The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1894-08-10
EX-GOV. CARROLL S. PAGE,
"The Largest Dealer in Raw Calf Skin
in the WOrld,s


HYDE Park, Vermont, is one of the pretties
of New England's small villages, and is a Yer
table park surrounded almost entirely by
lofty range of the Green Mountains. The an
nual volume of business transacted at Hyd,
Park is very large, but it is due almost sOiel,
TO the fact that her distinguished citizen, eX
| Gov. Carroll S. Page, transacts volume O
business in green calf skins that is no
equalled by any other firm in the world. Tha
fact has been heralded throughout civilization
time and again by unsolicited editorial com
ments from the leading trade periodicals OF
the United States and foreign countries. and
hence it is not strange that the name of Gov
Page should become household word with
the trade as well as in the state, county and
town to which so much of his time has been
devoted. For that reason, and because the
history of all remarkably successful firms is
deeply interesting, we favor our readers with
few facts respecting the growth and devel-
opment of this house.
The business was established on a small
scale away back in 1855 by X. S. Page, father
of the present proprietor, who conducted the
business until the 10th day of January, 1861
the date upon which Gov. Page attained his
majority and succeeded to the sole control
The enormous plant is located only a few
rods from the passenger depot, and visit
there is not only interesting but instructive.
The original building, l0SX40 feet, erected in
tlons and improvements until the entire estab-
lshment, including engine house, contains at
present 3-4 acres of floor space. The ar
into departments has been made
with special view to rapid and economical
handling of goods, which are loaded and I'M
loaded directly from the ears. side tracks ap-
every door of the institution. The
main building or receiving house, contains
three floors, the receiving floor being 216x50
feet and the lower or storage department.
216xS6. In this building the skins undergo
those processes which prepare them for the
tanner. Some of them are soaked from II to
"a hours in numerous enormous watts of water, |
from which they are afterwards taken to the
. fieshing' machines which clean all dirt and |
flesh from the hides and prepare them for
packing. The fleshing machines, two in num-
Der, have capacity of cleaning from 5000 to |
1000 skins per day, and these, together with |
IN elevator, are operated by gasoline engine
IL 2l-horse-power. Water for supplying the
arge watts is piped from cold springs about 40
rods from the plant.
Next we visit an additional warehouse
Which Is 12X y feet, four stories high and
Which contains mt present from 5000 to 3d.
400 skins. Gov. Page has two methods of
'urlnS skins-by 'dry sailing" and "wet
'acking," the latter being the method adopted
~ Chicago. New York and Boston dealers.
n these processes the plant consumes from
hree to four hundred tons of Liverpool salt
'er year. During the busy season from so to
90 employees are required to handle the bust
less.
In addition to the above there is a glue
tock building lOSX20 feet, while a new
trueture is in process of erection for tallow
and VIII be supplied with all mod
rn machinery for that purpose, the object
eing to make this and the taking care of
ones and market waste a prominent part of
he business for the future. f,
In IL ms
D between 300 and 400 different cassifi ations
trade numbers, varying from one to -
ounds IN weight. So perfect l. his system J
! tins line that the Shoe and Leather Report Il
r of July . remarks as follows: 7
Inc trade IN green calf skins is fast becom-
x me art Under the present methods the I
lccessful tanner must know, before he puts =
is skins into soak. Just what the finished a
roduct Is to be. There is only one dealer. II
Tar ;ls we know. who has ever successfully =
tempted to do this work for the tanner p
eiter than he could do il for himself, and 0
nat i Carroll ;. Page. the Hyde Park. VT. i
caller, whose success in this line has resulted e
! building up what is confessedly the largest n
feen cali skin trade on this continent, if not n
| the world. Commencing in 1855. he has for q
most 40 years made calf-skins his study, I'M il
he : able to tell with wonderful accuracy p
ON the appearance of a skin in the hair just 2
hat il will make when finished. and today b
he manufactures of any specially i'm calf skins
a learned that all he needs do Is send TO
r. Page, tell him what he wishes TO produce,
e size and quality, and he will have his
'ders filed with skin approaching more n
'arly to the exact recruitment of the tanner
AN he could personally select for himself
I course no one could DO this kind OF BUSH IL
- satisfactorily with stocks of ordinary "
'lume to select from. but the magnitude of r,
r. Pages collections are such that If he only 81
iects one IN 100 of his receipts for any given C,
ecialiy, il gives large aggregate at the end 10