E.S.C. quarterly

              The E. S. C. Quarterly
VOLUME 6. NO. 1 (FORMERLY "THE U.C.C. QUARTERLY") W5NTER. 1948
Manufacture of Paper and Paper Products is a
Vital and Expanding North Carolina Industry
Air vieivs of tivo large North Carolina Pulp Paper mills producing fine high grade paper. (See inside cover.)
PUBLISHED BY
Employment Security Commission of North Carolina
(Formerly "Unemployment Compensation Commission of North Carolina")
RALEIGH, N, G;!"'.'
PAGE 2 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter, 1948
The E. S. C. Quarterly
Volume 6 ; Number 1 Winter, 1948
Issued four times a year at Raleigh, N. C, by the
EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION OF
NORTH CAROLINA
Commissioners: Mrs. W. T. Bost, Raleigh; Judge C. E. Cowan,
Morganton; C. A. Fink, Spencer; R. Dave Hall, Belmont;
Marion W. Heiss, Greensboro; Dr. Harry D. Wolf, Chapel
Hill.
State Advisory Council: Capus M. Waynick, Raleigh, Chair-man;
Willard Dowell, Raleigh; H. L. Riser, Charlotte; Dr.
Thurman D. Kitchin, Wake Forest; Robert F. Phillips, Ashe-ville;
Mrs. Dillard Reynolds, Winston-Salem; Mrs. Emil
Rosenthal, Goldsboro; W. Cedric Stallings, Charlotte.
HENRY E. KENDALL Chairman
R. FULLER MARTIN Director
Unemployment Compensation Division
ERNEST C. McCRACKEN Director
North Carolina State Employment Service Division
M. R. DUNNAGAN Editor
Informational Service Representative
Cover illustrations represent typical North Carolina
industries under the unemployment compensation
program or related activities.
Cover for Winter, 1948—Top: The Champion Paper & Fibre Co.
started making pulp at its Canton, N. C, plant 40 years ago,
in 1908, and in 1922 began manufacturing paper. It pioneer-ed
in fine high grade paper in the South. It produces 650
tons of pulp, 420 tons of paper and 200 tons of paper board
daily. Bottom: Ecusta Paper Corporation was established at
Pisgah Forest, N. C, in 1939 and is the largest cigarette paper
plant in the world. It supplies practically all American and
many foreign cigarette manufacturers, making enough paper
daily for a billion cigarettes.
Sent free upon request to res2)onsible individuals, agencies,
organizations and libraries. Address: E. S. C. Informational
Service, P. 0. Box 589, Raleigh, N. C.
CONTENTS
Page
Pulp, Paper and Their Products 2
Ecusta Largest Cigarette Paper Plant in World 3
Champion Pioneer in South in Making Fine Paper 6
N. C. Pulp Co. Expanding Pulp-Paper Production 8
By Jim Chaney
Halifax First in U. S. to Use Sulphite Process 10
Sonoco South's Only Firm Making Glassine Paper 11
Mead Corporation Makes Chestnut Wood Pulp-Paper 11
Forest Resources Conserved by Pulpwood Industry 12
By Robert W. Shaw
Two Big N. C. Mills Operate on Waste Paper Alone 14
New Firms Produce Transparent-Flexible Packings . 16
Cores, Tubes, Bags, Pads, Bags Produced in State 17
Paper Box Making Becoming Huge Industry in State 19
Old Dominion Makes Paper Boxes in 5 N. C. Plants 27
By Bob Hord
Consumer Plants Make Boxes for Individual Firms 28
First Paper Mill in Salem Started in 1791__ 3
By Dr. Adelaide L. Fries
State's First Paper Mill in Orange Co. in 1777^_ 30
Possible Source and Possible End of Prosperity 32
By Silas F. Campbell
Note: Articles in this issue, not credited to others (with By-
Line)., were w.ritttn by M.\R. Dunnagau, Editor.
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PULP, PAPER AND THEIR PRODUCTS
North Carolina has at at least 50 plants, employ-ing
approximately 10,000 workers, which are engag-ed
in manufacturing pulp, paper and paper products,
in addition to many thousands of workers engaged in
gathering, selling and transporting pulpwood, waste
paper and other products from which modern paper
is manufactured.
Four large firms in North Carolina are engaged
in turning North Carolina pine and hardwoods into
pulp and then turning the pulp into all grades of
paper. They are the Champion Paper & Fibre Co.,
located at Canton, which manufactures highgrade
paper and kraft paper for corrugated shipping
boxes; the North Carolina Pulp Company at Ply-mouth,
which makes paper for corrugated shipping
boxes, milk and other liquid containers and other
purposes ; the Halifax Paper Co., Roanoke Rapids,
producing kraft and other types of papers ; and the
Mead Corporation, Sylva, producing chestnut paper
for corrugation and other purposes. All of these
plants also produce several highly valuable by-products,
such as tannic acid, turpentine, talloil and
others.
One unusual plant, the Ecusta Paper Corporation,
located at Pisgah Forest, near Brevard, manufac-tures
cigarette paper in the largest plant of the type
in the world for practically all cigarette manufac-turers
in the United States. It also produces fine
thin paper for Bible and other hightype book and
paper uses. Its raw material is the bark, or outer
covering, of the seed flax plant, grown primarily in
Minnesota and California.
Still another interesting plant, Sonoco Products
Co., Rockingham, manufactures transparent paper,
glassine and greaseproof, it is called, and produces
transparent paper bags. Its raw product is pulp of
virgin spruce and fir wood from the Puget Sound
area, also from Canada and Sweden.
Two paper mills in the State operate entirely on
waste paper, producing paper for about all of the
paper board boxes manufactured in the State. They
are the Carolina Paper Board Corp., Charlotte, and
the Manchester Board & Paper Co., Roanoke Rapids.
Thirty-five plants are engaged in making paper
boxes of the three usual types, corrugated shipping
cartons, in bulk or knocked down ; setup boxes, ready
made for packing- many of the State's products, and
folding boxes, those shipped flat and formed by the
users. Of these plants, 27 are operated by their
own corporations or partnerships and sell them to
manufacturers of products in this and other states.
Six manufacture corrugated shipping boxes, nine
produce folding boxes and 18 produce setup boxes,
a few plants making two or three types.
At least seven paper box plants are consumer
plants ; that is, they manufacture boxes for the prod-ucts
the owning firms produce, and do not sell boxes
to other firms. Most of these plants produce setup
boxes, although some produce other types, such as
window boxes, with transparent tops for showing
the product.
Two firms produce transparent and flexible pack-ings,
one ply and laminated ; one firm makes ship-ping
bags, small and large enough for furniture;
one produces cones for use in textile mills and tubes
for shipping calendars and other items, and another
(Continued on Page 33)
Winter, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 3
Ecusta Largest Cigarette Paper Plant In World
The Ecusta Paper Corporation, located near the
village of Pisgah Forest in Transylvania County, is
a new, a remarkable organization engaged in trans-forming
a former waste product, seed flax fibre, into
a product in great demand on the world markets,
cigarette paper.
This organization was formed and the plant be-gan
operation at a very opportune time, simultan-eously
with the gathering of the war clouds for
World War II in Europe, and gave to this continent
a commodity formerly imported almost entirely from
France. But for its timely appearance, this country
would have been woefully short of one of its most
popular smoking items, the cigarette.
Moreover, the organization of this firm and the
establishment of its plant, gave to North Carolina,
in the very center of the cigarette manufacturing
industry, the largest plant of its kind in the world,
one which supplies the leading cigarette manufac-turers
in this and other nations. Its distribution
is over world markets, its products going into most
countries in which cigarettes are produced by ma-chinery
or by hand.
ECUSTA FOUNDATION LAID
Ecusta Paper Corporation, as speedily as the or-ganization
seems to have been formed, the plant
established and production started, was not an over-night
development. Many years of study, work,
preparation, research, manipulation and organiza-tion
preceded its actual beginning. Money, big
money, was spent before the first roll of paper came
from the machines in Western North Carolina.
Harry H. Straus, founder and president of the
corporation, was the sparkplug, the dynamo, the
Cigarette paper making machine, the Fourdrinier, showing the
"wet" end. Water, containing the flax fiber, flows from the
head box onto the wire, mesh, on which the paper is formed.
The wet paper is dried as it passes through rollers and over
steam drums, coming out (next picture) as finished paper, at
Ecusta Paper Corporation.
moving force behind the organization. He had been
an importer of cigarette paper manufactured in
France for several years. As such, he had come in
contact with the leading cigarette manufacturers in
this country. Long before the beginning of World
War II, he saw the plight of the tobacco manufac-turers
in this country if Europe should again be
thrown into mortal combat.
Along with his fears, Mr. Straus had a vision
—
the vision of a new industry that would make the
cigarette manufacturers of this country independent
of Europe, if German U-boats should again make
shipping hazardous. He imparted both his fears and
his hopes to his friends in this country. Both fell
on ready ears. Cigarette manufacturers here re-membered
World War I. They were willing to sup-port
Mr. Straus in his plans, financially and as cus-tomers.
NEW RAW MATERIAL FOUND
But much groundwork had to be done. In France,
discarded linen was the chief material from which
cigarette paper had been manufactured. A new
source of raw material had to be found in this coun-try,
an unlimited, a never-failing, source. Labora-tory
experiments and production tests were made
with many materials plentiful in this country. Fin-ally,
this problem was licked. The fibre of the seed
flax straws, covering a central woody substance, was
found to have the needed properties, and lent itself
admirably to the processes which produce all the
qualities required in a cigarette paper.
Flax straw was a by-product, a waste product, of
the oily flax seed used in many industrial processes.
It is grown in quantities in Minnesota and California
and other states in those areas. The straw, contain-ing
the requisite fibre, previously was destroyed by
fire, at some expense to the growers. Now this waste
substance has become a cash crop.
PAGE 4 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY WINTER, 1948
OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS
Officers and directors of the Ecusta Paper Cor-poration
are Harry H. Straus, president ; Thomas N.
Word, vice-president and secretary-treasurer, an as-sociate
of the founder for more than 20 years ; Walter
M. Schwartz, vice-president and general counsel
;
and Robert M. Hanes, director, president of the
Wachovia Bank & Trust Co., Winston-Salem, N. C.
Before the name "Ecusta" for the corporation had
been selected, a word which in the Cherokee Indian
language means "rippling water", the site for the
huge plant had been determined, after scores of
places had been considered. Three reasons assigned
for the selection of the area near the village of Pisgah
Forest are: (1) adequate labor supply ; (2) near the
largest concentration of cigarette manufacturing
firms; and (3) adequate supply of suitable water.
Davidson River, source of the water supply, drains
an area within the Pisgah National Forest of 200,-
000 acres. The water is pure, mineral free and not
polluted by human habitation on its watershed. Its
flow normally never drops below the daily require-ments
of 25,000,000 gallons. A volume more than
enough to supply North Carolina's two largest cities,
Charlotte and Winston-Salem, is filtered for use in
the plant, despite its natural purity.
IN CENTER OF INDUSTRY
North Carolina has the greatest concentration of
cigarette manufacturers in the nation. Manufactur-ers
in this State readily admit that more than 50
percent of the cigarettes produced in the United
States are made in North Carolina. If pressed, they
might even admit, modestly, that the figures should
be or even exceed 60 percent. So, a great part of the
cigarette papers produced in the Ecusta plant, might
be described as rolling by gravity down to the plants
in Winston-Salem, Durham, Reidsville, Richmond
and other points.
The Ecusta plant occupies a site covering 258
acres, which, a decade ago, was in farm and wood-lands.
Today the plant consists of attractive brick
ECUSTA PAPER'S 5-YEAR
RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT
1. A new American industry has been created.
2. Without Ecusta, cigarette paper would not have been
available during the war period in quantities large enough
to manufacture cigarettes for our Armed Forces, let alone
the ever-expanding civilian needs.
3. An important source of Federal and State tax income
has heen protected. (Internal Revenue taxes on cigarettes
in 1»46 were more than one billion dollars).
4. The cost of cigarette paper did not increase during
World War 11.
5. The quality of Ecusta cigarette paper being made in
America today is superior to any heretofore available to the
American public.
6. Farmers have a new cash crop, derived from flax,
which has increased farm income.
7. This newly created industry lias provided opportuni-ties
for employment to thousands of Americans, and has
raised living standards in the communities in which they
live.
Stacking 160-pound bales of flax fiber in one of Ecusta's Slf
warehouses, holding a year's supply.
buildings which provide almost a million feet of
floor space. The grounds around the plant and office
buildings have been attractively landscaped and the
plant fits admirably into the panorama of beautiful
mountains. Dust and smoke, usually associated with
industrial plants, are reduced to a minimum and
the entire setting is neat, clean and wholesome.
PULP MAKING INTERESTING
The manufacturing processes are highly organiz-ed
and departmentalized, both in the production of
pulp from the flax fibre and in the transformation of
the pulp into cigarette paper. Conveyor systems are
used extensively in moving the materials, from han-dling
the bales of flax fibre, through all of its pro-cesses
until it is ready to move out on freight cars.
The outer fibre, or bark, of the flax straw is sep-arated
from the useless woody core by a mechanical
process called decortication, and the resultant fibre
baled. Bales of flax fibre, coming from California
and Minnesota, are unloaded from freight cars into
the 34 large warehouses which will house more than
one year's supply. By conveyor, as needed, these
bales are moved into the digesting room and dumped
into large rotating spherical digesters. Here it is
treated in a bath of chemicals, water and steam and
emerges as digested pulp. After the digesting pro-cess,
the spent cooking liquor and all foreign matter
are removed by a washing and beating process, by
which water is added and extracted continuously in
open circular concrete vats.
Winter, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 5
In the bleaching- process which follows the brown-ish
pulpy mass is changed into a snow white pulp.
This pulp is now ready for the first step in paper
making, the refining process. The fibres are cut
into almost microscopic lengths in large beaters.
After the fibres are shortened, a large amount of
pure water is added to give the refined stock the de-sired
consistency. Then chalk is added in precise
amounts to whiten it further and to make the paper
burn at the same speed as the tobacco.
PAPER MAKING PROCESS
The paper making is actually done on Fourdrinier
machines, in general use in the paper industry. The
stock, pumped into a container at the "wet" end of
the machine, passes through a gate onto a belt of
wire cloth. As it starts out it is from 99 to 99.5
percent water. On the screen it is shaken in a side-way
motion to interweave the fibres, while the water
is shaken out, drawn out and pressed as the sheet
runs rapidly between rollers. After it goes through
one set of rollers, while still very wet, it is strong
enough to carry its own weight. It continues to
pass between rollers and over drums to which steam
is applied to dry out the moisture. When the roll
of paper at the "dry" end becomes large enough,
workers break the continuous sheet (web), transfer
it to another waiting core and the winding process
starts all over again without even slowing down the
paper machine. In fact, the process is so speedy
that in less time than it takes to read a paragraph
describing it, the water borne pulp flows into one
end and comes out paper at the other.
After the reels, or rolls, of paper are rewound and
inspected, they are put in a machine which slits them
into strips, much like ticker tape, and alternating-strips
are wound into bobbins. The standard bob-bin,
or strip, is the width of the paper wound around
the tobacco, 29 mm wide, or slightly more than an
inch, and is 6,000 meters long—just about 3*4 miles —enough paper to roll 85,000 cigarettes. These
narrow rolls, or bobbins, are then ready for shipping
to the cigarette manufacturers, inserting in their
machines and becoming the wrappers of your favor-ite
cigarette.
PRESIDENT STRAUS SAYS:
The establishment of a cigarette paper plant in this
country, where cigarette paper is made with American raw
materials and American labor, is the realization of one of
my greatest ambitions.
Ecusta manufactures cigarette paper for many of the
leading brands of cigarettes.
It might be interesting for you to know something of the
importance of the cigarette industry. During the fiscal year
1945 there were manufactured the stupendous amount of
33 2 billion cigarettes, on which the Internal Revenue De-partment
of the United States Government collected in ex-cess
of $932,000,000.
We are proud of the fact that we have made it possible
for the cigarette manufacturers in this country to be able to
obtain their requirements of cigarette paper and that all the
smokers in this country can continue to enjoy their favorite
brand of cigarettes.
In Ecusta's refining room 88 beaters convert the standard pulp
into a finely divided filter mass.
ROLL-YOUR-OWN PAPER
Champagne Paper, a division of Ecusta, adds still
another process to this paper, transforming the long
sheets of cigarette paper into small sheets and wrap-ping
them into booklets for the roll-your-own trade.
Champagne's daily output of cigarette papers is
enough for 200,000,000 cigarettes. Continuous print-ing
presses print on the wrappers for these papers
the designs selected by the customers, in colors, and
wraps them around the papers coming from the
bobbins, either plain or gummed, very much as the
paper is wrapped around the tobacco to make a cig-
( Continued on Page 34)
WORLD WAR I CIGARETTE
PAPERS SCARCE, ROTTEN
During the early years of World War I, even before the
United States got into the fighting, cigarette papers were
beginning to get scarce in the United States, because prac-tically
all of them were made in France. France, at that
time, was fighting with her back against the wall, and called
to her defense many men in industry, including those in
cigarette paper manufacturing plants.
During that period the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. ov/ned
and operated a cigarette paper plant in France, but the
production was dropping below needs. Walter Reynolds,
younger brother of the founder and associated with the com-pany,
was sent to France to try to speed up production. To
what extent his mission succeeded is not recalled, but it is
certain that any success achieved was not of long duration.
For it was not long before German raiders paralyzed ocean
shipping, and France-made cigarette papers all but disap-peared.
Older generation cigarette smokers recall their experi-ences.
Firms in U. S. A. started cigarette paper making,
but they did not have the know-how or the material. After
a few puffs, the lip-moistened paper would come off and
dump the tobacco into the mouth of the smoker. It was
very unsatisfactory.
That was the reason for establishing the Ecusta Paper
Corporation, largest cigarette paper plant in the world, in
this country, and in North Carolina. War clouds leading to
World War II had hardly started forming before plans were
forming for a plant that would make this country independ-ent,
as far as cigarette papers are concerned. Harry H.
Straus, who imported paper from France, established the
plant at Pisgah Forest.
Ecusta is a new industry, using a new and formerly a
waste raw material, founded on American capital and operat-ed
by American workers—all here in North Carolina,
PAGE 6 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter, 1948
Champion Pioneer In South In Making Fine Paper
The Champion Paper & Fibre Co., at its Canton
Division at Canton, has been a pioneer in the South
in producing fine quality, high grade paper from
pulpwood since it was first established in Canton in
1907. Daily, this plant produces 650 tons of chem-ical
pulp, 420 tons of paper and 200 tons of paper
board, in addition to many tons of by-products.
The parent firm and forerunner had its beginning
in Hamilton, Ohio, November 2, 1893, when Peter G.
Thomson, a printer, incorporated The Champion
Coated Paper Co. and began coating paper in 1894.
In 1897 he purchased a small paper mill, and a few
years thereafter erected a larger one. Two catas-trophes,
a fire in 1901 and a flood and fire in 1913,
necessitated completely new construction.
Soon Mr. Thomson turned southward and in 1905
organized the Champion Fibre Co., establishing a
plant which was ready to start producing pulp in
1908. Timber supply, suitable water, intelligent
labor, access to other raw materials and to markets,
these were given as reasons for the selection of
the Haywood County location. This plant was orig-inally
designed as a pulp mill, but soon it was ex-panded
to include processing pulp into paper, thus
becoming a thoroughly integrated paper making en-terprise,
performing every operation from cutting
the logs, making the pulp and producing finished
paper.
The founder continued as president of the com-pany
until his death in 1931, when he was succeeded
by a son, Alexander Thomson, who served as presi-dent
until 1935, when he was named chairman of
the board. He died in 1939. Another son, Logan
G. Thomson, was elected president in 1935 and served
until his death in 1946.
champion's new No. 11 papermaliing machine in full operation.
This is the largest white (or bond) papermaking machine in
the world. It has operated smoothly since it swung into
operation in the Canton plant Jan. 31, 191ft. It was the first of
its type driven by electronic amplidyne, and has a daily pro-duction
of 120 tons of bond paper. The No. 12 machine, to its
right, has the same production capacity.
SUGGESTED TUNNEL TO RIVER
TO GET WATER FOR CHAMPION
When Peter G. Thomson, founder and head of The Cham-pion
Paper & Fibre Co., was in Western North Carolina in
the early 1900s looking for a site for a pulp mill, he had
just about decided on Haywood County and apparently con-sidered
Waynesville, along with Canton, at which a site was
bought in 190 5.
An enthusiastic Waynesville citizen, hoping to land the
enterprise for his town, suggested that water for the pulp
mill could be obtained by cutting a tunnel under the moun-tain
near Davis Gap and diverting Pigeon River through
the tunnel to Waynesville. Patently, Mr. Thomson was not
convinced that this plan was practicable. The Champion
plant at Canton, started in 1907, now uses more than 40,-
000,000 gallons of water daily from Pigeon River.
Incidentally, the name of Canton came from Canton, Ohio,
although not through any Champion influence, as some may
have surmised. The community was incorporated in 1891
as Pigeon River, but in 1893, two years later, the name was
changed to Canton at least a decade before Mr. Thomson
began looking for a Western North Carolina site. There's
no connection between Canton, Ohio, and the Champion
organization, which had its origin in Hamilton, Ohio.
When the question of the name for the town came up, a
resident noticed the name plate on the steel bridge across
Pigeon River at the site of the town ". . . Company, Can-ton,
Ohio," and suggested that Canton sounded like a good
name. It stuck.
ROBERTSON REACHES PRESIDENCY
Meanwhile, in 1907, Reuben B. Robertson, a young
lawyer who had married Miss Hope Thomson, daugh-ter
of the founder, came to North Carolina on a
special mission connected with the purchase of tim-berlands
for the Canton plant which was about to
open. In 1912, Mr. Robertson was made general
manager of the Canton plant, operating then as The
Champion Fibre Co. After six years, in 1918, he
was made vice-president, and in 1925 was made
president. In 1935 the entire organization was
brought under one name, The Champion Paper &
Fibre Co., and in 1936 Mr. Robertson became execu-tive
vice-president of the enlarged corporation.
Mr. Robertson, in 1946, following the death of
Logan G. Thomson, became president of the com-bined
corporation, The Champion Paper & Fibre
Co. Meanwhile, his son, Reuben B. Robertson, Jr.,
who had moved up through the ranks, as had his
father, in the Canton organization, was named execu-tive
vice-president in charge of manufacturing for
the enlarged corporation in 1946. Mr. Robertson,
Sr., retains his residence in North Carolina, having
recently built a permanent home at Flat Rock, in
Henderson County, and visits the main office of the
organization in Hamilton, Ohio, as occasion demands.
At present, Mr. Robertson, Jr., is stationed in Ham-ilton.
The Canton mill, which started operation in 1907,
was originally designed to include processes for the
manufacture of sulphite pulp, soda pulp, container
board and tannic acid. In its more than 40 years of
operation, Champion added two additional processes
for the reduction of wood to pulp, thus for a time
Winter, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 7
Bleach cells in Champion's enlarged bleach department, show-ing
newly installed cells which greatly increased the capacity.
using all four processes : the mechanical process, by
which the fibres were torn from the wooden sticks
by revolving stones; the sulphite, the soda and the
sulphate processes, all chemical. The latter, sulphate,
is the principal process used by Champion at present.
DEVELOP WHITE PINE PROCESS
The sulphate process was patented in Germany in
1880, and moved over to Sweden in 1898. The first
mill to utilize it in the United States, and the first
pulp mill established in the pine territory of the
South, was at Roanoke Rapids, in 1909—another
Carolina first. When Champion first employed the
sulphate process in 1919, its use was limited to the
production of unbleached brown paper, known as
"kraft wrapper" (kraft means strength).
Champion chemists, later, succeeded in solving
the problem of bleaching the sulphate pine pulp to
a high degree of whiteness without seriously reduc-
VALUE OF PAPER TO N. C.
ECONOMY NOT FULLY KNOWN
Paper is a commodity which we in the United States have
taken pretty much for granted. Because of its plentifulness
and low cost we probably have not appreciated its signifi-cance
in the development of our country. Without paper
the advance of civilization, which is dependent upon progress
in religion, science and the arts, would be greatly retarded.
The per capita consumption of paper constitutes one of
the measures of the progress of a people; and it is certainly
a very flattering index of the progress of the United States,
because, here in this country prior to World War II, we were
using more than one-half of the entire world production,
three times more per capita, than was used in England, and,
on a weight basis, more than any other product, except milk
and water.
Originally the contribution of paper to civilization was
more or less limited to the spiritual or mental field, as a
medium for disseminating man's ideas and of recording his
deeds More recently, however, it has been playing a rap-idly
expanding role in material uses. Witness the develop-ments
of the use of paper for towels, table utensils, clothing,
electrical condensers, structural material and for containers,
particularly for liquids, such as milk, and for foods, such
as frozen fruits and vegetables.—Extracts from a recent
address by Walter J. Damtoft, assistant secretary-treasurer
of The Champion Paper & Fibre Co., Canton, N. C.
ing its strength, and, in so doing, definitely contrib-uted
to and stimulated the recent dramatic expan-sion
of the pulp industry in the South. One example
is the construction of the Champion plant at Pasa-dena,
Texas, which manufactures from pine a high
grade paper, much of which is used in the publication
of one of the most popular national weekly maga-zines,
"Life".
Through refinements of its processes, coupled with
local availability of a wide variety of tree species,
Champion now manufactures a wide range of types
of papers, each of which involves a proper blending
of pulps of the qualities necessary to produce the
required types of papers, including stock for busi-ness
stationery, envelopes, postage stamps, postal
cards, catalogues, magazines and labels ; drawing
and wrapping paper ; paper board for file folders and
guides, cans, cups and milk containers.
An important adjunct to the Canton mill is the
electrolytic bleach plant in which chlorine is pro-duced,
the bleaching agent used in developing the
proper degree of whiteness of the pulp. Chlorine is
produced through the electrolysis of brine. An im-portant
by-product of this process is caustic soda,
for which the principal market is found in the tex-tile
plants of the Piedmont Carolinas.
PROCESS HARDWOODS AND PINE
Chronologically, the Canton plant began the pro-duction
of sulphite pulp from coniferous wood in
January 1908. In April of that year, the plant be-gan
pulping hardwoods by the soda process, and the
utilization of southern hardwoods for paper making
has continued to the present. In 1910 the plant be-gan
manufacturing pulp from southern pine, also
continuous. From 1910 to 1919, pine was pulped by
the soda process, and from 1919 to date the sulfate
process has been in use. Although the pine pulp has
been bleached since 1910, improved multi-stage
bleaching processes involving direct chlorination
were installed in 1935 for bleaching the pine sulfate
or kraft pulp.
A small groundwood unit, grinding off the fibres
against stones, was put into operation at Canton in
1931, and for a period Champion at Canton was pro-
(Continued on Page 35)
One of Champion's several woodyards supplying pulpwood for
the Canton plant. The firm keeps on hand acres upon acres
of wood, many thousands of cords,
PAGE 8 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter, 1948
N. C. Pulp Co. Expanding Pulp-Paper Production
By Jim Chaney, Feature Writer, Raleigh (N. C.) News and Observer.
Every 24 hours at Plymouth where the Roanoke
River nears the Albemarle Sound 1200 cords of pine
and gum timber are cooked into 700 tons of khaki
pulp and squeezed and rolled into 650 tons of stiff
white and tough brown paper.
Every 24 hours all over America, hundreds of
packing cases and paper milk bottles shaped from
the output of Plymouth's North Carolina Pulp Com-pany
are used and then tossed into trash piles or
burned.
In a year more than 400,000 cords of wood from
the farm and timber lands of North Carolina, South
Carolina and Virginia—enough to reach from Ply-mouth
on the Roanoke to Plymouth in Massachu-setts—
are felled and brought here to keep the cycle
in motion.
But the cycle—if careful forestry is not practiced
by farmer and by pulp company buyer—finally will
end. If farmer and buyer use judgment it may con- Four 3-ton rolls of kraft paper board are stacked in the ship-
, •
i fl ••(- i ping shed from, flat cars which, brought it from the N. C. Pulp tmue indefinitely. p machines. The 15-ton overhead crane places them on top
Contrary to widespread convictions, the forestry °' the heap-
experts claim,^ pulp wood cutting is not the curse The real curse to woodlands, State and federal
of the country's woodlands. foresters say, are fire—which clears more woodland
than all pulpwood cutters—and wastefulness, which
ruins nearly as much as fire. Any waste in pulp-wood
cutting occurs, not on company-owned lands,
but in woodlands cut by irresponsible subcontractors.
The pulpwood companies, "for purely selfish rea-sons,"
are attempting to curb the waste. They use
that phrase "for purely selfish reasons" a lot around
Plymouth.
Experiments of the Forestry Service over recent
years have demonstrated that with a fraction of the
attention given tobacco and peanut crops, Tar Heel
farmers can realize a steady income from pulp tim-ber.
The crux of the Forestry Service gospel is
selective cutting and replanting.
If the farm timber tract is kept cleared of soil-straining
underbrush, kept properly thinned, trees
are cut after from seven to 12 years growth and new
seedling trees placed in the gaps, the farmer can
market timber annually without exhausting his sup-ply,
the foresters claim.
With one plant—the company at Plymouth
—
spending approximately $4,000,000 a year in North
Carolina for pulpwood, the foresters' plan is worth
more than a glance.
The North Carolina Pulp Company came into
existence and the $10,000,000 plant now operating
here opened because its Wisconsin owners, Kieck-hefer
Container Company, realized in 1936-37 that
View of part of the huge plant of the n. c. Pulp Co. from the trouble was brewing fast in Europe. Up until then,
roof of the pulp cooking plant The plant's machinery and the h[g paper box and carton equipment firm and itg subsidiarv, is valued at an estimated $10,000,000 and has a ,, r,jj V, ~ ,. , ', , , . , ., , ,,
daily capacity of 550 tons of paper. Kraft paper and paper the E(My Paper Corporation, had obtained the bulk
board for milk boxes and other liquids are produced. of their pulp from Scandinavia.
Winter, l <M8 THE E. S. C QUARTERLY PAGE 9
Nimble feet and a ready hook in his right hand help this
worker to kick and throw out logs on this conveyor which still
have too much bark on them. The are returned for more
debarking. Those allowed to pass him will be in chips smaller
than the end of a little finger in a minute or two, the first step
in reducing them to pulp at the Plymouth, N. C, Pulp Plant.
The site here on the Roanoke was big for three
reasons, Herbert Kieckhefer, president of the chain,
explains. First, the Roanoke River offered adequate
water, some 19,000,000 gallons every 24 hours, for
the boilers and washing vats and chemical mixers of
a major pulp factory, and supplied a channel for
pulp barges. Second, the firm, which now employs
1,200 workers, estimated it would be able to draw
from the area an adequate labor supply. Finally,
the site was located within reasonable distance of
timber stands. Today, approximately 80 cars a day
enter and leave the plant over the Norfolk Southern
and Atlantic Coast Line railroads, bringing in pulp-wood
and chemicals and taking out paper.
The tree which becomes a shipping carton arrives
Typical of the many kinds of corrugated shipping containers
made by its affiliated companies from kraft paper board
manufactured by the N. C. Pulp Co. at Plymouth.
at the plant from as far west as Guilford County,
as far south as Greenville, S. C, and as far north as
Richmond, Va. Logs brought in by rail arrive in
standard five-foot lengths. Logs hauled in by trucks
from North Carolina Pulp Company woodlands or
from farms within Martin and Washington counties
are sawed to size at the yard.
From railroad car or truck, the log is lifted to a
conveyor system and rushed first to one of four
monsters of barrels. Called barking drums in the
pulp industry, these whirl incoming logs at the rate
of 70 cords per hour per drum until the rubbing and
slamming together knocks away the bark.
From barking drums, the logs are carried by con-veyor
belt under jets of water to a sorting table.
(Continued on Page 36)
'"The Kraftsman", new paper machine
at N. G. Pulp Co., was built at a cost of
more than $1,000,000, and has a capac-ity
of 600 tons of paper board daily.
Governor Cherry and other notables
attended the housewarming, following
its installation last fall.
PAGE 10 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY WINTER, 1948
Halifax First In U. S. To Use Sulphate Process
The Halifax Paper Co., Inc., Roanoke Rapids, one
of the half dozen large pulp and paper manufactur-ing
firms in North Carolina, has been operated and
enlarged during the past decade by its present own-ers,
but its predecessors date back almost to the turn
of the century.
Originally the Roanoke Rapids Manufacturing Co.
was incorporated in the fall of 1905, the controlling
ownership having been in the hands of W. M. Habil-ston,
Richmond, Va., with Edwards Brothers as
managers. Construction was started in 1906, under
direction of J. T. Chase, construction engineer, later
a power company man, who died last fall while
Mayor of the City of Roanoke Rapids. When the
plant first started it operated on ground wood, pro-ducing
18 tons of 40 and 50 pound Butcher Kraft
a day.
FIRST SULPHATE MILL IN U. S.
The pulp mill for converting wood into pulp
through the use of the sulphate process was built in
1908 and started actual operation February 26, 1909.
Initial pulp mill production ranged from 15 to 18
tons a day. History reveals that this was the first
sulphate processed pulp made in the entire United
States, another North Carolina first.
After a period, P. L. Ezekiel, Richmond, Va., be-came
manager and again in 1913 the management
changed, Dr. Job Taylor, formerly manager of the
Roanoke Fiber Board Mill, becoming president and
general manager. Soon afterward the name was
changed to Halifax Paper Corporation. Dr. Taylor
continued his positions with the paper company un-til
1924, when he was replaced by F. M. Brown, who
also came from the Roanoke Fiber Board Co. plant,
now the Manchester Board & Paper Co.
Then, in March 1937, the Halifax Paper Corpora-tion
was bought by the Albemarle Paper Manufac-turing
Co., Inc., of Richmond, Va., and was rein-corporated
under Virginia laws as the Halifax Paper
Co., Inc. H. W. Ellerson was its first president,
succeeded by F. D. Gottwald, Richmond, present
president.
K. F. ADAMS RESIDENT MANAGER
««K. F. Adams is present resident manager, three
others during the decade of the present ownership
having been F. P. Wilmer, E. H. Graves, and O. J.
McSwain. Present personnel in the plant, in addi-tion
to Mr. Adams, includes : H. W. Ellerson, Jr.,
P.ulp Mill superintendent ; J. J. Williams, Paper Mill
superintendent; H. M. Hudson, assistant paper mill
Superintendent; C. L. Willis,- plant engineer; O. W.
Kegamyer, maintenance engineer ; J. J. Priest, chief
chemist; George Hayes, wood manager; S. A. Dur-ham,
purchasing agent, and James Edge, personnel
manager. Mr. Williams, paper mill superintendent,
was general superintendent of the plant in 1913,
having come from Orange, Texas, and has been with
the firm continuously for more than 36 years. E. A.
Telliga, who came with the firm from Naval service
after World War I as general office manager, has a
continuous service record of 28 years.
During the period from 1909 to 1912 the finished
product of the paper mill was made from about 60
percent ground wood and 40 percent sulphate pulp.
After 1912 Kraft (strength) paper was manufactur-ed
entirely from sulphate pulp. Sulphate pulp is
used entirely at present, the amount of production
having increased from about 35 tons a day in 1937
to the present day production of 160 tons a day.
MAKES SULPHATE KRAFT PULP
Production of the pulp mill is entirely sulphate
kraft pulp, most of which is shipped to the Albe-marle
Paper Co. mills in Richmond, and the Paper
Mill produces primarily converting kraft paper, with
a basis weight ranging from 30 to 125 pounds. The
Paper Mill uses about 40 tons of pulp a day in paper
production and the balance of the 160 tons of pulp
made daily is shipped in laps about one-third of an
inch thick, 21/2 feet wide, and 3 feet long, to the
company's plant in Richmond for further processing
into Kraft converting paper, multi-wall sacks and
asphalt laminated paper.
The Halifax Paper Co. operations occupy a site
embracing several acres with several buildings, in-cluding
the main pulp and paper buildings, machine
shop, chipper house and others. Several acres are
covered by wood. The mill keeps a month's supply
of wood on hand, 7,000 to 8,000 cords, and uses
about 2,000 cords a week.
The firm owns some timberlands, from which it
secures a portion of its wood and on which it prac-tices
timber conservation. Also, it conducts an edu-cational
program for farmers and others from whom
it buys wood, stressing conservation and proper use
of the timber. It buys pulp wood through the eastern
part of North Carolina and goes into Virginia and
South Carolina. Most of the wood is bought through
local dealers and is shipped in by train and by truck.
Seven or eight cars move into and out of the yards
each day, bringing in wood and taking out pulp and
paper.
PULP MAKING PROCESSES
The processes in making pulp and paper are inter-esting.
Briefly, the wood, cut to five-foot lengths,
is dumped into barking drums, in which constant
rubbing of the sticks against each other and against
ribs in the drums remove all bark. The sticks pass
out on conveyor belts, along which they are inspected
and any still having bark on them are run through
the drums again, and are then dumped into the chip-per
machine, which cuts them up into small pieces
less than an inch in length and much smaller in the
other dimensions. By conveyor belt these chips are
dumped into digesters, in which they are cooked in
(Continued on Page 37)
Winter, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 1 1
Sonoco South's Only Firm Making Glassine Paper
The Sonoco Products Co., Rockingham Division,
at Rockingham, is the only plant of its kind in the
entire South and only 12 others operate in the U. S.
It is engaged in the manufacture of glassine and
greaseproof paper, and unlike any of the other plants
manufacturing these two grades of paper, the Sonoco
plant also converts this paper into glassine bags of
all descriptions. In addition to the bags, the plant,
like the other plants, converts this paper into printed,
waxed and laminated papers. These are used in
different ways in the bags which they manufacture
for all types of food products as well as many other
uses.
This plant is owned and operated largely by the
distinguished Coker family which has overflown
Hartsville, S. C, and has at least two prominent
members at the University of North Carolina. Sonoco
had operated a plant in Rockingham for a good many
years, and in 1940 bought the Southern Tissue Mills,
which was engaged in the manufacture of various
light weight tissues. With the purchase of this plant
the two plants were consolidated, after which a good
many changes in the Southern Tissue Mills were
made.
COKERS PRINCIPAL OFFICERS
The Sonoco Products Co. has its main plant at
Hartsville, S. C, but also has plants in New Jersey,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and in Canada. The
officers of the company are J. L. Coker, president;
C. W. Coker, C. K. Dunlap, C. H. Campbell and G. W.
Blunt White, vice-presidents; J. B. Gilbert, treas-urer;
Richard G. Coker, secretary. J. H. Martin is
general production manager. At Rockingham, J. A.
Mclntyre, Jr., is manager and F. J. McAndrews
superintendent. Mr. Mclntyre has been in the Rock-ingham
plant since early 1941, and Mr. McAndrews
came to the plant in 1943 when the change was begun
from tissue and manifold papers to the manufacture
of glassine and greaseproof.
It was necessary to add additional machinery and
make changes to existing machinery in order to
manufacture glassine and greaseproof papers. At
present the paper mill is equipped with beating and
refining equipment for preparing this special paper
stock, a Moore and White Fourdrinier machine, a
glassine super-calendar stack and other necessary
equipment.
This plant purchases virgin sulphite wood pulp
from the Pacific Northwest, from Canada and from
Sweden. About eight tons of unbleached and bleach-ed
sulphite pulp are used each day, this type pulp
being required for the grades of paper being manu-factured.
It requires about 104 to 105 pounds of pulp
to manufacture 100 pounds of paper.
ADDS PAPER CONVERTING PLANT
The paper converting plant was put in during the
year 1947, all of the machinery going into this plant
being new machinery of the latest design. The
equipment includes bag making machines, printing
presses and laminating machine for combining sheets
of glassine or greaseproof with tin foil, aluminum
foil or other combinations of papers. There also is
a waxing machine for manufacturing waxed papers
or to be used in manufacturing specialty bags.
The products now being manufactured include
glassine and greaseproof paper, glassine and grease-proof
bags and plain, printed, waxed and laminated
paper as well as plain, printed, waxed and laminated
bags. For some types of food packaging the bags
are printed and waxed. These are used primarily
for potato chips and similar products.
The present employment is about 50 employees
with a payroll of approximately $12,000 per month,
but as the new converting equipment is put into
operation new employees are being added constantly.
This employment should increase to about 75 em-ployees
by the time this article appears. The major-ity
of the plant operates on a 24-hour basis six and
seven days per week. Practically all of the em-ployees
are local people who have been trained for
their jobs in the plant.
LONG NO-ACCIDENT RECORD
The firm has group life, health and accident and
hospitalization insurance. Workers and management
in this plant take particular pride in the fact that
there has not been at this writing, a lost time acci-dent
in the plant in about 5i/> years. The Safety
Council holds a monthly supper meeting at which all
members not on duty are guests of the firm and at
which time all matters pertaining to safety are dis-cussed.
Mead Corporation Makes Chestnut Wood Pulp-Paper
In 1928 the Mead Pulp and Paper Co., home office
at Chillicothe, Ohio, erected at Sylva a paper board
mill to operate in conjunction with an existing chest-nut
extract plant. The purpose of the mill was to
convert waste leached chestnut chips into shipping
container board. Prior to that time the chips had
been disposed of by burning them as fuel.
The plant was known as the Sylva Paperboard
Co. It had a daily capacity of 60 tons of nine-point
shipping container board and 100 barrels of chest-nut
tanning extract. Approximately 135 workers
were employed.
Officers of the company were John G. Southerland,
(Continued on Page 38)
PAGE 12 THE E. S. C QUARTERLY WINTER, 1948
Forest Resources Conserved By Pulpwood Industry
By Robert W. Shaw, Assistant Forester, Division of Forestry and Parks,
N. C. Department of Conservation and Development.
Very few persons stop to realize the tremendous
effect pulpwood has on their everyday lives. When
we think of trees, we generally think of lumber in
the form of boards and timbers. Little do many of
us suspect that it is not lumber at all that plays the
greatest part in our personal lives, but rather the
products made from ground-up and chemically treat-ed
pulpwood. Of course, lumber builds our homes
and buildings, and goes into the construction of
thousands of things that we must depend upon in
our modern civilization. But pulpwood is responsi-ble
for thousands more of the things that have be-come
necessities in our present day standards of
living.
For example, containers of all descriptions are
made from pulpwood, including fibre boxes, wrap-ping
papers, sacks, bags, milk bottles, and buckets of
all kinds. Can we imagine getting along without
any or all of these items? Then what would we
think if the supply of pulpwood suddenly stopped
and we had to do without such things as radio speak-er
cones, reflectors for lighting fixtures, telephone
..
mmmmssmj'sm
Three picture* of slush pine plantation of Riegel Paper Co.,
near town of Bolton, Columbus County, showing growth of pine
in a. few years. First picture, upper left, shows pine plants in
P.t'iO, one year old and barely visible in tall grass. Second pic-ture,
lower left, shows the same pine field J^Yz years after
planting. Third picture, below, shows same field, taken ivithin
200 yards of same spot as other pictures, in November, 19^6,
nearly eight years after planting. Pines now are four to six
inches in diameter and 20 to 25 feet high.—N. C. Forest Service
Photo.
sets, instrument sets and fibre conduits. Such a loss
right now after we have become used to taking these
things for granted would promote many hardships
on us that are hard to imagine.
DAILY NEEDS COME FROM WOOD
Many mechanical, automotive and air transport
parts and products are made wholly from pulpwood.
Twines, cords, binders and rings for loose leaf note-books,
clock facings, building materials such as
pressboards, household appliances and furnishings,
farm supplies, and many types of hardware all are
made from the same pulpwood. Then, of course, our
daily newspapers cannot be forgotten. Without pulp-wood,
newspapers would be a thing of the past.
These things are pointed out to stress the im-portance
of our timber resources in our daily lives.
But what is the condition of North Carolina's forest
resources? What is the practice of good forestry
doing to insure North Carolinians that they will con-tinue
to enjoy these necessities that come from their
timber resources? And what is bad forestry, or no
forestry whatsoever, doing to endanger the standard
of living of us all? The answer to these questions may
mean that you and I will be suffering from serious
shortages in the next few years ; or it could mean
we will continue to have sufficient quantities of
pulpwood to supply the factories which turn out the
many thousands of pulpwood products. What we
will have depends now and in the future on forestry
and the pulpwood industry.
ADEQUATE SUPPLY IF REPLACED
First, let us briefly examine the condition of the
forest land in North Carolina. Potentially, the State
has approximately 18,300,000 acres of forest land.
But much of this land is in poor shape to raise a
crop of trees. The Forest Resource Appraisal of
North Carolina, by George K. Slocum, Associate Pro-fessor
of Forestry, N. C. State College, and Charles
R. Ross, Regional Consultant of the American For-
Winter, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 1 3
estry Association, reports that field data indicate
that North Carolina's forest area is only 49.9 per-cent
stocked with sawtimber and under-sawlog-size
material, 28.3 per cent stocked with reproduction,
and 21.8 percent or 4 million acres, is non-stocked
with timber producing species. The greatest single
cause of non-stocking, according to the report, is
obstruction by culls and worthless hardwood brush.
U. S. Forest Service figures indicate that for the
7-year period from 1937 to 1943 pine in North Caro-lina
has been overcut. The annual growth has been
5,636 thousand cords against an annual drain of
5,847 thousand cords. And pulpwood production
has been steadily rising from 240 thousand cords in
1937 to 547 thousand cords in 1943. And in 1946,
pulpwood production reached a total of 710 thousand
cords.
These figures mean just one thing. Unless some-thing
is done in the very near future, the pulp com-panies
in North Carolina are going to have to depend
upon other sources than those in the State for their
pulp supplies. As the same situation exists in all
the Southern states, it is evident that with the pres-ent
trend, the timber resources of North Carolina are
not going to improve.
PULPWOOD FIRMS COOPERATE
The pulpwood mills in North Carolina are the
Champion Paper and Fibre Co., Canton ; Halifax
Paper Co., Roanoke Rapids; The Mead Corporation,
Sylva; and the North Carolina Pulp Co., Plymouth.
Champion Paper and Fiber uses pine, spruce, hem-lock,
chestnut and hardwood. Halifax uses only
pine; Mead uses chestnut and other hardwoods, and
the N. C. Pulp Company uses both pine and hard-woods.
These companies buy their pulp either di-rectly,
through agents, or through contractors, and
besides these four companies there are eight others
outside of the State but who buy some of their wood
in North Carolina.
The pulp and paper companies are not asleep to
the dangers that face all wood-using industries in
this State and all over the nation. They are very
much aware of the fact that good forestry practices
must be the rule instead of the exception on all the
forest land in North Carolina if they are to continue
to survive in business. Just what are these com-panies
doing to see that good forestry is on the in-crease,
at least as far as their industry is concerned?
The Southern Pulpwood Conservation Association
is made up of representatives from many paper and
pulp companies throughout the South. The chief
interest is to insure a perpetual source of timber for
their member's mills, without which they would all
soon be out of jobs. Naturally then, this Association
is one which is working hard to establish good forest-ry
practices in the area and on the lands where they
draw their supply of wood, and their influence upon
the rest of the State is most important. The Asso-ciation
is active in educational work ; and Howard J.
Doyle, Area Forester for North Carolina, spends
much of his time giving thinning demonstrations,
making addresses and radio talks, showing movies,
passing out literature, and serving as an instructor
in forestry to veteran's classes sponsored by the edu-cational
authorities.
FORESTERS SUPERVISE PRACTICES
The pulp companies all hire full-time foresters to
do much of their buying and to supervise forestry
practices on their own woodlands. Many of the
companies provide for continuing crops of timber
when purchasing timber rights from private owners.
For those lands to be cut according to the seed tree
method, the companies often enter into a seed tree
agreement with the owner which prevents the owner
from cutting the seed trees during the next ten year
period.
There is an ever-increasing cooperative spirit be-tween
the pulp industries and the North Carolina
Division of Forestry and Parks, and other public
forestry agencies. All realize that they must work
together in order to set up an adequate system of
State-wide forest fire protection, forest management
and forestry education. All are interested in one
objective—to insure a perpetual and adequate sup-ply
of timber for the people, the industry, and the
economy of the State. Without it, North Carolina
will lose a large share of its income, its wealth, its
fertile soil, and its beauty.
MUST REPLANT FOR FUTURE
The pulpwood industry in North Carolina and
throughout the South has no part in the "get it
and get out" philosophy which characterized so
much of the cutting throughout the State a genera-tion
or two ago. They realize that they can only
stay in business as long as they can get a ready
supply of timber. But still that idea is not quite
enough. The idea that we must conserve and wisely
use our natural resources just l)3cause it is good
for us today is not and never will be the answer to
the problem. Rather, it is the feeling that these
resources must be conserved in our State and nation
to keep our land heritage intact forever. The pub-lic
foresters have had this feeling inspired in them
for decades, but it is only in recent years that pri-vate
forest interests have given very much thought
to what the future holds.
Much can still be done, and must be, before North
Carolina or the South will be assured that they are
not on the losing side of the ledger as far as their
timber resources are concerned. Increased organiz-ed
fire protection, management advice and help in
the woods, and forestry education, will be a big part
of the future program. Then it will no longer be
"forestry and the pulpwood industry" but the "pulp-wood
forestry industry."
PAGE 14 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter, 1948
Two Big N. C. Mills Operate On Waste Paper Alone
Two large firms in North Carolina, the Carolina
Paper Board Corp., Charlotte, and the Manchester
Board and Paper Co., Roanoke Rapids, the latter
with home office in Richmond, Va., operate almost
exclusively on waste paper and supply practically all
of the paper board used in the manufacture of setup
and folding paper boxes by about 30 paper box
makers in North Carolina. (They buy paper through
established channels—not from individuals direct.)
Many individuals in the State do not realize the
importance of saving waste newspapers and maga-zines,
but these daily, weekly or monthly visitors,
discarded after reading, give the raw material to two
large firms, which, in turn, supply the paper board
used by some two or three dozen plants which fur-nish
boxes for packing many of the items produced
by hundreds of North Carolina manufacturers of
other products.
Around 125 or 130 tons of waste paper go into the
maws of these waste paper mills every 24 hours in
order to produce 100 to 110 tons of paper board
turned out by them, since there is a loss of about
one-fifth in weight, probably a large part of it the
ink on the papers and magazines.
Paper remains a scarce article and prices of news-print
and other types of paper continue to climb.
For that reason, it is economy, as well as patriotism,
to save all waste paper and see that it gets into
proper channels so it can be worked over and used
again and again. Every scrap of paper or paper-board
in the mills and in the paper box plants goes
right back to be worked over, and every newspaper
and magazine helps to supply the heavy and increas-ing
demand for paper and paper products.
Also, the two waste paper plants furnish employ-ment
to about 160 workers regularly, in addition to
those engaged in collecting and transporting waste
paper and the manufactured paper board. The
paper box plants using the paper board in the State
employ hundreds of workers. The hundreds of mills
and plants in the State using the paper boxes manu-factured
for packing and shipping their products
employ many thousands of workers. So, many indi-viduals
and firms depend, entirely or in part, on the
waste paper saved from homes, offices and mills.
Wet end (left) of the paper board making machine of the
Manchester Board & Paper Co., Roanoke Rapids, into which
flows (95% water) fiber from waste paper. It comes out (right)
dry end, finished paper board, ready for use in making boxes.
CAROLINA PAPER BOARD CORP.
Charlotte, N. C.
The Carolina Paper Board Corporation, 528
Turner Avenue, Charlotte, is one of the two paper
manufacturing firms in North Carolina which op-erate
almost exclusively on waste paper and which
supply the paper box plants in the State with the
great bulk of the paper board used in the manufac-ture
of setup and folding paper boxes.
Officers of this corporation, organized in 1938,
and starting operations January 1, 1939, are: Ross
Puette, president; Garland S. Francis, vice-president
and general manager, and Walter G. Canipe, secre-tary-
treasurer.
The plant, located adjacent to the older plan of
the Old Dominion Box Co., contains 35,000 square
feet of floor space and is equipped with modern cus-tom
built machinery. It includes three beaters, four
Jordans or grinders, one five-cylinder paper manu-
Winter, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 15
facturing machine, along with other modern equip-ment.
The plant operates continuously, except for rare
occasions, since manufacturing paper is a continu-ous
process and it takes several hours to stop and
several hours to start the processes again. In a 24-
hour period the plant produces 100,000 pounds of
finished board. Approximately 85 workers are em-ployed,
working three 8-hour shifts.
The firm sells its paper board, for both setup and
folding paper boxes, to box making plants, probably
80 percent of the production going to North Caro-lina
plants, the remainder to plants in South Caro-lina
and other states.
Waste paper, on which the firms operate almost
exclusively, is purchased from the Southern Waste
Paper Co., Greensboro and High Point; the Chesa-peake
Paper Co., Charlotte, and the I. V. Sutphim
Co., Charlotte, and most of it is newspapers and mag-azines
read in North Carolina homes, and saved for
waste paper collectors.
BIG NAMES, BIG EVENTS LINKED
WITH MANCHESTER BOARD'S PLANT
Big names and important historical events are linked with
the first industrial building erected in what is now Roanoke
Rapids, a settlement then called Great Falls because of the
rapids near this point in the Roanoke River, the building
now occupied by the Manchester Board and Paper Co.
The site was owned by a firm headed by Major Thomas L.
Emry, a prosperous farmer and community leader of Wel-don,
some six miles away. This firm had built a dam and a
canal on the Roanoke River in the 1880s. In December,
18 93, John A. Chaloner, scion of the wealthy Astor family,
visited Great Falls seeking a site for an industry. Chaloner
and his associates negotiated with the Great Falls Water-power,
Manufacturing and Improvement Co. and erected the
first industrial building in the area. It was the old spinning
(knitting) mill, chartered as the United Industrial Co.,
which opened in October, 1895.
The building was designed by Stanford White, architect
and contractor for the company, who later was murdered
and for whose death the colorful Harry K. Thaw, who died
in Miami, Florida, not long ago, was tried for murder.
White also designed several residences in the "Old Town"
section of Roanoke Rapids and the Roanoke Mills Co.
cotton mill plant later. Brick for the spinning mill were
made in Weldon by Major Emry and transported to Great
Falls in mule-drawn barges over the old canal of the Roan-oke
Navigation Co.
The knitting mill failed about 1901, due in part, accord-ing
to report, to action of the paymaster, who, instead of
bringing the monthly payroll to Great Falls, took a trip to
Europe. A further report is that the family of Chaloner
decided he was not capable mentally of handling his affairs
and got control of his property by court action. The mill
was operated briefly by the Roanoke Mills Co., then aban-doned
and dismantled.
About 190 9 the Roanoke Fiber Board Co. opened in the
old spinning building for the manufacture of cardboard
from waste paper. The interior was burned out in 1921,
but the plant was re-equipped and operated until October 23,
1929. In 1931 the Southern Fiber Board Co. bought the
plant and operated it for a few months, closing because of
financial difficulties. The Virginia Electric & Power Co.
then bought the building.
The Manchester Board and Paper Co., of Richmond, Va.,
bought the plant in 1936, reconditioned it and in 193 7
opened for business, producing about 30 tons of paper board
a day at the start. In 19 40 the flood waters from the Roan-oke
River rose 3 7 feet, 10 inches, above normal and dam-aged
the building and equipment and washed away paper
board and waste paper stock. The damage was repaired
and the plant resumed operation.
MANCHESTER BOARD & PAPER CO., INC.
Roanoke Rapids, N. C.
The Manchester Board and Paper Co., located on
the Roanoke River in the "old town" of Roanoke
Rapids, one of the two firms in the State manu-facturing
paper board from waste paper, has been
in operation for a decade, but its predecessors date
back to 1909, one of the earliest paper plants in the
State. Flood, fire, and finances have plagued the
plant during the years.
The Roanoke Fiber Board Co. was organized and
started operation in 1909 in a building erected in
1894-5, the first industrial building in the area. The
interior was burned in 1921, the plant was re-equip-ped
and operated until Oct. 23, 1929, when it closed
down. In 1931, the Southern Fiber Board Co.
bought the building and operated the plant for a
few months, closing down because of financial diffi-culties.
The Manchester Board & Paper Co., with a plant
and main offices in Richmond, Va., purchased the
plant in 1936, rebuilt it and installed new machinery
(some of the old 1909 machines are still in opera-tion),
and started operation in 1937. Floods on the
raging Roanoke River in 1940 did extensive dam-age
to machinery and washed away large quan-tities
of paper, but damage was repaired and work
resumed.
Roanoke Rapids officers are H. J. Kincaid, plant
superintendent, and Robert C. Brown, assistant
superintendent. Officials of the corporation living
in Richmond, Va., are: P. L. Reed, president; F. E.
Brown, vice-president and treasurer; W. T. Oxen-ham,
vice-president and treasurer ; B. W. Davenport,
vice-president and production manager; E. L. Haw-kins,
assistant secretary, and G. W. S. Thomson,
assistant treasurer.
Waste paper, secured from sources in the State,
is dumped into a breaker-beater with hot water and
is rolled and churned until it dissolves into pulp.
It is fed into a 6-cylinder board making machine, 82
inches wide, each cylinder adding a layer of paper.
Production is continuous, as stopping costs much
in time, and in a 24-hour day about 55 tons of fin-ished
board is turned out. Average employment is
about 75 workers. About 30 tons were produced in
a day when the plant started in 1937.
The bulk of the production goes to paper box man-ufacturers
in North Carolina, but shipments are also
made to Virginia and South Carolina box manufac-turers.
As of the end of February, 1948, the ESC Unem-ployment
Trust Fund had received $176,940,095.19,
including $164,578,614.01 in employer contributions
and $12,361,481.18 in interest on balance in U. S.
Treasury. Benefits to unemployed eligible workers
amounted to $37,535,251.19, leaving a balance of
$139,404,844.00 in the fund.
PAGE 1 6 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter, 1948
New Firms Produce Transparent-Flexible Packings
Two groups of industrial leaders in North Caro-lina
have brought to the Piedmont area two new
industries recently, both engaged in processing fur-ther
some of the State's raw materials—manufac-turing
bags and wrappings from cellophane, glass-ine
and other flexible wood fibre products and com-bining—
laminating—these products with tinfoil,
aluminum foil and other combinations.
These firms are Transparent Packings, Inc.,
Greensboro, and the Southern Packaging Corpora-tion,
High Point, both of which manufacture bags
and other flexible wrappings from these materials
for packaging tobacco and textile products and foods,
such as peanuts, potato chips, pork skins and others.
These firms also engage in printing by the rotograv-ure
and analine processes, as is the case also in the
manufacture of paper boxes and box tops at several
plants in the State. The printing, however, is inci-dental
to the main theme in these articles—the man-ufacturing
processes.
Further details about these new firms are given
below.
SOUTHERN PACKAGING CORP.
High Point, N. C.
Southern Packaging Corporation, 2101 English
Street, High Point, brings to North Carolina a new
industry, the manufacturing of flexible packaging
materials.
The widely represented line includes all types of
aluminum foil glassine, pliofilm, cellophane and
acetate bags ; hosiery box covers, candy bar wrap-pers,
printed in many colors. In addition to these
items, the firm is actively engaged in the laminating
field wherein aluminum foil and other raw materials
are mounted or combined with various papers.
The firm was organized a year ago by a large
group of North Carolina industrial executives for
Envelope making machines, -producing all types of cellophane
bags and envelopes, plain and printed. ..Picture in next column
is of four-color Rotogravure printing press, doing all types of
color printing from copper engraving rolls on all types of
paper and transparent material. Both in plant of Transparent
Packings, Inc., Greensboro.
the prime purpose of handling the packaging require-ments
of Southeastern industries.
The plant is of modern construction, planned for
the most efficient operation with adequate space for
storage and railroad sidings.
The equipment consists of the very latest types of
rotogravure, analine and letter presses, wax and
glue laminating machines, paper and cellophane bag
and envelopes equipment.
Operations began in May, 1947, on a small scale
and since then the firm has gradually increased the
production to where it is now operating two full
shifts, employing approximately 75 men and women.
It is expected within the next few months to be in
100% production, with an employee roll in excess of
150 persons.
The officers include Frank H. Driscoll, president
and general manager, J. Murry Atkins, vice-presi-dent,
Edgar Snow, second vice-president, 0. Arthur
Kirkman, secretary and treasurer.
The directors are Doak Finch, Thomasville ; Stark
S. Dillard, Greensboro; Earl N. Phillips and O. A.
Kirkman, High Point; J. Murry Atkins and Harry
L. Dalton, Charlotte, and Frank H. Driscoll, Win-ston-
Salem.
TRANSPARENT PACKINGS, INC.
Greensboro, N. C.
Transparent Packings, Inc., 1310 West Lee St.,
Greensboro, is a new firm engaged in a relatively
new manufacturing process for North Carolina
—
manufacturing paper bags and other packings of
non-rigid and transparent types.
The firm was organized and incorporated in the
summer of 1945, erected a building, started limited
production in 1946 and in 1947 reached full produc-tion.
Officers of the corporation include R. M. Holt,
Burlington, president; R. E. L. Holt, Greensboro,
vice-president, and Benson Black, secretary, acting
treasurer and general manager.
(Continued on Page 29)
Winter, 1948 THE E. S. C QUARTERLY PAGE 1 7
Cores, Tubes, Tags, Pads, Bags Produced In State
Not exactly paper novelties, many scores of which
could be produced in North Carolina from the State's
raw materials, but regular basic products, a dozen
of them, are manufactured at several plants in the
State, in addition to transparent paper and lami-nated
paper products, considered elsewhere in this
issue.
These include cores used in textile mills and mail-ing
tubes, shipping tags and envelopes, pads and
tablets and shipping bags, large enough for all types
of furniture. These firms include the American
Paper Products Co., Greensboro, making cores and
tubes, and the Love Paper Core Co., Burlington,
reconditioning paper cores and tubes ; Dixie Tag &
Envelope Co., Charlotte, producing millions of ship-ping
and identification tags and envelopes ; the Caro-lina
Pad & Paper Co., Charlotte, producing paper
pads, tablets, loose leaf book fillers and similar items
;
and the Henley Paper Co., High Point, which makes
all sizes of paper bags, principally for shipping
furniture.
Addtional details are given about the processes
in these plants in the items that follow
:
AMERICAN PAPER PRODUCTS CO.
Greensboro, N. C.
The American Paper Products Co., located at
407-11 South Ashe St., Greensboro, is the only paper
plant in North Carolina engaged in the manufac-ture
of paper cores and tubes, although one or two
other small plants are engaged in reconditioning
used tubes and cores.
The firm was organized in Philadelphia where
another converting plant has been in continuous
operation for 17 years, by M. Z. Perelman, of Phila-delphia.
It is now a partnership, into which have
come two sons, L. J. and Raymond Perelman, and a
son-in-law, David Cooper, of the founder. The firm
also operates a pulp and paper mill in Waltham,
Mass., in which it manufactures paper for its own
use and for the trade.
The Greensboro plant was established in 1940.
The owners purchased almost an entire block on
which the plant and several other business houses
are located. The two sons of the founder, L. J. and
Raymond Perelman, came to Greensboro, opened and
directed the operation of the plant until they entered
the service. The son-in-law, David Cooper, was in
charge during the war period. C. L. Roediger, who
had joined the firm about the time it opened, inter-rupted
his employment with two and a half years
of military service, and in July, 1946, returned to
the plant as manager, a position he now holds.
The Greensboro plant converts approximately 25
tons of paper a week into finished products which
are shipped to firms throughout the South and South-west.
It employs from 15 to 20 workers.
Processes in this plant in the manufacture of tex-tile
cores, mailing tubes, spiral tubes, convolute
tubes and solid tubes, are intensely interesting. Chip
beard sheets are wound and glued together on con-tinuous
process machines and the resultant cores or
tubes are cut to the length desired. They are made
of several plies of thin board made of kraft, chestnut
or specialty board which results in a tube or cone
not easily crushed. Spiral, solid or convolute wind-ing
processes are used. While sizes may be larger,
usual diameters are from about 1-3 of an inch to
16 inches, and wall thicknesses range from l-64th
of an inch to about 5-8ths of an inch.
Textile cores are used as the bases on which are
wound rolls of cloth, fabrics and winding yarns. In
the paper industry cores are used for winding rolls
and sheets of paper. Tubes are used as containers
for mailing calendars, maps and printed matter, by
advertising and show window agencies for dis-plays,
for fancy packages when covered with coat-ed
or decorative paper, by architects and draftsmen
for drawings, blueprints and designs, by the electri-cal
industry for sockets and fixtures, and by the
radio industry for winding coils.
Tubes are finished in several end styles, including
open ends, tucked in ends to hold and protect the
contents, curled ends with inserted discs, metal ring-ends,
covered ends or metal screw caps for threading
on the tube directly or on a tin rim fastened onto the
tube, in which latter case the tube becomes a stan-dard
mailing case.
DIXIE TAG & ENVELOPE CO.
Charlotte, N. C.
The Dixie Tag & Envelope Co., Inc., 231 Atando
Avenue, on the north edge of Charlotte, started out
in 1939 as a partnership operated by John Jacob
Automatic tag machine of Dixie Tag & Envelope Co., Charlotte,
which converts rolls of taghoards into finished tags toith eyelet
holes, strings or wires, printed or plain. Said to he only ma-chine
of this type between Philadelphia and Atlanta.
PAGE 18 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter, 1948
Binder, Charlotte, and A. P. Folk, who came from
St. Louis, Mo. Its first site was on East Fourth St.,
later on Dowd Road, and recently it has moved into
a new modern building of its own suitable for the
business it is operating.
Mr. Binder bought out the interest of his partner
in 1945 and is principal owner. The firm was in-corporated
with Mr. Binder as president and treas-urer;
R. T. Ferguson, Jr., vice-president and general
manager, and Mrs. Dorothy Schulken, secretary.
The firm manufactures several kinds of paper spe-cialties,
including tags for cotton, hosiery, shipping,
production, maintenance, repairing and storage;
tickets, pin, pinless, folding, plain or printed; en-velopes,
commercial, official, payroll, filing, carbon-ized,
catalogue and clasp, and such specialty opera-tions
as slitting, eyeletting, wiring, creasing, past-ing,
stringing, manifolding and sheeting.
Dixie Tag & Envelope Co. buys tag board in rolls,
using about 200 tons a year, and cut, prints, per-forates,
eyelets, strings or wires them. It can pro-cess
about half a million envelopes a day. It does all
types of printing and produces manifold sales books,
order books and production forms.
One of the firm's good customers is the N. C. De-partment
of Agriculture, for which it makes inspec-tion,
food, fertilizer, dairy and other types of tags.
It can produce a million tags a day.
This plant is the only one of its type between Phil-adelphia
and Atlanta and serves all types of indus-tries
and businesses on a nation-wide basis. The
building provides 20,000 square feet of floor space
and enlargement is planned. It is equipped with
the most modern machinery available for the pro-cesses
it performs.
The force consists of approximately 60 workers,
including four salesmen, and has operated on a
three-shift basis from the very start.
CAROLINA PAD & PAPER CO.
Charlotte, N. C.
The Carolina Pad & Paper Co., 610 South College
St., Charlotte, is a relatively new firm engaged in
producing several types of products from paper
stock, including composition books, tablets, pads,
loose leaf fillers and typewriter paper.
The firm was organized and started business in
1945. J. K. Hall, Jr., Belmont, is president; H. L.
Huckstep, coming to Charlotte via Memphis, Tenn.,
where he was in the paper business, from Birming-ham,
Ala., is vice-president and general manager,
and I. E. Howe, Belmont, is secretary-treasurer.
W. M. Hall, Belmont, and J. E. "Casey" Morris,
Shelby, are directors. Mr. Huckstep is the only
officer active in the business.
The Carolina Pad & Paper Co. buys big jumbo
rolls of paper, cuts it up and fabricates its products.
From 25 to 50 tons of newsprint and writing paper
are processed a month, but the firm plans to increase
toward its capacity of 100 tons a month as paper
becomes available in increasing quantities.
Distribution is largely through wholesale school
supply firms in the Carolinas.
The firm has modern new machinery for its opera-tions
and plans expansion gradually as paper stock
becomes more plentiful. About 20,000 square feet
of floor space is now used.
Normal crew for operation is from 20 to 25 work-ers
per shift and two shifts are used when sufficient
paper is available for keeping two shifts busy.
HENLEY PAPER CO.
High Point, N. C.
The Henley Paper Co., with headquarters and
warehouses at High Point, and branch offices and
warehouses at Charlotte and Gastonia, and the
Southern Paper Products Co. Division at Asheville,
is an outgrowth of the Parker Paper & Twine Co.,
of High Point. The original firm was founded in
1906.
In 1934, A. B. Henley, president, acquired the
Parker company and the name was shortened to
Parker Paper Co. Extensive expansion plans were
inaugurated and the Gastonia branch was soon
opened.
In 1944, the Parker Paper Co. name was changed
to Henley Paper Co. Also in 1944, the Henley Paper
Co. of Charlotte was formed and a branch was open-ed
in that city at 1900 South Boulevard. One year
later, A. B. Henley purchased the Southern Paper
Products Co. at Asheville.
This rapidly growing and aggressive firm, since
1934 with a handful of employees, now consists of
four warehouses and employs about 100 persons,
including production workers, warehousemen and
salesmen.
While distributing of wholesale paper products,
twine and cordage to the furniture and textile indus-tries
; and fine papers to the printing trade is Henley
Paper Company's principal business, the manufac-ture
of special bags has caused this firm to expand
its manufacturing and converting departments. Here
furniture covers, case liners and handmade bags of
all descriptions are made from various types of
paper for as many different uses.
The Henley Paper Company plans still further
expansion and enlarging its present facilities.
The ESC's Employment offices found local non-agricultural
jobs for 119,326 workers during the
calendar year 1947, of whom 40,247 were veterans,
40,247 were women, and 6,275 were physically handi-capped.
Of the approximately 375,000 N. C. veterans back
from World War II, only 2.5 percent were drawing
servicemen's readjustment allowances at the end of
the year 1947.
Winter, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 19
Paper Box Making Becoming Huge Industry In State
Nearly 30 paper box plants, operating as separate
corporations, are making three main types of paper
boxes, corrugated shipping cartons, folding boxes
and setup boxes in North Carolina. Some of these
plants started as consumer plants, furnishing boxes
for the firms operating them as a part of the main
industry. These branched out and did work for
other firms and became separate organizations.
Some, discussed elsewhere, remained as consumer
plants.
The separate corporations, although some of them
still are owned and operated by textile, hosiery or
other industry, are described below.
CONTAINER CORPORATION OF AMERICA
Greensboro, N. C.
Container Corporation of America has erected at
3300 East Market Street, Greensboro, one of the
most modern, most complete and most colorful fold-ing
paperboard box plants to be found in the United
States. In fact, officials of the firm maintain that
they have eliminated all of the objectionable features
found in its thirty-odd plants in the United States,
Mexico and South America, most of them bought as
going firms, and have erected a plant as near perfect
as art and science can produce.
The plant was designed by the Ballinger Company,
architects and engineers, of Philadelphia, Pennsyl-vania,
with Walter Gropius, chairman of the Depart-ment
of Architecture at Harvard University's Grad-uate
School of Design, acting as consulting archi-tect.
The H. L. Coble Construction Co. was the con-tractor.
Work began early in 1946 and the plant
was in limited operation by the fall of 1947.
PLANT COST $1,300,000
The completed plant, site, building and equipment,
represent an investment of approximately $1,300,-
000. Floor space embraces 110,000 square feet. The
interior of the plant is finished with a concrete floor,
buff slate glazed tile walls and a concrete slab ceil-
Rear-side view of the neio ultra-modern plant of the Container
Corporation of America in Greensboro. Hedrich-Blessing Photo.
Modern machinery in the modem building of
Corporation of America in Greensboro, used in n
paper board cartons.—Hedrich-Blessing
the Co
taking
Photo.
ntainer
folding
ing. The entire area is air ventilated. Loading and
unloading of freight cars and trucks is an under-cover
operation, spur railroad tracks having been
laid into the building.
The office area has an asphalt tile floor, plaster
walls and metal acoustical tile ceiling. It is com-pletely
air-conditioned and finished in functional
colors.
The Greensboro location was selected because it
is in the heart of tobacco, textile and food industries.
In this plant the firm manufactures folding paper-board
cartons, shipped flat, the size ranging from
cough drop boxes to boxes large enough for blankets.
Millions are produced monthly for tobacco, textile,
hosiery, food and medicine products, or for any type
of industry packings. The firm works out with
customers any types or kinds of designs and any
sizes or shapes of boxes, manufacturing them accord-ing
to specifications. Products are sold and dis-tributed
throughout the Southeastern States.
MOST MODERN MACHINERY
The plant is equipped with the most modern ma-chinery
and equipment available. Supplies are se-
PAGE 20 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter, 1948
cured from the corporation's plants elsewhere, in
which pulp, paper and paperboard are produced.
Last fall the plant was operating with about 80
employees but planned to double that number within
a year. The company provides many conveniences
and benefits for its employees, including group insur-ance
and retirement income programs. Within the
building it operates a cafeteria with a seating capac-ity
of 60 persons and such features as a metal acous-tical
tile ceiling, asphalt tile floor, recessed lighting
fixtures and brilliantly colored plaster walls. Also,
there are locker rooms with terrazzo floors and
cream, glazed construction tile walls, shower rooms
with non-slip ceramic tile floors, individual showers
and recessed sanitary devices.
Certainly this plant is as modern as today and in
practically all respects is a model for industry in the
State.
Management of the plant is in the hands of J. E.
Purvis, general manager of Container Corporation's
Eastern Boxboard and Carton Division with head-quarters
in Philadelphia. F. B. Bruce is plant man-ager
at Greensboro. C. 0. Massey is plant superin-tendent
and J. E. Bruin is office manager.
HIGHLAND CONTAINER CO., INC.
Jamestown, N. C.
The Highland Container Co., located at James-town,
is a new corrugated shipping box plant, organ-ized
and financed by officers and directors in the
immediate area. This new plant has the most mod-ern
equipment available and is fast approaching full
capacity in its production.
The firm was organized, the modern plant erected
and equipped and the first box was turned out in
August, 1946. Production was increased gradually
as workers, employed locally, could be trained, reach-ing
50 percent of capacity during the fall months of
1947.
The officers include Seborn Perry, High Point,
chairman of the board; William G. Ragsdale, Jr.,
Jamestown, president; Doak Finch, Thomasville; C.
A. Van Wagner, Greensboro; W. J. Armfield, III,
Greensboro, vice-presidents; Earl N. Phillips, High
Point, secretary-treasurer, and Ward J. Hubbard,
High Point, assistant secretary.
In October, 1947, the Highland Container Co. con-solidated
with the Union Bag & Paper Corp., Savan-nah,
Ga., which bought a minority interest in the
firm. Through this connection Highland will buy
all of its paper from its new affiliate and thus be
able to produce all kraft (extra strength) boxes
which are in greater demand because of their
strength and durability.
Highland Container Co. purchases the paper, pro-duces
the corrugated board, slots, scores, prints and
tapes the boxes and ships the boxes knocked down
flat, ready for the purchaser to use. This process
saves immense shipping space. Starch glue is used
in corrugating the boxes. The kraft boxes produced
have the Mullen bursting test of from 200 to 600
pounds per square inch, single and double walls.
Approximately 2500 tons of paper is consumed
each month in production and an average of about
75 workers are employed, operating one shift.
Boxes are manufactured on order and on specifi-cations
from manufacturers of textiles, furniture
and tobacco and food processing firms within a ra-dius
of 250 miles, shipments going to points in North
and South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.
This new plant, one of the most modern in the
South, contains 100,000 square feet of floor space,
all on one floor, and located on a 6-acre tract of land.
The Southern Railway siding holds 10 cars. Cars
and trucks are loaded simultaneously from protected
platforms.
THE WING PAPER BOX CO., INC.
Hendersonville, N. C.
The Wing Paper Box Co., Inc., Lennox Park, Hen-dersonville,
is one of the older and one of the four
or five larger paper box manufacturing firms in
North Carolina. The firm was founded in 1923 by
George F. Wing, Jr., and was incorporated in 1925.
The officers are George F. Wing, Jr., president;
George F. Wing, III, secretary, with Henry Hudson
as sales manager.
The first plant was located on Kanuga Road. This
was outgrown and the firm bought a site and build-ing
in Lennox Park, converted the building and en-larged
gradually until now three buildings are occu-pied,
with combined floor space of 16,000 square feet.
In recent years the firm has replaced several of its
older machines with modern new machinery and is
continuing to add equipment to make the plant up-to-
date and equal to any in the State.
The Wing Paper Box Co. processes about 175,000
pounds of paper board weekly, securing some of the
raw materials from firms in the State, but the bulk
of it from outside firms. Folding boxes are manu-factured,
ranging in size from suit boxes to cough
drop boxes. They include boxes for food products,
frozen foods, textiles, automobile equipment, candy,
bakeries, laundries and dry cleaners.
Most of the boxes are distributed to firms, made
to order, in eight southern states, but also go to 20
other states.
ETTA PAPER BOX CO., INC.
Marion, N. C.
The Etta Paper Box Co., 21 Burgin St., Marion,
is one of the older and larger of the paper box manu-facturing
firms in Western North Carolina. It was
organized and started in 1929 as a partnership, with
C. F. James and J. F. Wilkinson as owners. The first
site was a rented building, but by 1931, the owners
put up their own building and have added buildings
as the business grew through the years.
Winter, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 2 1
In 1942, following the death of Mr. James, the
members of the Wilkinson family bought his interest.
The firm was incorporated, officers being J. F. Wil-kinson,
who was mayor for eight years, and on the
Marion Board of Aldermen for 26 years, president
and treasurer; Mrs. J. F. Wilkinson, vice-president,
and W. J. Wilkinson, their son, secretary.
The firm makes all types of set-up boxes, largely
for men's and women's hosiery, shirt and candy
boxes and department store boxes, ranging in size
from 2 x 1 x 1/2 inch boxes to 22 x 12 x 4 inch boxes.
Also it makes boxes for cakes and other bakery
products, as well as other special types of boxes.
Paper board from which the boxes are made is
bought from the Carolina Paper Board Corp., Char-lotte,
and the Manchester Board and Paper Co.,
Roanoke Rapids. The plant uses about 100 tons of
paper board a month. It employs about 45 workers
normally, but on occasions the working force goes
as high as 70.
In addition to its main two-story building, 52 x 130
feet, the plant consists of one building 100 x 140
feet and another 135 x 65 feet, giving an overall
floor space of about 40,000 square feet. Plans have
been made for another building 50 x 130 feet, to be
erected in the spring and to take care of the firm's
expanding business. Modern machinery has been
installed through the years and the latest machinery
will be installed in the new building.
Most of the boxes manufactured are sold in the
Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee. During the war
period part of the production went to the Federal
Government and other government agencies for ship-ping
goods and supplies overseas.
HIGH POINT PAPER BOX CO.
High Point, N. C.
The High Point Paper Box Co., 310 Mangum Ave-nue,
High Point, counting its life as a branch and the
life of its predecessor, is probably the oldest paper
box plant in the State, other than consumer plants,
and has been one of the largest for many years.
Its predecessor, the Reidsville Paper Box Co., was
organized and started in 1908 by the late William H.
Foy, who operated the plant in Reidsville until 1921.
Meanwhile, a branch plant had been established in
High Point in 1918 and operated as a branch until
1921, when the Reidsville plant was closed. The
name was changed to the High Point Paper Box Co.
in 1925.
William H. Foy, the founder, continued as presi-dent
of the firm until 1935, when he retired from
active direction of the company and became secre-tary.
He died in 1947. Upon his retirement as
president, his son, W. G. Foy, became president in
1935 and served until his death in 1945. Another
son, John C. Foy, was elected president following
his brother's death. I. Paul Ingle, vice-president,
has served as general manager for several years.
The High Point Paper Box Co. manufactures set-up
boxes, supplying large textile, hosiery, bakery
and other manufacturers, largely in High Point, but
also in other areas of North Carolina and other
states. Shirts, underwear, blankets, towels, stock-ings
and other items are shipped in large numbers
in its boxes. Folding boxes and boxes with trans-parent
tops for displaying the merchandise are also
produced. The firm furnishes a complete packaging
service, working out with customers, sizes, types
and decorative features of the boxes desired.
Paper board is purchased from the Manchester
Board & Paper Co., Roanoke Rapids, the Carolina
Paper Board Corp., Charlotte, and from other paper
and paper board producing firms.
The High Point Paper Box Co. has opened a branch
plant in Thomasville.
THE MENGEL COMPANY
Fibre Container Branch, Carolina Division
Winston-Salem, N. C.
The Mengel Company, Fibre Container Branch,
Winston-Salem, is one of several plants operated by
one of the oldest box manufacturing firms in the
nation. In fact, the firm was established in 1877 by
Col. C. C. Mengel, its head for many years, and was
incorporated in 1899. The home office is in Louis-ville,
Ky., where the firm started, and plants are
operated there and in other cities, in addition to the
Winston-Salem plant.
In Winston-Salem, and presumably in the other
plants, the firm was engaged in manufacturing
wooden boxes and still produces wooden boxes at
one Winston-Salem plant. The plant in Winston-
Salem, started about 40 years ago, was engaged pri-marily
in making wooden boxes in which tobacco
products were shipped almost exclusively for many
years. As cigarette manufacturing developed and
lighter shipping containers were required, fibre
boxes were in greater demand.
So, in 1932, the Fibre Container Branch was estab-lished
in Winston-Salem. G. W. Colvin, resident
manager from the beginning, came to Winston-Salem
to open the paper box plant, operated in part of the
building then occupied by the wooden box plant.
Later the wood box plant moved to a new location
on Twenty-Fifth Street, and the Container Branch,
with expanded sales, took over the entire original
building.
The plant is equipped with modern machinery
and the stock is worked on a complete conveyor sys-tem,
moving from one operation to another. It pro-duces
corrugated boxes and also manufactures com-bination
wood and fibre boxes with wooden frames
built around corrugated panels. In the process the
board is fabricated, creased or scored, slotted, print-ed
and taped or stitched. High speed machines pro-duces
hundreds of feet of paper board per minute.
PAGE 22 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter, 1948
Modern paper box plant of the Mengel Company, Winston-
Salem, makers of both fiber and wooden packing
and shipping boxes.
Raw materials are purchased largely from Kraft
and Chestnut mills throughout the South.
The Winston-Salem Fibre Container plant occu-pies
approximately 150,000 square feet of floor space
and employs an average of 100 workers.
Products of the plant are distributed largely in
Winston-Salem and over North and South Carolina,
Virginia and Tennessee, going to manufacturers of
tobacco, furniture, textiles, hosiery, food and vari-ous
products.
Paper board for making boxes is purchased largely
from the Manchester Board and Paper Co., Roanoke
Rapids and Richmond, and paper printed or deco-rated
as desired by the purchaser, is purchased from
various firms all over the country.
The firm employs about 75 workers, several of
whom have been with the firm during its nearly 22
years of operation. Arthur F. Pell, son of the own-ers,
has been trained in directing the operation of
the plant and will be ready to take over when his
parents decide to retire.
PELL PAPER BOX CO., INC.
Elizabeth City, N. C.
When the Pell Paper Box Co., Water and Burgess
Streets, Elizabeth City, was organized and started
in 1926, it inaugurated a plan, far ahead of its time
then and right up-to-date now, of providing two
weeks of vacation, one around Christmas time, the
other in the summer, for all of its employees—a com-plete
shut-down of the plant.
W. J. Pell, organizer and president, had been in
the box making business in Norfolk, Va., when he
decided to cast his lot in Elizabeth City. He and
Mrs. M. E. Pell, his wife, secretary of the firm, rent-ed
the building they now occupy and later bought it.
In' the expansion through the years they bought
another building and now rent an additional build-ing
as a warehouse. And, further expanding, they
are installing machinery in the warehouse. The
plant now utilizes about 35,000 square feet of floor
space, owning 14,000 and renting 21,000.
•The Pell Paper Box Co. manufactures folding
boxes, put together by the users, and also setup
boxes, supplying such manufacturers and packers as
the textile industry, food processors, ice cream man-ufacturers,
bakeries, hosiery manufacturers, meat
packers and others. A complete printing plant is
maintained for designing and printing. The boxes
are used locally and shipped to many southeastern
states.
REYNOLDS STOCK WAS REWARD
FOR LIGHTER TOBACCO BOXES
Back in the period approaching 1910 practically all of the
tobacco manufactured in North Carolina was plug or twist
for chewing purposes, with an increasing amount of smok-ing
tobacco. That was before the day of ready-rolled cig-arettes
in this State.
Chewing tobacco containers were wooden boxes and
therefore heavy. A 10-pound "caddie" of tobacco required
a box weighing three or four pounds, usually, until veneer
came to be used, thus reducing the weight some. The weight
of the boxes increased almost in proportion to the weight of
the tobacco contained in the boxes. This was a lot of ship-ping
weight, dead weight, and a very expensive item for
tobacco manufacturers. Too, the railroads would not accept
containers which would not meet certain strength standards,
due to loss from packages breaking open. That rule still
holds.
So, the late R. J. Reynolds, founder of the tobacco firm
carrying his name in Winston-Salem, N. C, called in his
traffic manager, the late John L. Graham, for a discussion of
the problem. The story, almost direct from headquarters,
is that Mr. Graham said he thought he could work out the
problem. Mr. Reynolds told him that if he could, and by a
certain future date, he would give him a specified amount
of stock in the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
When the specified date arrived, Mr. Graham reported to
Mr. Reynolds that he did not have the problem licked, but
thought he could do it if allowed a little more time. Mr.
Reynolds told him to take as much time as he needed and
spend as much time on the problem as was necessary.
Before long Mr. Graham came up with the solution. The
story does not say how, but presumably by the development
of cardboard boxes, probably the corrugated type. Anyway,
Mr. Graham got his block of stock—since multiplied several
times in value.
The advent of cigarettes a few years later and their rapid
increase to the bulk of the tobacco manufacturer's shipping
also relieved the condition, since cigarettes are much lighter
and require less strength in containers, than does chewing
tobacco.
WINTER, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 23
CAROLINA PAPER BOX CO.
Burlington, N. C.
The Carolina Paper Box Co. is located on North
Church St., on U. S. Route No. 70, near the city limits
of Burlington. It was organized by Mark C. Price
and W. R. Davis as a corporation in March, 1933.
Mr. Davis had moved from Milwaukee, while Mr.
Price was a resident of Burlington.
Previously Mr. Price had organized and operated
a paper box plant in Lynchburg, Va., starting in
1900; also a plant in Columbus, Ga. In 1913 he
moved to Burlington and started the Keystone Paper
Box Co., which he operated until 1926, when he sold
out to the Old Dominion Box Co. and retired. Then,
in 1933, he and Mr. Davis started the Carolina. In
1938, Bill Price, who had worked for the firm, pur-chased
Mr. Davis' interest and formed a partnership
with his father, Mark C. Price. At that time David
B. Long joined the firm as office manager and sales-man.
In a reorganization in 1940, Bill Price became
president, David B. Long, vice-president and general
manager, and Mark C. Price, secretary-treasurer.
In the latter part of 1946 these three men and James
W. Holt organized, incorporated and started the
Cherokee Paper Box Co. in Charlotte.
The Carolina Paper Box Co. processes board into
setup boxes, largely for the hosiery, department
store and confectionery trades. The bulk of the
production is sold locally. Paper board is purchased
from the Manchester Board and Paper Co., Roanoke
Rapids, and the Carolina Paper Board Corp., Char-lotte,
and paper for covering and insert purposes
is bought from several firms.
This modern air conditioned plant with modern
machinery, has experienced continuous growth in
size and in business since it was started. It now
employs about 50 workers, operating two shifts.
CATAWBA PAPER BOX CO.
Hickory, N. C.
The Catawba Paper Box Co., 549 Highland Ave-nue,
Hickory, manufacturing setup boxes, was or-ganized
in 1939 as a partnership by A. J. Preslar
and associates and was started in the back of a
Up-to-date plant of the Catawba Paper Box Co., Hickory, manu-facturer
of plain and fancy setup paper boxes.
garage on Trade Avenue. In March, 1946, the firm
was incorporated, Mr. Preslar becoming secretary-treasurer
and general manager. He is the only offi-cial
who is active in the firm.
In 1941 the firm built a new plant at the present
address, containing 12,000 square feet of floor space.
Plans for the not too distant future call for an addi-tional
building containing 8,000 square feet, thus
covering the entire 100 by 200 foot lot and giving
20,000 square feet of floor space.
The setup boxes are manufactured for hosiery,
thread, jewelry and textiles, such as are used for
sleeping garments, shirts and other products. Prod-ucts
of the firm are sold to firms in Hickory and for
a radius of 60 miles around that city.
Paper board stock is purchased from the Caro-lina
Paper Board Corp., Charlotte, and the Manches-ter
Board and Paper Co., Roanoke Rapids, while
paper for coverings and inside wrappers is pur-chased
largely outside the State. The firm has been
using about 60 tons of paper board a month and
turning out from 600,000 to 1,000,000 boxes a month.
However, this firm has been giving vent to grow-ing
pains and by last fall had already installed
$10,000 worth of new equipment during the year,
and expected to have installed and in operation by
the end of the year additional equipment valued at
$8,000, thus increasing machinery and equipment to
the extent of $18,000 during the year.
The additional equipment increased the capacity
of the plant extensively and required additions to the
force of about 40 workers operating two shifts.
HICKORY PAPER BOX CO., INC.
Hickory, N. C.
One of the older box manufacturing firms in West-ern
North Carolina is the Hickory Paper Box Co.,
Inc., which was started in 1921 by the late R. E. Bal-lenger
in a rented building on Eleventh Street. In
1922, Alex S. Menzies bought an interest in the plant
and formed a partnership with Mr. Ballenger, who
continued in active charge of the business until his
death in 1936.
Incorporated in 1934, the owners and officers are
Mrs. R. E. Ballenger, widow of the founder, presi-dent
and treasurer, and Alex S. Menzies, vice-presi-
PAGE 24 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter. 1948
dent and secretary. In 1925 the firm had grown to
the extent that larger quarters were required and
a new building, located at 341 Tenth Avenue, was
erected. This building covers the entire 75 by 170
foot lot, giving 12,750 square feet of floor space.
The firm produces setup boxes, used extensively
for hosiery, shirts, underwear, candy and other
products, selling most of its products in Hickory and
within a radius of 50 miles. Some boxes are sold in
other states also.
Paper board for its boxes is purchased from the
Carolina Paper Board Corp., Charlotte, and the
Manchester Board and Paper Co., Roanoke Rapids.
Paper for coverings and linings is purchased largely
from outside the State.
The Hickory Paper Box Co. employs regularly
about 50 workers, using one shift generally, but adds
a second shift when occasion demands.
MID-STATE PAPER BOX CO.
Asheboro, N. C.
The Mid-State Paper Box Co., Asheboro, was or-ganized,
incorporated and started business in a new
building erected for the purpose in 1939 and is at
present suffering from growing pains.
The officers of the corporation are Charles E.
Moore, Jr., president ; W. F. Redding, Jr., vice-presi-dent,
and E. O. Schaefer, secretary-treasurer and
general manager. Mr. Schaefer is the only officer
active in the business. Homer P. Frazier is plant
superintendent.
The firm manufactures setup boxes for hosiery,
shirts, underwear, neckwear, candy and other prod-ucts.
Most of the production is sold locally or is
delivered by truck to firms within a radius of 75
miles of Asheboro, with an occasional carload for
customers outside the State.
Paper board is purchased from the Carolina Paper
Board Co., Charlotte, and the Manchester Board &
Paper Co., Roanoke Rapids, while paper for cover-ings
and labels is secured from the Mead Corporation
at its Kingsport, Tenn., plant, and not from its North
Carolina plant at Sylva.
The building erected for the plant in 1939 is 75 x
150 feet, thus containing 11,250 square feet. Pres-ent
plans call for an additional building for storage
in the near future, while plans are in the making for
covering the entire 200 x 150 foot lot, thus giving
30,000 square feet of floor space. New and modern
machinery is now being installed which will increase
the production by about 35 percent.
The firm uses about 37 tons of paper board a month
and produces about 425,000 paper board boxes a
month. It employs an average of 35 workers, using
only one shift at present.
Durham Container' Co. plant, air view. Formerly a cotton mill,
novj converted into a modern paper box plant.
DURHAM CONTAINER CO.
Durham, N. C.
The Durham Container Co., 2002 East Pettigrew
Street, Durham, was organized and started opera-tion
in 1940, taking over a building formerly used
as a cotton mill. It is affiliated with the Menasha
Wooden Ware Corp., Menasha, Wisconsin, and the
Jackson Box Co., Cincinnati, Ohio.
The officers are D. C. Shepard, Neenah, Wis., pres-ident
; J. F. Burnham, Durham, vice-president and
general manager; and W. J. Cassady, Jr., Cincin-nati,
secretary-treasurer.
In the production of corrugated shipping boxes
this firm uses from 500 to 800 tons of paper board
each month, producing approximately three quar-ters
of a million boxes per month. Materials are
purchased from the Mead Corporation, Sylva, and
from other southern paper mills. About 60 people
are employed in the plant, working on one shift.
Shipping containers are sold to furniture, textile
manufacturers, and food processors, as per specifi-cations
of the purchasers, on the Eastern Seaboard.
CAROLINA CONTAINER CO.
High Point, N. C.
The Carolina Container Co., Prospect Road, in the
suburbs of High Point, is a recent addition to the
paper box industry. It was organized and started
operations in 1928 and is engaged in manufacturing
corrugated shipping containers.
The organizers and officers are I. Paul Ingle, pres-ident;
J. C. Foy, secretary, and C. T. Ingram, Sr.,
treasurer and manager.
The plant makes all kinds, types, sizes and descrip-tions
of corrugated shipping containers, most of its
products going to manufacturers of furniture, tex-tiles,
hosiery, and to bakeries, florists and other
shippers. Distribution is largely in North and South
Carolina and Virginia.
Liner board is purchased from producers in this
and other states and is converted into shipping boxes
in the plant.
About 80 workers are employed in the plant.
Winter, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 25
MOUNT AIRY PAPER BOX CO.
Mount Airy, N. C.
The Mount Airy Paper Box Co. was organized 12
or 15 years ago for the primary purpose of making
boxes used by the Mount Airy Knitting Co. in pack-ing
its underwear. F. L. Hatcher, president and
secretary, and J. H. Crossingham, secretary and
manager of the Mount Airy Knitting Co., organized
and started the Mount Airy Paper Box Co. as a part-nership
and it continues to operate as such.
From the beginning other Mount Airy industries
started buying their boxes from the box plant for
their hosiery, underwear and other products and
the plant continues to produce boxes for practically
all such firms. Products also go to firms in other
sections of the State. Boxes, tops, wraps and differ-ent
colors of tops are produced, as desired by the
firm's customers.
The Mount Airy Paper Box Co. uses 700 to 800
tons of cardboard a year, purchasing it largely from
the Manchester Board & Paper Co., Roanoke Rapids.
The capacity of the plant is 150,000 complete boxes
and lids a week.
The plant employs 35 to 40 workers, many of whom
have been with the plant from its beginning.
CHEROKEE PAPER BOX CO.
Charlotte, N. C.
The Cherokee Paper Box Co., 310 East Tremont
Avenue, Charlotte, was organized and incorporated
in June, 1946, and started operation in December of
that year. Its organizers were the owners and offi-cers
of the Carolina Paper Box Co., Burlington, plus
James W. Holt, who started as resident manager of
the new Charlotte plant.
The officers and owners are Bill Price, president;
David B. Long, vice-president, both of Burlington,
and Mr. Holt, who succeeded Mark C. Price as secre-tary-
treasurer, and is also resident manager.
The new plant makes setup boxes for hosiery, de-partment
store and confectionery trade, distributing
its products in the Charlotte area. Its paper board
supply is purchased from the Carolina Paper Board
Corp., Charlotte, and the Manchester Board & Paper
Co., Roanoke Rapids.
The Cherokee Paper Box Co. owns its own site
and two buildings with a combined floor space of
7,000 square feet. All of the machinery and equip-ment
is new or modern. The plant more than dou-bled
its production during the first year of operation.
Approximately 20 workers are employed regu-larly
on two shifts.
by this firm, which has headquarters in Sandusky,
Ohio. The firm operates 17 factories and five paper
mills in the United States and two factories and one
paper mill in Canada.
The Lenoir plant was started in 1939 at another
place and moved to its present site in 1944. Its sup-plies
of corrugated paper board are secured from
the plant in Richmond, Va.
The corrugated shipping boxes are made primarily
for the furniture industry in Lenoir and surrounding
area, although a few are made for shipping textiles,
cones and other products. Sizes range from those
large enough to contain sofas down to boxes in which
small night tables are shipped.
Several carloads of corrugated board are process-ed
each month and about 16 workers are employed
regularly.
R. T. Bloker, who was in the Sandusky organiza-tion
and spent three years in the Richmond, Va.,
plant, has been plant manager of the Lenoir plant
from the time it was started, except for a period in
military service.
THE HINDE & DAUCH PAPER CO.
Lenoir, N. C, Plant
The Hinde & Dauch Paper Co. plant at 329 North
Main St., Lenoir, is one of several plants operated
SOUTHERN PAPER BOX CO.
Taylorsville, N. C.
The Southern Paper Box Co., on the outskirts of
Taylorsville, was organized and started business No-vember
1, 1936, by Ray A. White, native of Guilford
County, who had spent 16 years in Michigan and
other states in paper box work, and Gail White, as
a partnership.
In 1940 the firm was incorporated and Ray A.
White bought the interest of Gail White in 1944.
Officers are Ray A. White, president and treasurer;
Mrs. Ray A. White, secretary, and their son, Edward
L. White, executive vice-president and general man-ager.
The Southern Paper Box Co. manufactures all
types and all sizes of folding paper boxes on order
and to specifications of its customers. It supplies
boxes for chain bakeries and candy makers and for
textiles, yarns and other products. The bulk of the
production is sold in the Carolinas and Virginia, but
large orders also go to other states.
The firm uses about 2500 tons of paper board a
year in its production, purchasing most of its stock
from the Manchester Board & Paper Co., Roanoke
Rapids. Paper for coverings and inside wrappers
is purchased wherever it can be found.
This firm owns an acre and a half of land on the
edge of Taylorsville and has about 10,000 square feet
of floor space for its operations. Since its organiza-tion
it has enlarged its space three times, including
erection of a nice separate brick office building.
Normally the Southern Paper Box Co. employs
about 30 workers, with one full and one part-time
shift, increasing the number as occasion demands.
PAGE 26 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY WINTER, 1948
FAIR MARTIN BOXES, INC.
Concord, N. C.
Fair Martin Boxes, Inc., located on U. S. Route 29
just outside the city limits of Concord, is a new firm
succeeding a new firm engaged in making setup
paper board boxes. Its predecessor, Cabarrus Paper
Box Co., was organized and started operating May
31, 1947. As of August 25, the firm was reorganized
and incorporated under the present name.
L. F. Martin, president, was with the Container
Corporation of America, which recently opened a
new plant in Greensboro, until he took over the Ca-barrus
Paper Box Co. to reorganize it. A. R. Hoover,
Jr., is secretary-treasurer. A. R. Hoover, of the
Hoover Hosiery Co., located nearby, is one of the
stockholders. M. F. Bernard is superintendent of
the box plant.
Present building of the firm is 150 x 50 feet, with
7,500 square feet of floor space, and the firm has
plenty of room for expansion, called for in plans for
the future.
Fair Martin Boxes manufactures setup boxes for
hosiery, shirts, underwear, thread, bread, gifts, toys
and for other purposes, of sizes and types specified
by the purchasers. Most of the boxes produced are
sold to manufacturers in Concord or within a radius
of 50 miles.
The firm uses from 10 to 15 tons of paper board
a week and produces each week close to 100,000 fin-ished
boxes. At present the plant employs about 40
workers and plans to increase production by the use
of two shifts of workers.
PIEDMONT CARTON CO.
Charlotte, N. C.
The Piedmont Carton Co., 224 South Caldwell St.,
Charlotte, is a young and growing firm engaged in
the manufacture of folding paper boxes. It was
organized in May, 1944, by A. P. Cucullu, president
and general manager ; Mrs. A. P. Cucullu, vice-presi-dent,
and S. Simkins, secretary and treasurer, own-ers
of the firm.
This firm manufactures folding paper boxes for
food processors, textile manufacturers, tobacco ship-pers
and other firms, in sizes ranging from suit boxes
down to popcorn boxes. Its products are all machine
processed by modern new equipment. Boxes are pro-duced
according to the purchasers' specifications and
are distributed in several states in the southern area.
During a year the Piedmont Carton Co. uses about
3500 tons of paper, purchased largely from the Caro-lina
Paper Board Corp., Charlotte, and in 1946 pro-duced
37,000,000 boxes.
The firm employs an average of about 30 em-ployees
in addition to two salesmen.
CHARLOTTE BOX & CONVERTING CO.
Charlotte, N. C.
The Charlotte Box & Converting Co., Charlotte, is
a new enterprise, organized in July and started
operations in September, 1947, as an adjunct to and
for the primary purpose of manufacturing boxes
for the Dixie Tag & Envelope Co., also of Charlotte,
in which to ship its tags, envelopes and other paper
products.
The officers are T. C. McNeill, president and gen-eral
manager; John Jacob Binder, treasurer, and
William Swaney, secretary.
In addition to its main purpose of supplying the
Dixie Tag & Envelope Co. with shipping boxes, it is
branching out and supplying bakeries, ice cream
and confectionery producers.
A small plant now, it plans expansion in the near
future. The Charlotte Box & Converting Co. now
uses about 100 tons of paper board a month, purchas-ing
it from the Carolina Paper Board Corp., also of
Charlotte.
SHELBY BOX CO.
Shelby, N. C.
The Shelby Box Co., 1015 Buffalo St., Shelby, was
organized in March, 1946, as the Shelby Paper Box
Co. by Clayton M. Teague and Garland C. Preslar,
operating as a partnership for about 18 months.
In August, 1947, the firm was reorganized, Teague
selling his interest and the name was changed to
Shelby Box Co. and incorporated. The officers in-clude
Charles D. Forney, Jr., Lawndale, president;
J. L. Farris, vice-president; Robert R. Forney, sec-retary,
and Jack Preslar, manager.
The firm manufactures thread boxes for the Lily
Mills, hosiery boxes for the Mauney Hosiery Co.,
Kings Mountain, and boxes for other firms in and
around Shelby.
The firm owns its site and now operates in a small
building, converted to its present use. Plans for en-largement
and expansion have been made. About
18 workers are employed at present, the plant operat-ing
two or three shifts when necessary.
SMITH PAPER BOX CO.
Mount Airy, N. C.
The Smith Paper Box Co., Virginia Street, Mount
Airy, is a new firm founded by A. G. Smith, individ-ual
owner, and started in April, 1947. The plant
is now operating in temporary quarters and has
plans for a building erected as a paper box plant in
the future. New and modern equipment is being
installed as rapidly as it becomes available.
The plant manufactures setup paper board boxes
for hosiery, underwear and other products manu-factured
in Mount Airy and in that area. Sizes
range from 5 x 2 x 5/16 inches to 16 x 22 x 4 7/8
inches, based on the needs of the customers.
Still in its infancy, the Smith Paper Box Co. man-ufactures
from 35,000 to 45,000 finished boxes a
month and employs about 12 workers.
Winter, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 27
SEVERAL FIRMS MAY START
PAPER BOX PLANTS IN N. C.
Several firms have either announced plans for
starting paper box plants or other plants adding
some process to paper at various points in North
Carolina. Some of these are definite, while others
may be plans for the future but are not so certain.
The Gaylord Container Corporation, with plants
in several places over the nation and with a sales
organization located in the Jefferson Building,
Greensboro, has announced plans for opening a cor-rugated
container plant in Greensboro and also a
fabricating plant in Hickory. Headquarters of the
firm are in St. Louis, Missouri, and southeastern
headquarters are in Atlanta. Sales offices are main-tained
both in Greensboro and Hickory.
The Nolan Paper Box Co., of Radford, Va., recent-ly
purchased a building in Mount Airy, ostensibly for
the purpose of opening a paper box plant in that
city. Recent information is that the building has
been rented for other purposes and the plans for a
paper box plant have been projected into the future.
Gavis Sothern is reported to be planning a paper
box plant for Marshville, presumably for making
boxes primarily for the bakery trade. A letter to
Mr. Sothern asking about his plans brought no re-sponse.
The Southern Wax Paper Co. was reported to
have announced plans for opening a plant in Salis-bury.
A letter to this firm brought no response.
PULPWOOD OPERATIONS
Several other pulp and paper organizations have
various types of operations in North Carolina, em-bracing
management of timber lands from which
pulpwood is harvested, stations for the purchase of
pulpwood and distribution offices. Some of these
firms are said to have plans for establishing plants
in this State at some future time.
Among these are the Riegel Paper Corporation,
New York City, with holdings in the Acme-Bolton
vicinity of Columbus County; the Consolidated Paper
& Box Manufacturing Co., Richmond, Va., also with
holdings in that vicinity; the West Virginia Pulp &
Paper Co., with offices in Wilmington, and the Inter-national
Paper Co., of Georgetown, S. C.
Old Dominion Makes Paper Boxes In 5 N. C. Plants
By Bob Hord, Personnel Manager, Old Dominion Box Co.
The Old Dominion Box Co. was begun more than
40 years ago in Lynchburg, Va., but the bulk of its
manufacturing plants now are located in strategic
North Carolina cities—Charlotte, Winston-Salem,
Burlington, Kinston, and Conover.
One of the largest manufacturers of paperboard
boxes in the South, the company still maintains exec-utive
offices in Lynchburg. There are located the
headquarters of D. H. Dillard, president, and C. Gray
Roberson, secretary and treasurer, although the
offices of E. S. Dillard, vice-president and general
manager, are in Charlotte. In addition to the plant
at Lynchburg, the company has a manufacturing
Old Dominion Box Co. plant, neio and modern, at Conover.
center at Martinsville, Va., and an affiliated plant at
Greenville, S. C.—beside the North Carolina centers
already mentioned.
It was in 1929 that the Old Dominion first came
into the "Old North State", opening a plant at Char-lotte.
Today that plant is the largest in the firm,
and manufactures all three kinds of paper boxes
:
corrugated containers, folding cartons, and set-up.
From an intricately fashioned, handmade box for
the finest of perfumes to a huge container for furni-ture—
all are made in this one plant.
The Container Division at Charlotte makes, for the
most part, packing and shipping materials for a
variety of products : furniture, as mentioned above
;
Air vieiv of the Charlotte plant (State Headquarters) of the Old r
Dominion Box Co., which operates 5 paper box plants in State. tobacco products J chicken boxes and a host of others.
PAGE 28 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter, 1948
Three wrapping machines in the setup division of one of the
plants of the Old Dominion Box Co.
The Carton Division manufactures a fiat, folding
carton, used for such purposes as soft drinks, cigar-ettes,
headache powders, blankets, linens, and many
other uses. The set-up box, a rigid cardboard con-tainer,
is used to a great extent for hosiery, under-wear,
cake, candy and fancy gift boxes. These are,
of course, only samples of the tremendous numbers
of uses to which these three types of boxes can be
put, and an article that cannot be packaged in paper
seldom appears today.
At Charlotte, too, are the company's Sales Office,
the Personnel Department, the Technical Division,
and the Art and Sample Department. Many of the
designs used on the various boxes are fashioned and
made-up in the latter department. These divisions
serve all of the Old Dominion plants.
In the same year—1929—Old Dominion started
two other plants in North Carolina, those at Winston-
Salem, and—a short time later—the plant at Bur-lington.
Chief among the boxes made at Winston-
Salem are those for hosiery, underwear, tobacco, and
food products. Located in one of the busiest busi-ness
sections of the State, the Winston-Salem plant
serves a wide area, and the high degree of efficiency
with which it has always operated has kept the boxes
rolling to the companies it serves.
The third Old Dominion connection in North Caro-lina
was made at Burlington. Here the plant is
located in the center of one of the largest industrial
areas in the South—tremendous quantities of men's
and women's hose, textile products, rayon fabrics,
are turned out by a large number of mills, and most
of these products are "packaged in paper". Accord-ingly,
hosiery and underwear boxes lead the produc-tion
at Old Dominion's Burlington plant.
In 1937, Old Dominion opened a manufacturing
center in the extreme Eastern part of the State—at
Kinston. One of the finest tobacco markets in the
nation, Kinston is a rapidly growing industrial cen-ter
as well, and its manufactured products call for an
increasingly large number of boxes. Underwear and
food products, men's shirts and other clothing arti-cles
lead the list of packaged goods.
The newest of the Old Dominion plants, and one
of the most modern, is located at Conover. Opera-tions
were begun in November, 1944, and today the
plant turns out both set-up and carton boxes. Con-over
is in the midst of the "furniture belt", with
much of the South's fine furniture produced nearby.
There are a number of other industries located in
the town, and a fertile farming section is nearby.
Leading in the boxes made in the Old Dominion plant
are glove boxes, packages for food products and
hosiery boxes.
Thus—in brief—Old Dominion's story in North
Carolina. All five plants are offshoots of the original
Lynchburg firm. Started as an auxiliary to a shoe
firm, the company grew swiftly and was soon incor-porated
as a manufacturer of paperboard boxes.
Further expansion followed, and as has been pointed
out, much of that expansion was pointed toward
North Carolina.
Today the paper box industry has not even reached
its peak of possibilities. The recent war opened vast
new fields for packaged products, and Old Domin-ion's
engineers were quick to capitalize on these
openings. With the growing of every industry in
North Carolina, the field of paper boxes is sure to be
among the foremost.
Consumer Plants Make Boxes For Individual Firms
Many of North Carolina's 35 paper box plants now
in operation started as consumer plants—plants
operated in a section of the mill or factory and op-erated
to produce boxes in which the mill's products
were packed and shipped, primarily hosiery, under-wear
and other textile products. The majority of
these, in due time, branched out into supplying boxes
for the trade in the area and became separate firms,
corporations, partnerships or individually owned.
Consumer plants, eight or ten of them, continue to
operate in connection with mills they supply with
boxes, producing no boxes for the trade. Some of
these are among the oldest box plants in the State,
having operated for around 40 years, and started
because no box plants were available in the area. A
few of these consumer plants have started within
recent years.
Since consumer plants are not listed separately
from the mills they serve, no complete list of them is
available and it is possible that some have been
missed. Information available is given in the items
that follow.
WINTER, 1948 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 29
DURHAM HOSIERY MILLS
Paper Box Plant
Durham, N. C.
The Paper Box Plant of the Durham Hosiery Mills,
Corcoran Street, Durham, is one of the oldest con-sumer
plants for making paper boxes for the firm's
own products now in operation in the State. This
box plant was established about 40 years ago, a dec-ade
after the parent organization, the Durham Hos-iery
Mills, was established, and has continued
through the years as a consumer plant.
Founded by the late Julian S. Carr, the Durham
Hosiery Mills now has as officers : W. W. Sledge,
president; W. W. Couch, Jr., vice-president, and W.
F. Carr, vice-president and secret