Consolidated Paper Mills

Paper mills in the Midwest are a common sight. Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin is one of the many cities that developed around a large paper mill on the Wisconsin River. The river attracted water powered mills of many kinds and they fought over rights to that water. Attorney Moses Hooper represented one of those mills, but realized they could make more money by joining forces.^[1] The Consolidated Water Power Company was incorporated on 16 July 1894. The individual owners continued fighting one another until many of the original starters were no longer involved in the company.

Nels Johnson and J.D. Witter, the last two original owners, purchased the remainder of the company in 1901. Witter died in 1902, followed by Johnson nine months later, while on a business trip to Wilmington, Delaware to purchase paper machines. Witter’s son-in-law, George W. Mead, then made Consolidated a major force in the paper industry. Mead started the business without knowing much about it, but spent long hours studying the industry. At age thirty-one Mead wanted to create a business that would benefit the entire community, not just the stock holders.

During the first months of 1904 the mill and dam moved close to completion. The dam was finished in March. It was made from stone filled timber cribs with hemlock beams. The dam was at this time the largest dam in the state at 2,000 feet. The mill became operational when Mead turned the first water wheel on April 26. On June 3 the first two electric paper machines began producing paper. These machines were numbered 11 and 12. On that same day the first load of paper shipped to the Los Angeles Times. That year the mill made a profit of $90,000.

The Wisconsin Rapids Mill started out as the Grand Rapids Mill but ended up changing its name to Consolidated due to the town's name change in 1920. Grand Rapids on the west side of the city and Centralia on the east became one town under the name of Wisconsin Rapids. Consolidated Paper Mill started out producing newsprint. By 1929 the company had shifted to book paper, followed by coated paper in 1933 that ended up revolutionizing the paper industry and giving a boost to the magazine world. Its biggest contract came in 1937 when Time Inc. signed on to use machine number 15 to make the coated paper for their Life magazine.

In the early 1900s the state of Wisconsin produced three million pounds of paper per day, making the state third in paper production. Consolidated was bought out by the Finnish company, Stora Enso in 2000 for 4.4 billion dollars. The company sold once again in 2007 to a North American company, NewPage.

References

Sources

• Decker, A. Along the Wisconsin River - Grand Rapids. Northern Micrographics, Inc. Wisconsin, 1999.