Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-03-31
When Paper Was First Made.

Zenas Crane spent his first night in Berkshire at q little wayside inn, with in stones throw of where the hand- some residences and thriving mills of his descendants now stand, and almost on the identical spot where his grand son, formerly go vernor of Massachu- setts superintends the vast machinery Of the famous mill where all the paper for United States money is manufac- tured. But the pioneer, weary from the long journey on horseback, and without any capital, save brains and an independent spirit, could scarcely have prophesied the pruportions to which the seed he was about to plant would grow. In fact, it was not until two years after that the money was raised and partners secured with which to start little ,one-vat mill.
 At the time, the stablishment of q manufactory in any part of America was considered. a bold and dangerous experiment, and hailed by press and people as patriotic act. Skilled work men were rare, and it was more dlftl- cult to reach a market few miles dis tant than it now is to encircle the globe. There were only a few paper mills, and these were obliged to shut down frequently for lack of operators or of raw material. There was no sys- tematic method of collecting rags, and much of the product of the mills was carted about the country and eX- changed for rags and a little money. While the colonies were under English rule it was the policy to repress col onial manufactures. The few that grew up were forced to their full ca- pacity during the Revolutionary war, and threatened with extinction when the peace of 17S3 permitted the impor- tation of foreign goods, thus limiting by competition the sale of domestic manufactures.
 At the close of the Revolution, the Crane family, whose ancestors had come over from England in 164S, were living in Milton. Mass, on the banks of the Pumpkapoag brook just above it's union with the Neponset river. where stood the first paper mill that was built in New England. Milton num- bered among it's inhabitants many of the wea1thiest families. in the common < wealth, but the Cranes were in hum- ble circumstances, and it. was only nat ural that at least two of Stephen Cranes five sons who grew up in the shadow of an Interesting manufacture should be influenced by it in the se'ec- ton of their trade. The pay for q. lay boy in those days was 60 cents week with board. Thankful for even so small an addition to the family income, the Cranes sent their oldest son. S-e- phen. to the mill at Milton at an early age. A few years later the young man.. having served his apprenticeship, started himself in business at Newton Lower Falls, and sent for his brother Zenas, who was eleven years his junior, to learn from him the rudiments of the business. Desiring to gain a more thorough knowledge of the art, Zenas afterwards worked in the milt of General Burbank in Worcester, theu the largest mill in the country. It contained two vats, and the rags were cut by hand on a scythe, three months time being required from their recep- tion to the placing of paner on the mar ket. The mill had been ori@inally built to surply paper for the Spv, q journal edftad by the patriot Isaiah Thomas whose ed'tnriaI eloquence was frequently eurta'led by the re- duced size of the sheet when the man ufacturer was unable to secure suffi- cient rags.-Success.