The Portland daily press., 1893-06-03
TWO MILLION DOLLARS.
What They Have Done in the Wilder
ness at Rumford.
MR.. CKfsHOLM,s WORK is AP-
PREACHING COMPLETION.


dred Dwellings and Twenty-four
Places of Business.
Two years ago last August the traveller
in the town of Rumford, if he cared To
Chamber over boulders and thread his
way through woods and thickets, might
have seen one of the most magnificent
sspectacles Of nature IN New England.
It was the Androscoggin river, throwing
itself down the granite gorges of the
famous Rumford Falls, in the midst of a
solitude of which it might be said liter
ally as was said of the Oregon once, that
the river heard no sounds save it's own
dashiags. To the right and left above
the foaming course of the long cataract
lowered high hills, or small mountains,
the sides of which were clothed with
trees even to the waters edge. Men
and women who loved the mighty works
OF nature came from long distances to
see this rare combination of mountains,
woods and water.
Two million dollars of money and two
years of time, backed by the indomitable
enterprise of one man, have wrought
marvellous change in this scene. The
forest has been driven back to the noun
tain tops, the unruly river has been
forced to desist from its pastime of the
centuries, leave its tumblings and it's
dashings, and like broken wild horse,
so in sluggish course to turn the wheels
of great mills.
The story of Mr.. Hugh J. Chisholm's
enterprise at Rumford Falls has often
been told; how he worked eleven years
to get the titles to the land that con
trolled the Falls; and how he has brought
the effective force Of over two million
dollars to the work of making a manu-
featuring city around this fall. 1t is
worth observing that a portion of this
money, and very large portion too, has
come from other states, some of it from
that voracious West that has swallowed
the hoardings and the hopes of so many
Maine men and women.
Yesterday large party of men from
Portland and other Maine cities visited
Rumford Falls to inspect the work that
has been done, and congratulate Mr..
Chisholm on it's accomplishment; for
the middle canal is SO far completed that
Industries are taking water from it; and
the lower level canal is SO well under
way that it may be said that the power
a : >
company are ready to furnish water to
industries as fast as they come in. Eight
thousand horse power the middle level
canal gives; the lower will give five
thousand more; and when the large
upper level shall be needed and made
there will be in all available $4,000 horse
power--a force greater than the COM
bined strength of those water powers
that have made Lewiston, Lowell Law
renee. and Holyoke rich, famous and
populous.
TO obtain the results achieved the
power company, which is distinct from
the mills, has expended about 5000 600
of which $500, 900 has been raised by an
issue of five per cent, fifteen year gold
bonds, for the payment of which the
company deposit with the Old Colony
Trust Co., of Boston, $4,000 yearly for
the creation of a sinking fund. The power
company sells sites for mills, like the
site for the sulphite mill, for which 500
oO0 was paid, and also rents power by
perpetual leases 1t is said that the
leases on the mills now running and
under way amount to $50, 900 a year.
This in brief is the plan of Mr.. CHS
holm and his associates They intend to
take the mighty Androscoggin river in
at wholesale at the top of hill, and re-
tail it out at so much horsepower at
the bottom.
Yesterdays visit showed that the
business was well started. On the sec
ond level is mill for making bleaching
powders which cost SIS, 900, and which
has been in operation for some time. 1t
will probably increase it's capacity 10
fold before long.
On the same level is a paper mill al |
most ready to run that has cost half a |
million dollars. It is built of brick, |
with heavy granite foundations, steel |
beams and rafters, very little wood about |
it, and some big machines, any one of |
which would be worth a good farm in |
any county in Maine. The party
yesterday spent considerable time look |
ing over this mill. 1t has been built |
mainly by capital from out of the state. |
and has back of it some of the most sue |
cessful paper manufacturers in the |
country.
Near by this paper mill are going in
the foundations of a sulphite mill that |
will cover over an acre and three-quar-
tiers of ground when it is completed. |
This mill also will cost half million |
dollars,
Then there is an electric plant and a
system of water works which, together,
have cost about 500, 900, and which are |
completed
This is not all. In less than two years
"a stores and other places of business
have been built in the business portion,
and in the residence portion ON the |
eastern side of the river,
One Hundred Houses
have gone up. One of them, that of |
Schenok of the paper |
mill, is residence of much beauty; and
the others are comfortable and commod- |
ious. Judge A. E. Morrison, who at |
4 II L.