines, and the people employed, thirty-seven, but the number of mills is not designated. Norfolk county is credited with an annual product of $25,000 "in part," and fifty-eight persons employed in two mills with two vats, two water wheels and five engines; a note refers to operations in three establishments and no statements from some others. In Hampden county it is said that six vats and other machines are in operation, employing sixty-nine people, but the number of mills is not given. For Hampshire county it is stated that thirty-five persons are employed in mills equipped with "vats and en- gines" and annually producing to the value of "$5,000 in one of these establishments ; the others not stated" ; and how many others does not appear. In Berkshire county three mills are reported in part, in spite of the fact that paper-making was already assuming considerable propor- tions in that county. The statement for Rhode Island is quite as non-illum- inating. In the tabulation one paper mill is entered as pro- ducing annually twenty reams of writing and .twelve of wrapping paper per week, and without other information. A foot note adds: "There are, besides what has been stated two paper-staining manufactories, the business of one of which is dull, from the markets being overstocked with French papers, and the other, from the same cause, is not in operation. . . . There are like- wise ... a paper and an oil mill. ... To which may be added a manufactory of paper . . . three manufactories of hats, and two of paper: all of which are stated as not in operation, except the paper manufactories, with respect to which, however, no particular information could be obtained." As the final classification and digest was made and 143 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES printed under the direction of congress 152 the mills in the several states were set down as follows : Maine, one ; New Hampshire, six; Massachusetts, eleven; Rhode Island, six; Connecticut, seven; Vermont, nine; New York, Proprietor of the First Mill in Andover, Mass. Reproduced from a steel engraving in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. twenty-one ; New Jersey, four ; Pennsylvania, twenty-four ; Maryland, five; District of Columbia, one; North Caro- lina, one; East Tennessee, two; Kentucky, one; Ohio, "'Gales and Seaton: Digest of Accounts of^ Manufacturing Establishments in the United States and Their Manufactures (1823). 144 A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY four ; total, one hundred and three. This accounts for only about one-half the mills that were in existence in 1810 and certainly for not more than the same proportion of those that were undoubtedly being operated in 1820. The number of employees reported were two thousand and seventy; in Maine, twenty- four; New Hampshire, forty- eight; Massachusetts, one hundred and thirty-eight; Con- necticut, two hundred and five ; Vermont, one hundred and forty-one; New York, three hundred and seventy-three; New Jersey, one hundred and fourteen ; Pennsylvania, six hundred and fifty-nine ; Maryland, one hundred and thirty- two ; District of Columbia, twenty ; North Carolina, eight ; East Tennessee, sixteen; Kentucky, sixty-four; Ohio, one hundred and twenty-eight. This was manifestly not more than one-half the actual number; and the total amount of annual product, given as $957,902, and the amount of capi- tal reported as invested, $1,672,839, were both manifestly absurd underestimates. The Munsell calculation was probably much nearer the truth than the faulty census. No mills were reported in Virginia, Georgia, South Caro- lina, West Tennessee, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Minne- sota and Michigan. Until after the first quarter of this century had nearly passed machinery as the word is understood in modern times was unknown. Water-wheels and beating engines were part of the equipment of every mill, but that was the end of labor-saving devices; all else was the primitive hand-work such as had prevailed alone through genera- tions of paper-making. Some mills still remained in the one-vat class, but most of them had at least two vats, while not a few could boast of three or even four vats. An average two, three or four-vat mill represented an investment of from $3,000 to $8,000, the lesser figure more generally than the larger. It was the rare exception when a mill could be considered to be worth $10,000. Reports of the burning of mills from time to time mostly put the values at $3,000 to $6,000, but a mill on the Bronx river, in the suburbs of New York city, owned by David Lydig, was insured for $32,000 when it was destroyed by fire in 1822. This was considered a costly establishment, being 145 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES well-equipped and carrying a large quantity of paper stock. The mill of the Gilpin brothers on the Brandy- wine river and several of those of the Ames family in and about Springfield, Mass., were also valued at high fig- ures, the Gilpin at from $350,000 to $500,000 and the en- tire Ames plant at fully as great an amount if not more. To man a one-vat wrapping paper-mill required four men and a boy; twenty posts was a day's work, requiring about nine hours' labor for two men and a boy at the vat ; one hundred and twenty-six felts or one hundred and twenty-five sheets constituted a post, so that two thousand five hundred sheets were turned out daily. A good two- vat mill could be depended upon to produce two thousand to three thousand reams of all kinds of paper annually, with twelve or more workers — men, women, boys and girls. In the collecting of rags and other raw material and in the making of the paper, two thousand five hundred persons found employment. Rags, junk, old sails, rope and other raw material were used to the amount of three thousand five hundred tons or more annually. A four-vat mill could turn out every day about four hundred pounds of hand-made paper which commanded a price of from forty to fifty cents per pound. Most of the small mills were at first run by the owners with help employed from the neighborhood. Gradually, as the industry expanded and the demands upon the mills for paper increased, a class of professional paper-makers sprang up and the mill proprietors came more and more into dependence upon them. They were a wandering lot of vagrants very much like the old-time tramp printers, and in fact many of them were veritable tramps, travelling about the country from mill to mill as they might wish to have employment. It was a great accomplishment to be a good vat-man, one who could hold the mold with its fibre and water level and thus make a perfect sheet of paper, of uniform thick- ness. The men began work in the mills early in the morn- ing, stopping for breakfast and particularly taking a rest at grog-time, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon. A day's work of twenty posts was generally finished 146 A STEADILY GROWING INDUSTRY early in the afternoon and then resort was had to *the village tavern for the rest of the day. These professional paper-makers could be distinguished from other work- men by their big red hands, the result of dipping their hands continually into the warm water and pulp, and by their stooping, round shoulders caused by constantly bend- ing over the vat. The Eckstein Mill, Manayunk, Philadelphia. Reproduced from an old wood engraving. 147 CHAPTER EIGHT IN MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES Beginning in Central and Northern New York — Mills That Endured Substantially Unchanged for a Hundred Years — The Famous Mill of the Gilpin Brothers in Delaware — New Mills in Western Pennsylvania — Planting the Industry in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee PAPER-MANUFACTURING went on apace in New York, although in that State there were very few mills that had attained large size or that were making very much impression. The industry was still in the hands of single individuals or small firms, not yet having become big enough to warrant its advancement into the higher field of incorporated business, although the trend toward incorpo- rating had generally set in. According to a report made to the United States government in 1823 by the secretary of state of the commonwealth, two hundred and six incorporated companies were there then engaged in manu- facturing in New York, of which number two only were producing paper. At that time there were undoubtedly close on to forty mills in the state. The pioneer mill in western New York was built in Dansville, Livingston county, by Nathaniel Rochester. Dansville was then just emerging from the frontier stage of settlement, and Rochester, a North Carolina man, a colonel in the revolution and a friend of Washington, came there in 1810, purchased land and mill property and erected the paper-mill. The establishment was evidently of small account, for Colonel Rochester sold his entire 148 IN MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES interests in 1814, comprising seven hundred acres of land, a grist-mill, a saw-mill and the paper-mill for $24,000. It was, however, the beginning. 154 Other mills were early erected in Dansville, and among Nathaniel Rochester. The First Paper-Mill Owner in Western New York. Reproduced from an old engraving in O'Reilly's Sketches of Rochester. them was one that became historically celebrated by its continuance for nearly one hundred years practically un- changed in its pristine, primitive character. This was the A. O. Bunnell: Dansville, 1709-1902, pp. 34 and 78. 149 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES Eagle, built in 1824 by Andrew Porter, at the entrance to Poag's Hole valley. In the fading years of its century of existence the Eagle was a weather-beaten wreck of an old wooden building more picturesque than business-like. From the same brook that flowed by it in 1824 came the H X w - uu £ .5 „ > < c p I O D < o. water that operated it after 1900, and, in the modern days of gas and electricity, such meagre light as it needed was furnished by old-fashioned oil lamps. No better picture of this antiquated mill could be drawn than the descrip- tion made by one who visited it when it had nearly reached its nine score years of existence. 150 IN MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES "The machine on which the paper is made is said to have been built by a local wheelwright, a slender wooden affair of barely twenty feet in length and thirty-six inches in width. The entire plant is operated by water-power, its huge, old wooden water- wheel creaking noisily under its ceaseless burden. The H W w > '* '■' J y -^*jA w'. -"■ m 1 < 1 • Sb'hEB % > I v. -' p ■> i 1 1 » . A \ 1 >■■ : . * ¥.■■ 1 i .i*'.. 4 • - ■ SB'S - T^ I i if' 1 B _._ : IL. !§jf ■*" .■'■- j ■ ir. 1 ■sit. *■ '. : •■--■ I ppP*" 3 1 dam, from which the water is drawn, is one of those old-fashioned affairs which, owing to the scarcity of the supply, exposes shamelessly its structural features to the public gaze. A wooden flume, perched above the ground upon scantling supports, carries the water to the mill, a hundred yards distant, leaking copiously all the way. There are two beaters, each of a capacity 151 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES of about two hundred and fifty pounds, located in the loft, and the pulp runs into a vat below, from which it is pumped up to the machine. "The machine is in every way singularly deficient in labor-saving devices. The pulp is carried on a blanket instead of a Fourdrinier wire, which permits the water to percolate through. There are but four small heated cylinders, instead of the huge batteries of dryers seen on even the smallest of modern machines. There are neither suction boxes, calendering rolls nor cutting disks, and the water, as it is pressed from the pulp, is permitted to drip about the machine with heed- less prodigality. "The reel on which the paper is taken, off is a rough, wooden spindle affair, regulated in its action by iron weights on the end of a rope. A stop-gauge guillotine cutter takes it from the roll, and the operator, at his leisure, cuts it to size, sheet by sheet. If it is required to cut the paper to a smaller size, it is folded and torn apart over a scythe-blade attached to the wall. The mill is said to have a maximum capacity of two thous- and pounds for twenty-four hours, but, as it is operated throughout by one man, the output is prob- ably considerably less than half a ton a day." 155 The mill was operated by several paper-makers during the first thirty years of its existence and then, in 1856, became the property of F. D. Knowlton, who managed it, alone and with his son, until the time of his death, before 1900. The son, also F. D. Knowlton, followed his father as sole proprietor of the mill which still remained a one- man establishment, the second Knowlton, as its Pooh-Bah manager, being his own superintendent, engineer, machine tender, cutter, shipper and business manager. His product, which was mostly manilla wrapping, went principally to local storekeepers in Dansville and neighboring villages. This long-enduring mill was burned July 18, 1913, and was not rebuilt. Gurdon Caswell, a man from Connecticut, in which state he was born in 1783, emigrated to Oneida county, N. Y., in 1804, and settled in Westmoreland. He was a tailor by trade, but, marrying a daughter of Nathaniel 155 E. T. Hathaway: Primitive Paper-making in Nezv York State. In The 'inland Printer (1909), XIII., p. 712. 152 IN MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES Loomis, who owned a paper-mill situated on Oriskany creek, a few miles from Utica, he also married into the paper-making industry. Four years later he was attracted to the Black river country, in the general movement of population which was then setting in in that direction, and, going to Watertown, built there a paper-mill, the first in that region. George W. Knowlton, of the family of paper- manufacturers of that name, wrote a considerable account of this mill. He said : "The building was a two-story frame structure thirty-five by fifty feet, but a considerable part of the second floor was used for a wool-carding machine. The machinery consisted of a small rag engine or Hollander, carrying about one hundred and fifty pounds of rags ; two or three potash kettles set in a brick arch, for boiling the rags and preparing the sizing ; one vat for making the paper, sheet by sheet ; and a rude standing press to squeeze the water out of the pack, as the pile of alternate felts and wet sheets was called. After pressing, the sheets were taken from the pack and hung on poles to dry, and, if in- tended for writing purposes, were afterwards dipped in sizing, a few sheets at a time, and dried again. There was no steam used in any part of this process ; no chlorine for bleaching; no calendering, the sub- stitute for the latter being pressing between boards." Caswell called his mill the Pioneer. Caswell's family remained in Oneida county until 1814, when he bought a farm and moved them to Watertown. In 1819 he built his second mill, which was soon sold to his brother, Henry Caswell, and brother-in-law, Erastus Loomis, and was operated by them and others until it was burned in 1833. In 1823 Caswell, in company with Ralph Clapp and William K. Asherd, built a third mill on Sewall's island, occupying part of the premises owned, three-quarters of a century later, by the Bagley & Sewall Company. This mill was torn down about 1830. Caswell removed to Clayton, Jefferson county, in 1832, and died there in 1862, aged seventy-eight years. In 1824 George W. Knowlton and Clark Rice, then liv- ing in Brattleboro, Vt, bought the first two mills built by Caswell, for $7,000. For the next thirty years Knowl- 153 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES ton & Rice were, with unimportant exceptions, the only paper-manufacturers in Jefferson county. In 1833 they abandoned both the old mills and built on another site a new mill, which they equipped with two rag engines and a thirty-six-inch cylinder machine. The career of this establishment has been continuous to contemporaneous times. It was conducted successfully until 1848, when the building was burned, being replaced by a brick structure, with improved machinery and a capacity of from six George W. Knowlton. Pioneer Paper-Manufacturer in Watertown, N. Y. hundred to seven hundred pounds of paper per day, which remained in continuous service until it was rebuilt, en- larged and modernized in 1869 by Knowlton Brothers. 168 Paper-making began in the Niagara Falls region in 168 J. A. Haddock : History of Jefferson County, New York, (1895), p. 203. S. W. Durant and H. B. Pierce: History of Jef- ferson County, New York, (1878), p. 150. The Paper Trade Journal, October 16, 1897, p. 45. 154 IN MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES 1823, when Jesse Symonds, a Connecticut man, experi- enced in the paper-trade world, arrived and began the erection of a mill. The water for power was taken from the river, the right having been purchased from Judge Augustus Porter and General Peter B. Porter. Mr. Sym- onds died before the mill was completed, but his wife continued the work and leased the mill to Henry W. Clark, of Rochester, who made print, letter and wrap- ping paper, and found his customers in the surrounding towns and country, his men driving from place to place buying rags and selling paper. When Clark's lease of the mill expired he entered into partnership with Albert H. Porter, the second son of Judge Porter, and together they purchased a mill site on Bath Island, with water privileges. For a number of years they operated the mill successfully by the old hand methods, but eventually a Fourdrinier machine was introduced, set up and run by Charles H. Symonds, the son of the pioneer mill builder. The site on Bath Island was chosen in order to obtain clear water for the linen, ledger, news and writ- ing paper, while wrapping paper was made during the periods of muddy water. In 1840 Clark sold his interest to his partner, Porter, who, at this time, was making paper for the old Buffalo Express and the New York Tribune. Porter, in turn, sold to the Bradley brothers ; after a few years L. C. Woodruff, of Buffalo, became the owner, and he also rebuilt the mill when, in the course of time, it was destroyed by fire. Webster, Ensign & Seymour continued to operate the mill near Troy that they had bought before the beginning of the century. The mill was worked largely in the interests of Webster, who owned the Albany Gazette, the first newspaper started in that city. In the regulation advertisement for rags the Gazette stated that the mill was making five to ten reams of paper every day, Sundays excepted, a very considerable part of which was used by the newspaper. It was urged that if the neighborhood could supply the rags needed this would mean a saving of at least £5,000 annually to the city of Albany. Offers were made of three pence a pound for clean white rags, two 155 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES pence a pound for white-blue, brown and check and pro- portionate prices for others. 157 General Walter Martin came into the Black river coun- try in 1800 and settled in that part of the town of Turin which afterwards was Martinsburgh, obviously named for its founder and proprietor. In 1807 he built there a paper- mill which was put in operation by John Clark & Co. The mill had a pulp engine and was intermittently worked for twenty-five years. In its early existence it produced writ- ing paper, but later its product was wrapping and wall- paper. In 1802 Ezra Sampson, George Chittenden and Harry Croswell started a newspaper, The Balance and Columbian Repository, in Hudson, and to supply their press Chitten- den purchased a one-vat paper-mill that had just been transformed by Elisha Pitkin from a grist-mill situated at Stuyvesant Falls. This was the first paper-mill in Colum- bia county. A few years later Chittenden built another mill, the second in the county, on the same stream, Kinder- hook creek, in Stockport, near Hudson. He operated that mill from 1810 until his death in 1845, his sons ultimately being associated with him in the business and continuing it after he had died. 158 The smaller mills in New York State at this time varied in value from $10,000 to $40,000 or more. The Onder- donk mill, which was built in Hempstead, L. I., in 1768, the first in the colony, was sold in 1801 to Daniel Hoagland and Abraham Coles for $12,500. The Beach mill in Saugerties, where the first Fourdrinier machine in the United States was set up in 1827, was worth about $30,000. Other mills in this class, besides those already mentioned and many that must be passed by, were the Benjamin, at Catskill; the Wood & Redington, near Schoharie; the Simonds, Case & Co., at Farmington, and the Peck, at Rochester. The Gilpin brothers, who, in the latter part of the pre- m A. J. Weise: The City of Troy and Its Vicinity, (1886), p. 229. ""Columbia County at the End of the Century, (1900), pp. 641 and 655. F. Ellis : History of Columbia County, New York, (1878), p. 137. 156 IN MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES ceding century, had come into the front ranks of American paper manufacturers, maintained their position until long after 1800. Their paper became known all over the coun- try. The invention of the cylinder machine by Thomas Gilpin, and other improvements that they were able to make, gave them additional prestige. But their pros- perity did not endure. Not only were they unfortunate in losing the advantages that they expected to derive from their revolving cylinder process, but worse disasters befell them. In the great flood of February, 1822, when the Brandywine rose twenty feet above its banks, their dam was carried away, their races destroyed, some of their machinery injured and several buildings damaged. In April, 1825, a fire destroyed several buildings of the plant and much valuable ma- chinery. A climax came in 1838 when another flood damaged the property again and more seriously than before. Thereupon the owners, after fifty years of busi- ness, decided to discontinue. The estate was sold and the buildings were refitted for the manufacture of cotton goods. 159 A contemporaneous writer gave a description of this mill and its surroundings when it was in its prime. "Citizens and strangers often resorted to this estate for a pleasant walk and to enjoy its beauteous scenery, as well as to see the novelty and skill of mechanism, visit the wonder-working machine that could turn out an endless sheet of paper. Paper- making is too well known to need a description. Yet, as things here were on the most approved plan, and order and neatness presided, we will venture to sketch one apartment in the old mill — a large salle on the lower floor, where more than thirty women were seated on high stools at a long table placed before the windows, each one having a knife to pick the motes from every sheet ; and they were dressed be- coming their occupation, with a clean apron as smooth as if an iron had just been rubbed over it. Not a cobweb marred these white walls, nor was dust al- lowed to soil the floors. 'J. Thomas Scharf : History of Delaware (1888), II., p. 653. 157 PAPER MANUFACT URING in the UNITED STATES "Just above this, a large and modern stone building was occupied in the same way. Many departments of the business were carried on in each of these houses. The stone house below was used for assort- ^ .S '* « th .C PQ I? ing and cutting rags, and another stone structure for extracting colors. In this, immense kettles were fixed in furnaces built of stone that seemed immovable. "Flat boats often conveyed paper on the water from 158 IN MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES one mill to another; but it was generally taken in wagons to the Wilmington wharves. Large quanti- ties of bank note paper were made here. We have seen whole pieces of new silk handkerchiefs cut to mix with the rags, to designate its manufacture." 160 Several attempts were made to start paper-manufactur- ing in Pittsburg and vicinity, but the enterprise did not long endure, for the rolling-mills, iron foundries and other sooty establishments put white paper quite out of the question. Local historical authorities have contributed information, interesting — brief though it is — concerning these early efforts. "We have two extensive paper mills, one on the Big Redstone, and the other near the mouth of Little Beaver creek, which manufacture good paper of different kinds to the value of about 25 or $30,000 worth annually. But they do not supply as much as the market stands in need of; much of this article is yet hauled over the mountains. (There are six paper mills, we are informed, in the state of Kentucky, one of which goes part of the year by the force of steam) — (BIF 3 We sincerely admonish our good housewives and their little daughters to save all clean linen and cotton RAGS, for without these no paper can be made, and without paper, books cannot be printed."" 1 "In 1813 the making of paper west of the moun- tains had made rapid progress from 1795, the year in which Jackson & Sharpless got their paper-mill on the Redstone in operation, and the first in the country. At that time it was doubted whether rags could be got in sufficient quantities to keep the mill going. The saving of rags has kept pace with the erection of mills, for notwithstanding the consump- tion of seven, all are well supplied, and there ap- pears to be a prospect of getting plenty for two others now erecting. This increase in domestic economy in so short a period is perhaps unexam- pled. In 1795 there was about ten or twelve thou- sand dollars' worth of paper made annually, until 1808, when [John] Coulter, [John] Beaver and [Jacob] Bowman erected a mill on Little Beaver; ""Elizabeth Montgomery: Reminiscences of Wilmington, p. 40. m Cramer's Pittsburgh Magazine (1810). 159 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES this also made paper to an equal amount with the first. At this time, [1812,] paper to the amount of about $80,000 annually, is manufactured in the western part of Pennsylvania and in the state of Ohio, besides what is made in Kentucky, which is also considerable. The paper mills erected lately are as follows: — Messrs. D. & J. Rogers, on the Youghiogheny, three miles above Connellsville ; Messrs. Markle & Drum, on the Sewickly, West- moreland, Pa." 162 The Rogers mill, built in 1810, was owned by Daniel and Joseph Rogers and Zadoc Walker, and was the earliest manufacturing establishment in the township of Connells- ville, Franklin county. The original owners were suc- ceeded by D. S. Knox, M. Lore and John Scott, who con- tinued the manufacture of paper until 1836, when the business was discontinued. The paper from this mill was considered to be of superior quality, and a large business was built up by the Rogers brothers and their successors. Paper was shipped down the Youghiogheny river on flat boats to various points, even as far south as New Orleans. Years ago only an old stone house and a mass of ruins remained to indicate the location of a once prosperous manufactory and the village that surrounded it. In 1816 another mill was started in Pittsburg with a sixteen horse-power engine on the Oliver Evans principle, claimed to have been the first steam paper-mill in the United States. Forty helpers were employed, and annually ten thousand bushels of coal were consumed, sixty tons of rags made into pulp, and paper to the value of $30,000 produced. 163 This mill was in existence a year later, in- cluded in a list of the factories in the city, published by the city council. Also it, or its successor, appears in Ly- ford's Western Address Directory in 1836, but after that it is not of record. By 1825 the number of mills in western Pennsylvania had grown to be nine — four of them owned in Pittsburg. Six, run by water power, contained two vats each and in *J. Trainor King: Pittsburgh, Past and Present (1868), p. 71. 3 J. L. Bishop: History of American Manufactures, II., p. 231. 160 IN MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES one were three vats. Three others were worked by steam, one having three vats and a twenty horse-power engine, and the others four and six vats, respectively, with engines of thirty horse-power. In all the mills rags to the value of $68,000 were annually consumed, and the annual prod- uct was valued at $150,000. 164 In the closing years of the eighteenth century the western country as far as Kentucky depended almost en- tirely upon paper made in a lone mill in Chambersburg, which was built soon after 1780 by Dr. John Calhoun, a son-in-law of Colonel Benjamin Chambers, who founded the city that bears his name. Until it was removed, in 1832, this mill had a large product for its day, and supplied many newspapers in that part of the country west of the Susquehanna river. For many years, in its early existence, the Pittsburg Gazette was printed on paper made in this mill, the weekly supply being transported from mill to newspaper on pack-horses over rough country roads. 160 Another mill in Chambersburg, Penn., as early as 1788 was built by John Scott, and for a decade or more after that the newspapers of Pittsburg and elsewhere west of the Allegheny mountains continued to be supplied from this point. 166 In 1790 the first really important mill in Chambersburg was built by John Shryock. This was the Hollywell, and until well into the next century it was one of the noted mills of the country. Printing paper and vari- ous kinds of wrapping were made there at first, and then bank note paper of a superior quality, the United States Government becoming a large customer. In current fiction of the time are stories of how "Lewis the Robber," a notorious local outlaw who was then terrorizing the com- munity, made frequent attempts to enter this mill at night to secure a supply of government paper for counterfeiting purposes. In the hands of George A. Shryock, who fol- lowed his father about 1827, this mill became identified "*J. L. Bishop : History of American Manufactures, II., p. 301. im History of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, Warner Beers & Co. (1887), p. 473. "* I. H. McCauley : Historical Sketches of Franklin County, Pennsylvama (1878), p. 55. * 161 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES John Shryock. with the first experiments in mak- ing paper from straw, and to the history of that branch of the in- dustry much of its subsequent record belongs. In a few years, under other ownership, it returned to its former employment of pro- ducing various kinds of paper from rags, being fitted with more modern machinery and many other improvements. 167 A citizens' committee of the leading manufacturers situated in Delaware county, Penn., was appointed in 1826 "to ascertain the number, extent and capacity of the manufactories, mills and unimproved mill-seats in the county." The committee, as one of the results of its investigations, reported that there were eleven paper-mills, annually manufacturing thirty-one thou- sand two hundred and ninety-six reams of paper valued at $114,712, and employing two hundred and fifteen persons, whose wages annually were $29,120. Men- tioned first among these establishments were the Ivy Mills and the Glen Mills, then operated by Mark Willcox and his son, John Willcox, who employed eighteen per- sons and produced annually one thousand five hundred reams of fine paper; and a two- vat mill on Chester creek, owned by William Martin and Joseph W. Smith, and operated by John B. Duckett, who, with twenty-three helpers, produced week by week sixty reams of quarto post and thirty-three reams of medium printing. 168 In 1817 Thomas Amies, a noted paper-maker of Phila- delphia, produced a quantity of paper for a special print- ing of the Declaration of Independence, which was designed to surpass everything that had been attempted in America up to that time. The mould and felts were made expressly for the purpose, the size of the sheet was twenty-six by thirty-six inches and only the finest linen 7 History of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (1887), p. 474. "John Hill Martin: Chester and Its Vicinity, (1877), pp. 230-234. 162 IN MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES rags were used. Each ream weighed one hundred and forty pounds and the price was one hundred and twenty- five dollars. Amies was at one time superintendent of the Willcox Ivy Mills at Chester, but when he made this paper he owned and operated the Dove Paper Mills, Lower Merion, Montgomery county. He had drawn upon the Willcox establishment for the name of his mill and for his paper he also appropriated the Willcox dove water- mark. Another Chester county mill that had a long and sub- stantial existence was that of the Mode family in Modena. The building was, erected in 1810 by William Mode, whose sons, Alexander and William, began to make paper there in 1812, producing daily about two hundred and fifty pounds. In 1840 the business was discontinued, but ten years later William and Alexander Mode, sons of the second William Mode, remodeled the building, put in modern machinery and continued the business until toward the end of the century. They increased the prod- uct of the mill to two thousand five hundred pounds and it is said that on "one occasion they had paper made, dried and cut into sheets in three hours after the rags were sorted," which was boasted of as a very remarkable per- formance. 169 Samuel Jackson and Jonathan Sharpless operated their mill on the Redstone creek in Fayette county, until 1810. After that it was run by members of the Jackson and Sharpless families in successive generations until, in Oc- tober, 1842, it was burned with a large stock of paper, all valued at $20,000; and that disaster brought the business to an end after fifty successful years. 170 In Beaver Valley, New Castle county, Delaware, about seven miles from Wilmington, but more nearly in Penn- sylvania the Sunny Dale mill had its beginning in the early part of this century and it lasted for more than a hundred years. A woolen-mill was built there, in 1811, by John Ferra, but that was soon burned and was rebuilt ™* J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope : History of Chester County, Pennsylvania (1881), p. 175. 1W F. Ellis : History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, (1882), p. 622. 163 IN MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES as a paper-mill. When John Ferra died he was succeeded by his son, Daniel Ferra, who kept the mill until his death in 1860, ha'ving once rebuilt it after it was burned in 1850. Francis Tempest then became the owner and operated it for more than fifty years. In its early days of hand-work, writing and book papers were made, but later, tissue was the product, the machine equipment being a thirty-six inch cylinder and two one hundred and forty pound engines. The power was water and steam and the capacity one thousand pounds per week. It was a one-man as well as a one-machine mill. Tempest did all the work, buying the materials, running the engine, making the paper and selling his goods. 171 Thus it existed until 1901 when it came into the possession of Edwin Garrett. The new owner enlarged and improved it, making it more modern and increasing its output. In Drake's Cincinnati, published in 1815, there is men- tion of "new and valuable paper-mills erected on the Little Miami river." The mills referred to are believed to have been that of Kugler at Milford, and that of Howells at Lockport about two miles above Milford. Both made wrapping and writing paper, the daily product not exceed- ing one hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds. Kugler's mill was built between 1800 and 1810 by a settler named Wallsmith who bought the waterpower at Milford and erected a saw-mill, flour-mill, carding-mill, dis- tillery, and paper-mill. Mathias Kugler, who was em- ployed in the paper-mill, eventually became the owner. The mill at Lockport, converted from a flour-mill, was started by Frank Howells shortly after Wallsmith had erected the mill at Milford ; it produced wrapping, news, print and writing papers, but the amount was small and the prices big. A few miles farther up the Little Miami Joseph Duval, about 1815, built a mill which was in opera- tion several years. Duval was of French extraction and had come from Philadelphia. He was socially promi- nent in Lebanon, near which place he built his mill, and was famous for entertaining. l The Paper Trade Journal, October 16, 1897, p. 11. 165 IN MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES Before 1830 two mills were built in Cincinnati, one by Thomas Graham, who has been credited with inventing and constructing the first paper-machine in the West to be worked by power. The night before the mill was ready to start, in December, 1826, it was destroyed by an incen- diary fire. The owners immediately rebuilt it, called it the Phoenix and had it ready for operation in June, 1827. The building was one hundred and thirty-two feet by thirty-six feet and was equipped with steam engines. About half a mile down on the bank of the Ohio the Cin- cinnati Steam Paper Mill, owned by Messrs. Phillips & Spear, was located. This was also worked by steam and employed about forty hands, producing a "large quantity of excellent paper" of an estimated value annually of $22,000. 172 These mills comprised all the paper-manu- facturing in Ohio prior to 1825 or 1830. Several mills were in Tennessee in the early part of this century, although since the civil war that has not been a paper-manufacturing state. Precisely when or where the beginning was made is not certain, but it is believed that mills were operated in or before 1810. About that time the general assembly of the state determined to encourage the manufacture of paper and two statutes were enacted, the first, which was passed on November 13, 1809, being as follows: ] ^f ■ II si ii "Whereas, it is considered by the present legisla- ture that an increase in the home manufacture will promote the independence of our rising state : There- fore, be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee that, from and after the passage of this act, all persons immediately in the employment of the manufacture of paper in any of the paper-mills erected in this State, or that may be employed in any mill that may hereafter be erected, that they be and are hereby exempt from working on roads or high- ways or from attending musters in the companies, regiments or battalions to which they belong, provided that in all calls for militia they shall be subject in the same manner as they would have been had this act never been passed." B. Drake and D. Mansfield: Cincinnati in 1826. 167 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES The second statute, which went into effect on November 23, 1811, read as follows: "To encourage the manufacture of paper: Be it enacted, That all persons who are owners of paper, or shall hereafter be, shall be allowed to employ some person to peddle and merchandise rags without paying tax, provided nothing herein contained shall authorize those persons to take or receive any money or articles for said goods but rags." W. S. Whiteman, of Knoxville, was one of the pioneers in Tennessee and in the South. Reared near Philadelphia, he learned the business of paper-making in the mills in or adjoining that city, and went to Tennessee probably as early as 1806. It was not, however, until years later, some time previous to 1837, as nearly as can be ascertained, that he built a mill on Middle Brook creek, about four miles from Knoxville, and successfully operated it for a few years prior to his death in 1840. The machinery for this mill, exceedingly primitive, though fully up to that date, was hauled in wagons from Philadelphia, the only means of transportation from Philadelphia to Knoxville then existing. A son of Whiteman, W. S. Whiteman, Jr., grew up with a thorough knowledge of the business of making paper and, going to Nashville, became associated with John A. McEwen, O. B. Hayes and John M. Hill, who had already built a mill there about 1835 or soon after. Opera- tion of this mill, which was on the bank of the Cumberland river, continued for eleven or twelve years under this joint ownership, and then by Whiteman alone. Afterwards interested with the Whiteman enterprise was W. O. Har- ris, the chief owner and manager of The Nashville Banner, who assisted in building up the business of another mill on White's creek, about eight miles from Nashville, to which the machinery of the Nashville mill was removed. A pulp mill was also built on Paradise Ridge. The first Nashville mill ultimately passed into the hands of the Rock City Paper Manufacturing Company. On Duck river, about a mile from the town of Manchester, Whiteman Brothers operated a paper-mill for several 168 IN MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES years, and in 1837, on the Cumberland river, about a mile above Gallatin Landing, Morris & Rogers built a mill. 17 * In 1840 there were six mills in the state, the Grainger, Knox, McMinn, Sullivan, Davidson and Sumner. To- gether they had a capital of $103,000, and produced an- nually paper to the value of $60,000. In 1860 there were but two mills left, with a capital of $28,000 and an annual product, valued at $14,500. 174 In Kentucky, between 1800 and 1805, Isaac Yarnall built two single-vat mills about six miles west of Lexing- ton and a one-vat mill was also started in Logan county. During the first decade o'f the century there was also a mill at Great Crossing, on the Elkhorn river, but whether that was Craig's mill;, that was built in 1792, is not known. An emigrant's directory, issued from Auburn, N. Y., in 1817, mentioned that in the state of Kentucky there were several paper-mills and that in Lexington there were two mills operated by steam. The first mill in Louisville was built in 1814 by the firm of Jacob & Hicks, and most of its product was sold to the Western Courier. In 1820-21 Amos Kendall, who afterwards became post- master-general in the cabinet of Andrew Jackson, built the Franklin mill on the main Elkhorn, a mile and a half below what is known as the Forks of Elkhorn, a Kentucky village of considerable size. A year previous there had been talk of the federal government establishing an armory in that locality, and Kendall, acting on inside advance knowledge of the plan, had purchased the land on speculation so as to sell it to the government. He began the erection of his mill in the summer of 1820, and it was completed early in 1821. Later the property was purchased by E. H. Stead- man and was operated by him and others with only indif- ferent financial results. In 1875 it was purchased by Dupont & Co., who removed the machinery to another mill which they owned in Louisville. 178 R. A. Halley: Paper-making in Tennessee. In The American Historical Magazine, IX. (1904), pp. 213-216. m Goodspeed : History of Tennessee (1886), p. 275. 169 CHAPTER NINE THE INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY Hollander Engines for Pulp-Beating — Invention of the fourdrinier and its importation into the United States — Americans Invent and Improve Cylinder Machines — Other Inventors and In- ventions — Radical Changes in Manufacturing Methods Are Gradually Introduced UNTIL well into the nineteenth century the original hand processes in paper-making had not been much improved upon. Only a very few small mechanical devices had, from time to time, been introduced into the mills, mildly to increase their efficiency. But the vat-men continued to dip the pulp into the moulds and shake out the water until the sheet was formed, and the sheets continued to be hung separately on rods in the lofts to dry The mill of 1800, save in the substitution of the beating engine for the fermentation or the stamping methods of reducing rags to pulp, was not materially different from that of 1700. More than one hundred years had elapsed since the first mill had been built in Pennsylvania but the American in- dustry was still in an infantile state, as far as any appreci- able attempt had been made to introduce machinery or new methods. In the beginning of paper-making from pulp the rags were reduced by washing them in water and then setting the mass to ferment for many days in close vessels until the desired pasty state of comminution had been attained. An advance upon this crude method came in the introduc- tion of stamping rods to beat the rags into pulp. These 170 THE INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY rods, incased with iron at one end, were operated in oaken mortars. To some extent, at first, they were worked by hand but most generally they were moved by water-wheel machinery. Even this method of getting pulp was tedious and unsatisfactory enough. Sometimes forty pairs of stamps would be required to work steadily twenty-four hours in order to prepare a hundred pounds of rags. Then came the beating engine or Hollander, so called from the supposed country of its origin. Most author- ities on this subject have placed this machine first about the middle of the eighteenth century. Some even have given 1750 as the precise year of its appearance and that date has been generally accepted. Doubts exist concern- ing this, however, and it must be conceded that good reasons have been adduced to show that the machine or, at least, something analogous to it, was in use a half century or more before that time. The case has been concisely stated by an English writer: "Unfortunately the date of the invention of this important machine has not been definitely traced. The earliest mention of it seems to occur in Sturm's 'Vollstandige Miihlen Baukunst/ published in 1718. It was in extensive use in Saardam in 1697, so that the invention is at least some years previous to 1690." 176 But by whomsoever invented or wheresoever first used, the machine, as it was finally developed in Holland, was for a process of macerating rags into pulp for paper- making by means of a revolving cylinder armed with metal blades which rotated in close proximity to a stationary plate composed of similar blades. Between these blades the stock was drawn by the motion of the roll and sub- jected to continuous beating until it was reduced to pulp consistency. The Hollander has been in uninterrupted use to the present day although the modern machine repre- sents a great advance over its prototype. During the hun- dred and fifty or more years that have elapsed since it was devised it has been greatly changed, enlarged and im- "•R. W. Sindall: The Manufacture of Paper, (1908), p. 16. 171 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES proved; and others, patterned after it, have arisen. But the fundamental principle of the original still remains in the modern beating engines which are essential instru- ments in all paper-making. In Holland the first engines were small and were driven by wind-mills, the principal source of power in that coun- try. The new machine was slow in being accepted else- where, but it soon superseded the old process in Holland. It is said that, in 1770, there were eleven large mills in Holland where the engines driven by wind-mills accom- plished more in an hour than the mills in Germany, where water-power was used with stampers, could perform in six hours. In the United States the Hollanders were run by water-power at first and long afterward by steam- power. Their introduction made the first decided change in methods that the mills had known, increasing their power of production and improving the quality of the paper that was made, and enabling the industry to go on to a wider development than it had before known. Supple- menting the beating engine came the Jordan, an American invention, which takes the pulpy mass from the stuff- chest and further cleanses and refines it and makes it of uniform consistency before it is finally delivered to the paper-machine. In the early years of the century a few men of a me- chanical turn of mind in Europe and in the United States were giving more thought to the possibility of devising some method of making paper by machinery. In other industries machinery had been introduced with promising results, and the advantages that should accrue from its adoption in paper-manufacturing could be safely predicted. For half a century the Hollander had been gradually com- ing into extended use and with this, pulp could now be produced in larger quantity than it could be utilized in ordinarily equipped mills, with the vat-men working onl> by hand. A faster method of transforming the pulp into paper was an economic necessity. Machines were needed to supplement the Hollander and naturally they came, the Fourdrinier first. The Fourdrinier was invented by Nicolas Louis Robert 172 THE INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY who, while managing a large paper-mill in Essones, owned by St. Leger Didot of the famous French family of pub- lishers, conceived the idea of making paper in a continuous sheet. After several years experimenting he produced a machine which consisted of an endless wire band passing between two squeezing rolls, and this was the primitive beginning of what was developed into one of the most marvellous of modern machines. Robert obtained a patent in 1799. He had been assisted by his employer, Didot, to whom the patent for the new machine was now transferred. John Gamble, a brother- in-law of Didot, became interested and, going to England, took out patents there. Didot and Gamble entered into arrangements with Henry and Sealey Fourdrinier, whole- sale stationers, who financed the invention in England. With them Bryan Donkin, a practical mechanic and ma- chinist, was associated and he made improvements on the original, a new machine being patented in 1807 by the Fourdriniers and John Gamble and first made in 1808. In principle it was the Robert machine, but already it was far in advance of that. The Fourdrinier brothers spent over £60,000 experi- menting and improving the machine and in consequence thereof were forced into bankruptcy. With them Robert. Didot and Gamble were ruined. In 1840 a grant of £7,000 was made to the Fourdriniers and that, with the distinc- tion of having the machine forever known by their name, was all that ever came to them for their labors and ex- penditures. Robert had previously received from the French government a bounty of eight thousand francs and that was the sum total of his profits from his ingenuity. Bryan Donkin was the only one of the group who profited financially. Devoting himself to the manufacture of the machine he did well and eventually was successful in establishing a large business out of it. In point of date the Fourdrinier, in France and in Eng- land, was the first really great invention that paper-manu- facturing had known. So great indeed was it that, not only did it practically revolutionize paper-making the world over, in the course of time, but it became firmly fixed as 173 PAPER MANUFACTURING twfte UNITED STATES the one fundamental factor of the industry in its modern existence, elevating it into the front rank of mechanical pursuits. Meantime, however, others had been working along somewhat similar lines toward the same end that Robert had reached. John Dickinson, of England, succeeded in 1809. He invented and patented a cylinder covered with a wire cloth, the cylinder to revolve in a vat filled with pulp which, by a system of suction, was made to adhere to the cloth until the paper sheet was formed, when it was passed on to another cylinder covered with felting. Whether the Dickinson invention was early known in the United States cannot be said; but the first American paper-making ma- chine may have been suggested by it or may have been worked out independently. Models in the patent office were destroyed when the building of the treasury department in Washington was burned in 1836, and specifications of very few of the pat- ents issued prior to that date can now be found. A patent for a paper-mill was issued to Thomas Langstroth of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1804, and a patent for a paper-making machine to Charles Kinsey of Essex, N. J., in 1807. It has been thought that possibly in these patents the Gilpin and the Ames machines of later date may have been anticipated. Positive evidence of this, however, is lacking, and it is altogether unlikely that if such machines were brought out they did not endure long enough to leave some record, even though slight, of their performances. At any rate it was nearly twenty years after the inven- tion of the Fourdrinier in France and seven years after the appearance of Dickinson's cylinder machine in Eng- land before the American machine can be said to have really appeared. At that time nothing was known here about the Fourdrinier or the cylinder in any practical way. Both had been slow in adoption even in England, and as for the United States, they had not been discovered — or, at least, only theoretically. Description has already been given of the Gilpin mill, near Wilmington, Del., and an account of its pre-eminence for half a century, and brief reference has been made to 174 THE INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY its peculiar distinction as being the home of the real be- ginning of the making of paper by machinery in the United States. Gilpin had been long experimenting be- fore he solved the problem of a paper-making machine. In December, 1816, he was able to take out his patent and in August of the following year he put the machine into actual use in his mill, running off, for the first time, on this side of the Atlantic, machine-made paper, in place of the hand-made article. The invention showed increase of speed and power, as well as economy in cost of producing. The Gilpin machine was more simple and, as was ulti- mately demonstrated, less efficient than the Fourdrinier, but it demonstrated the wide possibility of a very great advance in the manufacturing of paper. It was merely a revolving cylinder making paper continuous and endless in length instead of in single sheets. In no respect was it an advance upon, even if it was equal to, the Dickinson of England. But its introduction into the mills of the United States anticipated all the foreign machines by a few years, at least, and gave the first decided impulse in this country to the making of paper by machinery. When finally Gilpin felt confident of success he sent to Philadelphia a sample — writing paper of excellent quality — taken from a sheet one thousand feet long and twenty- seven inches wide and had it deposited with the American Philosophical Society. Shortly after, the mill began to furnish this machine-made paper to the market, first for Poulson's American Daily Advertiser of Philadelphia and for other newspapers, and then for book editions and for writing. In 1820 and 1821 this kind of paper was fur- nished to Matthew Carey & Son, the Philadelphia publish- ers, for the letter-press and colored copper-plate engrav- ings for the printing of the first American editions of Lavoisne's famous Complete Genealogical, Historical, Chronological and Geographical Atlas. This was five or six years before any paper was made from a Fourdrinier in this country. News of this invention speedily went out, for its tangible results began to have their natural effect upon the trade. A wide and substantial reputation accrued to the Gilpin 175 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES mills for the quantity and the quality of the new kind of paper that they were able to produce, and their prosperity increased proportionately. The Gilpins made every effort to keep their machine a secret, but it was impossible to hide it altogether and permanently. The more the success of the machine was demonstrated, the more were jealousy and envy excited among other manufacturers. That it would seriously and permanently affect business throughout the country was perfectly obvious, and all means, fair and unfair, were taken to procure knowledge of it. Eventually, by obtaining scraps of information from some of the Gilpin workpeople and by careful study of the patent, sufficient ideas were obtained to render eva- sions of the patent possible. Experiments were made by other proprietors of mills and they were soon able to profit by the new idea. In this they were undoubtedly aided to some extent by increasing knowledge here of the char- acter of the English cylinders. Within a few years the Gilpins found that they could not permanently retain the advantage over competitors that their cylinder had for a time given them. Several new and improved cylin- ders were brought out before 1830. Eventually the cylin- ders were generally introduced into mills everywhere and the prestige of the invention and the credit of having begun the making of paper by machinery in the United States have never been fully accorded to Thomas Gilpin. 177 The story has been told, and has been generally accepted as true, that John Ames of Springfield, during a visit to New York, heard of the Gilpin machine and its wonderful work, and thereupon took means to find out about it and to appropriate the principle involved in it, with the result that he was soon able to make a better machine of the kind for his mills. Whether this is true or not cannot now be determined. About all that we surely know is that John Ames was a mechanical genius and a clever inventor. The Dickinson cylinder machine was patented, in Eng- land, in 1809, the Gilpin in 1816, and the Ames in 1822 J. Thomas Scharf : History of Delaware, (1888), II., p. 653. 176 c H B a M l/J E? 1 g o > > PAPER MANUFACTURING in f to? UNITED STATES — May 22. Ames was thirteen years after Dickinson and six years after Gilpin. He may have been an original in- ventor following original research, or he may have been merely an imitator. After him came Isaac Burbank of Worcester, Mass., in 1824; Gardiner Burbank of Worces- ter, in 1826; Isaac Sanderson of Milton, Mass., in 1829. But the new machine brought more trouble than profit to the Ameses in the beginning. If John Ames did really steal the idea from Gilpin, the avenging Nemesis promptly got after him. It was evident that the cylinder was too good a thing to be permitted to remain undisturbed in the possession of any single concern. The struggle for it began immediately and is a matter of court record. How- ard & Lathrop, who had a mill in South Hadley, Mass., hired an Ames foreman and built and put into operation a cylinder. The Ameses instituted suit for infringement of patent and the fight was on. A combination of manufacturers was formed to oppose the Ames claims. Both sides sent attorneys abroad to in- vestigate, on the contention that such a machine had been in use before in England, in France and in Italy. When the case came to trial, the patentee agreed that he did not claim invention of "the felting, vats, rollers, presses, wire- cloth, or any separate parts of the machinery," but did claim, as his specific invention, "the construction and use of the peculiar kind of cylinder and the several parts there- of in combination for the purposes aforesaid," that is, to be used in the vat containing paper-pulp. Thomas Gilpin, in a deposition, was one of the witnesses against Ames. The jury in the case, which was "John Ames vs. Charles Howard and others," found for the plaintiff. A new trial was denied by Judge Joseph Story in the October term of the circuit court of the United States, 1833. 178 Litigation did not end with this decision, however. In- fringements continued and the Ameses were obliged to fight for years to protect themselves. Their legal expenses were a heavy burden to them and in the end they were unable to maintain a monopoly in the new process. "" Charles Sumner : Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Court of the United States for the First Circuit,!., p. 482. 178 THE INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY Like all other great inventions the Fourdrinier had to pass slowly through the region of doubt and opposition before it was finally fully approved and accepted. In Eng- land, between 1803 and 1812, Donkin had made only ten machines and in the next ten years twenty-five more, a total of thirty-five in nineteen years. It was not until later that the machine succeeded in establishing itself in sub- stantial favor. In forty-three years, after his beginning John Ames. in 1803, Donkin had made all told one hundred and ninety- one machines. Prior to 1825, in the United States, the machine had been heard of, but that was all ; none had been seen here. It has never been conclusively determined where and when the first Fourdrinier was located on this side of the Atlantic. The best evidence, however, seems to indicate that the machine was imported in 1827 by Henry Barclay 179 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES of Saugerties, N. Y., was set up in the mill in Saugerties owned by Beach, Hommerken & Kearney and was there started running by Peter Adams who afterward founded the Peter Adams Company in Buckland, Conn., and the Adams & Bishop Company in Newburgh, N. Y. The ma- chine was built by Donkin of London and was sixty inches in width. The senior member of this firm of paper-manu- facturers was Moses Y. Beach, afterward owner and publisher of the Nezv York Sun. In later years this mill was owned by J. B. Sheffield & Son and parts of the original machine remained in use for forty-five years, being finally destroyed by fire in 1872. A second Fourdrinier, sixty-two inches wide, built by Joseph Newbold, near Bury, England, was placed in this mill in 1829. But prior to this, in December, 1827, the second Fourdrinier in the United States, sixty inches wide, was imported from England and set up in the Pickering Mill, in Windham, Conn. In March 1829 William Marshall from England brought over a machine to Boston in the ship Dover. 179 The first Fourdrinier made in the United States was by the Smith & Winchester Manufacturing Company in their shops in South Windham, Conn., in 1829. It was set up in the mill of Amos H. Hubbard, — in later time The A. H. Hubbard Company — Norwich, Conn., in May of that year. The same company made another machine for Henry Hudson of East Hartford, Conn., and a third for the mill of W. & C. Baldwin, near Bloomfield, N. J. These three Fourdriniers were all that were made in this country before 1833. Writing in 1850, James M. Wilcox of the Ivy Mills in Pennsylvania, referred to the advent of machinery, of which he had practical knowledge, and said that between 1820 and 1830 the first efforts were made to import ma- chinery from Europe but the experiments failed of success for the reason that the machines [Fourdriniers] which were brought from England were sometimes imperfect and also cost too much. He spoke of the machines made The Paper Trade Journal, October 26, 1897, p. 69. 180 THE INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY at reasonable prices in 1830 by Phelps & Spafford of Wind- ham, Conn., and soon after by Howe & Goddard of Worcester, Mass., and added, "I believe these two estab- lishments make all in the United States [1850]." Mr. Willcox expressed only qualified approval of the cylinder machines then in use saying : "The cylinder machine, more simple and less costly than the other, is in more general use ; but the paper made on it is not equal in quality. Not- withstanding it does very well for news, and the various purposes which a coarse article will answer for." 180 Peter Adams. The first felts produced in the United States for paper machines were made in 1864. Prior to that time all end- less felts had been imported from Europe, notwithstanding the fact that cylinder and Fourdrinier machines had been slowly increasing in number here for nearly fifty years. The manufacture was undertaken by Samuel T. Thomas, Albert Johnson, Andrew Fuller and Charles C. Newcomb, as the firm of Johnson, Fuller & Co. A mill in Camden, 180 Report of the Commissioner of Patents [United States] for the Year 1850, (1851), p. 404. 181 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES Me., was leased and equipped with machinery and the experiment was successful from the outset. New machin- ery was invented, the mill was enlarged, new buildings were erected and the business expanded as the demands of the industry increased. In 1872 the firm changed into a stock company called the Knox Woolen Company and has so continued to the present day. A woolen mill owned by Asa Shuler, in Hamilton, Ohio, made piece felts for paper-mills as early at 1854. In 1866, having learned from an English workman how endless felts were made abroad, Shuler entered upon that branch of manufacturing and ultimately, with John W. Benning- hofen as a partner, the firm became pre-eminently success- ful in this line. Others who were in the business between 1870 and 1900 were: H. Waterbury and F. C. Huyck, Rensselaerville, N. Y. ; The H. Waterbury Sons Company, Oriskany, N. Y. ; H. C. Huyck and partners in Bethlehem and Rensselaer, N. Y. ; The Acme Felt Company and The Albany Felt Company, Albany, N. Y. ; The Akron Woolen and Felt Company, Akron, Ohio, which, in 1892, was suc- ceeded by the F. Gray Company of Piqua, Ohio ; The Lockport Felt Company, Newfane, N. Y. ; The Megunti- cook Woolen Company, Camden, Me. ; The Appleton Woolen Company, Appleton, Wis. ; Green Brothers, Caze- novia, - N. Y. ; The Rumford Falls Woolen Company, Rumford Falls, Me. ; L. Heathcote, Glen Rock, Pa. ; Weiss & Son, Charleston, 111. ; there had also been mills in Law- rence, Mass., Louisburgh, Pa., Philadelphia and elsewhere, before the end of the century. Five of these old establishments have continued to the present day : Shuler & Benninghofen, The Lockport Felt Company, The Appleton Woolen Mills, The Albany Felt Company and The Knox Woolen Company. In contem- poraneous time The Fitchburg Duck Mills have come into this line of manufacturing. 181 Fourdrinier wires continued to be imported from Eng- land for twenty years after the first Fourdrinier machine was set up in the United States. In 1847 William Staniar, The Paper Trade Journal, October 16, 1897, p. 84. 182 THE INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY who had served his apprenticeship in one of the largest wire-cloth weaving establishments in Manchester, England, came to this country for the express purpose of starting the manufacture here. He was admitted to be a member y of the firm of Stephens & Thomas, afterward William Ste- phens & Son, wire-weavers, in Belleville, N. J. He brought William Staniar. with him a model from which Cornelius Van Houten made the first American loom and on this, Staniar and Van Hou- ten wove the first American wire, in September 1847. That wire was sixty-two inches wide by twenty-four feet ten inches long and was used in the mill of J. & R. Kingsland, North Belleville, afterward Franklin, N. J. It was a difficult task introducing American wires. In 183 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES the paper-mills the machines were generally run by English and Scotch tenders who were constitutionally opposed to most things American. Also there were trade customs to be overcome and importers tried in every way to keep out the home-made wires. In the end, however, these wires succeeded, in spite of all opposition, and the time soon came when they were recognized as being superior to anything of the kind that was made in Europe. A year after Staniar, another worker at wire-weaving, Robert Buchanan, came from Glasgow, Scotland. He located in Jersey City, N. J., but his plant was destroyed by fire before he was able to commence weaving. There- upon he went to work for William Stephens & Son in Belle- ville and wove with John McMurray, another newly- arrived Scot. Out of the Stephens establishment came, directly or indirectly, nearly all the big wire-weaving concerns of sub- sequent years. In the panic of 1851 William Stephens & Son failed. Staniar then started in business for himself, first in Belleville and then in East Newark, N. J., where the Staniar & Laffey Wire Company existed until into the next century. John McMurray left Stephens and, with the Cabbie brothers, established another Fourdrinier busi- ness which in time became the William Cabbie Excelsior Wire Manufacturing Company. The De Witt Wire Cloth Company succeeded the Stephens concern in Belleville and Cornelius Van Houten was one of its promoters. Robert Buchanan left the De Witt company in 1876 and, with his sons, Andrew and James, removed to Boston where they started Morss & Whyte in the business. Sub- sequently they went to Holyoke and established The Hol- yoke Wire Works which eventually became The Buchanan & Bolt Wire Company. William Buchanan, another son of Robert Buchanan, served his apprenticeship in the shops of Stephens and De Witt and, in 1876, with Charles Smith, established the Standard Wire Works in Bloomfield, N. J. In 1877 John Eastwood was admitted to partnership in the Standard Wire Works, the concern being removed to Belle- ville, and its name changed to Eastwood, Buchanan & Smith and then to The Eastwood Wire Manufacturing 184 THE INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY Company. In 1882 William Buchanan removed to Spring- field, Mass., and there was foreman of the Fourdrinier department of the Cheney Bigelow Wire Works. In 1896 he went to Appleton, Wis., and, with two sons and a brother-in-law, established the Appleton Wire Works. Fifty years after the beginning there were fifteen or more manufacturers running about two hundred broad looms on Fourdrinier wires, cylinder covers, dandy covers Cornelius Van Houten. and washer wires. The home mills were almost entirely supplied from these sources, only a few wires, of special character, being imported from Great Britain and France. The names of the manufacturers and the locations of their plants were: Massachusetts — The Cheney Bigelow Wire Works, Springfield ; Buchanan & Bolt Wire Company and Brown 185 PAPER MANUFACTURING into* UNITED STATES & Sellers, Holyoke; The Thistle Wire Company, Lee. Connecticut — H. & T. McCluskey & Sons. New York — The William Cabbie Excelsior Wire Manufacturing Com- pany, Brooklyn. New Jersey — The De Witt Wire Cloth Company and The Eastwood Wire Manufacturing Com- pany, Belleville; Alfred Workman, Kearney; The Staniar & Laffey Wire Company and The Lewis Wire Works, East Newark ; Thomas E. Gleeson, Harrison. Ohio — The Reed Wire Works, Newark ; The Tyler Wire Works, Cleveland. Wisconsin — The Appleton Wire Works, Appleton. In 1916, of these early manufacturers, there were still left in the business the Buchanan & Bolt Wire Company, The Cheney Bigelow Wire Works, The Eastwood Wire Manufacturing Company and Thomas E. Gleeson, Inc. ; with them were The Lindsay Wire Weaving Company, Cleveland, O. ; The Joseph O'Neil Wire Works, Southport, Conn., and The Standard Wire Company, Harrison, N. J. The first American dandy roll was made in the Stephens shop, Belleville, N. J., in 1847, by Cornelius Van Houten. William Staniar lettered this and he has told how "four impressions of a sheet 22x24 were taken off and forty-two impressions put in the same place, there being 1,092 letters, some of which (Romans) were not more than one-eighth of an inch in size." 182 Before 1800 four patents relating to the manufacture of paper were taken out in the United States. 183 In the thirty-eight years ending January 1839, patents to the number of eighty-eight were issued by the patent office for machines and processes for the making and using of paper. These figures for four decades do not indicate any remark- able inclination on the part of the makers of paper in that period rapidly to improve upon the methods of working in the industry even after conditions had been materially al- tered by the new machinery. Aside from the few really big and important additions to the assortment of mill appli- ances little was brought forward or even attempted. However, among these few early patentees were several 1 The Paper Trade Journal, October 16, 1897, pp. 17 and 67. "See p. 99, ante. 186 THE INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY who made more than an ordinary impress upon the indus- try and whose achievements call, at least, for a cursory reference. John Ames, of Springfield, Mass., was easily first in respect to the number and value of his inventions. Notwithstanding failure fully to profit from his cylinder machine he continued to devise other labor-saving appli- ances, altogether for use in his mills. He patented few of his inventions but depended upon keeping their existence secret ; in this he was only partially successful but managed for a time to derive the greatest advantage from them. Besides the cylinder, patented first in 1822 and afterward in 1832, he also invented a process for preparing and dress- ing pulp; a process for sizing paper; a knife for cutting and trimming, and a process for drying. After the invention and improvement of the cylinder, by Gilpin, Ames and others, further changes and improve- ments in paper-making followed. At first the revolving mould or cylinder was turned by hand in the vat, and the wet web of paper was taken off by an endless felt running between rollers that pressed the water out, leaving the paper sufficiently strong or dry, to be wound upon a drum. When a thickness of four or five inches had accumulated on the drum this was cut by a large knife or saw blade, and then divided into packs of sheets of the desired size. The sheets were taken to the loft and air-dried as those that were hand-made. The felt used with the machine was continually getting filled with the soft pulp so that much paper was spoiled. At the end of a few hours' run the felt had to be removed and washed which made trouble and occasioned loss of time. Altogether the process was still slow and far from satis- factory, although in results better than anything before known. An experiment in sprinkling the felt with water to keep it a little more clean led to the invention of the felt-washer or beater and soon came the dryer to meet another "long-felt want." The dryer, designed to dry the paper in the web or the continuous sheet, and thus do away with the primitive and laborious loft drying, was an iron cylinder, generally about ten feet in diameter; in this was arranged a stove heated with wood fed into it through a 187 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES door in the cylinder. After this came the steam dryer, the cylinder washer in the rag engine, the machine for sizing paper in the web, size rolls for sizing paper without felt or jackets, the lay-boy for taking paper from the machine, and the wet lay-boy for handling wet paper. In 1830 Phelps & Spaffbrd of Connecticut, manufactur- ers of paper-making machinery, constructed a complete machine with making-cylinder, press-rolls, steam-drying cylinder, reels and cutter, connected, so that at last it was possible for the paper-maker to take in the pulp at one end of his machine, make the paper, dry it, cut it into sheets of the desired size and turn it out ready for finishing or pack- ing at the other end of the machine. All this had been accomplished in this country while the Fourdrinier ma- chine, finally more famous, was being experimented with in England and introduced into the industry abroad. Inventions generally during this period ranged over a rather narrow field, for the industry had not yet broadened much in its aims or its processes. Principally they included the original cylinder machines and improvements upon them ; methods for making pulp from various fibres ; the sizing and cutting paper; moulds and other minor appli- treatment of rags; machines for drying, finishing, pressing, ances. As has already been pointed out, the foremost inventors were Thomas Gilpin and John Ames. Following close after those two, in the importance of ideas, were Isaac Sanderson of Milton, Mass., with an improved cylinder; Henry P. Howe of Shirley, Mass., with a drying machine; and William Magaw, with a process of making pulp from straw. Other less noted patentees were: John McClintic and George Faber, Chambersburg, Penn. ; Francis B. Howell, Lockport, Ohio ; John Shugert, Quincy, Penn. ; Edward Pine, Troy, N. Y. ; Jonas Bateman, Harvard, Mass. ; John M. Hollingsworth, Braintree, Mass.; Clarke Rice, Water- town, N. Y. ; James Sawyer, Irah White, L. Gale and Solo- mon Stimpson, Newburg, Vt. ; Peter Force, Washington, D. C. ; Hez[ekiah] Steele, Hudson, N. Y. ; Francis Bailey, Salisbury, Penn. ; Richard Waterman and George W. Annis, Providence, R. I. ; Thomas Longstroth, Bucks 188 THE INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY county, Penn. ; Charles Kinsey, Essex, N. J.; Isaac Bur- bank and Gardiner Burbank, Worcester, Mass. ; Andrew Sprague and Nicholas A. Sprague, Fredonia, N. Y. ; Joseph Truman, Bridgeport, Penn. ; Charles Forbes and William Debit, East Hartford, Conn. ; Reuben Farchild, Trumbull, Conn. ; Burgiss Allison, John Hawkins and Joseph Condit. Jr., New Jersey; Thomas Trench and Asahel H. Jervis, Ithaca, N. Y. ; John W. Cooper, Washington township, Penn. ; Elisha H. Collier, Plymouth, Mass. ; Samuel Green, Henry Clark and William Albertson, New London, Conn. ; Mason Hunting, Waterbury, Conn. ; Frederick A. Taft, Dedham, Mass. ; Phares Barnard, Whitestone, N. Y. ; George Bird, Walpole, Mass. ; William Coolidge and Michael Morrison, Boston; Homer Holland, Westfield, Mass. ; Edmund Blake, Alstead, N. H. ; Joseph Robeson, Montgomery, Penn. ; James P. Howland and Alfred Griswold, Muncey, Penn. ; Joseph Woodhouse, Otsego, N. Y. ; Joseph Hartshorne, John Reich, Edward Starr, Parke Shee, Jacob Perkins, Coleman Sellers and Samuel Eckstein, Philadelphia; Benjamin Mestayer, Ephraim F. Blank, Thomas Blank, John B. Pignatelle and Marsden Haddock, New York; Elihu H. Thomas, Samuel E. Foster and Nathan Woodcock, Brattleboro, Vt. ; Sidney A. Sweet, Tyringham, Mass.; Francis Goucher, Chester county, Penn. ; George Carriel and Enoch Burt, Manches- ter, Conn. ; Isaac Fisher, Jr., Springfield, Vt. ; Benjamin Cox, Northampton, Mass. ; Robert Carter, Elkton, Md. ; Moses Y. Beach and Abram Frost, Springfield, Mass. 184 During the forty-five years next after 1838 there was a decided quickening of the inventive impulse in the paper- manufacturing field. Whereas in the first part of the century only eighty-eight patents had been taken out, an average of only a little more than two a year, there were now taken out one thousand and seventy-three, an average of more than thirty a year. Of this number, nine hundred and twenty-five were for various kinds and modifications of machinery and for methods of making paper ; two hun- dred and fifty-four were for machinery and methods for "* Henry L. Ellsworth : A Digest of Patents Issued by the United States from 1790 to January 1, 1839, (1840), pp. 112-114. 189 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES treating rags and making pulp; seventy-nine were for making paper-bags; ninety-five were for making paper- collars, and sixty-six for making paper-boxes. 188 The old mill-men were slow in approving the new ma- chines, long clinging tenaciously to the hand process. In this they were only giving another exhibition of the char- acteristic antagonism of workers in all times against the introduction of machinery in all industries. An incident has been related illustrating this aversion to the new methods, in a mill where cylinders had been introduced. "Gears had been ordered to admit of speeding the ma- chine ten feet per minute faster, on hearing which the old machine-tender, who was short and fat, expressed him- self by stating that when a machine was run faster than a man could walk it was time to quit ; and quit he did." The application of power in the second quarter of the century and the gradual introduction of the paper-making machines brought about decided changes in the industry. Before that, labor was high and consequently the cost of production was excessive. To a certain extent machin- ery remedied this. The Hollander, the cylinder and the Fourdrinier were improved again and again and other mechanical expedients, simple but efficient, were devised. Especially in the United States manufacturers made more progress than in France and England, in the practical utilization of the new machines and new processes. Turn- ing attention to producing the best qualities of paper they were soon able to place their machine-made paper in successful competition with the foreign hand-made. This much had been quite surely accomplished by the middle of the century. Nearly all the mills, particularly those that were newly built, had been equipped with Hol- landers, Fourdriniers or cylinders and other machinery. Even the old single-vat mills had come into line and there remained few of importance that any longer made pretense of manufacturing paper by hand. "* M. D. Leggett : Index of Patents for Inventions Issued by the United States Patent Office from 1790 to 1873, Inclusive, (1874). 190 CHAPTER TEN A CENTURY AND A HALF OF GROWTH Feeling the Stimulus of the New Machinery — Tariff Agitation — Mills in the East Grow in Size and Importance — Beginning the Industry in Indiana and Other States- — Making Straw- Paper in Columbia County, New York — Mill Statistics from the Decennial Census of 1840 BY the time that the first quarter of the nineteenth cen- tury had passed, there were signs that the industry was well on its way to a development commensurate with its importance to the general interests of the growing na- tion. New machinery and changes in methods of manu- facture and in materials used, comparatively slight though these were as yet, were giving a considerable impetus to paper-making. The cylinder machine and the Fourdrinier, which came into the field practically together, were already in the way of producing abundant and weighty results; and at the same time lesser improvements in machinery and methods were demonstrating their usefulness. Testi- mony of a paper-manufacturer of that period may be cited to advantage in this connection. Writing in 1850, James M. Willcox of the Pennsylvania Ivy Mills referred to the advance that had been made in his time, particularly by the introduction of machinery and various improved methods. Among other things he said: "The interval from 1830 to 1840, was important for the vast improvements made in the manufacture, by the application of machinery, and, also, by the intro- duction of the use of chlorine in the form of gas, of 191 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES chloride of lime, and the alkalies, lime and soda-ash in bleaching, cleansing, and discharging the colors from calicoes, worn-out sail, refuse tarred-rope, hemp, bagging, and cotton-waste, the refuse of the cotton mills. These articles, which heretofore had been con- sidered only applicable for the manufacture of coarse wrapping papers, have, through the application of this bleaching and cleansing process, entered largely into the composition of news and coarse printing papers, and consequently have risen in value 300 per cent. "A few mills possess machinery, and adopt a process by which they are prepared for the finest printing and letter paper. I have seen a beautiful letter paper made of cast off cable-rope. Hemp-bagging is an excellent material for giving strength, and is in great demand, especially for making the best newspaper. The cost of making paper by machinery, compared with that of making it by the old method, (by hand), not taking into account the interest on cost, and repair of ma- chinery, is about as one to eight. The present low price resulting from improved machinery ; and the low price of printing by steam power has placed news- papers and books in the hands of all ; and a great in- crease of production has followed within the last few years." In the same letter Mr. Willcox spoke of the gradual changes in the distribution of the industry that were going on under his observation as the middle of the century was reached. On this point he said : "There has been a greater proportional increase of mills in the middle and western states within the last ten years than in the east. Ten years ago I suppose 80 per cent, of the supplies for Philadelphia, came from east of the North River ; at present, I think there does not come 20 per cent. Formerly, a much greater quantity was sent west of the mountains, and large quantities of rags brought in return. In consequence of the greater number of mills in the west, particularly in Ohio, New Orleans, I am informed, is in a great measure getting supplies there. Formerly they all went from the Atlantic states. "From the time of the Revolution, the quantity of paper imported has been gradually decreasing; and before the revision of the tariff in 1846, had dwindled 192 A CENTURY AND A HALF OF GROWTH to perhaps not more than 2 per cent, of the amount consumed, with the exception of wall papers, of which large quantities were imported and still continue to be from France. Since 1846, there has been an increase of cheap French letter paper, but the amount is small compared with the whole amount of letter paper con- sumed — probably not more than 3 per cent. There is also a small quantity of ledger and letter paper brought from England ; but as the American is quite equal in quality, the importation is gradually diminishing. Within the last two years, great ingenuity has been exercised both in England and in the United States, in trying to make a paper by machinery, to resemble the old fashioned hand made laid paper, (yet preferred by many.) To the eye, it is a pretty good imitation, but lacks the toughness, firmness and surface of the hand made. By an experienced judge, the deception is easily discovered. Notwithstanding, large quantities have been used under the supposition that they were hande made." 188 In 1828 the newspapers of New York state consumed annually fifteen thousand reams of paper, the price for which was from four to five dollars a ream. All the news- papers in the United States used about one hundred and four thousand reams, valued at half a million dollars. This, although not the only source of increased demand upon the mills, was, with book publishing, quite the largest, and to meet it many new mills came into existence with machinery and other improvements. Expansion of indi- vidual plants at increased cost naturally followed. Where before it was possible to build and equip a fairly good mill for $10,000 or less, an investment would now represent at least double, triple or quadruple that amount and even more. A few examples are worth quoting. They are losses or costs reported upon mills that were burned be- tween 1832 and 1850: Wiswall & Flagg, Exeter, N. H., 1833, $12,000; Laflin, Lee, Mass., 1833, $20,000; Lyons, Newton Lower Falls, Mass., 1834, $50,000; Brown, Tower & Co., Hampden, Me., 1835, $20,000; Peabody, Daniel & Co., Franklin, N. H., 1837, $20,000; Carleton & Co., Shir- "* Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1850, (1851), p. 405. 193 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES ley, Mass., 1837, $25,000; R. L. Underhill & Co., Urbana, N. Y., 1838, $32,000; A. Bradley & Co., Dansville, N. Y., 1838, $20,000; Phelps & Field, Lee, Mass., 1840, $20,000; Charles Perham, Groton, Mass., 1842, $16,000; Sharpless, Huskins & Wallace, Fayette county, Penn., 1844, $20,000; Hollister, Windsor Locks, Conn., 1846, $12,000. These were mills of ordinary size and value. Many were smaller and comparatively insignificant. A few establishments, like those of the Gilpins and the Ameses, for example, went much higher in value. 187 Greater efficiency also resulted. In 1831 The New York Journal of Commerce, commenting upon these improve- ments, said that development had been so great in the preceding five years that it now used on its presses a sheet of paper one-quarter larger than before and costing one- quarter less. As years passed progress was more and more marked. The large mills steadily increased capacity and in every way adapted their methods of manufacturing and supplying the market, to the new and changing business conditions. In 1848 The New York Journal of Commerce again expressed its astonishment at what was happening in the paper trade : "We were informed a few days since, by a large paper dealer in New York, that it was not uncommon for him to have in his warehouse, and sell at nine o'clock in the morning, paper which was in rags a hundred and fifty miles from New York at nine o'clock of the previous morning. A better illustration of the power of steam could not be given, or of the progress of the age. The rags are placed in the duster, thence conveyed to the troughs or vats, where (in some kinds of paper) the sizing is mixed with the pulp, and from these vats the paper passes over heated rollers, and finally between two immensely heavy iron rollers, which give it the glazed surface, and it is then cut, folded, packed, and sent to the railroad, all in the course of a few hours. The telegraph enables New York merchants to order paper in Massachusetts at any moment, and receive the returns, manufactured, and even ruled, by almost the next steamer." 188 ^See page 146, ante. "•Freeman Hunt: The Merchants Magazine, XIX., p. 342. 194 A CENTURY AND A HALF OF GROWTH In the tariff agitation which prevailed between 1825 and 1860, the manufacturers of paper did not take conspicuous part. Their interests were overshadowed by those of other industries, particularly, iron, cotton and wool. They made themselves heard however and were represented in the various conventions of the time. An anti-tariff convention was held in Philadelphia, September 30-October 7, 1831, about two hundred delegates being present from fifteen states in the union. Resolutions were adopted expressing opposition, on constitutional grounds, to the tariff then ex- isting, as far as it was designed to protect manufactures. A memorial embodying the views of the convention was prepared by a committee, of which Albert Gallatin was chairman, and was presented to congress, in the senate, February 9, 1832. In connection with this memorial were various "expositions pertaining to different manufacturing industries." Regarding the manufacture of paper it was stated : "'The duty on printing paper, not sized, is ten cents per pound, which is about 130 per cent, on the price in France and Italy of that quality which is most used here. This duty operates as a prohibition, and the price of the domestic article is probably increased by it, from 5 to 7 cents per pound. Thus the paper-mak- ers have a monopoly, which is uncompensated by the publishers, and by checking the increase of production, is collaterally burthensome to the printers and book- binders. "The duty on paper, which is 10 cents per lb. on unsized, and 17 cents per lb. sized, might be consider- ably reduced without injury to the makers, for the price is not raised by the whole amount of the duty ; and they would be compensated by a great increase of demand; and they are protected by their raw material, rags, being duty free." 189 In the same year, a month later, October 26, the sup- porters of the protective tariff met in New York in a Convention of the Friends of Domestic Industry to con- 189 The New York Ever ing Post, October 1-10, 1833. Duff Green: Public Documents, Senate of the United States, ist Sess., 22d Cong., (1832), I., Doc. 55. 195 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES sider measures "for the support and further extension of the American system as involved in the protection of do- mestic industry." Delegates to the number of five hun- dred and twenty-five were in attendance from thirteen states and the District of Columbia. A committee ap- pointed to consider the subject of the production of paper consisted of Jonathan Seymour and Hector Craig, of New York; Charles Stearns, of Massachusetts, and Augustus Greele : it does not appear that this committee made any report. A memorial from the permanent committee of the convention was presented to the national house of representatives in January, 1833. 190 Following the beginning in Berkshire county, Mass., other mills were built in Lee, soon after 1826, by Walter, Winthrop and Cutler Laflin and Stephen Thatcher. Be- sides these, numerous other manufacturers came in. To catalogue all of them and record in detail their business activities would fill a goodly-sized volume. Prominent, in addition to those already spoken of on preceding pages, were John Bottomley, Harrison Smith, Sylvester S. May, Jared Ingersoll, Joseph Bassett, Thomas Sedgwick, Joseph B. Allen, David S. May, E. S. May, George Wil- son, C. C. Benton, P. C. Baird, Harrison Garfield, Thomas Owen, Henry C. Hurlbut, S. S. Rogers and others in Lee ; Wheeler & Gibson, John Carroll, Beach & Adams and others in New Marlboro; B. B. Doten, and A. A. Mansfield in Sheffield; Riley Sweet, Asa Judd, George W. Platner, Elizur Smith, Ezra Heath and Joshua Bass in Tyringham; L. L. Brown, William Jenks and Daniel Jenks in South Adams; the Cranes, the Chamberlins, the Carsons and others in Dalton. The mills built, burned and rebuilt in this region, during this half century and a little more, were over forty in number. One of the Berkshire mills, which became famous in the annals of the business, was the Columbia built by the Laflins in Lee in 1826, their second mill. In its early 180 Hezekiah Niles, Secretary : Journal of the Proceedings of the Friends of Domestic Industry, (1831). Duff Green: Executive Documents, House of Representatives, 2d Sess., 22d Cong. (1832), II., Doc. 78. 196 A CENTURY AND A HALF OF GROWTH career it had several owners and operators, conspicuous among whom were George N. Phelps and Marshall Field. The junior member of this firm was in much later time the great Chicago merchant and philanthropist. A younger brother of Field — Cyrus W. Field — worked in this mill as a boy. Afterward, from about 1840, he was a dealer in paper in New York city and there acquired a reputation of being one of the shrewdest men in the trade. Identification of his name with the first Atlantic telegraph cables has quite eclipsed recollection of him as a paper- maker and paper-dealer. Charles M. Owen and Thomas Hurlbut who, in 1822, acquired the Church mill in Lee, soon attained a leading position among the Berkshire manufacturers. They se- cured control of the entire Housatonic water power and went in for factory improvements, setting up a cylinder in 1833, a calender in 1834 and a ruling machine in 1836. Then they built another mill in Housatonic. In 1860 the firm was dissolved by mutual consent. Owen kept the Housatonic property and Hurlbut the mills in South Lee, Both took their sons into partnership and thus the Owen Paper Company of Housatonic and the Hurlbut Paper Company of Lee came into existence. Hurlbut died in 1861 and Owen in 1870. 191 Toward the middle of the century Newton Lower Falls developed into the notable paper-manufacturing center of eastern Massachusetts. Among the leading owners and operators there were William Hurd, Amos Lyon & Co., William Parker, Joseph Foster, Moses Garfield, Lemuel Crehore, William Curtis, Amasa Fuller, Joseph H. Foster, Thomas Rice, Charles Rice and John Rice. One mill, which was built soon after 1800 by William Hoogs, had the record of passing successively through the hands of nearly all those paper-men until it finally became the property of Augustus C. Wiswall & Son by whom it was operated in the closing years of the century to the time of its demise. Earliest among the paper-makers of Newton Lower 181 C. M. Hyde : Centennial History of the Town of Lee, Mass., (1878), p. 294. 197 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES Falls were Simon Elliot, and Solomon Curtis. Allen C, and William Curtis, sons of Solomon Curtis, acquired the Curtis and Elliot mills in 1834 and, with new build- Lemuel Crehore. Founder of the Crehore Paper-Mill Interests in Eastern Massachusetts. ings, modern machinery and other improvements, con- tinued business until toward the end of the century. The Crehore family interests in paper-making in New- ton Lower Falls began in 1825 when Lemuel Crehore, who had learned the trade in the old Milton mill, estab- 198 A CENTURY AND A HALF OF GROWTH lished himself in business with William Hurd. Mr. Crehore, in 1834, purchased the John Ware paper-mill of 1789 and, with partners or alone, maintained the business for twenty years. As he advanced in life he associated with him his sons, George C. and Charles F. Crehore. He died in 1868. In the third generation the business passed into the hands of Frederic M. Crehore, son of Charles F. Crehore, continuing in name as Charles F. Crehore & Son. From the start the Crehore mills made a specialty of press board and jacquard cards. 192 Another family of paper-makers conspicuous in New- ton for three-quarters of a century was that of Rice. Be- fore 1800 Thomas Rice was a paper-maker in Needham. About 1810 he moved to Newton Lower Falls, where he owned a mill in which his son, Thomas Rice, Jr., learned the trade. The second Thomas Rice became an eminent manufacturer, controlled many extensive business inter- ests and was active in public affairs. He died in 1873. Associated with him in paper-manufacturing .was his brother Alexander H. Rice, mayor, congressman, governor of the state and otherwise prominent. The Rice mills, on the Wellesley shore of the Charles river, were originally owned by Wm. Hurd, Rice & Garfield and Amos Lyon. In 1829 there were sixty mills in Massachusetts, only six of which used machinery. About one thousand seven hundred tons of rags were consumed, annually, pro- ducing paper to the value of $700,000. No gathering of statistics concerning the manufactures of the state was systematically undertaken until eight years later. In 1837 the general court of Massachusetts directed the assessors in the towns of the commonwealth to return to the secre- tary of state information in regard to the various branches of industry in the state. The secretary of state made a report, which was published in 1838. In this report the returns for paper-manufacturing showed that then there were in operation in the state eighty-nine mills, located as follows : twelve in Lee, six 1M D. Hamilton Hurd: History of Middlesex County, Mass., (1890), III., 102. 199 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES in Needham, five each in Newton and Leominster, four each in Springfield and Milton, three each in Dedham, Pepperell, Harvard and South Hadley; two each in Braintree, Dorchester, Walpole, Swanzey, Methuen, Framingham, Shirley, Watertown, Fitchburg, Hardwick, Worcester, Amherst and Dalton; one each in Middleton, Groton, Sudbury, Waltham, Athol, Auburn, Millbury, Northampton, Blandford, New Marlborough, Tyringham, Thomas Rice, Jr. ■ Identified with the Industry in Eastern Massachusetts. Fairhaven, Taunton, Bridgewater and Wareham. The total amount of capital invested was $1,167,700, the num- ber of employees were five hundred and sixty-eight males and six hundred and five females, and the annual product was nine thousand and nineteen tons of paper valued at $1,544,230. This list of towns is more than locally interesting in many respects. Particularly it was broadly typical of the status of the trade in other states where paper-manufac- 200 A CENTURY AND A HALF OF GROWTH turing had gradually grown from narrow, tentative exist- ence into a condition of industrial importance. The wide distribution of the mills throughout the state is noticeable. Transportation of raw material from sources of supply, and of manufactured stock to the markets, was still a serious problem which railroads had not yet come to solve. Consequently the mills were compelled to be mostly local, wherever good water-power could be found. Concentration in situations specially advantageous to the prosecution of work had only begun to set in. The first indication of that was to be seen in the grouping of twelve mills in Lee, two in Dalton, four in Springfield and three in South Hadley, thus making a paper-manu- facturing center in western Massachusetts; and also in the grouping of six mills in Needham, four in Milton, five in Newton, three in Dedham, two in Dorchester, two in Walpole, two in Braintree and two in Watertown, an- other center about Boston in the eastern part of the state. There was another group of seventeen mills in the central part of the state. In 1845 another similar industrial census was taken in Massachusetts under the direction of the secretary of the commonwealth, the enumeration being made by the as- sessors of the cities and towns. The work was accom- plished with a fair degree of thoroughness and accuracy and all things considered was as satisfactory as could reasonably be expected, although the final report made the qualification that : "It is probable that the statements are far from presenting a complete view of the industry of the commonwealth.'' From this report it appeared that there were then in the state, eighty-nine paper-mills, twenty being in Norfolk county, twenty in Berkshire, eighteen in Middlesex and eleven in Worcester. From this it can be seen that the localities where the industry had been first established still maintained their predom- inance and that Berkshire where paper-making had been last begun, in 1801, had overtaken Norfolk where it was first begun in 1728. In all the mills of the state one thousand three hundred and sixty-nine persons were em- ployed; $1,144,537 of capital were invested; 15,886 tons 201 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES of stock were annually consumed; 607,175 reams of pa- per, valued at $1,750,273, were annually produced. 183 Connecticut still held its position as a leading paper- manufacturing state, ranking fourth in the amount of annual production, by the census of 1840. Most of the printing-paper was used by the newspapers of the state and by the publishers of books in Hartford. Then Hart- ford was a publishing center, being surpassed only by New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Considerable of the paper-making was concentrated in Hartford county, especially in and about the town of Manchester, on the Hockanum river. In a little Manchester settlement called Union village, Butler & Hudson erected a mill before the end of the eighteenth century and about 1838 this came into the possession of Increase Clapp, Timothy Keeney, James B. Wood and Sandford Buckland, partners under the name of Clapp, Keeney & Co. Paper shavings were used in the manufacture of paper, the stock being taken from the book-binderies in New York. In 1850, upon the death of Mr. Clapp, the Keeney & Wood Manufacturing Com- pany succeeded to the business. Also in Manchester, in the village of Oakland, Henry Hudson converted an old grist-mill into a paper-mill that was managed for thirty years by the Hudsons — Henry, Melancthon, his son, and William and Philip W., sons of Melancthon. For many years the mill was run on contracts with the United States. Subsequently the Cheney Brothers — better-known as manufacturers of silk — came into possession of the property and they rebuilt the mill and improved the plant. After 1878 the mill was owned by the Hurlburt Manufac- turing Company, operating there as the Oakland Paper Company. 194 Peter Rogers and his son, Henry E. Rogers, were prominent in the industry for a half century. The father 198 John G. Palfrey, Secretary: Statistics of the Condition and Products of Certain Branches of Industry in Massachusetts, for the Year Ending April 1, 1845, (1846). m J. Hammond Trumbull : Memorial History of Hartford County, (1886), II., 256. 202 A CENTURY AND A HALF OF GROWTH was a partner in the Buckland mill in 1825 and after 1832 had a mill solely his own where he made press-boards and binders-boards. His son built a new mill in 1849 with a capacity of one and a half tons per day and it has been asserted that he was the first to use old printed pa- per for stock, having a process for extracting the ink. Humphreysville, in Seymour, did not long hold the po- sition that had been given to it by the mill started by General David Humphrey in 1801, although several mills of note were there. Six or eight mills were built, burned and rebuilt between 1825 and 1850 and the principal operators were Gilbert, Beach and Co., Lewis Bunce, the Rimmon Paper Company, De Forest & Hodge, Smith & Bassett, John S. Moshier, Daniel White, John C. Wheeler and Sylvester Smith. In the mill built for John S. Moshier in 1831 the first straw paper made in Connecticut was produced in 1837 when Smith & Bassett were operating it on lease. For fully fifty years Columbia county in New York state was noted for making paper from straw. Before 1825 there had been mills in this region, small affairs making paper of the regulation kind and in the regula- tion manner. In 1830 two paper-makers — Hamilton and Wright — came from Connecticut to Chatham Four Cor- ners. They brought with them knowledge of the work- ings of the new cylinder and plans of the machine which they had surreptitiously obtained. Purchasing a site on the banks of the Steinkill where Eleazer Cady, with one small beating-engine, had been making paper by the hand process for several years, there they built a machine and were the pioneers on straw wrapping-paper in that sec- tion of the country. In 1832 the partners separated, Hamilton retaining the mill while Wright started a sec- ond establishment with a cylinder, in an old saw-mill plant on the same stream. During subsequent years this prop- erty passed successively through the hands of Cornelius Shufelt, Rathbone & Simmons and Staats D. Tompkins. A third mill for straw paper was erected by Ebenezer Backus and Thomas Wheeler not far from the first Ham- ilton & Wright mill. It was locally known as "the mud- 203 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES mill" on account of the generally dirty condition of the water of the brook from which its supply was drawn. William Davis and Plato B. Moore purchased, in 1837, an old fulling-mill on the Steinkill, between Chatham and Chatham Four Corners and started there the fourth mill in the county. About a year later Phillip Winnegar and Plato B. Moore built a mill near Queechy lake. These four mills were the pioneers in the making of paper from straw, in this county. Rye straw for stock came from the farms around about and was abundant and cheap. The paper was not exclusively straw, about twenty per cent, hard stock — rope and bagging — being used to make the sheet run good. The mills of Wright and of Backus & Wheeler had fire-dryers, being the first straw mills in which paper was not loft-dried. Presently the making of paper from straw flowed over the border line of Columbia into Rensselaer county. In 1845 John B. Davis purchased a site for a mill on Kinder- hook creek, in the town of Nassau, and in the following year, associated with Peter C. Tompkins, he built the first mill for making straw wrapping in that county. It was the largest mill that had yet started on straw, planned for four thirty-inch Hollanders and a thirty-six inch cyl- inder. With two engines and a drying-loft, in the be- ginning, after a few years the mill had other engines, a forty-inch cylinder and steam-dryers. It had two large square bleach vats whereas prior to this date the mills of Columbia had only one. Eventually Tompkins sold his interest in this mill and the business was continued by D. P., C. F., and Oscar Davis, sons of John B. Davis. Upon relinquishing his interests in Rensselaer, Peter C Tompkins returned to Columbia where he took pos- session of and completed a new mill that his brother, Staats D. Tompkins, was building on the Steinkill near East Chatham. He ran that successfully for many years and was the first manufacturer to make wrapping ex- clusivelv from straw without hard stock. 195 ""Columbia County at the End of the Century, (1900). Franklin Ellis: History of Columbia County, New York, (1878). The Paper Trade Journal, October 16, 1897, pp. 84-88-90. 204 A CENTURY AND A HALF OF GROWTH The Ivy Mills of the Willcox family in Chester, Perm., were still at the height of their prosperity at this time, •more than one hundred years from their beginning, and in every way they still ranked among the leading estab- lishments of the country. On preceding pages 196 refer- ence has been made to the succession of ownership after 1800. Joseph Willcox, son of Mark Willcox and grand- son of Thomas Willcox who built the mill in 1728, came into the business in 1808 and his brother, John Willcox, joined him in 1815. Another brother, James M. Willcox, became manager of the mill in 1826 upon the death of his brother, and inherited the property in 1827 when his father died. After the death of James M. Willcox, in See page 13, ante. 205 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES 1854, the mill was run by his sons, Mark, James M. and Joseph Willcox, under the firm name of J. M. Willcox & Sons, until 1859. Then it passed into the hands of a younger son, Henry B. Willcox, who continued to operate it until 1866 when the business of hand-made paper was abandoned. For nearly one hundred years and in the possession of three generations of the Willcox name, the Ivy Mills were mostly devoted to the manufacture of hand-made bank-note paper, and in this they were pre- eminently distinguished. The record is remarkable and has not been surpassed, even if rivalled, by any other concern in the industry. In 1829 the old mill, which had been running one hun- dred years without interruption, was torn down to make way for another building on the same site. Two other buildings were added at Glen Mills, two and one-half miles from Ivy Mills, one in 1837 and the other in 1845. In both these, machine-made paper was produced. Dur- ing the first year of the civil war the demand from the United States government for bank-note paper was so large that the facilities of the "hand-made" mill were overtaxed and much of the paper was machine-made in the two mills that had been last built. The Glen mill was in operation into the twentieth century but no longer by those of the Willcox name. Paper-making in Indiana was begun by Isaac Mooney in 1826. Mooney, who had been employed in paper-mills on the Little Miami river in Ohio, went to Indiana and there erected a two-vat mill, the first in the state, on the Big creek, about twelve miles north of Madison. Within a year Mooney died, a suicide, and his mill was bought by Alfred McDaniels who had a paper-warehouse in Cin- cinnati and was also selling agent for Kugler of Milford and Phillips & Spear of Cincinnati. McDaniels, after a short time, sold the mill to Hezekiah Stout who converted the plant into a grist-mill, that being the end of the first attempt to start the manufacturing in the Hoosier state. In 1827 a second two-vat mill was built, by John Sheets, a native of Virginia, who had been living in War- ren county, Ohio. This was located on Indian Kentuck 206 A CENTURY AND A HALF OF GROWTH creek, seven miles east of Madison. In 1832 a machine was put in and the first air-dried binders' boards in In- diana were made. Later, this also became a grist mill. Leeds, Jones & Bissell built a one- vat mill in Richmond, Ind., in 1831. The mill had a single one hundred ana twenty-five pound beating-engine and within ten years another vat, a second engine, a wet-machine and a fire- dryer increased the plant. These additions indicated the general character of the gradual improvements in all the small mills of the western country in this period. In 1837 the business of this mill was incorporated and, in the possession of various owners, among whom were J. R. Mendenhall, Thomas Newman, and Charles Nixon, it existed until after the middle of the century. Another mill in Indiana was built between 1835 and 1840, near Madison, by James Hamilton and Henry Jack- man. For three years only it was operated on wrapping- paper and then was abandoned. Other mills of Indiana in this second quarter of the century were: the Spier in Brookville, Franklin county, which was equipped with machinery brought from Cincinnati in 1834; that of William Sheets and Daniel Tondes in Indianapolis, from 1838 to 1866, the machinery finally being removed to Illinois; that of Daniel Tondes in Lafayette, in 1841, which survived under other owners, Wilson, Hanna and Barber, until 1874, being run on writing, print and wrap- ping; that of Hanna & Wilson, which made print and wrapping until it was burned in 1857; a second mill erected in Indianapolis by Thomas Mclntyre and Jere- miah McLane, two partners, whose special qualifications for making paper seemed to be that one — Mclntyre — was superintendent of a deaf and dumb asylum while the other — McLane — was a silver-smith. Several other mill enterprises in Indiana dated from the mid-century. For about twenty years, Rhinehart & Robertson, Rhinehart & Wood and Rhinehart & Bowen successively operated the first mill in Delphi, built by George Robertson in 1846, burned in 1849 and rebuilt in 1851. The mill was run mainly on wrapping and news. Another mill in Delphi was built in 1853 by Robertson 207 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES & Wood. In 1859 Beckett & Gridley built the third mill in Delphi, equipping it with four engines and a sixty-two inch double cylinder. Both owners were spiritualists, and it has been said that while the mill was under construc- tion they held nightly seances and were instructed by ghostly advisers in the work of building and setting up the plant. But their familiars appear to have been evil spirits for the mill was a failure from the start and within a year was burned. The first mill in Logansport was built in 1857 by Will- iam Archer & Son and was operated, first by the Archers and then by James L. Baldwin, until 1868 when it was dismantled and the building transformed into a distillery. A second mill near Logansport was owned and operated by Eldridge and Bachman. The first mill in Elkhart was built in 1850 by E. R. & C. Beardsley. It was located on Christiana creek and had a fifty-six inch cylinder. Six or seven years later another mill was added under the same roof. Later, a sixty-two inch machine was put in for the purpose of running on print-paper, the other ma- chine being used exclusively on wrappings. The mills were the foundation of the Elkhart Paper Company which became the owners in 1868 and enlarged and improved the plant. 197 A pioneer Methodist preacher named Lamden founded the industry in West Virginia. He was proprietor of a paper-mill built in Wheeling, on the Ohio river, in 1830. His son, Christopher Lamden, had learned the trade of paper-making by hand in the old mill in Steubenville, Ohio, and by machine in Massachusetts. The Wheeling mill was equipped with a machine. The Lamdens made tea and wrapping-paper and found a ready market for their goods. In 1835 the mill was burned but it was re- built in the following year and was then known as the Virginia mill. Afterwards it passed into other hands and made bonnet boards and wrapping-paper. In 1832 the Fulton mill was built by Alexander Arm- strong, Archibald Fisher, Joseph Morrison and Frederick •The Paper Trade Journal, October 16, 1897, p. 104. 208 A CENTURY AND A HALF OF GROWTH Trendley, the last named being the practical paper-maker and the superintendent. During the next twenty-five years or more the mill passed through several hands, among its successive owners being R. Crowl, the Arm- strong brothers, Levis, Little & Co. and Spence & Hanna. At the height of its activity, it was run on both fine and printing papers, its daily capacity being about one thou- sand five hundred pounds of news. Early efforts to start paper-making in Kentucky were not pre-eminently successful and the industry in that state had a very precarious existence. 198 After the first mill in Louisville, in 1814, a second in that city was started about 1830 or 1832 and had a brief and inglorious career. Originally it was a saw-mill located in the woods adjoin- ing the town, and when all the trees which could be cut for lumber were used, Bainbridge & Syler, the proprietors, changed their saw-mill into a paper-mill. It ran for about three years and was then burned. The third mill in Louisville, built about 1836, was operated by Nixon & Kellogg and was subsequently purchased by the owner of The Louisville Advertiser. Later it became the prop- erty of Prentice & Co. ; in 1840 it was rebuilt at a cost of $9,000, but a few years later it was sold under the hammer to Isaac Cromey for $14,000. This was the first mill operated in Louisville by Dupont & Co. In the win- ter of 1832-33 a flour-mill in Mayville, Jessamine county, about seventeen miles from Louisville, was changed into a paper-mill, having an equipment of two engines and a cylinder machine. It was operated by the Messrs. War- nack for about two years and then changed back into a grist-mill. It is small cause for wonder that, after the lugubrious failures of 1810 and 1820, no attempt was again made to gather statistics of manufacturing throughout the country until the census of 1840 was ordered. But the third decennial effort was not much of an advance over those that had preceded it, being meagre in detail and very inaccurate. The returns gave the aggregate amount See page 169, ante. 209 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES of capital invested in all manufacturing in the United States as $267,726,579 and the number of persons em- ployed as 399,307. The actual facts, however, were un- doubtedly in excess of those reported by the official enumerators. The number of paper-mills reported were four hundred and twenty-six in twenty states and the District of Co- lumbia men employed, four thousand two hundred and twenty-six ; with no record of female employees, of whom there were many; capital invested, $4,745,239; annual value of product, $5,641,495. The industry was still largely confined to the eastern part of the country. Massachusetts, with eighty-two mills, was first in capi- tal invested, $1,082,800; in number of employees, nine hundred and sixty-seven; in value of product, $1,659,- 930. Pennsylvania had eighty-seven mills; capital, $581,800; employees, seven hundred and ninety-four; product, $782,335. New York had seventy-seven mills ; capital, $703,550; employees, seven hundred and forty- nine; product, $673,121. New Jersey had forty-one mills; capital, $460,100; employees, four hundred; product, $562,200. Connecticut had thirty-six mills; capital, $653,800; employees, four hundred and fifty- four; product, $596,500. In addition there were other manufactures of paper, in- cluding playing cards, etc., to the annual value of $511,597, of which Pennsylvania produced $95,500, New York, $89,- 637, Ohio, $80,000, Connecticut, $64,000, Massachusetts, $56,700, Indiana, $54,000, Vermont, $35,000 and Tennes- see, $14,000. Apparently there were no mills in Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana. Iowa, and Wisconsin. 199 llm Freeman Hunt : The Merchants' Magazine, VI., pp. 290 and 371 ; IX., pp. 140 and 220. United States Census Office : Compen- dium of the Enumeration of the Inhabitants and Statistics of the United States, Sixth Census, (1841), p. 363. 210 CHAPTER ELEVEN ' THE SEARCH FOR RAW MATERIAL Scarcity of the Staple Linen Stock Ever Present — ■ Numerous Vegetable Fibres Are Tried — Curious Tales of Many Hopeful Experimenters — Straw the First Considerable Addition — Finally, Pulp from Wood Comes in and Revolutionizes Paper Making — The Great Wood Processes VOLUMES have been written and other volumes might still be written about man's quest for material for paper, and without exhausting the subject. Trouble began immediately with the discovery of the utility of a pulp prepared from vegetable fibre. For their raw ma- terial the Chinese, who first used this new process, took rice, the bark of the mulberry tree, bamboo, cotton, linen and hemp. But, with the extension of the art elsewhere in Asia and thence into Europe, the necessity of finding other substances for this purpose gradually sprang up and, as time went on, became more and more an im- pressive factor in the development of the industry. The history of paper-making in Europe and in the United States is shot through and through with the records of persistent speculating and experimenting in the endeavor to escape from the limitation imposed upon it by sole de- pendence upon rags. Broadly speaking, all fibrous vegetable material, from whatever source derived can be used for making paper. That is not to say that all fibre is really usable. Hun- dreds of promising experiments have failed and thus demonstrated that a theory, however perfect in itself, does 211 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES not always work out well in practice. To what extent it is possible economically to produce, from any particular fibre, good paper, suitable for the needs of the time, is always a debatable question. It is one thing to make one hundred reams as an experiment and quite another thing to make thousands upon thousands of reams that will be continuously marketable. The item of cost is the con- trolling factor in every instance, but there are minor con- siderations, such as quantity and quality readily available, adaptability, and so on. A technical success, and a com- mercial surety, are not necessarily synonymous. Materials which have been generally considered most suitable for pulp purposes are : raw cotton, fibres of flax jute, hemp, ramie, paper-mulberry and manilla; stems and leaves of straws and grasses such as esparto, corn, sugar cane, bamboo and cotton stalks ; various kinds of wood, commonly spruce, hemlock and poplar, although pine, bal- sam, cottonwood, fir, larch, aspen, cypress, beech, birch, maple, chestnut and other woods are also usable. Beyond these and even within their field, experimenting has gone on extensively and always hopefully despite manifold dis- couragements and disappointments. Many lists of substances that have been tried have been made up and often printed. In one, upwards of a hundred different substances were included, some of the most notable of which were : trees of all kinds, alga, aloe, as- bestos, asparagus, bagging, bamboo, banana, beet root, blue grass, bran, Brazilian grass, broom corn, burdock, cabbage stumps, cocoanut husks, cotton seed, cot- ton stalks, corn husks, couch grass, palm, esparto, ferns, flag leaves, flax, floss silk, frog spittle, grape vines, gutta percha, hay, hemp, hollyhock, hop vines, ivory shav- ings, jute, leather cuttings, leaves, manures, marshmallow, moss, mulberry, mummy cloth, nettles, oakum sacking, peat, plantain, raw cotton, reeds, rice straw, ropes, rushes, sawdust, sea weed, silk, sorghum, straw, thistles, tow, wa- ter broom and wool. 200 ""Joel Munsell : A Chronology of Paper and Paper Making, (1870), p. v. 212 THE SEARCH FOR RAW MATERIAL Some thirty years ago another writer on the subject confessed that "it would be almost an impossibility to enumerate all the materials which have been used for the manufacture of paper." But he presented a list of "those paper-making substances, concerning which he has ac- quired any information, through diligent research." That list numbered nearly five hundred. In it were all the well-known substances and others not so well known, in- cluding some of strange character. Among the many oddities were animal substances, animal excrements, brew- ery refuse, blackberries, cabbage, cabbage-stumps, cu- cumbers, dust, frog-spittle, turnips, potatoes, peas, to- bacco, water lilies, horseradish, pineapples and raspber- ries. 201 Lists like this might be extended almost indefi- nitely, showing how persistent and indeed sometimes reck- lessly has been the search for a substitute for rags. Within necessarily limited space one can only hope to range over the field cursorily, touching lightly here and there upon some of the most curious and most illustrative features of the subject of raw materials, and dwelling with something more of preciseness upon those things that have contributed materially to the growth of the in- dustry and become a component part of it. In May, 1789, J. Hector St. John Crevacoeur presented to the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia a printed book of which he said, "the leaves of which are made of the roots and barks of different tress [sic] and plants, being the first essay of this kind of manufacture." Crevecceur was a noted Frenchman who came to America before the revolution and was naturalized here in 1764. He settled in New York and engaged in farming and scientific pursuits. He was the author of Letters from an American Farmer, describing conditions of American life, published in London in 1782. 203 Much attention was early given to the subject of paper by the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. '"Charles T. Davis: The Manufacture of Paper, (1886), p. 64. K3 Early Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, p. 173. In Vol. XXII, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, (1885). 213 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES At a meeting of the society, December 6, 1771, Andrew Oliver presented "a small quantity of American Asbestos, found near Newburg, some prepared in Wick for lamps & some for Writing paper." This recalls the report that an asbestos paper was manufactured in a Pennsylvania mill as early as 1728. 205 At one time some experimenters expected much from a water plant of slender green filaments similar to what is called frog-spittle. It was observed that fibres of this plant were disintegrated by action of water and rose to the surface as scum where, finally, beaten into pulp, mat- ted together and dried on the shore, they came out as veritable sheets of paper. It has been noted in a preced- ing chapter that one of the first patentees in the paper- manufacturing field was Chancellor Robert R. Living- ston. The patent which Livingston took out was for a new process of paper-making in which he was associated with P. De Labigarre, and out of it a fortune was ex- pected. A letter written from Tivoli, N. Y., September 9, 1799, by De Labigarre to Peter Van Shaack gives some account of the wonderful discovery, which was nothing more than an idea of using this frog-spittle. 206 Early in the nineteenth century the American Company of Booksellers of New York, Philadelphia and Boston, offered a gold medal valued at fifty dollars for the great- est quantity and best quality of printing paper not less than fifty reams made from other material than rags of linen, cotton or wool, and a silver medal valued at twenty-five dollars for the greatest quantity of good wrap- ping-paper, not less than forty reams, from new material. There is no record that any claimants for these medals came forward. Among early United States patents were these for mak- ing pulp : from beach grass, Isaac Sanderson, Milton, Mass., 1838; corn husks, Burgiss Allison and John Haw- kins, Burlington, New Jersey, 1802 ; currier's shavings. ^Early Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, p. 68. In Vol. XXII, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, (1885). *"The Historical Magazine, First Series, III., pp. 20 and 90, 214 THE SEARCH FOR RAW MATERIAL Joseph Condit, Jr., 1801; pelts, John McThorndike, 1814; rags and straw, and corn husks to be mixed with rags, John W. Cooper, Washington township, Penn., 1829 ; sea grass, Elisha H. Collier, Plymouth, Mass., 1828; sea weed, Samuel Green, New London, Conn., 1809; corn husks, Homer Holland, Westfield, Mass., 1838. Some later United States patents, about the middle of the cen- tury, while the age-long efforts to turn wood into pulp were being brought to successful commercial conclusion, were for pulp from reeds, grain, beet and other refuse, ivory shavings, Spanish grass, sorghum, resinous bark, corn stalks, corn cobs, pine shavings and cotton stalks. Pulp from corn-husks was a favorite diversion of the experimenters back in the eighteenth century, and so con- tinued for a hundred years or more. Four years before Homer Holland took out his patent in 1838, a man in Ala- bama succeeded in making paper of very good quality from the husks of corn and from various kinds of woods and barks, particularly birch and poplar. But neither this nor other efforts matured. The Holland process seems to have been appropriated and improved upon in Austria about 1860. A new patent was granted in the United States in 1863 to Dr. Alois Ritter Aur Von Wels- bach of Vienna and manufacture was commenced in the Clinton mills, Steubenville, N. Y. A few more instances may be cited not because they are exceptional nor because they comprise the whole of the subject. But they indicate the constant activity that was going on until wood-pulp came in to overwhelm every- thing else, and the eagerness with which even the slen- derest thread of hope was seized upon. Said Hunt's Merchant's Magazine in 1841 : "We now learn that Messrs. E. Thorp & Sons of Barre, Massachusetts, paper-makers, have taken out a patent for the manufacture of several varieties of paper from palm leaf. They make, at present, how- ever, only wrapping paper. The editor of the Barre Gazette has received a few rolls, and pronounces it unusually strong, and at the same time delicate and flexible, presenting a surface smooth and suitable for _■ writing." 215 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES In 1860 The New Orleans Bulletin stated that it had been shown seven different kinds of material, growing in Louisiana, and specimens of fibre made from eleven dif- ferent kinds of material also growing in Louisiana. Some of the threads were described as being of a delicate floss- like substance, nearly equal to silk, while others were strong like hemp. It was asserted that paper could be made of various colors, and of any quality from the finest white letter and silk paper to the coarsest wrapping-paper and from materials that were abundant ; bagasse, the refuse of sugar cane, cotton stalks, wild indigo and banana. In 1869 experiments were made in California with tule, a swamp land product, which was said to give a good quality of paper. The scarcity of rags on the Pacific coast affected manufacturing a great deal and the two mills then in California complained that they found it more profitable to make wrapping than printing paper. About the same time a manufacturer of Buffalo, N. Y., came for- ward with a claim that he could make wrapping-paper better, tougher and cheaper, from wire-grass than from any other material then in use. The grass could be pro- cured from Michigan and cost thirty dollars a ton. The Portland Advertiser of Portland, Me., in 1869, tried the experiment of printing on paper made from water-rice, which grew in great quantities in the northwest ; and the customary prediction of a paper-making revolution was quickly followed by the customary failure. Just after the civil war the discovery was made that the reed cane from the southern states, when subjected to the explosive force of steam, could be converted into a long fibre valuable for paper-making. This was sold in the northern states at twenty dollars per ton to be made into wall paper, or, mixed with manilla, into wrapping-paper.* The American Fibre Disintegrating Company had a big establishment in Brooklyn, N. Y., where this process was used upon cane and bamboo. The works of the company were burned before it was possible to have the process successfully tried. Great expectations were based upon peat in the latter part of the nineteenth century. It was plausibly argued 216 THE SEARCH FOR RAW MATERIAL that the quantity of peat in the world is enormous and the fibres derived from it would furnish a substitute for wood for boxboard and wrapping-paper. The low cost of pro- duction, less than one-half the cost of straw-board, was an item urged in its favor. An attempt to work the bogs of peat was first made in Ireland and there failed. An- other attempt was made in Sweden, without success. In the United States the business was established on a sub- stantial scale by the Pilgrim Paper Company in a mill near Capac, Mich., in 1906. The plant turned out thirty tons of box board every twenty-four hours. Notwith- standing its apparently promising start this "peat to paper'' business fell by the wayside after a few years. As late as 1870 anxiety and speculation over the scarcity of paper-fibre was at such a height that consideration was given to the possibility of producing pulp from animal as well as from vegetable substances. One ingenious experi- menter proposed to use fishes which, divested of skin and bones, were placed in a diluted solution of bichloride of mercury and alum until the fibres were separated. It was claimed that when twenty per cent of this pulp was em- ployed with rag the paper could be distinguished from the ordinary article only by its being stronger and tougher. It is perhaps needless to say that this fish-paper did not become a commercial commodity. Even more weird was the remarkable discovery of a man of Long Island, N. Y., nearly fifty years after the fish proposition. The idea was sufficiently told, without elaboration of detail, by an edi- torial commentator who thus disposed of it : "According to the Brooklyn Eagle, a druggist on Long Island has rescued the contents of his wife's garbage pail from the grasp of the collector, and using it as a competitor of easy bleaching sulphite, has begun his career as a paper manufacturer. The discoverer declines to say just what he does to the contents of the pail, except that he treats it chem- ically, presumably putting chloride of lime at the head of the list of the chemicals to be used. He likewise says that the present equipment of paper mills can be used and that his experiments demonstrate that he can make paper out of the new, yet old material. That 217 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES fact will prove 'an epoch in the history of paper making.' "Probably it will, and when it does the full dinner pail and the full garbage pail will go down into his- tory as the 'Gold Dust Twins' of the paper industry. The druggist may have discovered a method of turn- ing garbage into No. 1 ledger, or superfine writing, or bond the equal of Cranes'. We hope he has, but we await the arrival of convincing evidence on the point, feeling, meantime, that it will be some time before 'Swell Swill Bond' will be an article to be found in the stock of the leading paper distributors of the country." 207 The foregoing may well conclude a review that has been desultory rather than exhaustive and that has pointed only to the fact that most of the search for pulp-material has been utterly futile while much has been ill-considered or even fantastic. When all else has been disposed of we come finally to four great staples, rags, straw, wood and jute. And the greatest of these once was rags and now is wood. Esparto would be included if this was a history of paper-manufacturing in England, but its use in the United States has always been negligible. Until well after the middle of the nineteenth century the history of paper, the world over, at least in Europe and on the western conti- nent, was, in one sense, a history of rag-gathering, for no other materials were to any great extent available. In the United States rags and rags only were the fundamentals in all paper-making for more than a century and a quarter, when straw first came in and wood long after. During most of this period the mills depended almost entirely upon the domestic supply and their often desperate condi- tions by reason of the dearth of rags has been described in other chapters of this work. Not before 1800 did the United States draw much in the way of rags from Europe and at the end of the first decade of the century importa- tions were still slight. Then a change began to set in. A veteran paper-manufacturer of that period has described the situation that then existed : The Paper Trade Journal, August 24, 1916, p. 34. 218 THE SEARCH FOR RAW MATERIAL "About the year 1810 we began to experience a de- ficiency of raw material (rags) and were obliged to resort to Europe for supplies. At present [1850] we have an additional inducement to import our material. The article of cotton has here almost entirely super- seded the use of linen for wearing apparel and when much worn and reduced to rags becomes a very tender substance; in fact, scarcely able to support its weight when made into paper. The foreign rags, we suppose average about 80 per cent of linen, which when mixed with the domestic cotton imparts to the paper a strength and firmness which it could not have without it. The best qualities of writing and printing papers contain from 30 to 50 per cent of linen, for which we are entirely depending on foreign countries. But as the use of cotton for clothing is yearly increas- ing all over the civilized world, we find the proportion of linen in imported rags decreasing from 5 to 10 per cent from year to year. We have an excellent substitute for this in our own country, did not its high price prevent its use — raw cotton — which makes a beautiful paper when mixed with the worn out rags of the same material. In 1837-38 when the price was as low as 6 cents per pound, large quantities were manufactured into paper." 208 In 1818 the value of rags annually gathered in the United States was estimated at $900,000 and the annual importations were less than $100,000. In 1829 it was esti- mated that the quantity of rags and other paper stock annually saved amounted in value to $2,000,000 and in 1832 the mills of the country paid for rags $3,500,000, about one-half their total cost of manufacturing. Statistics of the value of rags imported into the United States prior to 1825 are not available. In the annual re- ports of the secretary of the treasury rags were not sepa- rately listed but were classed with "all other articles," as the smaller imports were grouped. In 1825 rag importa- tions amounted in value to $79,639; in 1826, $122,624; in 1827, $128,949; in 1828, $279,041. With slight fallings off in 1829 and 1831 and a drop to $72,661 in 1830, they mounted to $466,387 in 1832, to $707,011 in 1836, dropped . ^James M. Wilcox: In Report of the Commissioner of Patents far the year 1850, (1851), p. 404. 219 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES to $439,229 in 1837, and then, except with fallings to $79,853 in 1843, to $295,586 in 1844 and to $304,216 in 1847, went up quite regularly, year by year, with slight fluctuations to the amount of $903,747 in 1851. In 1854 the million dollar mark was passed, the import figures for that year being $1,010,443. The imports in pounds, in 1843 were 2,106,751; in 1844, 7,301,738; in 1845, 10,903 r 101 ; in 1846, 9,877,706; in 1848, 17,014,587, at an average price of 3.68 cents per pound; in 1849, $14,941,236; in 1850, 20,696,875, at an average price of 3.61 cents per pound. The imports were from thirty countries, but more than two-thirds from Italy alone. Manilla, jute and other materials were imported in small quantities in the earlier years of this century but records were not separately kept until 1843. In 1843 the im- ports of manilla were to the value of $42,149, jute, $37,- 164, tow, $81,913, flax, $15,193; in 1844, manilla, $209,385, jute, $28,692, tow, $15,763, flax, $67,738; in 1845, manilla, $457,276, jute, $92,507, tow, no figures given, flax, $16,- 337; in 1850, manilla, $659,362, jute, $192,816, tow, $32,421, flax, $128,917. The gross totals show an increase from $176,419 in 1843 to $1,013,516 in 1850. 209 Lyman Hollingsworth of South Braintree, Mass., one of the founders of the Hollingsworth & Whitney Company, discovered that manilla rope could be successfully used as stock. After the panic of 1837 several years of business depression followed and, as Mr. Hollingsworth afterward told the story, he found himself not only without stock but also without money with which to buy it. From the hemp sails or canvas that he had been using in his mill he had cut the manilla bolt ropes and thrown them aside in a pile of refuse, as of no value. In the emergency he thought to experiment with these ropes. Cutting them up with axes, he worked some of the material into pulp and then into paper, surprising even himself by finding that he had produced a fine, strong manilla sheet. He took out a patent for his discovery, the patent, No. 3362, being granted, December 4, 1843, to John M. Hollingsworth and '"'Reports of the United States Treasury on Commerce and Navigation. 220 THE SEARCH FOR RAW MATERIAL Lyman Hollingsworth, copartners under the firm name of J. M. & L. Hollingsworth. It was immediately after this, 1845-1850, that the importation of manilla and like sub- stances began to assume prominence. Straw was the first new material that was brought to supplement rags, to any substantial extent. Experiments with straw had long been made in Europe and in the United States before a practical method of using it was discovered by a Pennsylvania man. William Magaw of Meadville, Penn., was engaged in the manufacture of potash in 1827 and after. The hoppers that were used were lined with long straw before the ashes were introduced and Magaw, in handling the straw, dis- covered that by macerating it he could produce a substance that was very like the rag pulp out of which ordinary wrapping-paper was made. On this idea he secured a patent, March 8, and May 22, 1828, and at once began manufacturing in a small way. The paper that he made was of a faint yellow color but strong and durable and after it came to be machine-made was sold for less than two dollars per ream imperial size. It has been said that an edition of the New Testament was printed on it at a cost of only five cents a copy and in 1829 it was used for several issues of Niles' Weekly Register. The story is told — and you may believe it or not as you choose — that, in November, 1829, at Meadville, a canal boat was launched that was built of materials that had been growing on the banks of French creek twenty-four hours be- fore and that two days later it started down the creek and the Al- legheny river for Pittsburg, ninety miles away, with twenty passengers aboard and three hundred reams of straw paper. 210 One of the first with whom Ma- George A. Shryock. §' aw consulted regarding his dis- covery and his idea of adapting the 210 The Crawford Messenger. In Sherman Day: Historical Col- lections of the State of Pennsylvania, pp. 256, 258. 221 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES straw-pulp to the manufacture of paper was George A. Shryock who was then operating the Hollywell mill near Chambersburg, Penn. In the summer of 1829 experiments were conducted in the Hollywell mill and proved eminently successful. For several weeks the work went on, seven hundred to one thousand pounds of straw being boiled at one time and paper made at from twenty to thirty reams per day. Samples of the new paper were sent to John Jay Smith who was librarian of the Philadelphia Public Library and also editor of The Philadelphia Bulletin. Samples were sent to other persons in different parts of the United States and in Europe. Part of one issue of the Bulletin was printed on straw paper and a small lot made into wall- paper by a Philadelphia manufacturer. Shryock was so impressed with the results of these ex- periments that he abandoned the manufacture of paper from rags and for several months devoted his mill entirely to the manufacture of paper from straw. He introduced a small cylinder machine and always after claimed that "this was the first machine ever operated on that material." Within a year he invented the grooved wood, roll for the manufacture of binders-boards and box boards. At that time he had set up a steam boiler of fifteen horse power in which to cook the straw and was making from one hun- dred and fifty to two hundred reams of crown wrapping- paper every twenty-four hours. His discovery of the availability of straw for binders-board encouraged him to extend his operations. He built a new mill-dam, widened the head-race, built a new drying-house, constructed addi- tions to the old mill, put in four pulp engines, fitted more rooms for drying, and added a new steam house with tubs ; all this at an expenditure of about $35,000. In association with Nicholas G. Ridgley of Baltimore Shryock purchased, from Magaw for $26,000, the exclu- sive right to the straw-pulp process for all the eastern part of the United States, and plans were made to increase the capacity of the Hollywell mill and to erect other mills in Rochester, N. Y., Paterson, N. J., Old Chester, Penn., and Chambersburg Penn. The sudden death of Ridgley 222 THE SEARCH FOR RAW MATERIAL upset these plans and in 1831 a new firm was organized, composed of Shryock, S. D. Culbertson, Reade Washing- ton and Alexander Calhoun. This concern, known as G. A. Shryock & Co., built a mill on the Conococheague creek near Chambersburg. The mill building was one hundred and fifty by fifty feet and five stories high, had one hundred and two miles of drying poles, seventeen large dry presses, eight pulp engines and eight machines easily making one hundred pounds per hour. A big establishment for that time and locally known as "The Mammoth," it stood for more than thirty years, being destroyed when Chambersburg was burned in July 1864 by raiding con- federate troops under General J. A. McCausland; and it was not rebuilt. Relating the story of his early efforts with straw Mr. Shryock once said : "It is not difficult to tell the origin and progress of the manufacture of straw paper and boards, but who can tell the toil, labor, anxiety and mental agony en- dured for the first four or five years ? ... In my life of experiments I made paper of every descrip- tion from straw — wheat, rye, barley, oats and buck- wheat — corn-blade, all the grasses, corn-husks, white- pine shavings, willow wood, refuse tan, also bleached straw, to resemble printing paper. But as rags could then be bought from two and one-half to four and one-half cents per pound, it would not pay to bleach straw."- 11 In 1853 Jean T. Coupier and Marie A. C. Mellier showed, in the New York Crystal Palace exhibition, speci- mens of paper made from straw, by a process which they had patented in France and in the United 'States. Feinour & Nixon of Philadelphia introduced the process into their mills on the site where the Nixon Flat Rock mills were later located. Then they were supplying the Public Ledger of Philadelphia with paper and the owners of that period- ical, impressed by the scarcity of rags for pulp purposes, encouraged the experiment with straw by trying to use the new kind of paper from that material. But their good x The Franklin Repository, Chambersburg, Perm., May 2, 1866. 223 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES intentions did not meet with success as the story has been told with humorous exaggeration by one who knew. It is a good story and may be at least accepted as enlivening the otherwise dullness of veracious history. "The subscribers to the Ledger in many cases re- turned their papers with the inquiry lead-penciled on the margin, as to why the owners did not use wrap- ping paper. Complaints were made from a section of the city in which the Ledger was served, and in which a large number of goats were kept, that the subscrib- ers failed to receive their papers. Knowing that pa- pers had been served a watch was set to catch the thief, when it was discovered that the goats, attracted by the yellow color and thinking it was straw, ate the papers. The mortality in goats in that section in- creased greatly, due to the bad quality of printers' ink used in those days and the improper preparation of the pulp which was not boiled." 212 For many years the Magaw process practically had the field to itself. As time went on, however, new methods of treating straw were devised and improvements made. Palmer & Rowland of Fort Edward, N. Y., in 1859, de- vised modifications in apparatus and in treatment. In 1860 Eben Clemo of Toronto took out patents for making pulp from straw or grass by treatment with nitric acid and an alkaline solution. Tait & Holbrooke of Jersey City and New York, in 1863, came out with a plan for cutting and grinding straw between burr-stones and then treating it chemically. And others were studying the problem. Eventually the Nixons introduced many improvements upon the French process and in the closing years of the century the Flat Rock mills were making 2,600,000 pounds of straw paper annually or about ninety-three thousand reams newspaper size, worth about $450,000. Six hundred tons of rags were used, three thousand tons of straw, five hundred tons of soda ash, four hundred tons of bleaching powder and two thousand tons of coal. 213 a2 William H. Nixon in The Paper Trade Journal, October 16, 1897, p. 59. a3 The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XX, p. 330. 224 THE SEARCH FOR RAW MATERIAL Paper from wood was a reality, from time immemorial. Passing - by the Chinese usage of the mulberry and other trees, paper-makers in Europe never ceased trying to ex- tract the fibres from all kinds of trees but without material or enduring success until well into the middle of the nine- teenth century. Concerning nearly every experimenter, it is impressively declared that the idea was suggested to him from observation of the fibre of wasp's nests. Reau- mur the French scientist, in an essay in 1719, pointed out this and, although it was claimed that he was the first, it is quite likely that others had anticipated him in this observation and conclusion. He had numerous followers down to Keller. But for more than a hundred years after Reaumur the wasps continued to succeed while their more ambitious human imitators were conspicuously failing. In the United States, Matthew Lyon of Fairhaven, Vt., made a fair quality of paper from the bark of the bass- wood and there were others in the field in his time and later. Lewis Wooster and Joseph E. Holmes, of Mead- ville, Penn., got out a patent in 1830 for making pulp from wood. They used lime and aspen trees and their process, which was chemical, required one hundred pounds of wood for five to seven reams of paper. An edition of Crawford's Messenger was printed on this paper. A few years later William Magaw of Meadville, contested the Wooster-Holmes patent which was decided to be an infringement and work under it ceased. In 1834 Daniel Stebbins of Northampton Mass., tried the bark and foliage of the mulberry tree. He had a nursery of trees which he had raised from seeds imported from China. This was when the craze for cultivating the silk worm harl spread all over the eastern part of the United States, and mulberry plantations were to be as common as apple or- chards. But the silk-culture experiment failed and so also did that of pulp from the mulberry, although a few reams of excellent writing paper were produced. In 1855 George W. Beardslee in a mill in Little Falls, N. Y., attempted to make pulp from basswood but his ex- periment was not successful. In 1863 an edition of The Boston Journal was printed on paper made from basswood 225 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES but nothing came from this, although it was said that "the paper presents a clear surface, is of soft, firm texture and admirably adapted for newspaper purposes." Milton D. Whipple of Charlestown, Mass in 1855 pat- ented a method of preparing wood for pulp by grinding wooden blocks on a stone and, in the same year, Louis Koch of New York devised machinery for separating the fibres without destroying them, by means of a series of rollers. An improvement in the treatment of stuff by chemical process was the subject of a patent by Julius A. Roth in 1857. Charles Marzoni of New York, in 1858, took out a patent for reducing' wood to pulp by mechanical means, using an "adamantine" stone with steam and hot water and in the same year Henry Voelter patented his method of using a rotary grinder or millstone for abrasing the wood. In 1863 several patents in this field were taken out. Stephen M. Allen of Woburn, Mass., patented a process of crushing the logs of wood longitudinally to pre- serve the integrity of the fibres which were then boiled, ground and bleached. Professor Chadbourne of Williams College came out with a process which combined chemical and mechanical principles and which was expected to re- duce the cost of pulp to one half. George E. Sellers of Hardin County, 111., grandson of Nathan Sellers the noted maker of paper-moulds in the period of the revolution, took out a patent for preparing fibre by vertical pressure. Several years of seemingly fruitless experimenting, principally in the town of Reading England, preceded the final success of Hugh Burgess and his partner Charles Watt in making pulp from wood by chemical process. In 1851 they were at last able to show good pulp by their method and from this, white paper, suitable for printing, was made in a paper-mill in Boxmoor, Hertfordshire, England. Part of a weekly issue of The London Journal was printed from this paper and it passed the test full well. The Burgess invention, simply stated, was the producing "of a good pulp by boiling wood in caustic alkali at a high temperature" with the substitution or addition, in some in- stances, of chlorine or the hypochlorites for the caustic alkali. At that time paper for printing commanded £40 226 THE SEARCH FOR RAW MATERIAL a ton in London, made, of course, entirely from rags, and it was hoped that the price could be reduced nearly one- half if pulp from wood could be had. The process was patented in England in 1852, but the new pulp did not meet with prompt acceptance there. Dis- appointed, Burgess came to the United States with his invention in 1854 and secured a patent here, in that year. In this country he joined with Morris L. Keen of West Hugh Burgess. Philadelphia who had been working upon a mechanical process of deriving pulp from wood. Burgess and Keen conducted further experiments in an old engine-house of the Wilmington & Philadelphia Railroad, at Gray's Ferry, on the Schuylkill river, near Philadelphia, where Keen also had a lumber wharf. The experimenting period lasted 227 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES several months and during that time various raw materials were tried, wood, straw, corn-stalks, bamboo and cane, none being found as suitable as wood. The first pulp was made into paper in the Warren mill of Maylandville, near the pulp-mill, and also by Megargee Brothers and J. How- ard Lewis. Larger mills were built at Royers' Ford on the Schuylkill, the following year and for nearly forty 3 ears work was carried on there with Burgess as manager. Prejudice against the new pulp was not easy to over- come. For a long time many manufacturers held stub- bornly to the opinion that, while wood-pulp might be a good filler, it was not a good fibre. Gradually, however, soda-pulp won its place into acceptance. Jessup & Moore and Matin Nixon became early and large users of it and others followed them. For a long time there were sceptics. One critic wrote thus scornfully of the process : "The great bamboo enterprise was thrown into the shade by another which was organized for the pro- duction of paper from poplar, and located at Man- ayunk, on the Schuylkill river. It had been discov- ered that poplar could be manufactured into paper in twenty-four hours, and with so much economy that it could be sold so as to afford a profit at ten cents a pound ! Works were accordingly constructed of stone and brick [the Jessup & Moore mill] in the most sub- stantial manner occupying a space 1,000 feet long by 350 feet wide, at a cost of over $500,000. United with the Flat Rock mills [Feinour & Nixon] they were represented to embrace an area of about ten acres ; and were thought to be the most extensive works of the kind in the world, and to be capable of producing from ten to fifteen tons of pulp a day. It was an- nounced in the newspapers, which always exercise an unbounded liberality in figures in such cases, that the subscribed capital in this enterprise was upwards of ten millions of dollars. The grandest calculations were indulged in the abundant supply of poplar, with the aid of willow and other soft woods, nearly value- less for fuel ; and were to result in as great a boon to civilization as the steam engine and the magnetic telegraph." 214 "*Joel Munsell: Chronology of Paper and Paper Making, (1876), p. 199. 228 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES In 1863 the business was organized as the American Wood Paper Company, incorporated with a capital of two million dollars. Works on a big scale were erected at Manayunk, where twenty tons of wood pulp were daily made, while in the Royer's Ford plant nine tons a day were turned out. Litigation, as usual, sprang up, but for years the company was able to hold its position as the lead- ing manufacturer of soda-pulp and paper. In this period Effingham Embree was active in the management. Before the close of the century the company failed and the Mana- yunk plant became the property of the Philadelphia Manu- facturing Company and was refitted as a paper-mill. Before that time the manufacture of soda-pulp had been established in other parts of the country. Principally, however, it remained in Pennsylvania where, into the next century, were a third of the soda-pulp mills. Compared with sulphite and ground-wood, soda-pulp has not made a large showing in number of mills or amount of product. 215 Like many another inventor and discoverer Benjamin C. Tilghman succeeded and failed; succeeded in discover- ing something new and practical in an industrial field, and failed to profit from his discovery. In Philadelphia, shortly after the close of the civil war, he experimented with a solution of sulphurous acid to dissolve the intercellular matter of wood, leaving the fibres to be turned into a pulp suitable for the making of paper. The result was success- ful, as to the product finally secured, but an entirely satis- factory method of operation had not been found when Mr. Tilghman, after having spent much time and money, ceased his efforts and went to work in another field. After Tilghman had abandoned his sulphite experiments Fry and Ekman in Sweden, about 1870, carried investiga- tion further and the improved Ekman process came into practical use, first secretly, until about 1879, and then more openly in England and finally in a large mill near London in 1884. The first American paper-maker to take m J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope: History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, (1881), p. 492. The Paper Trade Journal, October 16, 1897, pp. 59 and 140. Lock-wood's Directory of the Paper and Stationery Trades, (1915). 230 THE SEARCH FOR RAW MATERIAL ! up the process and operate on a commercial scale in this country was Charles S. Wheelwright of Providence, R. I. In 1882 he saw the working of the Ekman process in a small mill in Bergvik, Sweden. Although, as there shown, the process was evidently imperfect on the mechanical side, the high grade of the product encouraged Mr. Wheel- wright and his associates to erect, on a large scale, the Benjamin C. Tilghman. Inventor of the Sulphite Pulp Process. plant of the Richmond Paper Company at Greenwood Point, East Providence. Pulp of high quality was made but the mechanical difficulties in the way of practical working were so great that the manufacturers soon found themselves seriously embarrassed. Various forms of digesters were designed by Mr. Wheelwright to over- 231 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES come defects in the apparatus. He took out patents in 1884 and 1886 and was able to reduce the cost of repairs on lining's very considerably. Throughout all this period of difficulty the product of the mill was equal, if not superior, to any other in the United States or abroad, at that time and immediately • George N. Fletcher. thereafter. Nevertheless the process could not then be made commercially profitable and Mr. Wheelwright was forced to give it up. The Richmond mill had two Four- drinier machines and ran on book and news, producing fifteen tons a day. In 1887 the company failed with lia- bilities of $600,000. 21B ^ 2181/2 R. B. Griffin and A. D. Little: Making, (1894), p. 185-7. 232 The Chemistry of Paper- BJ»3»H» \ ... .- PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES In after years the Mitscherlich patents for the pro- duction of sulphite-pulp were brought from Europe to the United States by August Thilmany who had bought the American rights. The International Sulphite Fibre and Paper Company was formed to purchase the American and Canadian rights and to enter upon the manufacture. Under the supervision of Thilmany a mill was built in Alpena, Mich., by George N. Fletcher and Albert Pack, two lumbermen who were primarily interested because they wished to find some way of utilizing the refuse from their lumber-mills. When completed the plant cost a little over two hundred thousand dollars and, in the essential parts of its equipment, specifications and details submitted by Mitscherlich were carefully followed. The process was very slow then, from sixty to seventy-two hours being consumed i'n charging, cooking, and emptying a digester which had been built to contain about twenty-five cords of wood. Within a decade improvements had been made in the process so that cooking was done in from ten to sixteen hours and ten tons of pulp a day from one digester was not uncommon. In the beginning sulphite sold at four and one-half cents a pound and by the end of the cen- tury it was produced for a cent a pound. Mr. Pack did not long continue in the business which was carried on alone by Mr. Fletcher until his death and afterward, until the present time, 1916, by his sons, though ground-wood in later years there shared honors with sulphite. Eventu- ally Michigan lost its preeminence in this branch of pulp- making, Maine, New York and Wisconsin, where wood was most abundant, having a majority of the mills. It has been a tale oft-told that Friedrich Gottlob Keller discovered from a deserted wasp's nest how small fibres of wood were matted into a coarse paper substance and how, at his suggestion, Henry Voelter, a paper-maker and a practical machinist, constructed a machine and in- vented a process for grinding wood into pulp. At the World's Exposition in London in 1867, and at the Paris Exhibition in 1867 full working plants of the Keller- Voelter process were displayed but they attracted little at- tention, although it was shown that mills in Germany were 234 THE SEARCH FOR RAW MATERIAL already producing a good quality of ground-wood pulp. Not many years elapsed before the process was brought to the United States. The Pagenstechers, Albrecht, Al- berto and Rudolph, acquainting themselves with the work that had been done abroad, imported two of the new pulp- grinding machines in 1866. They erected a building on a water-power in Curtisville near Stockbridge, Mass., and there made wood-pulp, in March 1867. The first lot of Albrecht Pagenstecher. pulp was tried in the near-by mill of the Smith Paper Company, under the direction of Wellington Smith, and the experiment was so satisfactory that the company con- tracted to use all that the Curtisville mill could turn out; for a year it had a monopoly of the new material. In 1869 the Pagenstechers bought the Voelter patent for this country and by extensions the life of the patent was continued until 1884 when it expired. 235 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES At the outset about half a ton a day was the capacity of the little mill in Curtisville. The pulp was formed into cakes by hand presses and shipped to consumers in barrels. In the Luzerne mill a method of running the pulp over a wet machine was adopted and thenceforth it was thus /?£/-, '(14 >, til \f4 8 " letter 3.60 3.40 7 " letter 3.15 2.97^ 6 " note and bath 3.00 2.85 5 " note and bath 2.50 2.37^ 4 " note and bath 2.00 1.90 5 " octavo 2.75 2.62J4 3J4 " octavo 2.11 2.03 2% " billet 1.52 1.46 287 CHAPTER FOURTEEN MODERN EXPANSION Mills Increased in Number and in Size in All Parts of the United States — Machinery Expansion — The Rise of Big Corporations — New Men, New Methods and New Accomplishments — Growth of Foreign Trade — Exporting is Begun in Com- petition for the Markets of the World IN contemporaneous times several things stand out con- spicuously in the history of the paper industry. Dur- ing the closing years of the last and the opening years of the present century there was remarkable expansion in many ways. Bigger mills were built, bigger and better machinery put into them and improved methods of manu- facture introduced. The industry was established in new places and, more than ever before, was concentrated in particular localities on large scale. By the perfecting of the wood-pulp processes, an over- whelming increase in output resulted and a corresponding demand for paper was developed. Also wood-pulp made possible the multiplying of the kinds of paper and the manufactures therefrom to an extent that could not have been imagined a half century before. Pulp-making be- came almost an independent branch of the industry, ex- panding into a business of great dimensions and serving many lines of manufacture quite aside from that of purely paper making. Foreign trade began to be a matter for serious consideration. Exports, which in the past had been almost negligible, assumed encouraging proportions. A clear idea of the steady and substantial growth of the industry in the years immediately following the close of 288 :- . ■ r ' : . : -no/. < necf Bad -,-. . — _ :-,-:- ; .' I-.'. :a.: .-.'- -' . : . . : - : :7 -.-..-. ■ : - --. .'-'_-.-. ' _ . '...-.'■ . : •: ---. - ---. =r : ". i r ::, "J-L i . - s- : : : -•• : PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES product $57,366,860. These mills were in twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia. Out of the total number New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Con- necticut, in the order named, had the largest number, four hundred and seven, with annual production of $33,- 405,937. Ohio came next with sixty mills and production value of $5,108,194. The total daily capacity in tons for 1881 was: all kinds of paper, 2,266, chemical fibre, 1,297, ground wood, 3,844. For 1897-8, the totals in tons were : paper 6,675, chemical fibre, 1,725, ground wood, 3,225. In 1890 there was, by the census returns, a drop in the number of establishments reported, to six hundred and forty-nine in thirty-one states and territories. But, in a lesser number of mills than in 1870, more capital was in- vested, more people were employed and the value of prod- uct was larger, the figures being: capital, $89,829,540; employees, 31,050; product, $78,937,184. This showed expansion of the business as a whole and a greater expan- sion in the average per individual establishment. The bulk of the industry was in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Ohio in the order named, with three hundred and thirty-five establishments and annual product $49,767,674. Connecticut came fifth in the list with forty- two mills and annual product of $3,556,257. Oregon and West Virginia each had two establishments and Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri and Utah one each. In the census of 1900, seven hundred and sixty-three establishments, reported for 1899, had a capital of $167,- 507,713, wage earners, 49,646, and value of annual product, $127,326,162, an increase of nearly eighty-seven per cent, in capital invested and over sixty per cent, in value of annual product since 1889. At the same time twenty-nine establishments, having capital of $4,326,629, were reported idle. News-print in rolls amounted to 455,000 tons, valued at $15,775,000, the average cost being $34.62>4 and selling price $50 to $60 per ton. Book-paper amounted to 282,000 tons, valued at $19,467,000, the average cost at the mill being $69.03 per ton. Fine writing amounted to 90,000 tons, valued at $12,223,000, the average cost per ton at the mill being $135.81. Other figures were: 290 MODERN EXPANSION manilla wrapping, 89,000 tons, value, $5,930,000; heavy wrapping, 83,000 tons, value, $4,143,000; straw wrapping, 92,000 tons, value, $2,028,000 ; bogus wood manilla, 204,000 tons, value, $9,149,000. Foreign trade assumed larger propertions in this period than ever before. We had been importers of paper and its manufactures from the colonial and early republic time, the amount and the value of such importations showing many fluctuations, year by year, but generally on the in- crease. Rags and other paper stock had always been imported from the time that domestic mills, in their needs, had outgrown the domestic supplies in raw materials. Now our imports of stock were keeping up and also our imports of paper and its manufactures, while our exports were beginning to show more strength. In 1848 we exported to the value of $78,507 while import values were $415,668. In 1852 exports were valued at $119,535 and in the following year at $122,212. During the civil war and for several years after, paper imports amounted to from one to three million dollars annually. But soon this large importation began to fall off. Cheap news and book-paper, which we had been buying in Bel- gium, ceased to find a market here and so also with the writings, ledger and fancy papers from England and France. Our heaviest importations in this later period were to the value of $1,580,117 in 1871 and in 1877, $1,200,103. After 1877 imports in several years were to the following values : 1879, $1,186,382; 1880, $1,671,120; 1882, $2,034,289, with slight falling off in the next five years; 1888, $2,400,790; 1893, $3,880,981, with slight fall- ing off in the next six years. Until after the civil war our exports of paper were nearly negligible in quantity and in value, and in the immediately subsequent years they crawled up very slowly and with occasional set-back. Beginning in 1870 values of our ex- ports in several years thereafter were: 1870, $514,592;. 1879, $1,117,677;' 1880, $1,201,143; 1881, $1,408,976, con- sidered to be exceptionally large ; 1884, $929,821 ; 1885, $972,493, with a steady annual increase afterward. Inr 1890 our exports were in value $1,226,686, of which; 291 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES amount $234,501 was to England, $181,800 to Cuba, $89,- 540 to Canada, $78,319 to Australia and $74,640 to Mex- ico. During the next ten years these values steadily increased each successive year except in 1899 when there was the immaterial falling away of $16,680. Imports of paper and its manufactures, in 1900, not in- cluding books, maps and other printed matter, were to the value of $3,795,645. From that point the increase was regular every year until, in 1908, the amount was $12,223,- 058. In 1909 there was a falling-off to $11,632,571 which was followed by slight decreases in each year thereafter until, in 1915, the figures were $10,317,211. In 1909 im- ports of printing-paper were to the value of $903,705. There were small increases in 1910, 1911 and 1912, and then, in 1913, the figures jumped to $6,034,023, in 1914, to $11,075,659 and in 1915 to $13,119,912. Imports of paper stock, including rags, amounted in value, in 1900, to $3,261,778. After a decrease to $2,183,- 686, in 1901, there was a gradual rise, year by year, until, in 1907, came the figure of $5,580,528. In 1908 there was a drop to $3,675,926, and, in 1909, to $3,638,034. In 1900 the imports advanced to $5,206,877, increasing each year thereafter until, in 1914, the values of $8,571,207 were reached. Then, in 1915, the effect of the European war was shown in a fall of nearly fifty per cent in these imports, the drop being to $4,817,583. Foregoing figures do not include wood-pulp. Imports of wood-pulp, in 1900, were to the value of $2,405,630, and increased to $4,500,955 in 1905, $6,348,857, in 1907, $8,629,263 in 1908, $11,768,014 in 1909, $13,980,357 in 1911, $16,165,316 in 1913 and $19,- 881,111 in 1915. Pulp-wood was imported in 1907 to the value of $2,792,751, in 1910, $6,392,023, in 1913, $6,954,- 952, in 1914, $7,245,466 and in 1915, $6,572,839. During the ten years from 1900 to 1909, each inclusive, we exported paper and its manufactures, exclusive of books, maps and other printed matter, to annual amounts as follows: $5,477,884; $6,215,833; $7,438,901; $7,312,- 030; $7,180,014; $7,543,728; $8,238,088; $9,536,065; $9,856,733; $8,064,706; $7,663,139. Printing-paper was .exported in 1900 to the value of $2,521,320. In the subse- 292 MODERN EXPANSION quent ten years those figures did not materially change, being the highest, $3,489,589, in 1901, the lowest, $2,140,- 582, in 1908, and, in 1910, $2,766,659. In 1911 the figures rose to $3,689,553, in 1913 to $4,057,219, in 1915 to $4,669,- 009. Writing-paper and envelopes rose in value of ex- ports from $463,248 in 1900 to $975,099 in 1905, $1,200,- 742 in 1907, $1,351,226 in 1913 and then dropping to $1,- 179,232 in 1914 and $1,098,197 in 1915. Of the exports for 1914 Australia took the largest quantity of printing- paper, to the value of $947,185, with Argentina, second, to the value of $447,908. But in 1915 our best customer in this line was Argentina, to which country we sold to the value of $806,217; and Australia was second with value of $744,356. In 1916 we sold to Argentina to the value of $1,039,360, to Cuba, $376,011 and to Australia, $296,- 394. Sales of books, engravings, maps, music and other printed matter to Canada amounted to $4,905,329 in 1914; $4,123,068 in 1915 and $4,420,478 in 1916, being in each year nearly one-half of our total exports of that descrip- tion. 239 Long before 1900 was in sight modern machinery had been the prime factor in the industry, and modern mills as they were to be for a generation at least were fully es- tablished in character even if not yet in completest develop- ment. Looking at modern mills so well equipped with Fourdriniers and cylinders, it is not easy to understand the scepticism as to the efficiency of those machines and the possibilities inherent in them that existed for more than half a century after their appearance and that, in- deed, continued even into contemporaneous times. Few persons then had dreamed of the increase in size and speed of running that was to come in a generation. In 1847 the machines used in the United States were almost insignificant in size compared with those that were to come after. When the Chelsea mill in Norwich, Conn., put in an eighty- four-inch machine it was considered a wonder. Previous to 1867 the width of the widest machine was ™ Statistical Abstract of the United States, Twenty-eighth Num- ber, pp. 292, 300, 320. Ditto, Thirty-eighth Number, 1915, pp. 401-2 and 413-14, 444. 293 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES not more than one hundred inches and the maximum speed did not exceed one hundred feet per minute. At that time it was generally supposed that the limit of width and speed had been reached. In 1872 The Paper Trade Re- porter of New York stated as a surprising fact that, while the ordinary speed of the Fourdrinier machine was from sixty to eighty feet per minute, on printing paper, there was then one machine running at the rate of one hundred and seventy-five feet per minute, producing twenty-five tons of paper weekly. Nevertheless paper-makers in Europe and in the United States still continued doubtful. Their views, as late as 1873, were accurately expressed by one writer : "If every part is constructed with the utmost care, substantially and true, a machine with a wire 33 feet in length and seven drying cylinders of 3 feet diam- eter, can make news-print paper at a speed of from 100 to 130 feet per minute. The width of the ma- chines has also been increased until wires 86 inches wide are now quite numerous, and some of 90 inches and even 100 inches are in use." 234 Not long after this, in 1880, a Fourdrinier was built for the mill of P. H. Glatfelter, in Spring Forge, Penn., that had a speed of two hundred feet per minute. From that time on the pace was steadily increased until, before 1897, machines one hundred and sixty inches wide had been built, an increase of sixty per cent, in thirty years. There were four mills equipped with machines capable of making merchantable news-paper continuously at five hundred feet per minute, an increase of four hundred per cent., in the thirty years that had elapsed since 1867. Those four were in the plants of the Glens Falls Paper Mill Company of Glens Falls, N. Y., the Hudson River Pulp and Paper Com- pany of Palmer's Falls, N. Y., the Glen Manufacturing Company of Berlin, N. H., and the Willamette Pulp and Paper Company of Oregon City, Ore. 235 The largest ma- 234 Carl Hoffman: Treatise on the Manufacture of Paper (1873), p. 193. 235 T. H. Savery: The Paper Machine. In The Paper Trade Journal, October 16, 1897, p. 9. 294 MODERN EXPANSION chine then in the world — 1897 — was a Fourdrinier built by the Rice, Barton & Fales Machine and Iron Company for the Rumford Falls Paper Company of Rumford, Me. The felts for this machine were one hundred and seventy-two inches wide and the width of the paper run was one hundred and fifty-two inches. At that time, in spiking- contrast with this big machine, was the smallest machine in the world, which had been built by the Pusey & Tones Company of Wilmington, Del., for the Heller & Merz Company of Newark, N. J. The machine had one forming cylinder, fourteen inches diameter and fifteen inches face; one pair of press rolls, sixteen inches diameter and fourteen inches face, and three dryers, fifteen inches diameter and fourteen inches face. Even then most manufacturers were slow in conced- ing the real value of the great machinery advance. Especially was this true across the Atlantic. An Eng- lish writer in 1897 thought that he had reached the limit in extolling the accomplishment of the modern machine when he said that : "A modern machine will produce a piece of paper 300 to 400 feet long and 120 inches wide in one minute and will turn out about 55 tons of paper per week." Another writer about the same time, doubting the report that machines in the United States were running at five hundred feet per minute, said : "It may some day happen that the construction of paper machines will be so improved and the 'stuff' worked in such a way as to enable paper makers to work with advantage at this high speed; but I think I am right in saying that the general consensus of opinion is strongly against such high pressure for profitable work." 230 It took less than twenty years for the Americans to confound those doubting Thomases with machines from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and eighty-six inches wide, and a speed of six hundred and thirty to six hundred and fifty feet a minute. ™ Journal of the Society of Arts, (1898), XL VI., p. 416. 295 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES There has been a steady increase in the number of machines in the mills of this country and their producing capacity ever since they were first introduced and espe- cially in the present generation. In 1899 American mills had six hundred and sixty-three Fourdriniers and five hun- dred and sixty-nine cylinders ; in 1904, seven hundred and fifty-two Fourdriniers and six hundred and seventeen cyl- inders ; in 1909, eight hundred and four Fourdriniers and six hundred and seventy-six cylinders. The total annual tonnage capacity of these machines, in the same years, was: 2,782,219 in 1899; 3,857,903 in 1904; 5,293,397 in 1909. In following years the number of machines of both kinds and their capacity increased. The largest Four- drinier in 1916 was in the Columbia mill of the Crown Willamette Paper Company at Camas, Washington, one hundred and eighty-six inches. In the mill of the Minne- sota & Ontario Power Company, at International Falls, Minn., were two Fourdriniers, one hundred and eighty- four inches each ; and the same company had also two one hundred and fifty-four-inch machines. Fourdriniers of one hundred and fifty inches upward were not uncommon and cylinders reached the size of one hundred and forty-two and one hundred and forty-five inches. Among the big plants of contemporaneous times, equipped with Four- driniers, were : the Rumford Falls mill, nine, from seventy- eight to one hundred and fifty inches ; the Otis mill, nine, from seventy-seven to one hundred and forty-one inches ; the Oxford mill, ten, from seventy-eight to one hundred and forty-two inches ; the West Virginia Pulp and Paper mill in Maryland, seven, from ninety-two to one hundred and fifty-two inches ; the eight mills of Crocker, Burbank & Co., in Fitchburg, Mass., fourteen, from seventy-two to one hundred and fifty-six inches ; the mill of the New York and Pennsylvania Company in Johnsonburg, Penn., eight, from ninety-six to one hundred and fifty-eight inches ; the Great Northern Millinocket mill in Maine, eight of one hundred and fifty-two inches and one of one hundred and fifty-eight inches ; the Columbia mill of the Crown Willa- mette Paper Company in Camas, Washington, six from eighty-four to one hundred and thirty-six inches, one of 296 MODERN EXPANSION one hundred and fifty-two inches and one of one hundred and eighty-six inches ; the Cumberland mills of S. D. Warren & Co., twelve, from fifty-six to one hundred and forty-five inches. 237 And in Canada they had reached the width of over two hundred inches and were talking of more; but that has nothing to do with the history of the mills on this side of the border. /> While prices had sailed skyward from 1861 to 1865 they declined at rapid rate from 1865 to 1880: superfine writ- ing folded, fifty-eight per cent. ; machine-finished book, fifty-three per' cent. ; super-calendered book ; fifty per cent. Some scattering figures of prices that prevailed during the third of a century after 1870 will give something of an idea of the conditions of the market in those times. In 1871 superfine book was selling in the eastern markets for twenty to twenty-four cents a pound and in Chicago and Cincinnati for sixteen to eighteen cents. Fine book was selling for sixteen to seventeen cents, straw paper for newspapers for twelve cents and straw-wrapping for four and one-half and five cents. News print was selling at various centers, in 1875, for nine cents, superfine calen- dered book for thirteen to fourteen and one-half cents and machine finish book for ten to eleven cents. In 1895 prices were : news, two and three-eighths to two and three- fourths cents ; super, four and three-fourths to five and one-half cents and machine finish four to four and one- half cents, a steady fall, year by year, for the twenty years. In 1889 writing ranged from fourteen and seventeen cents for superfine to seven and one-half and nine cents for engine sized. Super and calendered book commanded six and one-half and seven and one-half cents. News, not un- der contract, was three and one-fourth cents and upward. Abnormal conditions in the world in 1899 affected the paper industry in this country. The Spanish-American war, the Boer war and other affairs stimulated newspaper reading so that the demand for news print rose, mills were pushed and prices went up. News which, in the preceding few years had tended to fall in price, went up again to Lockwood's Directory for 1897. 297 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES three cents and more. The American Writing Paper Com- pany advanced prices. Book paper prices in all grades went up, super to five and one-half and six and one-half cents. Manilla, tissue, board and all other kinds joined in the rising. Prices were not long maintained at the figures of that time. A year later the average price for all paper used in newspapers and periodicals was down to 2.57 cents per pound; news in rolls was 1.7 cents, news in sheets, 1.89 cents, and wood-fibre book 3.45 cents. With fluctuations of minor character these low prices were main- tained for the next dozen years. Paper-trade journalism began in 1872 when Howard Lockwood published the first number of The Paper Trade Journal. A few years previous, The Paper Trade Reporter was published but it was a small affair and did not long endure. Mr. Lockwood was a young man who had been in the trade only a few years when he conceived the klea of a newspaper devoted to its interests. He was not a newspaper man but he had a natural instinct for news- gathering, a genius for publishing, a good knowledge of the trade in paper and acquaintance with the processes of its manufacture. Independent, fair, honest, and enter- prising from the outset, aiming only to print all the news and to serve the interests of the industry in every con- ceivable legitimate manner, Mr. Lockwood was imme- diately successful and his paper soon became a power for good. In 1873 he began the publication of Lockwood's Directory of the Paper and Stationery Trades; in 1875 The American Stationer and in 1885 The American Book- maker, afterward The Printer and Bookmaker. In addi- tion to these periodicals he published books relating to the industry such as The Chemistry of Paper Making and The Dictionary of Printing and Book Making. He died in the prime of life, in 1892, but he had lived to see his publica- tions firmly established in the foremost ranks of trade journalism in the United States. In subsequent years there were other periodicals in the field notably The Amer- ican Paper Trade and Wood Pulp News, The Paper Mill and several times Paper. Contributing much to a general advancement and broad 298 MODERN EXPANSION Howard Lockwood. Founder of the Paper Trade Journal. development of the industry has been influence emanating from various associations established among those active in the trade. First of these was the American Paper Man- ufacturers' Association which grew out of a convention held in 1878 and which presently became the American Paper and Pulp Association. With an initial purpose for co-operation to control the market and stabilize prices, the association shortly took on social in place of the business character that had first informed it and exercised influence by the interchange of views among its members, on condi- 299 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES tions and problems of the industry. The membership of the association, 1878-1916, included practically all the lead- ing men in the industry. Among its presidents during that period were William Whiting, Wellington Smith, William H. Parsons, Byron Weston, William A. Russell, Warner Miller, Augustus G. Paine, George F. Perkins, Hugh J. Chisholm, P. C. Cheney, Arthur C. Hastings, A. B. Daniels and George W. Knowlton. Other associations in different branches of the trade have been active and in- fluential in New York, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, the Miami Valley of Ohio, central New York State, west- ern Pennsylvania, the Pacific coast and the northwest section. Of late origin and of more business character was the News Print Manufacturers' Association, formed to conserve the interests of the manufacturers of news- print. Under the management of George F. Steele a great deal of remarkable service was done, statistical and George F. Steele. 300 MODERN EXPANSION otherwise for this particular branch of the industry. Importance of advanced technic in paper-making was recognized in this new era more than ever before. The pursuit became more thoroughly scientific — a profession rather than a trade. Technical knowledge and experience were demanded in men who would undertake the work of making paper and developing the industry. To this end schools for instruction were started to supplement prac- tical labor in the mills. The first collegiate institution to move in this direction was the University of Maine, at Orono, which, in 1912, began lectures and laboratory courses on the making of pulp and paper, and on forestry in connection therewith. A small paper-plant was in- stalled in 1914. Students also had opportunity to learn from actual experience in mills and in lumber camps. In 1912 the United States government established in the University of Wisconsin, at Madison, a forest products laboratory, consisting of a paper-mill, with two beating and one refining engine, and a pulp-mill, with a wet ma- chine, a soda-digester, sulphite-digester and two grinders. The plant was for experimenting with and testing the commercial value of different fibres for paper-making. In 1910 a laboratory equipped with grinder, barker, wet ma- chine and other machinery was established at Wausau, Wis., to experiment and study ground-wood problems. In 1916 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology de- veloped a plan to give practical instruction to its advanced students in applied chemistry as related to manufacturing interests. In the field of pulp and paper-making the Insti- tute selected, as a station for this purpose, the plant of the the Eastern Manufacturing Company, South Brewer, Me. Arrangements were made for a laboratory building and a course of instruction in all the various processes of manufacturing pulp from wood and rags and perfecting it for paper-stock; and as an outgrowth of this it was pro- posed ultimately to establish a research organization. And to these institutional enterprises must be added private experimental establishments like the Arthur D. Little of Boston, and the increasing experimenting of individual workers in the mills everywhere. 301 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES Before 1880 hand-made paper had nearly disappeared as an American product, machinery having driven it out of existence. The last to abandon the old method was the Willcox mill in Pennsylvania, the mill of the L. L. Brown Paper Company in Adams, Mass., and the mill of the Seymour Paper Company in Windsor Locks, Conn. In 1897 the Brown mill was the only one left, but there that kind of work ceased in 1906. In England, in 1914, fourteen firms were producing hand-made paper. In the closing years of the nineteenth century came the movement toward the concentration of capital in all branches of industry which made that period most notable in the financial and political history of the country. Dur- ing the years 1897, 1898 and for a decade thereafter, the movement showed a development that commanded the at- tention of the world and that wholly changed the char- acter of American industry. In the field of paper-manu- facturing, as well as elsewhere, this tendency became mani- fest. Capital invested therein increased tremendously and as such corporations as the United States Steel and others of that ilk came into existence, it naturally followed those examples, seeking the opportunity afforded by consolida- tion in corporate form, for advantageous employment. Disposition had long existed toward loose gentlemen's agreements, so-called, in nearly all branches of the indus- try. The futility of such attempts to restrict production when restriction was considered necessary to control amount and distribution of output and to maintain prices was demonstrated again and again. Out of these failures came a few successful attempts at co-operation and con- solidation, but more efforts that were in the end abortive. Several of the large corporations that became and re- mained conspicuous and influential in the industry date from that time and were the outgrowth of the investment influences then being exercised. The International Paper Company became the conspicu- ous success of this consolidation movement. Incorporated in 1898 the company acquired many of the most important mills manufacturing news in the eastern states and grad- ually added other paper and pulp mills, wood lands and 302 MODERN EXPANSION William A. Russell. water power to its possessions. With a capital stock of $25,000,000 preferred and $20,000,000 common and a bonded mortgage of $10,000,000, its assets in 1900-01 were, mill plants $41,586,964, and wood lands and other property $4,101,723: these values increasing in subsequent years. The company then owned thirty-four mill plants, water- powers and wood lands in Maine, New Hampshire, Ver- mont, Massachusetts, New York and Ontario and had con- trolling interests in the Continental Paper Bag Company, the St. Maurice Lumber Company, the American Realty Company, the American Sulphite Company, the Winnipi- seogee Lake Cotton and Woollen Company and the Michigan Pulp Wood Company. The organizing presi- dent of the company was Alonzo N. Burbank and the first active president William A. Russell, who served until his death in 1899 and was succeeded by Hugh J. Chisholm 303 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES who held the office for many years and was the controlling power in the company. Among other prominent paper men active in its management during the first eighteen years of its existence were Warren Curtis, Frederick H. Parks and Albrecht Pagenstecker. Mr. Burbank was again presi- dent in 1907 and after. In 1916, with Philip T. Dodge as president, the company owned and operated thirty-one mills. In New York were the Glens Falls, Fort Edward, Hudson River, Niagara Falls, Curtis, Lake George, Piercefield, Cadyville, Water- town and Woods Falls; in Maine the Otis, Rumford Falls, Webster, Livermore, Solon, Riley and West Enfield ; in New Hampshire the Glen and the Winnipiseogee ; in Massachusetts the Montague ; in Vermont the Fall Moun- tain, Wilder and Milton. All these plants had mills for producing ground-wood pulp, their total daily capacity being one thousand five hundred and seven tons. With the exception of the Curtis, Livermore, Solon, Cadyville, Riley, West Enfield and Milton, all had paper mills, with total daily capacity of one thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven tons. Nine of them had sulphite in addi- tion to paper and ground-wood mills, their daily capacity being five hundred and seventeen tons, the Rumford Falls mill with a daily capacity of one hundred and twenty tons being the largest. The American Writing Paper Company was incorpor- ated in New Jersey with a capital stock of $25,000,000 and organized with Elisha Morgan of Springfield, Mass., as president. The company took over the mills of these concerns : Beebe & Holbrook Paper Company, Chester Paper Company, Massasoit Paper Company, Esleeck Pa- per Company, Hurlbut Manufacturing Company, Crocker Manufacturing Company, Oakland Paper Company, Springdale Paper Company, Parsons Paper Company, Norman Paper Company, Platner & Porter Paper Manu- facturing Company, Windsor Paper Company, Linden Pa- per Company, Nonotuck Paper Company, Harding Paper Company, Holyoke Paper Company, Dickinson Paper Com- pany, Riverside Paper Company, 'Shattuck & Babcock Company, Albion Paper Company, Syms & Dudley 304 MODERN EXPANSION Arthur C. Hastings. Paper Company, George C. Gill Paper Company, Con- necticut River Paper Company, Aga warn Paper Company, Eaton, May & Robbins Paper Company, George K. Baird Paper Company, Wauregan Paper Company and the plant of the Hurlbut Stationery Company. The- company down to 1916," when Arthur C. "Hastings had been president for several years, had done, from its start,- an annual busi- ness of about $12,000,000. Twenty-two mills were then owned and operated by the company. The total capacity of these mills was 828,500 pounds daily. For upward of twenty-five years the straw-board inter- ests have been the subject of more attention from finan- ciers, promoters, pooling agents and speculators than any other single branch of the paper industrv. A volume would be required to rehearse in detail all the history in these various movements for control or manipulation in the straw field. Before 1890 pooling arrangements were 305 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES entered into by many of the mill owners and prices went up and then down as the pool or its competitors might be dominant, but after a time these were abandoned. In 1889 the Union Straw Board was in control of ninety per cent of the mills, but the same year it was succeeded by the American Straw Board Company which, with a O. C. Barber. • capital of $6,000,000, was powerful in the market. Prices came down to $35 and $32 a ton, but soon went up again. In January, 1892, the American Straw Board Company and the independents came to an agreement on prices at $40@$32.50, but the compact was soon broken. At that time the daily product of the country was seven hundred and fifty tons and the daily consumption four hundred and fifty tons. 306 MODERN EXPANSION In 1897 the American Straw Board Company and the Standard Straw Board Company, a selling organization, were in the field in agreement to control, but outside mills broke prices. The Standard retired but the Straw Board Manufacturers' Association came in to do what the other had failed to accomplish; but its success was merely a temporary flash. In the first months of 1901 the inde- pendent mills organized the Manufacturers' Straw Board Company as their selling agency and began cutting prices. During that year prices fluttered around $20.50 and $32.50. The foregoing gives but the merest suggestion of the kal- eidoscopic activities in the field of straw-board manufac- turing in this generation. Through it all the American Straw Board Company maintained its existence in varied experience and changing control. In 1916 the company owned thirteen mills, six of which were in Ohio, in Barberton, Circleville, Dayton, Piqua, Tiffin and Tippecanoe City; three were in Illinois, in Lockport, Quincy and Wilmington ; and one each in Ches- tertown, Md. ; Winchester, Va. ; Norwich, Conn., and Noblesville, Ind. Nine mills were in operation with daily capacity of four hundred and seventy- four tons. The pres- ident of the company was then O. C. Barber who was one of its founders in 1889 and its first president. Mr. Barber was active in the straw board business as far back as 1874 when he built the mill of the Akron, Ohio, Straw Board Company. He also built the Wabash paper- mill and the mill of the American Straw Board Company at Circleville in 1882. This movement toward big corporations extended well over into the twentieth century before it settled down fixedly into a permanent condition. From 1900 on, for ten years or more, was a period particularly of strenuous and sometimes exciting effort in that direction. Other substantial corporations, that were destined to become prominent and influential in the industry, had their begin- nings then. They were combinations controlling many heretofore individual enterprises or they were single prop- erties expanding to meet the demands of the time. The United Box Board and Paper Company, in 1902, 307 PAPER MAN UFACTURING in the UNITED STATES took over mills operated by twenty-eight companies and firms making straw, news and other boards. Five years later, after prolonged internal disagreements between the stockholders and the management, most of the mills went back to the original owners. In 1908, out of a receivership, the company was reorganized as the United Boxboard Company. Out of this came, in 1912, the United Paperboard Company, Sidney Mitchell president, with capital stock of $14,100,000. In 1916 the company owned and operated eleven paper-board mills, daily capacity three hundred and seventy two tons, in Benton Falls and Fair- field, Me., Whippany, N. J., Urbana, Ohio, Peoria and Ml. Carmel, 111., Rockport, Wabash and West Muncie, Ind., Lockport and Schuylerville, N. Y. ; six ground-wood mills, daily capacity ninety-three tons, in Benton Falls, Fairfield, Schuylerville, Lockport and West Muncie ; one soda-mill, daily capacity thirty tons, in Fairfield, and one sulphite-mill, daily capacity thirty tons, in Lockport. The Union Bag and Paper Company was organized in 1910, for the purpose of taking over the then-existing Union Bag and Paper Company, the Consolidated S. O. S. Bag Company, the Van Nortwick paper and bag inter- ests and several mills in New York. The capital stock was $27,000,000, and there was an authorized bond issue of $5,000,000. The properties of the company consisted of three paper-mills, in Hudson Falls, N. Y., and one each in Ballston Spa, N. Y., and Kaukauna, Wis. ; four ground-wood mills in Hudson Falls, and one each in Ballston Spa, Hadley, N. Y., and Kaukauna; one sulphite mill in Hudson Falls. In 1916 the office of president of the company was vacant and August Heck- sher as chairman of the board of directors exercised general direction of its affairs. The company was then operating, in Hudson Falls and Kaukauna, ten mills with daily capacity of two hundred and fifteen tons of paper, fifty-nine tons of ground-wood and one hundred and forty tons of sulphite-fibre. It also operated bag fac- tories in Hudson Falls, Kaukauna and Chicago and con- trolled a subsidiary company in Canada, the St. Maurice Paper Company. 308 MODERN EXPANSION The Continental Paper Bag Company was organized with preferred stock of $2,500,000 and common stock of $2,500,000. In 1916 the company, Herman Elsas, presi- dent, owned the Watertown mill in Watertown, N. Y., the Ashland in Ashland, N. H., and the Greenwich in Green- wich, N. Y., the daily capacity of these mills being thirty tons of tissue and eight tons of ground-wood. In addi- tion the company owned a bag factory in Rumford, Me. John G. Luke. The Great Northern Paper Company came into being, in 1899, with capital of $4,000,000 and built the big modern Millinocket mill in Maine. Among its owners were Oliver H. Payne, Augustus G. Paine, and Garrett Schenck. The company acquired 260,000 acres of timber land and subse- quently added other paper and pulp mills to its property. In 1916, besides its original ten-machine news-mill, of three hundred and twenty tons daily capacity, it had a 309 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES news-mill in East Millinocket, of one hundred and eighty tons daily capacity, a news and bag - paper-mill in Madi- son, Me., of sixty tons daily capacity, and three pulp- mills, with daily capacity of six hundred and ten tons of ground wood, and sulphite fibre. The West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, already a large and flourishing concern under the presidency of John G. Luke, was reincorporated, in 1899, and consoli- dated the property of the Morrison and Case Paper Company in Tyrone, Penn., with that which it owned in West Virginia. By 1916 the company had further expanded in five states, New York, Pennsylvania, Mary- land, Virginia and West Virginia, having five paper-mills with daily capacity of four hundred and fifty tons of book, writing and other papers ; four soda-pulp mills with daily capacity of two hundred tons, and three sulphite-fibre mills with daily capacity of one hundred and seventy tons. Among other large corporations that came into being after 1900 were: the St. Croix Paper Company, $2,500,- 000, the Finch, Pruyn & Co., $3,000,000 ; the consolidation of the ( Columbia River Paper Company and the Crown Paper Company as the Crown-Columbia Pulp and Paper Company, $1,000,000; the Champion Fibre Company to build a pulp mill in North Carolina, $1,000,000; the con- solidation of the Bryant Paper Company, the Imperial Coating Mills and the Superior Paper Company into the Bryant Paper Company, of Kalamazoo, Mich.; the consoli- dation of the Tytus Paper Company, the Gardner Paper Company and the Middletown Paper Bag Company into the Tytus-Gardner Manufacturing Company, $1,000,000; the consolidation of the Nekoosa Paper Company, the John Edwards Manufacturing Company and the Port Ed- wards Fibre Company into the Nekoosa-Edwards Com- pany, $3,000,000. The Bryant Paper Company, with a capital of $3,000,000 which was increased to $6,500,000, in 1916, became the largest producing mill in the world, of book-paper. Instances like the foregoing might be multiplied but sufficient have been noted to show the trend of things. The industry grew as it had never grown before in any other 310 MODERN EXPANSION William H. Parsons. period of its existence. Scores of concerns were incor- porated with capitalizations ranging from half a million to several million dollars, while others, already well-estab- lished, increased capitalizations in similar figures. Mil- lion dollar corporations became almost commonplace to paper-manufacturers. In 1912 nineteen new paper and pulp enterprises were inaugurated with a capitalization of $15,240,000. In addition there were incorporated nine companies dealing in lumber products and pulp-wood lands, with capital of $4,130,000. That was a fair example of what was taking place, in this decade. 311 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES In this era of business expansion, when "trusts" had everywhere become the order of the day, discussion of combinations reached, at times, a state of feverish excite-, ment among paper-manufacturers. A great deal of this discussion did not get much beyond the speculative and spectacular stage, but presently the field of paper learned to know the promoter. Nearly all branches of the indus- try were exploited and sometimes disastrously. One figure that loomed large, in this period, was that of John H. Parks whose ambitious plans, best known as the "Parks' pooling," commanded attention more by what was proposed to be done under them than by any final suc- cess achieved thereby. Most of the Parks' Pool organi- zations, as they were called, fell under the disapproval of the United States government which made short work of them. The individual official members were indicted, under the Sherman anti-trust law, for actions in restraint of trade. Generally they pleaded guilty and were fined $2,000 each, and their association was dissolved. Thus went by the Fibre and Manila Associations, 1908; the American Paper Board Association, in 1910; the Eastern Box Board Association, in 1911 ; the General Paper Com- pany, a Chicago selling agency for Wisconsin mills, in 1905 ; the box-board makers in 1905, and others. Other combinations that appeared about this time, with ambition to absorb and control, did not last long. The Columbian Straw Paper Company, with a capital stock of $4,000,000, tried to take in the straw-wrapping mills. Begun in 1892, it was brought to ah end in 1895 under foreclosure proceedings. The National Wall Paper Com- pany endured a few years and was then absorbed by the Continental Wall Paper Company which eventually went the way of its predecessors. For some time interest among the pulp-board men was centered around the National Wood Board Company, and then the National Board and Paper Company, and then the National Pulp Board Com- pany, and then the National News Board Company ; and from time to time the Paper Products Company, the West- ern Box Board Company and others ; but all were soon only memories. In 1901 the White Mountain Paper Com- 312 MODERN EXPANSION pany was incorporated with capital stock of $15,000,000 and began the construction of a paper and pulp plant in Portsmouth, N. H. The company failed before it really began ; in 1903 a receiver was appointed and the company declared bankrupt. The property was sold in 1905 to the Publishers Paper Company organized with capital of $6,000,000, but that was out of existence a few years later. The Manufacturers Investment Company started in with a sulphite mill in Appleton, Wis., in 1891, and a mill in Madison, Me., but lasted only a few years. In 1899 it went under the hammer at a receiver's sale, the Wisconsin property being acquired by the Interlake Pulp and Paper Company which had a ground-wood mill also, while the mill in Madison was bought by the Great Northern Paper Company. The Union Waxed and Parchment Paper Com- pany was organized with a capital of $1,800,000. It purchased several mills but later consolidated its business in the Climax mills, in Hamburg, N. J., where it per- manently remained. In August, 1892, the United Paper Company was incorporated, its purpose being well indi- cated by the name under which it was popularly known, "The Tissue Paper Trust." Charles F. Gunckel was the president. In New York, New Jersey and Ohio, twelve mills were purchased and paid for in stock of the cor- poration. Control of the tissue market was assured and prices began to mount. Then owners of straw-wrapping mills saw the opportunity and turned to tissue. The market was broken and, in nine months from its start, the company went into the hands of a receiver, being finally resolved into its constituent elements. Another ambitious enterprise of the period was the Singerly Pulp and Paper Company, organized in 1890 by William M. Singerly, owner of The Philadelphia Record, with a capital of half a million dollars. Mr. Singerly built a mill in Elkton, Md., and went along for eight years. Then, in the stupendous financial crash of all the Singerly interests, banking, pub- lishing and manufacturing, in 1898, the mill was ruined with the rest and passed into other hands. 313 CHAPTER FIFTEEN INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Latest Census Figures — A Wood-Pulp Issue With Canada — Exports From the Dominion Increased — The Great European War and Its Effects — Scarcity of Paper Stock and Other Materials — A Paper-Famine With Rising Prices — A Sec- tional and 'State Review of the Industry DURING the first decade and a half of the twentieth cen- tury there was further growth of the industry. A mid-period census gave the number establishments in 1904, as seven hundred and sixty-one, capital, $277,444,471, prod- uct value, $188,715,189, wage earners, 65,964. The increase of two hundred and six in number of establishments from 1860 to 1905, does not seem large. To a considerable ex- tent this is accounted for by the concentration into large establishments thus reducing the increase in number. An exhibit showing the average amount of capital invested and the average value of products per establishment at each census, beginning with 1860 and ending in 1905, demonstrates this. The figures of average capital in those periods were successively: $25,320, $51,043, $64,878, $138,412, $219,538, $364,579. Figures of average annual product value, in the same periods, were: $38,228, $72,156, $77,314, $121,629, $166,876, $247,983. The remarkable increase in these averages from 1890 to 1905 cannot escape attention as showing the great development of the industry in this generation. The thirteenth census report gave the number of estab- lishments at the close of 1909 as seven hundred and sev- enty-seven, representing a capital invested of $409,348,- 314 INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 505, an increase of $241,841,292 since 1899, with value of annual production $267,869,000, an increase of $140,542,- 000. There was a two per cent, gain in the number of establishments and a one hundred and ten per cent, gain in value of production. While there was a one hundred and forty-four per cent, increase in capital invested there was only slightly more than fifty-two per cent, increase in value of production. Wage earners were 75,978 and other employees, 5,495. New York had one hundred and seventy-eight establishments, Massachusetts eighty-eight, Pennsylvania seventy-two, Wisconsin fifty-seven, Con- necticut fifty-one, Ohio forty-seven and Maine forty-five. Paper was made to the amount of 4,216,708 tons. News print in rolls amounted to 1,091,017 tons, value, $42,- 807,000, average cost $39.23^ per ton; news print at the mills then sold, in some instances, from $40 to $42 a ton. Book-paper plain amounted to 575,000 tons, value, $42,- 846,674, average cost, $74.44 per ton. Fine writing amounted to 169,125 tons, value, $24,966,102, average cost $147.72. Other figures were: manila wrapping, 73,731 tons, value, $6,989,436; heavy wrapping, 108,561 tons, value, $4,380,792; straw wrapping, 32,988 tons, value, $870,419 ; bogus manilla, 367,932 tons, value, $19,777,707 ; tissue, 77,745 tons, value, $8,553,654. The tonnage of ground-wood and chemical fibre produced in three years, was: 1899, 1,179,525; 1904, 1,921,768; 1909, 2,495,523. In 1911 the report of the United States tariff board on pulp and news print paper gave eight hundred and ninety- four plants as making paper of some kind, their total pro- ductive capacity being 5,196,398 tons. Of that total news print and hangings were 1,335,321 tons, wrapping, 1,020,914 tons; board, 1,190,214 tons; book, 786,163 tons and writing, 210,617 tons. In the same report the num- ber of ground-wood mills was given as one hundred and ninety-two; grinders, 1,485, producing annually 2,008,680 tons; sulphite plants, ninety, producing 1,204,894 tons; soda pulp plants, thirty-one, producing 417,387 tons. In the sulphite and soda plants there were 555 digesters. A tabulation of the census of manufactures taken in 1914 was made public in September, 1916, and showed the 315 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES following for the industry of paper and pulp : establish- ments, seven hundred and eighteen ; capital, $534,625,000 ; value of product, $332,147,000; wage earners and other employees, 95,156. Comparison with figures for 1909 and 1904 show a wonderful increase in capital invested and in tonnage and value of product in the several branches of the industry. From 1909 to 1914 the increase in capital was thirty per cent. ; value of products, twenty-four per cent. ; employees, seventeen .per cent. ; salaries and wages paid, thirty per cent. Comparative figures for 1904 and 1914 were as follows: roll-news, tons, 841,000 tons, value $32,763,000, and 1,186,277 tons, value $47,332,392; sheet news, value, $3,143,000 and $5,610,382; book-paper, 435,000 tons, value, $31,157,000, and 786,626 tons, value, $58,496,221 ; writing-paper, 132,000 tons, value, $19,321,- 000 and 195,351 tons, value, $28,637,257; other fine papers, 15,000 tons, value, $2,928,000, and 52,377 tons, value, $5,417,661 ; heavy wrapping, 97,000 tons, value, $4,036,000 and 98,780 tons, value, $3,588,357 ; straw-wrapping $54,000 tons, value, $1,389,000 and 15,606 tons, value, $519,309; wood-manillas, 228,000 tons, value, $10,100,000 and 383,987 tons, value, $17,975,630; boards of all kinds, 521,000 tons and 1,208,795 tons. The news print branch of paper-manufacturing has been largely a development since the civil war. Before that period cheap paper was not possible in the absence of wood-pulp ; and the enormous size and circulation of mod- ern newspapers were unknown. About 1870 the daily pro- duction of news print amounted to one hundred and thirty tons, the maximum in any one mill being nearly ten tons. Since that time the daily ton product of all the mills of the country has been in successive years approximately as follows : 1880, four hundred ; 1890, seven hundred ; 1900, one thousand nine hundred; 1905, three thousand; 1909, four thousand; 1915, six thousand. In 1907 agitation developed among newspaper pub- lishers on account of the higher prices asked for news- print. The government was appealed to for prosecution of the so-called "paper trust" and for the repeal of tariff duties on paper and pulp. President Roosevelt, in his 316 INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY annual message, advocated the repeal of the duty on pulp provided an agreement could be secured with Canada that there should be no export duty on pulp-wood from that dominion. Nothing came from this immediately but, in 1910, consideration of a general trade reciprocity with Canada resulted in the appointment of commissioners of the two countries, who worked out a tentative agreement which, in January, 1911, was submitted to congress by President Taft. In this agreement paper, pulp and pulp-wood were placed on the free list except when they came from coun- tries that had placed an export duty on them. At that time pulp came into the United States free of duty or with countervailing duties ; pulp-wood was free, and paper bore moderate duties. The reciprocity treaty passed con- gress and was signed by the president but it was rejected m the Canadian parliament. One section of the measure was so framed that even with the refusal of Canada to accept the treaty, as a whole, pulp, and paper valued at not over two and one-half cents per pound, were to come into this country free of duty. Thus our market was opened to all the pulp and paper producing countries of the world and especially to Canada by reason of her near- ness and abundance of pulp-wood. The immediate effect of this legislation was to injure the trade in the United States especially in sections con- tiguous to Canada and to encourage paper-manufacturing in that dominion. Depression in the United States pre- vailed until the European war of 1914-1916, in a measure, overcame the condition. Comparative figures of exports from Canada before and after this legislation demonstrate how it worked. In 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, for the fiscal years ending March 31, exports from Canada to the United States were in value as follows : 238 All paper, $2,- 075,889, $2,086,304, $9,390,144, $10,616,753, $12,950,491 ; printing paper, $1,962,832, $1,989,863, $4,242,298, $9,818,- 539, $12,126,982; chemical wood pulp, $1,298,162, $1,585,- 138 Dominion of Canada. Session Papers, Vol. 51, No. 7. Report of the Department of Trade and Commerce for 1915. Part III., pp. 195 and 199. 317 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES 615, $1,995,817, $2,660,013, $4,550,196; mechanical wood pulp, $3,796,427, $2,834,329, $2,580,462, $2,253,621, $2,893,618; pulp wood, $6,092,715, $5,697,901, $6,806,945, $7,388,770, $6,817,311. These yearly figures differ slightly from those in the United States reports for the reason that the United States fiscal years end June 30. During our fiscal year ending June, 1916, Canada exported $17,759,018 worth of paper to the United States. Exports of pulp-wood were valued at $6,102,170, all of which came to the United States, a decrease from 1915 of $360,955. Wood-pulp exports to the United States were to the value of $10,793,647. Im- ports of finished paper and the manufactures thereof from the United States were to the value of $4,243,530, and books, periodicals, etc., $4,076,671. The Underwood-Simmons tariff bill of 1913 operated to repeal the section of the reciprocity act of 1911, that related to pulp and paper but the burdens that the Ameri- can industry complained of were not removed. Free entry was given to printing-paper worth not more than two and one-half cents a pound and a tax of twelve ceets ad valorem was placed on print-paper worth more than two and one-half cents. It was also provided that a counter- vailing duty should be placed upon printing-paper valued above two and one-half cents when imported from any country imposing export duty upon paper, wood-pulp or pulp-wood. On the free list were many raw materials in- cluding rags, pulp-wood and wood-pulp. Duties on chemi- cals, china-clay, starch and other articles were reduced. Most of the articles on the free list were also free under the Payne-Aldrich act of 1909; except news paper gen- erally had a moderate protection although slightly re- duced, from the tariff prevailing. Most duties were ad valorem and the insidious combination of specific and ad valorem was largely dropped. The revenue bill enacted in 1916 amended the tariff of 1913 by placing on the free list printing-paper of value up to five cents a pound with the duty of twelve per cent ad valorem applying to paper valued above that price. During the first year of the great European war the 318 INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY industry in this country was in disturbed condition. At the beginning everybody, apprehensive, was buying every- thing in sight, so that trade was booming. Then came the reaction to be expected and a general inactivity out of which normal conditions gradually returned. Foreign trade kept up for a time, but soon there was a dearth of raw materials, especially chemicals and colors. The supply of pulp was first abundant but eventually became scarce, with prices high. Rags went along the same road. All kinds of paper had a record, for the year, of up and down, settling finally into practically normal. In 1916 there was a marked change. Demand for paper, especially printing, increased, and, although mills were running at top-notch the market could not be fully supplied. Raw materials were scarcer and some were entirely non-procurable. This scarcity revived recollections of like conditions in the in- dustry in its earlier years. History was repeating and, as then, so now the public was exhorted to help by saving rags and old paper. The United States secretary of the interior and the United States chamber of commerce sent out notices to be distributed urging attention to the needs of the paper-manufacturers and newspapers carried adver- tisements urging the saving of waste paper. Throughout the summer the situation grew steadily worse, so far as shortage of paper was concerned. News- papers were especially hard hit, finding it impossible to get paper according to their needs and even the govern- ment printing office in Washington feared that it would run short. Many newspapers cut down their size and the American Newspaper Publishers Association and the United States Federal Trade Commission urged publishers and other users of paper to practice rigid economies. It was freely predicted that, unless consumption could be reduced, or, that the war should come quickly to an end, so that paper-stock and chemicals could be again freely procured, the shortage would become more and more procured, the shortage would become more acute. Prices went up. All paper was cheap in 1913 and 1914 but in 1916 all paper was high priced. For news, not under contract, almost any price could be got, three, four or 319 p* O PAPER M ANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES five cents or more a pound, while the prospect was that, for 1917, three to four cents would be the market figure and, perhaps, supply scarce at that. Book papers were eight cents a pound and more and still on the upward move. Ground-wood pulp, in September, was thirty to thirty-five dollars a ton and little to be had. With supplies from Scandinavia cut down bleached sulphite, which was $2.75 a hundred weight in 1915, was now $8.80, and un- bleached $6.75. And the outlook was for higher prices. Statistics are available in Lockwood's Directory show- ing the distribution of the industry in the different sections of the country in 1916, the character and variety of product, the equipment and capacity of the individual mills and other relative matter. Beginning in the far north- east, Maine was nearly evenly divided between paper- making and pulp-making. Its large forests made it an inviting region for the upbuilding of the wood-pulp indus- try and for the concentration of much making of news and other papers near the source of pulp supply. In the state there were thirty paper-mills and forty pulp-mills. The pulp-mills had a daily capacity of nearly 3,200 tons, of which a little more than four hundred tons was soda- fibre, over 1,500 tons ground-wood and the balance sul- phite-fibre. The paper-mills produced news, book, writ- ing, bond, ledger, board, manilla, kraft, wrapping, bag, and other varieties, their daily capacity being about 2,400 tons. Of this total, about one-half was news, the leading producers in this line being, the mills of the St. Croix Paper Company at Woodland; the International Paper Company at Orono and Chisholm; the Great Northern Paper Company at Millinocket and Madison; and the Pejepscot Paper Company at Brunswick and Lisbon Falls, which company had three paper-mills with daily capacity of three hundred and twenty tons of news and wrappers, and three pulp mills able to produce daily three hundred tons of ground-wood and seventy tons of sulphite-fibre. The book-paper production of the state, amounting daily to nearly four hundred and fifty tons, was almost entirely in the hands of the Oxford Paper Company at Rumford, and S. D. Warren & Co., at Cumberland Mills, dividing 321 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES nearly half and half, while the Hollingsworth and Whit- ney Company, at Winslow and the Rumford Falls mill of the International Paper Company, one with two hun- dred and fifteen tons and the other with one hundred and ninety tons daily, divided most of the manilla business. One of the historic mill sites was that occupied by the Warren plant in Gardiner. Francis Richards, before the S. D. Warren. middle of the last century, operated the second mill in Gardiner and members of his family succeeded him as the Richards Paper Company in 1884 and after. The company also had pulp mills in South Gardiner and Skow- hegan. Another Gardiner present-day mill, the Copsecook. had its beginning in the enterprise of the Great Falls Com- pany in 1852 but its fame has been achieved by the firm of S. D. Warren & Co., by whom it was purchased about 1854. It is a small affair compared with the other S. D. 322 INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Warren plant, at Cumberland Mills, on the Presumpscot river, with its forty-five beating and nineteen refining en- gines, and twelve Fourdriners, daily capacity of two hun- dred tons of book and one hundred tons of suda fibre. In New Hampshire precedence was maintained by the two mills of the Berlin Mills Company, the Riverside, daily capacity of fifty tons of kraft, and the Cascade, with two hundred and twenty-five tons of news and kraft; the Glen mill of Berlin, with over one hundred tons of news daily ; the two mills of the Odell Manufacturing Company, W. H. Sharp. W. N. Caldwell. daily capacity of one hundred tons of bond, manilla bag and other papers; the Claremont, sixty tons manilla and wrapping and the Henry mill in Lincoln, eighty tons bond, envelope and manilla. The twenty-nine mills of the state had a total daily capacity of nine hundred tons. Nearly one-half the pulp of the state came from the Burgess Sul- phite Fibre Company, in Berlin, which could produce four hundred and fifty tons of bleached sulphite-fibre every day. Next were the Berlin Mills Company, producing daily one hundred and fifty tons of ground-wood and one hundred and twenty tons of sulphite and then the Glen mill with daily capacity of eighty tons of ground-wood and sixty tons 323 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES of sulphite-fibre. The thirteen pulp mills of the state had a daily capacity of 1,100 tons, of which seven hundred and eighty was ground-wood. Of the eighteen mills in Vermont one only was of much size, the Fall Mountain, of Bellows Falls, with daily capacity of eighty-two tons of news, manilla and special- ties ; the next largest was the Fitzdale mill of forty tons of news daily. The product of the other mills was hang- ing, manilla, kraft, tissue, blotting, boards and specialties, the total capacity of all being only a little more than three hundred and fifty tons a day. Eleven pulp-mills had a A. W. Esleeck. Gecrge W. Wheelwright. daily capacity of nearly four hundred tons, all but twenty- five tons being ground-wood. In number of mills, quality, quantity and value of prod- uct Massachusetts still held its preeminent position. It was entirely a paper-manufacturing state having only five pulp mills with daily capacity of one hundred and eighteen tons. But its paper-mills were one hundred and eight. Most were making the higher grades of paper such as bond, ledger, linen, writing and book, although many of the smaller mills made board, hanging, tissue, manilla, roofing, sheathing, wrapping, kraft, blotting and other kinds. The 324 INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY total daily capacity of all was over two thousand tons, the largest producers under one management being the mills of the American Writing Paper Company, daily capacity three hundred and fourteen tons. Then there were: the mill of Bird & Son, one hundred tons daily of roofing and wrapping; the eight mills of Crocker, Burbank & Co., two hundred tons daily of book, bristol and card; the mill of the Haverhill Box Board Company, one hundred and eighty tons daily of board; the mill of the Champion-In- ternational Company, one hundred tons daily of coated; the four mills of the Fitchburg Paper Company, seventy tons daily ; the mill of the Nashua River Paper Company, seventy-five tons daily of book, bond and other varieties; the mill of the Chemical Paper Manufacturing Company, fifty tons daily of bond, linen, cover, writing papetrie and other fine papers ; the three mills of the George W. Wheel- wright Paper Company, fifty-seven tons of book, coating and bristol. In Massachusetts the town of Milton no longer held the prestige which it had won as the first paper-making village in that state and the fifth in the United States. But descendants of those early active in the mills there were still identified with the industry. At the close of the eighteenth century Boies & Tileston there owned and oper- ated both the upper and the lower mill, that of Boies & Clark, 1765, and that of Boies & McLean, 1771. Mark Hollingsworth, who was born in Delaware in 1777, came to Milton in 1798 and connected himself with Boies & Tileston. When Jeremiah S. Boies retired, about 1809, the firm became Tileston & Hollingsworth and the new owners enlarged and improved both mills. Mr. Hollings- worth, who was a trained paper-maker, was the manufac- turer of the concern. He died in Milton in 1855. He was succeeded by his son, Amor Hollingsworth, who was born in 1808 and died in 1871 and the latter, in turn, was succeeded by his son, Amor L. Hollingsworth who was born in 1837 and died in 1907 and was president of Tiles- ton & Hollingsworth when the concern was incorporated. Upon the death of Amor L. Hollingsworth, his son, Amor Hollingsworth, became president of the Tileston & Hol- 325 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES lingsworth Company. Thus for four generations and for more than one hundred years have the Hollingsworths been identified with paper-manufacturing in Massachu- setts. Lineal descendants of Mark Hollingsworth and Daniel Vose, who was also early identified with the first Milton mills, are Z. T. Hollingsworth, V. Hollingsworth and Charles Vose who, as the Hollingsworth & Vose Company, have mills in East Walpole and West Groton. Watertown, adjoining Newton, had a mill in 1839 operated by William May, that started a business which endured there for more than half a century. In the course of time Leonard Whitney, who had worked in the mill, acquired possession of the property, and, with his son, operated it. In 1862 E. A. Hollingsworth purchased an interest and the business was continued under the name Mark Hollingsworth. 326 INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY of Hollingsworth & Whitney, as a partnership and as a corporation. Mr. Whitney died in 1881 and Mr. Hol- lingsworth in 1882, but the business remained in the hands of their descendants. In 1884 and after, the concern con- tinued to operate two manilla mills in Watertown and also had two manilla mills in Gardiner, Me., the Cobbossee and the Aroostook both which, in 1916, were owned and operated by the same corporation. The Cobbossee mill is on the site of a mill built in 1865. There was one lone mill in Rhode Island, the Phillips- dale, equipped with a single machine for producing fifty tons of felt and sheathing every day. Connecticut had forty-six paper mills and one pulp mill. Most of the mills were small and twenty-nine' of them were situated in Hartford county where the business had its beginning before the revolution. The daily capacity of all the mills was about six hundred and fifty tons, the Thames River Specialties Company, in Montville, the New Haven Pulp and Board Company and the Uncas mill of the American Straw Board Company, in Norwich, each with daily capacity of one hundred tons ; and the Wind- sor Locks mill of the American Writing Paper Company, daily capacity sixty-five tons, being the largest producers. For more than half a century the name of Case was identified with the industry in this state and it was still most conspicuous in 1916. A. Wells Case and one of his brothers learned the trade in the old Bunce mills. At Highlands, in Manchester, they built a mill, in 1862, and during the next twelve years lost it three times by fire and once by a flood. Finally they built one in 1874 and another in 1884, and these endured into the next century. In 1916 the mill of the A. Willard Case Company was in Manchester, that of Case Brothers in South Manchester, that of the Case Manufacturing Company in Unionville, f-hat of Case & Marshall in Burnside, with all which A. Willard Case, Lawrence W. Case and Raymond S. Case were interconnected. Then there was the mill of the Case & Risley Paper Company in Oneco and the Palisade mill of the Riverton Company — the only pulp-mill in the state — which made pulp for all the Case paper-mills. 327 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES New York had no near rival in number of mills or im- portance and value of product. Its one hundred and sixty- two paper-mills had a daily capacity of 4,636 tons of all kinds of paper. Twenty-three mills alone could produce nearly 2,000 tons, principally news. The several mills — paper and pulp — of the International Paper Company ; the Knowlton, the Taggart and the Remington plants ; the Saratoga county mills of the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company; the mills of the Gould Paper Company; the mills of the St. Regis Paper Company; the Dexter Edwin R. Redhead. John F. King. Sulphite Pulp and Paper Company, and others ; were im- pressive factors in maintaining the industry in the State at a high point of efficiency. Foremost in capacity for news were the Glens Falls, one hundred and forty-two tons ; the Finch Pruyn & Co. mill, one hundred and five tons ; the Tidewater mill in Brook- lyn, one hundred tons ; the Niagara Falls, one hundred and fifty-nine tons ; the Fort Edward mill, one hundred and thirty-three tons ; the Hudson River mill at Palmer, two hundred and sixty-two tons ; the De Grasse mill at Pyrites, one hundred and sixty tons, and the Woods Falls mill at Watertown, one hundred and seventeen tons. Next in line 328 INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY were the thirty board mills, with daily capacity of about 1,200 tons. Most of these were small, producing less than fifty tons a day, but two were large, the mill of the Pier- mont Paper Company, one hundred and seventy-five tons daily and the mill of the Tonawanda Board and Paper Company, one hundred and fifty tons. And the mill of the Racquette River Paper Company of the Sisson family, with daily capacity of seventy tons of manilla envelope, express and parchment, was listed in the front ranks. The Goulds, controlling the Gould Paper Company and J. A. OUTTERSON. B. B. Taggart. the St. Regis Paper Company, became active and influential in paper-manufacturing in Jefferson and Lewis counties. Their St. Regis mills, in Deferiet, Black River and Her- rings, had a daily capacity of one hundred and sixty tons of news, twenty tons of manilla, twenty tons of board, two hundred and forty tons of ground- wood, and one hundred and sixty tons of sulphite-fibre; the Gould mills, in Lyons Falls and Port Leyden, had one hundred and thirty-five tons of news and eighteen tons of manilla, with five pulp- mills equipped with twenty grinders for ground-wood and three digesters for sulphite. The St. Regis also owned 329 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES fifty-eight thousand acres of timber land for pulp pur- poses. In December, 1916, the Goulds sold their interests in this company to another group of wealthy financiers. James A. Outterson became one of the biggest manu- facturers in the Black River section at this time. He was president of the Carthage Sulphite Pulp and Paper Com- pany, the Champion Paper Company, the West End Paper Company and the De Grasse Paper Company, his four plants having a daily capacity of nearly two hundred tons of news and boards, nearly one hundred tons of ground-wood and sixty tons of sulphite-fibre. The famous Remington mills finally passed out of the Remington family possession. In 1915 a receiver was ap- pointed for the property which, late in 1916, was sold to new owners, prominent among whom and holding a con- trolling interest, were Daniel R. Hanna and his sons. The ninety-five pulp-mills of the state had a daily capacity of about 3,500 tons, of which 2,400 tons was ground-wood and nearly nine hundred tons sulphite-fibre. Most of this pulp was made by paper-mill companies for their own use, comparatively little being sold outside. There were eleven pulp-mills that manufactured for the market but their output was not large, about one hundred and fifty tons daily. The mills of largest capacity were in Cadyville, Corinth, Cohoes, Deferiet, Fort Edward, Glens Falls, Hudson Falls, Herrings, Hinckley, Lockport, Me- chanicsville, Niagara Falls, Norfolk, Palmer and Water- town. Expansion of paper-making at Niagara Falls, N. Y v began after 1850. Mills on Bath Island had been operated with more or less success from 1823, but no particular at- tention had been given to the utilization of the water-power there running to waste. In 1852 Stoughton Pettebone pur- chased a part interest in the Bath Island plant from L. C. Woodruff and work was carried on by the firm of Wood- ruff & Pettebone until 1883 when the firm was dissolved and the Pettebone Paper Company incorporated with Stoughton Pettebone, L. B. Pettebone, John Quigley and others as stockholders and officers. When Bath Island and adjacent property was taken by the state of New 330 INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY York for a park reservation the Pettebone Paper Com- pany, in 1884, built another mill on the banks of the hydraulic canal where it ever after continued. Prior to this there had been a pulp-mill on the river bank, built and operated by Hill & Murray but afterward owned by C. B. Gaskill, J. J. Maclntire and others, incorporated as the Cataract Manufacturing Company. In 1892 the Pettebone and the Cataract companies consolidated and formed the Pettebone-Cataract Company which was still in existence in 1916, running both the paper-mill and the pulp-mill. One of the earliest promoters of pulp-making at Niagara Falls was John F. Quigley. In 1877 he built a pulp-mill and made about four tons a day. Eleven years later a paper-mill was added to the plant and Arthur C. Hastings, who had come from Rochester, was installed as manager. After a time the owners of the plant incorporated as the Cliff Paper Company and, in 1892, the business was sold by Mr. Quigley to J. F. Schoelkopf, Arthur Schoelkopf, Henry Grigg, W. D. Olmstead, George B. Matthews and Arthur C. Hastings, who gradually expanded the prop- erty into the establishment as it was existing in 1916. Early in 1891 the Niagara Glazed Paper Company, pro- moted by Henry M. Robertson, C. B. Gaskill and others, came into existence, to make, principally, glazed, litho- graphic, label and coated papers and box boards. In 1896 the company was succeeded by the Niagara Surface Coat- ing Company, of which John C. Tammerts was the prin- cipal owner, but that in time went out of existence. An- other early mill in Niagara was that of Allan & Jones which, in 1880, was taken over by the Niagara Wood Paper Company with Walter Jones as manager, and ma- chinery for making boards was then added. In 1892 the Niagara Falls Paper Company was organ- ized by Lewis A. Hall. J. L. Norton. D. O. Mills, J. C. Morgan and others and a plant was built that was then considered one of the most complete in the world. The company developed its own water-power, and had seven thousand two hundred water horse-power and two thou- sand three hundred steam horse-power. It installed one one hundred and thirty-seven-inch and five one hundred 331 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES and twenty-two-inch Fourdriniers and was able to turn out one hundred and twenty-five tons of news every twenty-four hours. In addition there was a sulphite mill of forty tons daily capacity and a ground-wood mill of sixty tons capacity. Twenty-five years after this starting the plant was still in as full and effective operation as when it began, the largest in production in Niagara Falls, and a part of the International Paper Company. New Jersey had fallen largely into the line of board manufacturing. Of the forty-six mills in the state twenty- three were, in whole or in part, devoted to boards and out of a total of one thousand tons daily capacity nearly seven hundred were of boards. The remaining product of three hundred tons was mostly in manilla, felting, tissue, building and other varieties. No news and very little book was made. The largest plants were those of the Mc- Ewen Brothers, in Whippany, one hundred and ten tons of boards daily ; the mill of the H. W. Johns-Manville Company, one hundred tons daily of asbestos and felt, and the two mills of the United Paperboard Company in Whippany, ninety tons daily. Pennsylvania was the third state in number of mills and amount of product. It had seventy-one paper-mills with daily capacity of about 2,000 tons. Eleven mills had capac- ity of from fifty to one hundred and forty-five tons and one — the Philadelphia Paper Manufacturing Company — could make two hundred and eighty tons of board every day. The property of the New York and Pennsylvania Company, of which Colonel A. G. Paine was long the re- sponsible and successful head, consisted of two large plants in this state, in addition to a mill in New York, where fifty tons of soda-fibre were daily produced. The Johnson- burg mill, with eight machines and a capacity of one hun- dred and forty-five tons a day of bond, book, envelope, writing and other varieties, had with it two pulp-mills, one of ninety tons dairy capacity of soda-fibre and the other of seventy-five tons of bleached sulphite. The mill in Lock Haven, with six machines and daily capacity of seventy tons of book, writing, cover, hardware and other varieties, had a pulp-mill of sixty-two tons soda-fibre daily. 332 INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY The mill of the Hammermill Paper Company, in Erie, ranked among the foremost establishments in the country in the production of bond, ledger, superfine and writing. It was equipped with five Fourdriniers and had a daily capacity of one hundred tons. Another notable mill was the Delaware of the Dill & Collins Company, in Philadel- phia, with five Fourdriniers and a capacity of forty tons daily of book and coated, and an accompanying pulp-mill for making twenty-three tons of soda-fibre daily. Other large establishments with their daily capacities were : the Bayless Manufacturing Corporation, seventy tons of bag and kraft; the Frank P. Miller Paper Company, one hun- Augustus G. Paine. 333 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES dred tons of boards ; the H. F. Watson Company, one hun- dred and twelve tons of felt and building; the John Long Paper Company, eighty tons of roofing; the Nixon Flat Rock mills, sixty-two tons of .book ; the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company's two mills, one hundred tons of book, writing and other fine papers; the York Haven Paper Company, seventy tons of fibre and express papers. Nearly one-third of the product of the state was book, writing, bond, ledger, linen, lithograph, and other papers in that class. Pennsylvania's fifteen pulp-mills had a daily capacity of seven hundred tons, of which fully six hundred and eighty- five tons were soda and sulphite-fibre, each about one-half. Among the largest pulp-mills were those of the York Haven Paper Company, the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company and the Bayless Manufacturing Company. In Delaware the plant of the Jessup & Moore Paper Company preserved the traditions of Wilmington on the Brandywine as a paper-manufacturing locality from the time of the famous Gilpin mill there before 1800. The two mills — the Augustine and the Rockland — had a daily capacity of over sixty tons of book, while the Delaware pulp-mills furnished a like quantity of soda-fibre. There has always been one solitary mill in the District of Columbia. Succeeding to that distinction, the District of Columbia Paper Manufacturing Company was making twenty-five tons a day of blotting, cover, book and spe- cialties in 1916. Maryland became a more important paper-manufactur- ing state after the civil war. In 1886 twenty-nine mills were in operation, in Bentley Springs, Chestertown, Cono- wingo, Easton, Elkton, Ellicott City, Fairhill, Freeland, Grove Run, Hagerstown, Hoffmanville, Houcksville, Manchester, Morgan, Parkton, Reisterstown, Rising Sun and White Hall. Few of these mills were of much im- portance. The largest were : that of the Susquehanna Water Power and Paper Company in Conowingo, daily capacity, twelve tons book and news; The Public Ledger mills of George W. Childs in Elkton, daily capacity, four tons of news ; the Providence Paper Mills of William M. 334 Into the twentieth century Singerly in Fairhill, daily capacity, ten tons of news; the Chestertown mill, daily capacity, six tons of straw board ; the Talbot County mill in Easton, daily capacity, six tons of straw board, and the Woodbine in Morgan, daily capacity, five tons of straw wrapping. Fully one half the product of all the mills in the State was straw wrapping, Several of these mills lasted into the twentieth century : those of the Youngs in Bentley Springs, the Chestertown straw-board mill, the Antietam in Hagerstown and the Gunpowder in Parkton. In 1916 there were in Asbestos, Baltimore, Bentley Springs, Chestertown, Childs, Elkton, Freeland, Hagerstown, Luke, Parkton, Providence, Row- landville and White Hall, thirteen paper mills and two pulp mills. The product was asbestos, felt, carpet-lining straw and other boards, straw and other wrapping, hanging, Bloomfield H. Moobe 335 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES manilla, book, writing and roofing. The total daily capacity was one hundred and eighty-two tons of book, one hundred and sixty-two tons of other papers and one hundred and fifteen tons of soda fibre. Of this total, one hundred and thirty-seven tons of book, writing and other paper and seventy tons of soda fibre were the output of the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company in Luke. Next in quantity of product was the Baltimore Roofing and Asbes- tos Company with forty tons of asbestos paper and twenty-five tons of wool felt daily. The Jessup & Moore Company turned out daily forty-five tons of soda fibre from the Radnor pulp mill in Elkton and from their Ken- more mill forty tons daily of book and writing. In Virginia there were ten paper-mills, five pulp-mills and one combined pulp and paper-mill. The paper-mills were capable of producing three hundred tons daily, of which the mill of the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Com- pany, at Covington, was credited with ninety-five tons of book and lithograph and the Bedford Pulp and Paper Company, at Big Island, with seventy-five tons of ticket paper. The pulp-mills could produce two hundred and twenty-six tons daily, the West Virginia Company mak- ing one hundred and twenty tons sulphite, the Bedford Company thirty-nine tons of ground wood and the Colum- bian Paper Company sixty-seven tons of soda fibre. In West Virginia, in 1875, mills existed in Halltown, Shep- ardstown, Wellsburg and Wheeling, but, in 1916, the five paper-mills and five pulp-mills were in Davis, Halltown, Harper's Ferry, Parsons, Richwood and Wellsburg. The daily capacity of the paper-mills was one hundred and twenty-five tons of board, bag and specialties and of the pulp-mills one hundred and thirty-five tons of sulphite- fibre and forty-eight tons of ground-wood. The leaders were the Parsons Pulp and Paper Company, with sixty tons of sulphite-fibre daily and the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, with forty-five tons of sulphite-fibre. After the civil war paper-manufacturing was tentatively resumed in the south. About 1870 there were several Georgia mills in Savannah, Atlanta, Athens, Conyers and Newnan and one on Soap's creek near Atlanta. Either by 336 INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY fire or by bad luck all, except two, soon went out of exist- ence. In those days news sold for fourteen cents a pound and there was a profit on it of about four cents a pound. Saxe Anderson bought the mill on Soap's creek, added a pulp-mill and improved the plant; this was the beginning of the Marietta Pulp Company. About 1895 the same company bought an old mill in Atlanta and converted it into a mill for making paper. When the twentieth century opened mills in the far southern States were: the Stevenson pulp, Stevenson, E. L. Embree. F. L. Moore. Ala. ; the Pensacola, Pensacola, Fla. ; the Fulton, Atlanta, Ga. ; the Conyers, Conyers, Ga. ; the Marietta, Marietta, Ga. ; the Sewall, Whitesburg, Ga. ; the Fall City, Louis- ville, Ky. ; the Wheeling, Wheeling, Mo. ; the Carolina, Harts ville, S. C. ; the Chattanooga Pulp, Chattanooga, Tenn. ; the Stone Fort, Manchester, Tenn. ; the Tennessee Fibre, Memphis, Tenn. ; the Oak Cliff and the Cumberland, Sugarland, Texas. In conjunction with these paper mills there were five ground-wood pulp mills and three sulphite mills. The total daily output of all these establishments was insignificant. It amounted to twenty-six thousand pounds of ground-wood pulp, thirty-four thousand pounds 337 P APER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES of sulphite pulp, twenty-four thousand pounds of cotton kull fibre, fifty-nine thousand pounds of manilla, thirty thousand pounds of book, two thousand two hundred pounds of straw board, eight thousand pounds of straw board and sixty-two thousand pounds of book, news, hardware, straw, roofing and manilla wrapping. By 1916 Alabama, Florida, Kentucky and Missouri were no longer paper-manufacturing States. In South Carolina the Carolina mill remained; in Tennessee, the Tennessee Fibre and the Kingsport Pulp ; in Texas, the Oak Cliff ; in Georgia the Pyntree, Kennesaw and Lawrenceville in place of those of 1900. North Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi were new paper-manufacturing States. In North Carolina were the Champion Fibre Company in Canton, with daily capacity of 28,000 pounds of boards, 250,000 pounds of soda fibre and 250,000 pounds of sul- phite fibre; the Halifax and the Roanoke Fibre Board in Roanoke Rapids, producing boards, sulphate fibre and ground wood. In Mississippi were the paper division of the Great Southern Lumber Company and the Louisiana Fibre Company both in Bogelusa and both producing con- tainer lining and sulphate pulp. Also in Louisiana, in Braithwaite, was the idle ground-wood mill of the Colonial Paper Company and the paper mill and sulphite mill of the E. Z. Opener Bag Company. Wisconsin from late beginnings turned into the twentieth century as one of the leading states in the industry. With its fifty paper-mills in 1916 it ranked only after New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and with its forty- seven pulp-mills was next after New York. The mills produced all kinds of paper, news, book, writing, bond, wrapping, tissue, manila, kraft, parchment, hanging, boards and specialties. Their daily capacity was 1,900 tons. The pulp-mills had a daily capacity of 1,000 tons of ground- wood, eight hundred tons of sulphite-fibre and one hundred tons of sulphate-fibre. Foremost among the Wisconsin concerns was that of the Kimberly-Clark Company, the outgrowth of the energy and business foresight of J. A. Kimberly and Charles Clark. From 1872 until his death, in 1891, Mr. Clark 338 INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY was a conspicuous figure in Wisconsin paper-manufactur- ing-. The company was incorporated in 1907, with J. A= Kimberly as president. Its properties in Appleton, Kim- berly, Neenah and Niagara were seven paper-mills with daily capacity of about two hundred and seventy tons and three pulp-mills with daily capacity of nearly two hundred tons. Other notable Wisconsin concerns that contributed much to the record of the state in the making of paper and pulp were the River dale Fibre and Paper Company of Appleton; the Thilmany Pulp and Paper Company, with mills in Appleton and Kaukauna; the Menasha Paper Company, with pulp and paper-mills in Ashland and Lady- smith, producing daily fifty tons of paper and one hundred and twenty Pfive tons of ground-wood and sulphite; the Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Company, producing daily one hundred and sixty tons of paper, eighty tons of ground- wood and one hundred and fifteen tons of sulphite-fibre; the Marathon Paper Mills Company of Wausau, with daily capacity of seventy-five tons of paper, twenty tons of ground-wood and one hundred and thirty-five tons of sulphite. Forty-eight paper mills in Michigan had a daily capacity of nearly 2,000 tons and nine pulp mills, three hundred and fifty tons, all but one hundred tons being sulphite and sul- phate-fibre. The character of product covered the widest range, from news, book, writing and bond to board, wrap- ping, manilla and many specialties. Among the big plants were the fourteen mills of the Bryant Paper Company, two hundred and fifty tons daily, of book, magazine and other high grade papers ; the two mills of the Bardeen Paper Company, sixty tons daily of book, writing, wrap- ping, etc. ; the tAvo mills of the Eddy Paper Company, one hundred tons daily, mostly in boards and cards ; the Grand Rapids mill of the American Box Board Company, one hundred tons daily; the mill of the Boehme & Rauch Company, one hundred and fifty-seven tons daily, paper boxes and containers ; the mill of the River Raisin Paper Company, one hundred and twenty-five tons of boards; the MacSim Bar Paper Company, one hundred and ten tons, book and boards. Kalamazoo was the paper- 339 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES manufacturing center. Thirteen mills were there and their capacity was more than a quarter of that of the entire state. Minnesota's nine paper-mills had a daily capacity of six hundred and fifty tons and her nine pulp-mills, six hundred and twenty-five tons. Of the paper most was news and book to the amount of about four hundred and seventy tons of which the two mills of the Northwest Pa- per Company had one hundred and five tons; the big mill of the Minnesota & Ontario Power Company, two hun- dred and twenty-five tons and the mill of the Watab Pulp and Paper Company, ninety tons. The Waldorf Box Board Company added one hundred and twenty tons of board daily. In Ohio, with fifty paper-mills, eleven were run on bond, J. A. Kimberly. 340 INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTUR Y ledger, linen, writing, book and other fine papers, their daily capacity being about six hundred and twenty tons. The largest producer in this class was the Champion Coated Paper Company of Hamilton, with ten machines and daily capacity of two hundred and sixty-two tons. Then came the Miami Paper Company, one hundred tons and the two mills of the Mead Pulp and Paper Company, one hundred tons. Other mills of this kind were small, producing from ten to thirty tons daily. News was made in one mill only and there it divided, with book, fifteen G. E. Bardeen. E. R. Behrend. tons a day. Mills, devoted, either wholly or in part, to board and wrapping, were twenty- four in number, pro- ducing daily six hundred tons. Of these only seven were of much size: The Lockland of the Richardson Paper Company, one hundred and fifty tons ; the Hartje, in Steu- benville, one hundred tons ; the mill of the Ohio ' Box Board Company, in Rittman, one hundred and ten tons; the two Gardner mills in Middletown, one hundred and sixty-five tons; the three mills of the Fox Paper Com- pany, seventy-five tons. The three active mills of the American Straw Board Company had a daily capacity of 341 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES one hundred tons. The total productive capacity of all the paper mills in the state was 2,000 tons a day, while the three pulp-mills could produce forty-four tons. Near- ly one half the mills of the state were in the Miami val- ley, in Dayton, Franklin. Middletown, Hamilton and other places. Illinois found its vogue mostly in straw, fibre and other boards. Of the twenty-nine mills in the state nineteen were devoted, in whole or in large part, to that kind of paper, their combined daily capacity being over nine hun- dred tons. In other lines, principally roofing, sheathing, wrapping, bag and manilla the daily capacity of the other mills was about two hundred and fifty tons. Like its neighbor, Indiana also found advantage in making various kinds of boards, seventeen of its mills having daily capacity in that line of a little more than two hundred tons, while the others, given over principally to wrapping, straw for corrugating, parchment and specialties, produced about two hundred and fifty tons daily. Book, news and writing was made in two mills. The four mills in Iowa were for roofing, wrapping and board, their daily capacity being nearly eighty tons. Kansas likewise, with four mills, pro- duced only board, building and straw corrugated paper. Of six mills in California one only produced news, while from that and the others came manilla, tissue, wrap- ping, boards, bristol, sheathing, felts and other varieties. The daily capacity of the six was 514,000 pounds. The Crown Willamette Paper Company, of which Wm. Pierce Johnson was president, had the news and tissue producing mill, and in connection therewith were pulp mills with daily capacity of 40,000 pounds of ground-wood fibre and 50,000 of sulphite fibre. The largest producers were the California Paper and Board mills, 200,000' pounds daily, and the Southern Board and Paper Mills, 110,000 pounds daily. Also on the Pacific coast in 1916 were other enterprises of the Crown Willamette Paper Company. These were three paper-mills and eight pulp-mills with daily capacity of 400,000 pounds of news, 110,000 pounds of manilla, wrapping, etc., 220,000 pounds of ground-wood and 180,000 pounds of sulphite fibre ; and, in Washington, 342 INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY one paper-mill with daily capacity of 360,000 pounds of news, manilla, etc., and one pulp mill with daily capacity of 140,000 pounds of ground-wood and 175,000 pounds of sulphite fibre. With the two paper mills and the two pulp mills of the Hawley Pulp and Paper Company in Oregon and in Washington, the Everett, the Inland Empire and the Northern Board paper-mills and the Everett soda-fibre mill the Pacific coast was well provided. This broad, review of the industry in 1916 may here fittingly bring its history to a conclusion. It has been a long way to travel, and the changes in the two hundred and twenty-five years that have been passed in retrospect, have been many and of surpassing interest. Altogether there is an amazing comparison between the solitary Rit- Arthur B. Daniels. 343 PAPER MANUFACTURING in the UNITED STATES tenhouse mill of 1690, worth a few hundred dollars, em- ploying three men, producing annually, perhaps, fifteen hundred reams of paper and supplying only the needs of a small community and, at the other end of the line, the great business of the twentieth century. The first mills made little else than news, book and writing paper, fullers' press-boards and bonnet-boards, and those in limited quantities. The mills in the United States in 1916 made two hundred and fifty different kinds of papers, while the articles manufactured from paper as their raw material numbered several hundred. The seven hundred estab- lishments of 1916, with paper and pulp mills, represented an investment in capital of more than $550,000,000; employed 100,000 persons; afforded busi- ness opportunities to thousands of others in the handling of their product ; were the main support of hundreds of other enterprises manufacturing machinery and supplying raw materials ; had a daily capacity of about 20,000 tons of paper, and annually produced to the value of nearly $350,000,000. George A. Whiting. 344 INDEX Adams & Bishop 180 Bemis family 80, 135, 136 Adams, Peter 179, 257 Bemis Mill 81 Aetna Mill 242 Bemis Paper Co 283 Albany Felt Co 182 Benninghofen, John W 182 Albion Mill 248 Berkshire County.. . . 127, 196, 241 Albion Paper Co 283 Berlin Mills Co 323 Allan & Jones 331 Biddis, John 98 Allen, Stephen M 226 Bird family. . .132, 189, 256-7, 325 Alpena (Mich.) Pulp Mill... 234 Blanchard, The 137 American Box Board Co 339 Boehme & Rauch Co 339 American Paper Board Ass'n 312 Boies & Clark 325 American Paper & Pulp Ass'n 299 Boies & McLean 325 American Straw Board Co. . . 306 Boies & Tileston 325 American Wood Paper Co.... 230 Boies, Jeremiah L....24, 132, 325 American Writing Paper Co. 304 Boies, John 23, 24, 51, 83 Ameses, The 124-5, 176, 187 Bowman, Jacob 159 Ames Wood Pulp Co 281 Bowman, William 125 Amies, Thomas 162 Boyce, James 23 Anderson, Saxe 337 Boyd, Robert 51 Antes, Henry 10 Bradford, Andrew. . .9, 16, 17, 70 Antietam Mill 335 Bradford, William. 3, 6, 15, 16, 17 Appleton Wire Works 185-6 Brewer, Chauncey 125 Appleton, Wis 281 Brown & Sellers 185 Appleton Woolen Mills 182 Brown Paper Co., L. L.. .247, 301 Aroostook Mill 327 Brown, Thomas 11 Asbestos Paper 11 Brownville Box & Paper Co. . 263 Augustine Mill 324 Brighter, John 11 Austin, Cyrus 98 Bryant Paper Co 310, 339 Buchanan & Bolt Wire Co. . . 184-5 Babcock, Samuel 85 Buchanans, The 184 Bagg, Aaron 245 Buel> David 117 Baldwin, W. & Co 180 Bu u; s Mill 260 Baltimore Roofing BunC6) Charles 90 & Asbestos Co 336 Burbank Mill 253 Barber, O. C 306 Burbanks,. . . .58, 87, 137, 253, 303 Barclay, Henry 179 BurgesS) Hugh 226 Bardeen Paper Co 339 Burgess Sulphite Fibre Co.. . . 323 Bayless Manufacturing Co... 333 Butler & Hudson 202 Bay State Mill 243 B utler, John 90 Beach, Hommerken & Kearney 180 Beach, Moses Y 180, 189 Cabbie Excelsior Wire Beardslee, George W 225 Manufacturing Co 186 Beaver, John 159 Cabbie, William 184 Becketts, The 279 Cady, Eleazer 202 Becking, Frederick 49 Calder, James 52 Bedford Pulp & Paper Co. . . . 336 Calhoun, John 161 Beebe & Holbrook 284 California 342 Bellamy, William 39 California Paper & Board Mills 342 346 INDEX Cameron, D 280 Columbia Paper Co 336 Canadian Reciprocity 317 Columbia River Paper Co 310 Carew Manufacturing Co 250 Columbian Straw Paper Co.. 312 Carnes, John 98, 100 Connecticut 35, 89, 139, 202 Carney, Michael 80, 97 257, 274, 327 Carolina Mill 337 Connecticut River Paper Co. . 284 Carpenter, Samuel 34 Consolidations 302 Carsons, The 129 Consolidated S. O. S. Bag Co. 308 Carthage Sulphite Continental Paper Bag Co. . . . 309 Pulp & Paper Co 330 Continental Wall Paper Co. . . 312 Case, A. Wells 327 Conyers Mill 337 Caswell, Gurdon and Henry. 152 Copsecook Mill 322 Cataract Manufacturing Co.. . 331 Costs 314 Census Statistics 106, 122, 141 Coulter, John 159 209, 239, 244, 259, 271, 289, 314 Cox family, The.... 125, 132-9, 189 Centennial Mill "... 244 Craig, Elijah 98 Chamberlain, Joseph 257 Cranes, The 114, 127, 243 Champion Coated Paper Co.. 341 Crehores, The 132, 198-9 Champion Fibre Co 310, 338 Crevacceur, J. Hector St. John 213 Champion-International Co. . . 325 Crocker, Alvah 238, 253 Champion Paper Co 330 Crocker, Burbank & Co. . .253, 325 Chattanooga Pulp Mill 337 Crocker Manufacturing Co.... 248 Chelsea Manufacturing Co 257 Crocker-McElwain Co 248 Chemical Paper Mfg. Co 328 Crombie, J. H 281 Cheney-Bigelow Wire Works. 185 Crown-Columbia Chestertown mill 335 Pulp & Paper Co 310 Childs, George W 334 Crown Paper Co 310 Chisholm, Hugh J 303 Crown Willamette Paper Co.. 342 Chittenden, George 156 Cumberland Mill 337 Church, Samuel and Luman. . 130 Curtis family, The 135, 198, 303 Cincinnati Steam Paper Mill. . 167 Curtisville Pulp-Mill 235 Clapp, Keeney & Co 202 Cylinder Machine, First 175 Claremont Mill 323 Clark, Charles 338 Davis & Co, F. M 281 Clark, Henry W 155 Davis, John B 204 Clark, John 114, 156 Day, Joseph F 139 Clarke & Hawes Co 278 Dayton Paper Mills 276 Clarke, Richard 23, 24 Defiance Mill 244 Cliff Paper Co 331 De Grasse Mill 328-30 Cobbossee Mill 327 Delaware 92, 157, 275, 334 Coles, Abraham 156 Delaware Mill 332 Colin Gardner Paper Co 280 Denison & Co \ 273 Collier, John 26 Denison & Turner 281 Collins Paper Co 247 Dering, Henry 19, 21 Colonial mills 18 DeWees family, The 10, 70 Colonial Paper Co 338 De Witt Wire Cloth Co 184-6 Colonial printing 2, 17 Dexter, Charles H 258 Coltsville Mill 243 Dexter Sulphite Columbia County 202, 259, 260 Pulp & Paper Co 328 Columbia Mill, Lee, Mass 196 Dickinson, John , , 174 INDEX 347 Dill & Collins Co 333 District of Columbia Paper Manufacturing Co . . . 334 Dodge, Joseph 132 Dodge, Philip T 303 Dorsett, James 37 Duckett, John B 162 Dupont & Co 169 Durant, William 52 Duval, Joseph 165 Eagle Paper Co 280 Eagle Mill 150, 242 Eastern Box Board Ass'n.... 312 Eastern Manufacturing Co 301 Eastwood, John 184-6 Eckstein, Samuel 189, 266 Eddy Paper Co 339 Eden Vale Mill 83 Eliot, Simon 135 Elms, Thomas 49 Ensign, Perley 92 Enterprise Mill 242 Ephrata Mill L . . .29, 30-32 Equipment 146, 296 European War 318 Everett Mills 343 Excello Mill 277 Exports 291 E. Z. Opener Bag Co 338 Fall City Mill 337 Fall Mountain Mill 324 Faneuil, Benjamin 19-21 Feinour & Nixon 223-8 Felt Manufacturing 181 Ferra, John 163 Fibre and Manilla Association 312 Field, Cyrus W 197, 255 Finch, Pruyn & Co 310, 328 Fisher, Miers 92 Fitchburg Duck Mills 182 Fitchburg, Mass., Mills 254 Fitchburg Paper Co 325 Fitzdale Mill 324 Flat Rock Mills. . . .223-8, 266, 334 Fleet, Thomas 45 Fletcher, George N 234 Foreign Trade 291 Fort Edward Milt 328 Fourdriniers 172-9, 293-6 Fox Paper Co 341 Fox River 281 Franklin, Benjamin 13, 92 Franklin Mill 248 Franklin Paper Co 280-3 Friend, George H 279 Frontenac Paper Co 263 Hawes Co., C. L 278 Frost, Joshua 125 Fry, Richard 25-28 Fuller, Amasa 132 Fuller, Andrew — 181 Fulton Mill "... 337 Funk, Jacob and Samuel 29 Gaine, Hugh 36, 60 Gardiner Paper Co 310, 341 Gardiner, Robt H 139 Garrett, Edwin 165 Gaskill, C. B 331 General Paper Co 312 Georgia 336 Gibbs, John 133 Gilpin Mill 157 Gilpins, The 92, 175 Gleeson, Thomas E 186 Glen Manufacturing Co 294 Glen Mill 323 Glens Falls Paper Mill Co. 294, 328 Globe Paper Co 263 Goddard, William 96 Goodwins, The 90, 257 Gore, Christopher 83 Gorgas, John 10 Gould Paper Co 328-9 Government Mill 243 Graham, Thomas 167, 276 Grant, Moses 135 Grant, Warren & Co 273 Great Falls Co 323 Great Northern Paper Co. 309-21 Great Southern Lumber Co. . . 338 Greenleaf & Taylor 126, 246 Greenleaf, Orick H 246 Gunpowder Mill ,. 335 Halifax Mills 338 Hall, Lewis A.. 331 Hamilton & Wright 203 348 INDEX Hammermill Paper Co 333 Humphreysville Mill 140, 202 Hampden Paper Co 247, 283-4 Huntington, Andrew 141 Hampshire Paper Co 249, 251 Hurd, William 135 Hancock, Thomas 19, 22 Hurlbut, Thomas 131, 197 Hand-made paper 301 Hurlburt Manufacturing Co.. 202 Hanna, Daniel R 330 ' . TT o i ots\ Illinois 342 Hanna, Samuel 260 TT ,. t • p r- ->77 Imperial Coating Mills 310 Harding, Irwin & Co 277 *" 8 TT ,. -r, n -vtq Imports 219,291,317 Harding Paper Co 278 f. ' TT . „ n 110 Indiana 206, 342 Harris & Cox toy . Inland Empire Mills 343 Interlake Pulp & Paper Co... 313 Harris, W. 168 Hartje Mills 341 TT .. .., n , AC -301 International Paper Co.. 302, 321-8 Hastings, Arthur C 305, 331 * tt i mi d -o An noz International Sulphite Fibre Haverhill Box Board Co 325 v &, Paper Co 234 Inventors 188-9 Iowa 342 Hawley Pulp & Paper Co 343 Hayes, O. B 167 Hazleton, John 23 TT , , A . iao Irwin, George H 277 Hecksher, August 308 ' 5 Heller & Merz 295 Iv ^ Ml11 12 ' 14 ' 53 " 7 ' 69 ' 205 Henchman, Daniel 19,22-7 Jackson & Sharpless 59 Henr y Ml11 323 Jackson, Samuel 95, 163 Hill & Murray 331 Jacob & Hkks m Hill, John M 168 Jefferson Paper Co 264 Hoagland, Daniel 156 Jessup & Moofe ^ m _ 6 Holbrook, George B 284 Jessup> A]fred fi 265 Holgan, John 39 John Edwards M fg. Co 310 Hollander engines 58, 171 Johns . Manvilie Co-> R w . ,., 332 Hollingsworths. .24, 132, 220, 325 Johnsotlj Albert 181 Hollingsworth & Vose Co 326 Johnson) Wm pierce 342 Hollingsworth & Whitney. . .322-7 JoneSj Richard L 2S7 Hollis, Thomas 282 JoneSj Walter 331 Holly well Mill 222 Journalism> Paper Trade ^g Holmes, Joseph E 225 Holt, John 50 Kamargo Mill 261 Holyoke, Mass 244, 283-4 Kansas 342 Holyoke Paper Co 246 Katz, Henry 49 Holyoke Wire Works 184 Keen, Morris L 227 Houghton, Thomas 72, 85, 137 Keller, Friedrich Gottlob 234 Howard & Lathrop 178 Kendall, Amos 169 Howard, Thomas 282 Kenmore Mill 336 Howe & Goddard 181 Kennesaw Mill 338 Howe, Henry P 135 Kentucky 97, 169, 209 Howells, Frank 165 Kimberly-Clark Co 281,338 Hubbard, Amos H 141, 180 Kinsey, Charles 174, 189 Hubbard, Thomas 36 Kingsland, J. & R 183 Hudson River Mill 328 Kingsport Pulp Mill 338 Hudson River Pulp & Knox, D. S 160 Paper Co 238, 294 Knox Woolen Co 182 Hudsons, The 90, 180, 202 Knowlton & Rice 153, 261 Humphreys, David 139 Knowlton Brothers. 154, 261-3, 328 INDEX 349 Knowlton, F. D 152 Koch, Louis 226 Kugler, Matthias 165 Laflins, The 196 Langstroth, Thomas 174 Laurie, Adam 279 Laurenceville Mill 338 Ledyard, Austin 89 Leffingwell, Christopher 35 Lennie Mills 94 Lewis family 94, 279 Lewis Wire Works 186 Lindsay Wire Weaving Co.. . . 186 Little, Arthur D 301 Livingston, R. R 99 Lockland Mill 341 Lockport Felt Co 182 Lockwood, Howard 298 Long Paper Co., John 334 Loomis family 153 Looseley, Charles 49 Lore, M 160 Loudon, Samuel 51 Louisianna Fibre Co. 338 Low, Asa 274 Ludington & Garland 280 Luke, John G 310 Lungren, John 94 Lydig, David 145 Lyon, Matthew 90, 139, 225 Maclntire, J. J 331 Mac Sim Bar Paper Co 339 MoCluskey & Sons, H. & T. . . 186 McDougal, James 80 McDowells, The 266-7 McEwans, The 168, 332 McLean, Hugh 24, 51, 132 McMurray, John 184 Magaw, William 221 Maine 24-7, 42, 139, 273, 301 Manufacturers' Investment Co. 313 Marathon Paper Mills Co 339 Marietta Pulp Co 337 Markle & Drum 160 Markle, Joseph 121 Martin, Walter 156 Martin, William 162 Maryland 96, 334 Massachusetts . . .19, 80, 114, 124-7 143, 196-9, 241, 274, 283, 324 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 301 Massasoit Paper Mfg. Co 247 Matson, Aaron 94 Matthews, John 94 Mead Pulp & Paper Co 341 Mead, D. E 277 Megargee Brothers 228, 265 Menasha Paper Co 339 Miami Paper Co 341 Michigan 234, 339 Middletown Paper Bag Co.. .. 310 Miller Paper Co., Frank P.. .. 333 Miller, Warner 238 Millinocket 309 Mills, D. O g 331 Milton, Mass.. 21-4, 4/i, 51, 256, 325 Minnesota 340 Minnesota & Ontario Power Co 340 Mitchell, Sidney 308 Modes, The 163 Montague Paper Co 238 Mooney, Isaac 206 Moore, Bloomfield H 265 Moore, Uriah 83 Morgan, J. C 331 Morris & Rogers 169 Morrison & Case Paper Co... 310 Morss & Whyte 184 Nashua River Paper Co 325 National Board & Paper Co.. . 312 National Wall Paper Co 312 Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Co 310, 339 Newcomb, Charles C 181 New Hampshire 274, 313, 323 New Jersey 17, 275, 332 Newspaper from Straw Pulp. 222 News Print Manufacturers' Association 300 Newton Brothers 248 New York, 16, 36, 91, 115, 148, 275, 259, 328 New York & Pennsylvania Co. 332 Niagara Falls Mill 328 Niagara Falls Paper C» 331 350 INDEX Niagara Glazed Paper Co 331 Niagara Wood Paper Co 331 Nichols & Kendall 253 Nixon, Martin & William H.228, 265- , 331 Noonan & McNab 280 North Carolina 97 Northwest Paper Co 340 Norton, J. L 331 Norton, Josiah 139 Oak Cliff Mill 337 Oakland Paper Co 202 Odell Manufacturing Co 323 Oglesby Paper Co 280 Ohio 165, 276, 340 Ohio Box Board Co 341 Old Berkshire Mill 244 Old Red Mill 243 Old Red Neenah Mill 281 Olney, Christopher 89 Onderdonk, Hendrich 36, 60 O'Neil Wire Works, Joseph.. 186 Ontario Paper Co 263 Outterson, James A 330 Owen, Charles M 130, 197 Oxford Paper Co 321 Pacific Coast 342 Pack, Albert 234 Pagenstechers, The 303,235 Paine, Augustus G 309, 332 Palisade Mill 327 Paper City, The 244 Paper Mill Run 3, 9 Paper Products Co 312 Paper, Quality of Early 74 Paper Trade Journal, The 298 Paper Trade Reporter, The. . . 298 Parker, Jonas 135 Parker, William 83 Parks, Frederick H 303 Parks, John H 312 Parks, William 33 Parsons, Joseph C 248 Parsons Pulp & Paper Co.... 336 Patents, 98, 135, 174, 186, 214, 220-6 Patten, Nathaniel 80 Pejepscot Paper Co 321 Pennsylvania 1, 3, 10-14, 29, 205, 221-7, 264, 275, 332 Pensacola Mill 337 Persee & Brooks. 258 Pettebone Paper Co 330 Phelps & Spafford 181 Philadelphia Mfg. Co 230 Philadelphia Paper Mfg. Co. 332 Phillips & Spear 167 Phillipsdale Mill 327 Phillips, Gillam 19-21 Phillips, Samuel 85, 137 Pickering Mill 180 Pierce, William 52 Piermont Paper Co 329 Pioneer Mill 153 Pitkin, Elisha 156 Platner & Smith 242 Pooling, Parks 312 Poor, Daniel 137 Port Edwards Fibre Co 310 Porters, The 150-5 Prices.. 35-9, 70-2, 119, 121, 285-7 297, 319. Prieger, Ernest 280 Providence Paper Mills 334 Public Ledger Mills 334 Publishers Paper Co 313 Pusey & Jones Co 295 Pyntree Mill 338 Quigley, John F 331 Radnor Mill 336 Rags. . . .28, 39, 60-7, 72, 113-8, 159 219, 319 Ramage, James 249 Rand & Stockbridge 139 Readen, John 69 Reed Wire Works 186 Remingtons, The 262, 328, 330 Remsen, Henry 36, 60 Rhode Island 89, 139, 143, 327 Rice, Alexander H 199 Rice, Barton & Fales 295 Rice, Clark 153, 188 Rice, Thomas 199 Richards, Francis 322 Richardson Paper Co 341 Richmond Paper Co 231 Rigdon, Thomas P 279 Rittenhouse 3-10, 70, 266 Riverdale Fibre & Paper Co... 339 INDEX 351 River Raisin Paper Co 339 Riverside Paper Co 283 Riverton Co 327 Roanoke Fibre Board Mill... 338 Robert, Nicholas Louis 172 Roberts, Sydney 282 Roberts & Son, John 133 Robertson, Henry M 331 Rochester, Nathaniel 148 Rock City Paper Mfg. Co.... 168 Rockland Mill 334 Rocky River Paper Co 281 Rogers family 160, 202 Rossmans 260 Russell, William A 238, 303 Rumford Falls Paper Co 295 St. Lawrence Paper Co 263 St. Croix Paper Co 310, 321 St. Regis Paper Co 328-9 Sanderson, Isaac 132, 178 Saur, Christopher 31-3, 70 Savels, John 132, 139 Schenck, Garrett 309 Schcelkopf, J. F 331 Scott, John 160, 161 Sellers family 54-6, 189,226 Sewell Mill 337 Seymour, Ashbel 92 Seymour Paper Co 259, 301 Sharpless, Jonathan 95, 163 Sheffield & Son, J. B 179 Shipley, Stephen 255 Shryock, George A 161, 221 Shuler & Benninghofen 182 Simonds, Case & Co 156 Singley Pulp & Paper Co 313 Singerley, William M 335 Sizes of Paper 120 Slater, John 52 Smith & Bassett 203 Smith & Co., Bradner 281 Smith & Winchester 180 Smith, Abijah 23 Smith, Charles 184 Smith, Elizur 241 Smith, Jeremiah 23, 24, 132 Smith Paper Co 235, 241 Smith, Joseph W 162 Snider Mills 280 Snow, Benjamin 255 Soda Pulp 228 Southern Board & Paper Mills 342 Southern Paper Mills 268 Southworth Brothers. . 249 Southworth Mfg. Co 249 Sower, Christopher 31 Speed of Machines 294 Standard Straw Board Co 307 Standard Wire Works 184-6 Staniar & Laffey Wire Co.. . .184-6 Staniar, William 182 Statistics 289, 314, 321 Steadman, E. H 169 Steadman, Ebenezer 132 Stebbins, Daniel 225 Steele, George F 300 Stephens & Thomas 183 Stevenson Pulp Mill 337 Straw-board 305 Straw paper 202, 221, 260 Streeper, William 10 Stone Fort Mill 337 Sullivan, John 132 Sulphite Fiber 230-4 Sunnydale Mill 163 Superior Paper Co.. 310 Susquehanna Water Power & Paper Co 334 Symonds, Charles H. & Jesse. 155 Taggarts Brothers Co 263 Taggarts Paper Co 263 Talbot county Mill 335 Tammerts, John C 331 Tariff duties. 102, 112, 195, 285, 318 Taylor, Mahlon 91 Technical Training 301 Tempest, Francis 165 Tennessee 167, 269 Tennessee Fibre Mill 337 Thatcher, Samuel 196 Thilmany Pulp & Paper Co... 339 Thistle Wire Co 186 Thomas, Isaiah 85, 109 Thomas, Samuel T 181 Thomson, Peter G 280 Thurbers, The 89 Tidewater Mill 328 Tileston & Hollingsworth 325 352 TNDEX Tileston, Edmund 132 Tilghman, Benjamin C 230 Tissue Paper Trust 313 Tompkins, Staats D 204, 259 Tonawanda Board & Pulp Co. 329 Trade Marks 141, 266 Tresse, Thomas 36 Trimble, William 94 Trueman, Morris 94 Tunis, Abraham 10 Turkey Mill 242 Turner, Robert 3, 6 Turners Falls Pulp Co 238 Tyler Wire Works 186 Tytus Paper Co 280, 310 Union Bag & Paper Co 308 Union Mill 242 Union Paper Mfg Co 283 Union Straw Board Co 306 Union Waxed & Parchment Paper Co 313 United Box Board & Paper Co 307 United Box Board Co 308 United Paperboard Co.... 308, 332 United Paper Co 303 University of Maine 301 University of Wisconsin 301 Utah 282 Valentine, John 125 Value of Early Mills.. .3, 6, 8, 10, 12, 26, 145, 193 Van De Carrs 260 Van Houten, Cornelius 183 Vermont 90, 274, 324 Virginia 33-5, 336 Voelter, Henry 234 Vose, Daniel 24, 132, 326 Wages 72 Waldo, Samuel 24-8 Waldorf Box Board Co 340 Walker, Zadoc 160 Wallace family 255-6 Wallsmith 165 Ware, John 83, 135 Warren & Co., S. D 321 Warrens, The 133 Watab Pulp & Paper Co 340 Waterman, Richard 139, 188 Water Marks, Early.... 9, 13, 30 Watertown, N. Y 262 Watertown Paper Co 263 Watson Co., H. F 334 Watson, Ebenezer 89 Watt, Charles 226 Webster, Ensign & Seymour.. 155 Websters, The 92 Westbrook, Thomas 24 West End Paper Co 330 Western Box Board Co 312 West Fitchburg Paper Co.... 255 Weston & Mead 277 Weston, Byron 244 West Virginia 208, 336 West Va. Pulp & Paper Co.. 310-36 Wheaton & Eddy 139 Wheeling Mill 337 Wheelwright, Charles S 231 Wheelwright Paper Co., 325 Whipple, Milton D 226 Whiteman, William S 168, 269 White Mountain Paper Co.... 312 Whiting Paper Co 247 Whitney, Leonard 326 Willamette Pulp & Paper Co.. 294 Willard, John .114, 129 Willcox family, 11, 13, 70, 94, 205 Willcox Mills 12-4, 53-7, 69 Windsor Locks, Conn 258 Wisconsin 280, 338 Wissahickon Creek 3, 9 Wiswall, Henry 114 Wiswell, Augustus C 197 WTswell, Enoch 83 Wood & Remington 156 Woodbine Mill 335 Woodman, Henry 23 Wood-Pulp 225 Woodruff & Pettebone 330 Woodruff, L. C 155 Woods Falls Mill 328 Wooster, Lewis 225 Workman, Alfred '.. 186 Wright, Eleazer 85 Yarnall, Isaac 169 York Haven Paper Co 334 Youngs, The 335 » 137 80 % A V ^°- L • ^ cr «^ V c ° " ■ *