ROBERTSON PAPERMILL

Robertson Paper Company 1910-1920 - *Photo courtesy of Rockingham Free Public Library*

History of Roberston Paper Mill Site by historian David Deacon

Site History

The Osgood & Barker Machine Shop/Robertson Paper Mill is part of Vermont’s historic context of “Industry and Commerce” and the sub-contexts of iron making and manufacturing, machine tools, and paper making. It is important contextually on both the local and state levels as an intact example of a machine shop/foundry and paper mill, and also helps depict the industrial boom that took place in Bellows Falls from the 1870s to 1920s.

In February of 1872, the company changed its name to the Vermont Farm Machine Company. In the same month three paper manufacturers from Putney, Vermont, John T. Moore, John Robertson, and Charles E. Robertson, bought a mill site under the hill, between the new Moore and Shepley mill and the gristmill, on the site of the old foundry building.200 Russell built a new foundry and machine shop for Osgood and Barker, and connected it to their new, 170-foot long mill on the Island.

In April, the Arms family (Edward, Aaron, and Otis), merchants from Bellows Falls, and O. H. Black announced that they would build a paper mill—called the Rockingham Paper Company—to the east of Moore and Shepley’s mill.

The new mills took shape through the spring, summer, and fall of 1872. The largest mill, 1885.With this corporate change, the assortment of mills under the hill and on the Island reached their final form. The Fall Mountain Paper Company was the largest manufacturer, while Moore, Arms and Thompson (Arms retired in 1891, leaving the firm named Moore and Thompson, which it remained until 1932) became the second-largest paper mill.239 Eventually the Robertson Paper Company became the third largest, while the John T. Moore, Wyman Flint, and Willard Russell mills remained small.

According to an April 1891 edition of the Bellows Falls Times, Osgood & Barker’s relocation to the Island was “made necessary by an increase in business and the fact that the building now occupied by the machine shop is wanted for other purposes. Contemplated changes and enlargement of works imperatively demand more room…” Construction of the machine shop (Buildings 1 and 7) began shortly after Osgood acquired the property in April 1891, as reported in the Bellows Falls Times. The new machine shop was designed with the assistance of Osgood’s draftsman Wallace White, who had worked for Osgood since 1871. Osgood and White had visited machine shops in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Wilmington for design ideas. Construction apparently moved along quickly, as the building was dedicated in September 1891. The north end of the Island had now truly become industrial in character.

The Bellows Falls Times reported that the machine shop produced all the parts that would turn out “a complete machine,” and that the paper making machinery made paper by the “the pulp or sulphite process, from the wood to the finished product.”

According to an 1891 edition of American Machinist, the shop was “one of the best machine shops In Vermont,” and was finished on the interior in white to increase the quality of light. The 1899 Souvenir Edition of the Bellows Falls Times noted that there was a …traveling crane running nearly the entire length through the main aisle, while the side rooms are furnished with smaller once of modern types…The power is furnished by a fine running 50-horse power steam engine which is fed by a horizontal boiler. The machine shop is independent for water to supply the boiler and for other purposes, as it has drilled through solid granite an artesian well 179 feet deep, from which comes an inexhaustible supply of water…a large part of the work has been for the local trade, yet machines have been sent to nearly every state in the Union and some exported.

Machine Shops were commonly of “sturdy construction” to support machinery, were constructed of brick for its fireproof qualities, and had regularly-spaced windows for natural light, with roof monitors as common features for their light and ventilation.

Paper making is considered to have been the largest industry in Bellows Falls from the 1870s to the 1920s, and Bellows Falls was historically considered one of Vermont’s largest industrial centers and known for its paper-making concerns, with Robertson Paper as its longest-running manufacturer. Many sources of information regarding the paper-making industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries recognize that Bellows Falls was one of the largest centers of the paper industry in the United States at the time.

According to the 1899 Souvenir edition of the Bellows Falls Times, “That Bellows Falls has attained an importance for its manufacturing industries on the Connecticut River second only to Holyoke, is due largely to the foresight, enterprise and indomitable perseverance of Mr. Russell.” The paper industry employed about 700 people and produced "almost every kind of paper known to the trade."

According to Lovell’s 1957 History of Rockingham, “…during the first quarter of this century [twentieth], the life of the town and village revolved around the mills…”

In 1921, after many years of local strikes against International Paper (“IP”), the largest paper-making concern in Bellows Falls since 1899, picketing and sabotage became more violent and the Vermont National Guard occupied the village for two days.

The Strike of 1908

By the spring of 1908 International Paper began to shut down parts of the Winnipiseogee Mill. Paper Mill C, the old Daniell Mill (or Lower Paper Mill) shut down in March, and soon after Paper Mill B (the “Upper” or Fisher-Aiken Mill) also closed. On April 9, the Journal-Transcript announced the shut down. The paper noted that Pulp Mill Number Four, which supplied Paper Mill B, would probably have to shut down, but for the time being there were still four pulp mills and one paper mill running. The mill that remained open made book paper on the plant’s largest machine. The paper reported of the shutdown of Paper Mill B, “No cause for the shut down was announced and no length of time was stated.”68 At the end of April, the Journal- Transcript reprinted L. S. Hayes’s article from the Brattleboro Phoenix, although Omar Towne declined to comment. Paper Mill B reopened in May but closed again in August.

This was not simply a local issue: the paper industry was in a state of crisis. Mathew Burns wrote that by May, 1908, “the paper industry was almost at a standstill. Quite a number of companies could not meet their obligations and went into bankruptcy.”70 Locally, in Franklin, the Winnipiseogee Plant was predominantly manufacturing pulp; the only paper machine running was the book paper in Paper Mill A, the largest and most modern machine in the plant.

The Montague mill had shrunk to become a minor part of the International Paper Company’s portfolio. In July, the corresponding secretary of the Fall Mountain local of the I. B. P. M. summed up the condition of the mills in Bellows Falls. He wrote that the Fall Mountain mill was running only three out of ten machines, that the John T. Moore mill was running “about every other week for the last five months,” that Moore and Thompson were running only two and a half days per week, and that Wyman Flint had been closed for most of the year.

Of the local mills, only the Robertson Paper Company, a major producer of wax paper, was running full time and on three tours. The secretary concluded, “Better times will be coming soon and then we shall be on the firing ling again, only to stand upright for our rights.”

“When the company is getting a higher price for their paper,” Carey asked, “Is it reasonable for them to reduce the wages of their employees, and as they have the right to set a price on the paper they sell, is it justice on their part to deny to labor in an arbitrary manner the market price of labor they would purchase [sic]?”

Sunset Years

After more years of strife, IP closed in 1926, ending Bellows Falls’ paper-making heyday.

The complex had one last gasp at After John Babbitt’s death in 1936, the Robertson Paper Company remained under the ownership of his estate and continued to produce waxed paper. Samuel Lewis became the president of Robertson Paper in 1937 and remained in that position until the 1970s. In 1978 the company was sold by the estate for $75,000 to the “Robertson Paper Company.” Robertson Paper declared bankruptcy in 1986 and was sold to Flock Fibers of Walpole, New Hampshire, which produced “Christmas paper, florist’s tissue, and waxed paper.” The last effort production from 1992 to 2014 when it was owned and operated by Green Mountain Specialties, which used some sections of the complex to produce packaging tissue paper.

Robertson Paper Mill was the last property on the Island to retain its historic purpose before closing in the 1980s.

An overview of labor

The paper industry had a strong artisanal identity. There was a very strong pride of work among paper producers. Bellows Falls was an early supporter of the labor in the mills, but generally the workers lacked the radicalism of workers in places like Franklin, New Hampshire, where there was a large socialist presence.

The roots of organized labor in Bellows Falls go back into the 1890s. The early unions, the Brotherhood of Paper Makers and Machine Tenders’ Union, represented skilled workers and thus had limited reach. Most of the workers in the mills were classified as unskilled workers. Hours were long, on average 12 hour days, six days a week, but there was little effort to change this. Earlier unions, such as the Knights of Labor, did not take hold locally.

The stimulous to organize more broadly came in 1898 with the organization of the International Paper Company. When the Fall Mountain Paper Company became one of the mills of the International, relations with workers started to deteriorate, and many in town worried about the loss of local control.

The organizing efforts began in 1905. That year, the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers suffered the loss of a strike in Holyoke, and this forced a reorganization in the union. There developed three unions in the paper industry: the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers, the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite, and Paper Mill workers, and the Stationary Firemen’s Union. The pulp and sulphite workers was an affiliated union, meaning that they were under the jurisdiction of the skilled workers. In other places, this caused a great amount of tension, but not in Bellows Falls, at least at the start. In 1906, locals within the Pulp and Sulphite Workers seceded from Paper Makers’ union, but pulp workers in Bellows Falls did not recognize the secession. Most of the Robertson Paper Company workers would have been under the jurisdiction of the Pulp and Sulphite Workers.

Generally, negotiations were between the unions and International Paper. The smaller mills recognized the agreements struck by unions and International Paper. There were exceptions to this. In 1907, when workers struck for the eight hour day, John T. Moore and Wyman Flint settled with the unions early. Robertson workers respected the strike against International.

As the Lovells points out, strikes became an important aspect of the industry. They were clearly anti-union, and their history should be read from that perspective. But the series of strikes was:

1899--a brief strike over rule changes in the International Mill

1907--a strike for the “three tour” system, or 8-hour day

1908--a strike over wage cuts in the aftermath of the 1907 strike (there was a financial panic in 1907). The Times noted that this strike was particularly frustrating because it underscored the point that International Paper was not a local business and the Unions had national organizations in other places. Bellows Falls was therefore caught in the middle. It also became frustrating because once the strike appeared to have been settled, workers in Bellows Falls remained on strike. Robertson was back at work in May. This strike became a jurisdictional dispute. While Bellows Falls had been united, workers were forced by the settlement to recognize the pulp workers as a separate union.

1910--This strike was over the firing of a worker in the International Mill in Corinth, NY. There were other issues involved, mostly cleaning up of issues left over from 1907 and 1908. In Bellows Falls, as in other places, jurisdictional disputes badly divided the workers. The stationary firemen’s union refused to strike at all, and some of the Pulp and Sulphite Workers went to other mills as strikebreakers. The strike did not effect Robertson, but it left lingering damage to organized labor.

1918--Workers at Robertson’s “forty being girls” strike for shorter hours and higher pay. They lost, and the mill resumed operations quickly.

1919--This strike was accidental. The unions called a strike but quickly settled. Workers at Robertson’s walked off the job before they heard the news. In 1913, the unions had won a closed shop, meaning the companies had to recognize them. Through WWI, workers remained on the job, bound by union no-strike agreements through the war.

1921--The big one. In April, International Paper and other large producers anounced wage cuts of as much as 30%. This forced a strike, which gave International a chance to fight for a closed shop. They simply refused to recognnize the unions. In Bellows Falls, the International mill was among the oldest in the company’s portfolio, the canal company had sold water rights for hydroelectric development, and changes in tariff law made it cheaper to produce the types of paper made in Bellows Falls in Canada. The strike lasted for five years, but only the most devoted union workers recognized this. By 1926, International had closed its mill for good and the hydroelectric plant and new dam were under construction. By 1924, Robertson’s was operating as if nothing had happened.

In all of this Robertson’s was a fairly minor player. We generally see friendlier relations where mill owners were local residents, and where they understood the work the mill was doing. The president of International Paper in 1921, related to the Rockefellers and head of the Merganthaler Linotype Corporation had never even been in a paper mill when he took the job. Workers followed union orders, but except briefly, Robertson’s was not particularly contentious. After the failure of the great strike, paper mill workers would remain without union representation. There was much lingering bitterness.

By 1927, the mills that were left were Babbitt-Kelley, Moore and Thompson, and Robertson’s. Babbitt-Kelley closed to renovate its new property, which reopened in 1929.

Kiosk Concept and Creation

Current kiosk with elements salvaged from the building

The Robertson Paper concept historic kiosk was many years in the making. Prior to the demolition of the mill in 2019, the project was conceptualized by local creative team Creative Catalyst Communications in conjunction with Bellows Falls Area Development Corporation (BFADC) as a “Window on the Past” to give viewers the experience of looking through a window at the “ghost” of the building where it once stood.

Earmarked from clean up funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Targeted Brownfields Assessment Program, the interpretive kiosk set out to meet four goals:

1) Satisfy mitigation requirements as set forth in the Section 106 Review Report (2016) in terms of preserving significant historic and architectural elements of the Robertson Paper Mill.

2) Recognize and celebrate the industrial and cultural history of Bellows Falls, a continuing need as outlined by the Rockingham Town Plan (2016) and Bellows Falls Island Growth Plan (2013).

3) Contribute to critical placemaking on Bellows Falls Island which will encourage additional pedestrian and bicycling activity on the island whereby helping to meet “healthy communities” goals per the Island Grown Plan as well as increased public safety. Also, to aid in a more amenable environment for the growth of economic development opportunities.

4) Meet sustainable green aspirations for the Island by recycling materials from the site to incorporate into this project as well as additional elements for an historic preservation and cultural walking trail.

To execute the vision, Creative Catalysts teamed up with local metal artist and sculptor, Rich Gillis. The trio was on hand prior to the deconstruction of the mill in 2019, to identify elements to repurpose for the creation of the kiosk including lintels, I-beams, stabilizing stars, and original bricks.

After demolition and hazardous materials removal on the property, just as the team was ready to get to work, the Covid-19 pandemic hit causing numerous delays in the completion of the project, including prolonged timelines in site selection and preparation. The kiosk was finally assembled onsite in September 2023, celebrating the critical role of the mill in the history and culture of Bellows Falls.

Town of Rockingham

Town of Rockingham

papermill

Town of Rockingham

ROBERTSON PAPERMILL

History of Roberston Paper Mill Site by historian David Deacon

Site History

The Strike of 1908

Sunset Years

An overview of labor

Kiosk Concept and Creation

Further Reading