The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1904-04-29
FIRST MAKING OF PAPER.
When Massachusetts, Newspaper
= Had to Cut Circulation for
~ Lack Of Rags. -

Zenas Crane spent his first night in
Berkshire at little wayside inn, with
In a stones throw of where the hand
some residence and thriving mills of
his descendants now stand, and almost
on the identical spot where his grand
son. formerly governor of Massachu-
sets, superintends the vast machinery
OF the famous mill where all the pape:
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 proportions 10
which the seed he was about to plant
would grow. In fact, says Success, it
was not until two years later that the
money was raised and partners secured
with which to start little one-vat
mill.
At the time, the establishment of
mandatory 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 diN-
cult to reach 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 little money.
While the colonies were under English
rule it was the policy to repress colo
NAL manufactures. The few that grew
up were forced to their full capacity
during the Revolutionary war, and
threatened with extinction when the
peace of 1888 permitted the importa-
ton of foreign goods, thus limiting by
competition the sale of domestic manu-
features.
AT the close of the revolution, the
Crane family, whose ancestors had
come over from England in 1648, were
living in Milton, Mass, on the banks Of
the Pumkapoag brook, just above it's
union with the Neponset river, where
stood the first paper mill that was built
IN New England. Milton numbered
among it's Inhabitants many of the
wealthiest families in the common
wealth, but the Cranes were in humble
circumstances, and it was only natural
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 selection of
their trade The pay for lay boy in
those days was go cents a week with
board. Thankful for even SO small an
addition to the family income, the
Cranes sent their oldest son Stephen
to the mill at Milton at an early age.
A few years later. the young man, hav-
ing served his apprenticeship, started
himself in business at Newton Lower
Falls, and sent for his brother Zenas,
who was IL years his Junior, to, learn
from him the rudiments of the busi-
ness. Desiring to gain more thorough
knowledge of the art, Zenas afterwards
worked in the mill of Gen. Burbank in
Worcester, then the largest mill in the
country. 1t contained two watts, and the
rags were cut by hand on a scythe,
three months time being required from
their reception to the placing of paper
on the market. The mill had been
originally built to supply paper for the
Spy. journal edited by the patriot
Isaiah Thomas, whose editorial elo-
quence was frequently curtailed by the
reduced size of the sheet when the
manufacturer was unable to secure suf-
f1cient rags.