USA > New York > Franklin County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 45
USA > New York > Jefferson County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 45
USA > New York > Lewis County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 45
USA > New York > Oswego County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 45
USA > New York > St Lawrence County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 45
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
Take for purposes of comparison the census figures of 1920 with respect to manufacturing in the North Country. Most of the indus- tries which appeared in the 1880 census were entirely gone by 1920. The steam engine and the carriage business in Jefferson county had succumbed to the competition of the gas engine in tractors and auto- mobiles. The furniture industry had given away to outside competi- tion. One of the outstanding developments was the manufacture of aluminum in St. Lawrence county. One of the few industries which survived and expanded from its beginning, prior to 1860, until 1920 was the manufacture of paper. In 1880 there were sixteen paper mills with 316 employes in these five counties. In 1927 there were forty-six paper mills and thirty-eight pulp mills in these same counties.
THE FIRST LARGE INDUSTRIES
The summary given above is necessary as a background for the more detailed examination of the industrial history of the North Country. Northern New York's first two large industries naturally enough developed one in each of the two leading North Country towns, Oswego and Watertown, and both were industries of impor- tance a half dozen years before the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1849 Hoard & Bradford started the manufacture of portable steam engines in a little shop on the corner of Moulton and the present Mill streets in Watertown. The year before that, 1848, T. Kingsford & Son, started the manufacture of corn starch in Oswego.
It was the coming of the railroad to the North Country that made possible the development of these two important industries. It will be noted that the very year the Kingsford starch plant was estab-
491
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
lished in Oswego the railroad connection was made between Oswego and Syracuse. While the railroad did not come to Watertown for several years after the establishment of the portable engine plant, not until Watertown was connected with the outside world by rail did this industry expand to any marked degree.
The firm of Hoard & Son soon succeeded that of Hoard & Brad- ford. Orders poured in for the engines and the company could not meet the demand for its product. By the time of the Civil War it was by far the most important industry in Jefferson county. During the war, the company undertook a government contract for the manu- facture of rifles and nearly came to grief as a result. Following the war in 1866, however, the Portable Steam Engine Company was organized and in 1872 this firm gave way to the Watertown Steam Engine Company, with John C. Knowlton, president; George C. Sherman, vice president; and S. F. Bagg, secretary and treasurer. In 1899 the plant was moved to West Main street. Eventually the company became the New York Engine Company, which engaged in munition manufacture during the World War, but since has gone out of existence.
Something has been said in another chapter about the starting of the Kingsford starch manufactory in Oswego. Thomas Kingsford was a native of England, coming to America in 1831, where he found employment in a factory where starch was being manufactured from wheat, the old method. He became impressed with the possible use of Indian corn as a medium for the production of starch. He experi- mented and in 1842 produced his first marketable starch from Indian corn. He and his son, Thomson Kingsford, a machinist, then formed a partnership and opened a small factory in Bergen, New Jersey. Almost from the first it became apparent that the Kingsfords had hit upon an idea of wonderful commercial possibilities. In 1848 the business was moved to Oswego. Its growth was phenomenal. In 1870 the Oswego Starch Factory at Oswego was producing more than one-third of all the starch manufactured in the United States. In 1864 the Kingsford Foundry and Machine Works was established for the manufacture of engines, boilers and architectural iron work. This industry also flourished and for many years was one of the main establishments of the City of Oswego.
492
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
Immediately following the Civil War, Northern New York expe- rienced an industrial impetus which resulted in the establishment of numerous important industries. The Ames Iron Works at Oswego .is deeply rooted in the past. Founded in 1853 by Talcott & Underhill, in 1855 the business was sold to Henry M. Ames, who changed the name to that of the Ames Iron Works. In the course of time the Ames Iron Works became one of the leading engine and boiler manu- facturing concerns in New York State. The manufacture of textiles and shade cloth early became an important industry in Oswego. The Oswego Shade Cloth Factory was established in 1872 by Theodore Irwin, George B. Sloan, Luther Wright and Niel Gray. It was a pioneer concern of its kind and in the latter part of the nineteenth century was one of the largest shade cloth mills in the United States. The Home Manufacturing Company, which later developed into the Swits Conde Company, had its beginnings soon after the Civil War. Henry S. Conde, who in early life had been a merchant in Central Square, became the controlling force in this company and in 1874 became the sole proprietor. His son, Swits Conde, soon succeeded him and the Swits Conde Company was organized in 1894.
In Watertown the Bagley & Sewall Company, which will be con- sidered more in detail in connection with the paper mill industry was flourishing, and two other important industries came into being. One was the Hitchcock Lamp Company and the other the Davis Sewing Machine Company. The Davis Sewing Machine Company was organ- ized in 1868 with a capital of $150,000 which was later increased to $500,000. Originally the plant was located on Factory Square, Wa- tertown, but in 1875 the company erected a building of its own on Sewall's Island, which later was occupied by the Excelsior Carriage Company. There the Davis Sewing Machine Company remained for fourteen years, employing 175 men and selling in 1875 $300,000 worth of machines. In 1889 the company moved to Dayton, Ohio, a severe blow indeed for the Watertown of that period.
Stored away and forgotten in many an attic today is an old Hitch- cock lamp. Once a Hitchcock lamp was the prized possession of many a household throughout the land. The mellow, steady glow of its flame replaced the old kerosene lamp with its flickering, smoky flame. At one time the United States navy was equipped with Hitchcock lamps. The inventor of the Hitchcock lamp was Robert Hitchcock,
493
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
who in the early seventies was a watchmaker and jeweler employed in the jewelry store of Roswell P. and Anson R. Flower in Court street, Watertown. The Flower brothers backed the young inventor and in 1872 the Hitchcock Lamp Company was organized and patents obtained in this country and abroad. The lamps contained diminu- tive pumps, automatically operated by a clocklike arrangement, which raised the heavy oil of the period to the point of combustion. This heavy oil had no capillary action and had to be forced up to the wick or it would not burn. The lamps were made of metal and there was no danger of explosion. They were soon in common use in railroad cars and ships and some of them were taken on the famous Greely expedition to the arctic. About 1891 John B. Taylor, who later be- came one of the pioneers in the electric light and power industry in Northern New York, bought the Hitchcock Lamp Company. In 1904 he sold out the business to James B. Wise. Mr. Wise never carried on the lamp business to any extent as with the development of the electric light the Hitchcock lamp became obsolete.
During this period when Oswego was developing its starch, its iron and its textile industries and Watertown its engine, sewing machine and lamp factories, Ogdensburg, too, was becoming widely known as the center of an important lumbering business. The Ogdens- burg branch of the lumber company of Skillings, Whitney and Barnes was organized in 1859 under the management of William L. Proctor. This company, during its earliest years, employed from 500 to 700 men. It had two yards and manufacturing plants and at one time owned eighteen vessels on the Great Lakes and handled 125,000,000 feet of lumber annually. A large box factory was also operated. The company was liquidated in 1924 and its plant sold to the Coplan Steel Company.
Other Ogdensburg industries of this period were Shepard, Hall & Company's lumber business, Northrup's stove factory and cooper shop, S. G. Pope's door, sash and blind factory, Babcock's pump factory and a number of important flour mills.
THE PAPER MILL ERA
Probably no one industry had such an effect on the economic de- velopment of the North Country as did the paper-making industry. For seventy-five years Watertown was the center of what was at one
494
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
time the most important paper-making district in North America. But the industry was by no means confined to Jefferson county. Im- portant paper mills were located as well in Lewis county, St. Law- rence county and Oswego county. Much of the present wealth of Northern New York was derived from the paper-making industry which in its heydey employed thousands of men in Northern New York and represented an investment of many millions of dollars. Even today, with the loss of the pulp wood supply, paper manufactur- ing is an important industry in the North Country and two modern mills have been erected within the past few years in the City of Oswego. In 1880 there were sixteen paper mills with 316 employes in the five Northern New York counties. In 1927 there were forty- six paper mills and thirty-eight pulp mills in these same counties.
Hydro-electric power is probably more important to the paper industry in proportion to the number of employes than to any other manufacturing industry. The Adirondack Mountains supplied great quantities of raw material for the manufacture of paper and the rivers flowing out of those mountains not only furnished absolutely free transportation to carry that material to the mills waiting below, but they also supplied an abundance of very cheap power so that the paper industry quite naturally assumed the leading place in the development of the North Country. It must be remembered that the sale of a ton of paper from these mills meant also the sale of a ton of wood from the Adirondacks which had taken many years to develop but had cost little to cut and throw into the stream which carried it to the mill. This combination of circumstances was the basis for many of the fortunes which were made in Northern New York during the period from 1880 to 1920.
By 1920, however, very marked changes had set in, which caused the paper business to lose its great profit-making advantages. The supply of raw materials in the Adirondacks had dwindled so that it was necessary to go far afield, principally to Canada, for timber. The timber not only had to be transported by rail at a heavy expense, instead of being carried free by the rivers from the Adirondacks, but also it demanded a good price, so that the sale of a ton of paper no longer included the sale of a ton of wood which the owner of the paper mill had bought at a few dollars per acre. Freight rates from the North Country to the principal paper-consuming areas had
495
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
always been higher for the distance than rates from many competing points. That was a matter which did not cause much concern during the earlier and more fortunate days. But the freight rate handicap of the North Country began to be felt keenly during the period from 1890 to 1930 and paper mills here and there throughout the region were abandoned.
THE FIRST PAPER MILLS
Undoubtedly the first paper mill in the entire North Country was located at Martinsburg, Lewis county. It was erected in 1807 by General Walter Martin, the owner of the town, and manufactured writing, wrapping and wall paper by a hand process. The mill fell into ruins in 1832 and no attempt was made to replace it. Even earlier than that, in 1804, William Bailey, the Chateaugay landowner, began the erection of a paper mill near Chateaugay, Franklin county, but it was never completed.
The Village of Watertown was only eight years old when Gurdon Caswell, a pioneer from Oneida county, erected a small building on the south bank of Black river at Watertown and began the manufac- ture of paper. From that date to the present time the site selected by Mr. Caswell has, with the exception of a few brief periods, been used exclusively for the manufacture of paper. The Caswell mill may be said to have been the beginning of the great Knowlton paper mill interests. The mill was taken over by George W. Knowlton and Clarke Rice in 1824. Knowlton & Rice conducted the business for many years, new mills to replace the old ones being built in 1833 and 1848. In 1861 George W. Knowlton, Jr., and his brother, John C. Knowlton, took over the property, their initial capital being a little over $6,000. John C. Knowlton retired from active participation in the business in 1888. From that date until about a year ago George W. Knowlton was the directing head of the business, now known as the Kamargo Mills. His son, G. Seymour Knowlton, has directed the business since the death of his father.
One of the earliest, if not the earliest, paper mill in Oswego county was that built by N. Randall in Pulaski in 1831. Another early one was the mill built in Fulton in 1852 by Henry Monroe and Charles G. Case. The mill burned in 1871. It was rebuilt and in 1880 the Victoria Paper Mill Company took possession. Soon after
496
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
a new pulp mill was built and about 1889 a new paper mill erected. In 1893 the company added to its plant the mills operated by the Cataract Paper Company, which were built about 1885. The Oswego Falls Pulp and Paper Company was incorporated in 1886 and erected their mills in Fulton in 1888. Fulton was for many years the prin- cipal paper manufacturing point in Oswego county. In recent years the City of Oswego has come to the front as a leading paper manu- facturing city.
The first paper mill in St. Lawrence county was established at Hamilton, now Waddington, about 1826. Thayer, Whitcomb and Wales were the owners. It was what is known as a straw-board mill and used flax which was grown in the surrounding district for the purpose. It remained in operation about twenty years. In 1863 Henry Ripley James of Ogdensburg purchased the old stone flour mill at Waddington together with power and water rights and con- verted it into a paper mill. His mill, which was quite successful, was destroyed by fire in 1883. The large wood-handling plant of the St. Regis Paper Company is now located at Waddington. The dock was built in 1902 and the first wood unloaded from barges in 1904.
Of course no detailed history of the paper mill industry in North- ern New York can be given in the space available in a work of this kind. Mr. Howard W. Palmer in a notable series of articles in The Watertown Daily Times about ten years ago presented the subject in an authoritative manner, tracing the development of all the impor- tant companies. Here only the main lines of development in the various counties will be considered.
A name which will always be connected with the paper-making industry in Northern New York is that of Remington. The Reming- tons constructed a great chain of paper mills throughout the North Country. Three generations of this family were engaged in the mak- ing of paper in the northern counties of New York State. The pio- neer was Illustrious Remington, but his sons, Charles R., Hiram and Alfred D., were largely responsible for building up the great Reming- ton paper mill business. Alfred D. Remington was one of the pio- neers in the wood pulp industry throughout the country. He was also the first paper manufacturer in the country to speed up his machines.
It was in 1853 that Illustrious Remington, then a pioneer paper manufacturer of Onondaga county, came to Watertown and built
LOWVILLE ACADEMY, LOWVILLE, N. Y.
MASONIC TEMPLE, LOWVILLE, N. Y.
497
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
the first Remington mill on Black river opposite Sewall's Island. This was in 1854 and the mill was located on the site of the Continental Bag Company's later mill. In the course of time at least a half a dozen companies were organized in which the Remingtons were in- terested. Within a few years after the family had started in the paper-making business in Watertown they controlled the Remington Paper Company, Watertown Paper Company, C. R. Remington & Son Company and the H. Remington & Son Pulp and Paper Company. The mills were scattered from the Village of Black River to that of Glen Park. Within a couple of decades, it was estimated that the Remingtons had $1,350,000 invested in their paper mill holdings in Northern New York including their Adirondack timber lands. They continued to expand, installing more modern machinery and employ- ing more men. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Remington interests absorbed the Ontario Paper Company and in 1899 the Remingtons sold their mills, their timber and their power rights to the International Paper Company. Following this sale A. D. Remington retired but Charles R. Remington still remained in the paper mill business.
In 1865 Byron B. Taggart began the manufacture of paper bags on Beebee Island, Watertown, in association with one A. H. Hall. The war had developed a shortage in cotton sacks and Mr. Taggart conceived the idea of making bags from Manila paper. The business progressed to such an extent that Mr. Taggart saw the advantage of producing his own paper and a company was organized consisting of Byron B. Taggart, his brother, William Taggart, George West and Lewis Palmer. In 1870 the two Taggart brothers succeeded to the entire ownership of the business. Bags were made by hand until the early 1870s when a bag machine was purchased. In 1886 the Tag- garts bought the Great Bend Paper Company, which was founded in 1868, and merged it with the Felts Mills Paper Company in 1889. The company's name was changed to the Sherman Paper Company in 1921, and it now operates three mills. In 1927 and 1928 Taggart Brothers and their associates built a large mill at Oswego and formed the Oswego Paper & Bag Corporation. Under normal circumstances more than 24,000 tons of high grade kraft paper are produced in this plant annually and the bag factory has a capacity of 75,000,000 cement sacks yearly.
498
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
The villages of Brownville, Glen Park and Dexter, all near Water- town, early became important paper manufacturing centers. In 1885 James A. Outterson of Fayetteville bought an old grist mill in Brownville for $700 and proceeded to convert it into a paper mill. Today that mill is the plant of the Harmon Paper Company. The Dexter Sulphite Pulp & Paper Company grew out of the investment of Dr. Charles E. Campbell of New York in an old, vacant woolen mill at Dexter. He interested James A. Outterson, who probably developed more successful paper mills than any man in Northern New York. That sulphite company today owns a large part of the water power of Dexter. Dr. James Campbell, son of Dr. Charles E. Campbell, is now the controlling factor.
The St. Regis Paper Company, with a substantial chain of mills in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties, was organized in 1898 by David M. Anderson and the late George C. Sherman. The first mill was at Deferiet. George W. Knowlton became associated with them and later became president of the St. Regis Paper Company. G. H. P. Gould later became interested and bought out the stock of Mr. Anderson and Mr. Sherman. In 1916 the St. Regis Paper Company was purchased by a group of Watertown capitalists consisting of F. L. Carlisle, D. M. Anderson, C. C. Burns, Frank A. Empsall and D. C. Middleton. Mills at Black River and Herrings, both built by William P. Herring, were purchased in 1912. The Village of Deferiet is owned outright by the company.
The paper manufacturing industry started to develop at Carthage in the 1890s. In the early part of that decade Augustus Maxwell, Peter McQuillen and Peter Yousey bought Tannery Island for $9,000. An old furniture factory, which was located on the island, burned in 1895. In 1896 a ground wood mill was built and in 1897 work was started on a paper mill. This became the Island Paper Company. The West End Paper Company was incorporated in 1901 and devel- oped from the old Robinson pulp mill. E. B. Sterling later became the controlling figure. The Carthage Sulphite Pulp & Paper Company was formed in 1911 from the consolidation of the old Carthage Sul- phite Pulp & Paper Company formed in 1898 with the LeRay Paper Company. The Champion Paper Company was organized in 1902 and later passed into the control of the Remington Paper Company ..
499
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
Likewise there was little development of the paper industry in St. Lawrence county until the 1890s. One of the pioneer wood pulp companies in St. Lawrence county was the Gouverneur Wood Pulp Company, organized in 1890. The Racquette River Pulp Company was organized in 1893 and a mill built at Colton. Later the mill burned and the Hannawa Falls Power Company, which was organ- ized by Congressman E. A. Merritt in 1897, bought the power. The Aldrich Paper Company was organized in 1900 and bought the old mill of the Gouverneur Wood Pulp Company. The Racquette River Paper Company has long been one of the best known paper manu- facturing concerns in Northern New York. The first president was George W. Sisson and the ownership of the company passed entirely into the hands of the Sisson family in 1901.
The High Falls Sulphite Company was organized in 1892. Later it became known as the Pyrites Paper Company and finally as the De Grasse Paper Company. Mills are located at Pyrites. In 1901 A. D. Remington together with O. E. Martin of Norwood organized the Remington-Martin Company and built a big paper mill at Nor- folk, the first of a group of three Remington mills in St. Lawrence county on the Racquette river. The Piercefield Paper Company, in the eastern end of the county, was organized in 1892 and its mill later taken over by the International. The Newton Falls Paper Com- pany was organized in 1894. James A. Outterson, the paper mill builder, was largely responsible for the organization of the company which soon passed under the control of Frank L. Moore.
Development of the paper mill industry was earlier in Lewis county. The pioneer mill at Martinsburg has already been discussed. Sometime between 1840 and 1850 Joel Alger came from New England and established a small mill at Lyondale. In the course of time, three well known paper manufacturing companies developed in Lewis county. G. H. P. Gould from 1892 to 1919 built up one of the largest chains of paper mills in Northern New York. In 1892 the mills of the Fonda Lake Paper Company at Port Leyden and Fowlerville were offered at receiver's sale. Mr. Gould and Charles W. Pratt bought the mills. The Fowlerville mill later burned and was never rebuilt. Gould started to build a paper mill at Lyons Falls in 1895 and three years later built a new sulphite mill.
500
HISTORY OF THE NORTH COUNTRY
Before the organization of the Gould Paper Company, James P. Lewis was already engaged in paper making on the Beaver river. In 1881 he built his first pulp mill at Beaver Falls. The Riverside pulp mill was built in 1887 and Beaver board, now a well known com- mercial product, had its origin there. The J. P. Lewis Company is still an important Northern New York paper-making concern. The Diana Paper Company at Harrisville was organized by Mark S. Wilder, Frank P. Wilder, Charles H. Remington, Francis M. Hugo and John Weeks.
Recently the City of Oswego became an important center for the manufacture of paper. The St. Regis Paper Company and other F. L. Carlisle companies have expended within seven years about $20,000,000 in Oswego in power and industrial developments. The Taggart Brothers-Oswego Paper & Bag Corporation and the Oswego Board Corporation both have extensive and modern plants in that city.
MODERN INDUSTRIES
Because the Bagley & Sewall Company is still one of Northern New York's most important industries and because it bears a close relationship to the paper manufacturing industry, it is considered under this heading, although, as a matter of fact, it is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, existing manufacturing plant in the North Country. The company was established under the name of Goulding, Bagley & Sewall in 1853, it being a co-partnership between George A. Bagley, Edmund Q. Sewall and George Goulding. However, as early as 1838 George Goulding had established a machine shop on Sewall Island and the new firm was but a continuation of this pioneer business.
Goulding, Bagley & Sewall manufactured central discharge water wheels, saw mills, boilers and engines and after George Goulding left the firm in 1862 and the present firm name was assumed, the manufacture of engines and boilers was started on a large scale. Not only that but agricultural machinery, pumps and somewhat later vises were manufactured. In the early days the firm produced cast- ings for the Eames Vacuum Brake Company and the Davis Sewing Machine Company and also engaged for a time in the manufacture of printing presses.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.