19th century pulp and paper — 13 teams hauling paper

Glens Falls Paper Co., in South Glens Falls, was a major employer of men and horses.

“Some idea of the amount of freight shipped and received by the Glens Falls Paper Mill Company may be found from the fact that thirteen heavy truck teams were employed hauling paper to the freight house and returning to the mill with heavy loads of pulp,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on Oct. 27, 1894.

The company also was a major purchaser of logs.

“During the fall the Glens Falls Paper Mill Company drew from the river into their yards about 75,000 logs to convert into pulp,” The Morning Star reported on Dec. 24, 1894. “Of this number there are still unused from 50,000 to 55,000 which will last until the opening of the river.”

Its customers included metropolitan New York City daily newspapers.

“The paper on which last Sunday’s edition of the New York Herald was printed was wade by the Glens Falls Paper Company mill on Wednesday and shipped on Thursday,” The Morning Star reported on Oct. 3, 1894.

The mill was a major property taxpayer.

Glens Falls Paper Co. paid $2,200 — the equivalent of $78,469 in 2024 dollars — in South Glens Falls school taxes, The Morning Star reported on Oct. 8, 1894.

In other 19th century pulp and paper industry news collected from historic newspapers of the region:

• “A turbine wheel five feet in diameter is being manufactured by the Dix Foundry Company. It will drive the electric light plant at the pulp works of Thomsons Mills,” The Morning Star reported on Oct. 27, 1894.
• “A mammoth water filter made of boiler iron is being turned out at the Dixon iron works for the pulp mill at Kane’s Falls. It will filter the water used in manufacturing pulp,” The Morning Star reported on Nov. 28, 1904.
• “The Union Bag and Paper Company ships two to four carloads of bags every day,” the Sandy Hill correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Oct. 31, 1894.
• “On Wednesday last 131 freight cars passed over the spur connecting the mills of the Hudson River Pulp and Paper Company at Corinth with the Adirondack Railroad. This gives an idea of the magnitude of the company’s business,” The Morning Star reported on Feb. 4, 1895
• “The new pulp and paper mill located between Middle Falls and Schuylerville was totally destroyed by fire Sunday morning. Loss $25,000 (the equivalent of $902,110 in 2024 dollars), insurance $7,500,” The Morning Star reported on Dec. 3, 1894.
• “Sandy Hill is soon to have an important addition to her industries. A certificate of incorporation has been filed with the Secretary of State of the Standard Wallpaper Company at Sandy Hill — the capital stock of $125,060 (the equivalent of $4.51 million in 2024 dollars),” The Granville Sentinel reported on Dec. 28, 1894. “Ground will be broken soon, and the plant will be up and in running order next summer. About 150 hands will be employed, of which twenty-five or thirty will come from New York or New Brunswick, N.J.”
• “The Glens Falls Paper Mill Company has bought the J. P. Durkee machine shop plant,” The Morning Star reported on Dec. 24, 1894.
• “The Adirondack Railroad has put on a log train between North Creek and Palmer Falls in charge of Conductor Philip of Long of Whitehall,” The Morning Star reported on Jan. 23, 1895. “The train will haul pulp logs for the mill of the Hudson River Pulp and Paper Company. The logs are being cut about three miles from North Creek by a gang of forty men in the employ of Patrick Moynehan of Glens Falls.”
• “The Friction Pulley Company shipped two pulp grinders, two presses, and two screens on Monday to parties in Plattsburgh,” the Sandy Hill correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Jan. 23, 1895.

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