In business there is no sharp line of separation between one year and another, one decade and another, one century and another. The days begin to run together like wet paint on canvas. Work, toil, sweat, and sleepless nights captured the industrial period in Antebellum America. Days were taken from people’s lives as they struggled to survive. As the population increased, business spread and quickly gave rise to new industrial manufacturers. Cotton mills, grist mills, and paper mills spread all across the United States, offering jobs to many men looking for prosperous positions. These mills offered not only jobs, but also lasting positions as America made her break from Europe and began to process their own products.
These new positions were not offered before the boom of people flowed into the United States. They tempted workers in the 1700’s as manufacturing moved slowly into the nineteenth century. Mills started slowly and stayed at a steady pace for almost a century. They crept in behind the mass production of man-made goods and skilled workers, but soon began to battle for ground as men of the 1700’s bought land, water power, and building materials to push the invention of the paper mill. Beginning in September 1690, the manufacturing of paper was established. Men traveling from Europe brought their paper and publishing businesses to America. They built many different mills in Pennsylvania, New York, and other northern states to try and broaden the industry.
William Rittenhouse and William Bradford were two of the first pioneers to offer their assistance into the new world of papermaking. Realizing that no one made paper in America and no one knew how to make paper, Rittenhouse built his first mill on Paper Mill Creek, in Roxborough County, Pennsylvania. The paper in this mill was made, by hand, into sheets 20 x 30 inches. The paper was also made from rags, into “excellent quality.” The mill offered writing paper, printing paper, and brown wrapping paper. The cost of the paper ranged from four shillings to seven shillings.1Most families were able to afford the price of the paper. This mill operated successfully, in Pennsylvania alone, for forty years, until the close of the nineteenth century, when other mills began to take over with more “modern” machines. Without realizing it, Rittenhouse and Bradford, who bought into the industry, had started an industry in America that would begin to boom with centuries to come.2
The foundation of the paper industry was set, consumers were satisfied, and men around the United States were beginning to inquire prosperous businesses. The eighteenth century marked progress in printing which created a need for papermaking. The amount of paper required to meet all the demands was small, but there was a steady market rising with the delays in shipping from Europe and the rise of the Revolution.3
Closing in on the eighteenth century, paper mills across America were receiving permission to be built, with the reigns of Europe being broken. By the end of the 1700’s, Maine, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Connecticut were building their own paper mills and furnishing paper for their printing presses.4 In a census taken by Mr. Coxe in 1813, on manufactures published, there were 200 paper mills in operation. Paper was being made wherever there were important newspapers, or prosperous businessmen.5 The roar of the Revolution gave way to the newspaper - and pushed the paper industry over the top. The paper industry was the business of the century and continued to pride its way through the next era.
When the century opened there were probably more than one hundred paper mills in the country. Some of these mills were of great importance to the area’s economy, while others were still infantile in comparison to the mills of today. Gradually the number increased and by 1810, there were more than two hundred mills across the United States. The paper industry was beginning to grow and seemed to face less tragedy than did other manufacturers.6 During 1816, Congress battled many petitions stating that prohibitions should be placed on foreign manufacturers. Many of these petitions came from those who were angry from A.J. Dallas’s comments about mills; “those firmly established, those that wholly, or almost wholly supply the demands of consumption to the people.”7 These suppliers were mainly those associated with the paper industry. People wanted the nation to be able to produce its own goods, whether or not the factory itself was fully established. This caused many problems in small towns. Angering some, while giving others the satisfaction of moving on - to establish their mills.
Small towns throughout the nation were building paper mills of their own. They were, in no competition with New York City, but began to make their path through the industrial world. Athens, Georgia was one of these cities. It began its industrial trade in December 1801 when Clarke County was carved out of Jackson County.8 Clarke County formed a city of industry with railroad systems, roads, and mills of many kinds. The Athens Manufacturing Company was the first to open, later called the Georgia Company. This plant was founded due to the “agricultural character of the South and the manufacturing spirit that was forced down upon the nation.”9 The second cotton factory was the Athens Factory opened by William Dearing and John Nisbet. The factory began making cheaper cotton goods than those of northern factories. They developed a plan where large buyers could purchase these manufactured goods cheaper and locally. These two factories were large investments in such a small town.10 With the success of these two cotton mills, businessmen were seeking to find the next trade to coin this small town.
The Athens Paper Mill, known as the Pioneer Paper Mill, was founded “on a patch of land where two hills were divided by a small creek - McNutt’s Creek.” A man named William Lumpkin, Sr. sold this “patch of land” to John Felton on October 20, 1837. Felton never built anything on the land, but the deed, in which he sold the land, stated that there was a “millpond and a dam of said mill.” On January 9, 1847, Albon Chase and John S. Linton purchased this land from Felton for $1350.00. They were in search of easy money and felt this was the site to begin their work.11
Chase and Linton began building their two-story wooden factory in 1847. They were prosperous in their first year, making over a sixty percent profit.12 The goal of Chase and Linton was “to provide over 500-600 pounds of newsprint, writing paper, and wrapping paper per day - made from cotton and linen rags.” Their goal was met. They battled two devastating fires throughout their business days and had to rebuild. This cost them almost $20,000, which was not covered by insurance.
Despite their devastating tragedies, the Pioneer Paper Mill flourished, having, at one time, $30,000 in capital stock. In July 1854, the Paper Mill announced its supply of wrapping paper in various sizes and a colored wrapping paper, in addition to other products.13 The Pioneer Paper Mill remained one of Athens greatest investments due to its vast line of productions and the comeback it made due to the tragedies it faced.
The paper industry in Georgia never actually caught up with the rest of the world. It worked day in and day out, but “fell asleep with the setting of the sun,” as one writer wrote in the Southern Banner. Ernest C. Hynds claims “Clarke County was a true pioneer among Georgia counties in manufacturing.”14 It ranked second in the state in 1840 in capital investment in manufacturing and third in 1850. Although Clarke County kept its pace with the counties in Georgia, it was swallowed up by the mass-production of other counties and states.
The paper mill, small or large, was becoming a steady industry in the late nineteenth century. It had advanced fully into its second century and had made many improvements, most of those coming from the equipment side of the industry. By the beginning of the nineteenth century the number of mills had increased substantially and the new mills were becoming steadily larger, and better equipped. Many new machines were replacing hard labor produced by manpower.15
Cylinder machines were introduced with the discovery of the paper mill, but perfected over time. They were greatly improved over the nineteenth century and some are still in use today. The turn of the century was created in 1827, with the Fourdrinier machine. It was brought to America by Henry Barclay and installed in mills in New York.16 Many Americans found this product too expensive to be practical but others new they had to make the switch in order to provide for the consumers of their country. Building additional mills, enlarging existing mills, and adding equipment to reduce delays were concerns and responses to the needs of the people. The paper industry was becoming more of a moneymaker than a supplier.
Due to the expenses that lie in creating a product for the consumer, the American mills had to make the switch to the Fourdrinier in order to keep their customers happy. Transporting the European style across seas was expensive and time consuming - this gave Smith and Winchester Manufacturing Company an idea. They would create an American Fourdrinier.
The first American Fourdrinier was created in 1829. It was better than the European Fourdrinier and was made locally so the manufacturer did not have to pay for the shipping of the product and did not have to worry about delays. 17 This made the paper industry boom. With these new creations within the states, the manufacturers of these paper mills could now concentrate on their business. New equipment, better work, and often times, larger buildings added to the prosperity of the mill itself.
As machinery became increasingly costly, specialization offered mill owners the chance to hold down their investment in fixed capital. Making many diverse products required many different machines, whereas concentrating on a smaller variety reduced the number of machines a mill needed. In general, this specialization made paper makers cautious about adopting new machines whose impact on paper quality remained undetermined.
As in the Athens mill, they tried not to spend too much money on machinery, considering they were the only mill in Athens, but not the largest in the state. It was quite easy for Clarke County to transport paper from the large paper mill in Chatham County, due to the rise in transportation.18 County paper mills had departed from the traditional practice of manufacturing all grades of paper as early as the 1820’s, when they entered the New York market. After mechanization, both rising machine prices and the economic advantages of operating specialized machines continuously enforced greater specialization.
With specialization came different types of paper, and with different types of paper came scarce supplies. The paper industry was growing so rapidly that people were developing shortages in their supplies used to make their paper. The manufacturers found a shortage occurring in their supply of rags. The scarcity of this product stimulated the search for other raw materials. The discovery of methods of producing wood pulp not only ushered in the era of modern papermaking but it brought about a sound progress which can only come to an industry when there is available a steady, economical supply of raw materials.19
Progress in the manufacture of paper from wood pulp was very rapid in this country after the beginning of the present century. American ingenuity and engineering skill were put to work improving methods and machinery. Newsprint paper made of mixed pulps, soda and sulphite pulps mostly, and craft paper made of sulphate pulp for many uses were manufactured in such enormous quantities that the United States became the largest producer and consumer of paper of any nation in the world.
Modern mills, with the best available equipment, were established in thirty-six states. Some of the mills were the largest in the world, offering different varieties of products. This major industry of such “far-reaching influence” upon the American people is made possible by the trees that were scientifically grown in the states. The paper industry was making its way to the front line of the industrial world, although far from being number one.
In contemporaneous times several things stand out conspicuously in the history of the paper industry. During 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 manufacture introduced. The industry was established in new places and, more than ever before, was concentrated in particular localities on large scale.20
By the perfecting of the wood-pulp processes, an overwhelming 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 manufacturers there from to an extent that could not have been imagined a half century before. In the yeas between 1860 and 1870, especially in the latter part of that decade, considerable development took place in the value of production with only small addition to the number of mills. 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 established in character even if not yet in complete development. The paper industry continued to soar.
“A great deal of water has flowed over Berkshire paper mills dams since 1885,” says Judith McGaw in her book, Most Wonderful Machine. As have many other dams across the United States. A nation that went from importing paper goods, to making paper goods, within a span of a century. They even perfected the industry to meet the needs of its consumers. The success of mechanization tempted the ways of the paper industry.
Cheaper and more abundant paper was the intended result of mechanization, but it was only one of many subsequent developments. Mechanization opened the doors to many new ideas in the nineteenth century, even if the ideas were intended for mere social matters. Indeed, without simultaneous social innovation, the paper industry would not have become the rapid, pervasive, and economically successful enterprise that Americans made of it.
The paper industry went from zero to millions. In America today, the paper industry is what makes many other industries flourish. Papermaking is no longer a “sweatshop” industry. Mills are excellently equipped and constant work is being done on improving machinery. The industry looks ahead to the great role paper will play in a new age when scientific research will be as great a factor in industrial progress as inventive genius and engineering skill were in the beginning of the Machine Age. Not too much time stands in our way. The paper industry flourished for two reasons: paper is a substitute for many things, but there is no substitute for paper.