Today's entry returns us to the banks of the Connecticut River to tell the story of the Syms & Dudley Paper Co., one of the several Holyoke paper mills that began in the early 1880s.
William Elliot Syms was born on October 29, 1838, to John B. and Clarissa (Blake) Syms in Litchfield, Kennebec County, Maine. At the age of 21, W. E. Syms was working in the paper mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts. In 1871, he arrived in Holyoke at the urging of Holyoke papermaker D. B. Crocker, who recognized his talent, energy, and ambition.
George E. Dudley was born about 1946 to Otis P. & Smilinda (Pickering) Dudley. His father and older brother were farmers when young George was 4 years old. He attended boarding school in Concord, N. H. In August 1862, at the age of 16, he enlisted in the 11th New Hampshire Infantry during the Civil War. When the war concluded, he was discharged on June 4, 1865. In 1873, he arrived in Holyoke to become paymaster of the Crocker Paper Company, later the Crocker Manufacturing Company.
It was during their time together at Crocker Paper that they agreed to start their own papermaking business. In September 1880, the Syms & Dudley Paper Company was organized with a stock authorization of $100,000. The officers were William Whiting, President; George E. Dudley, Treasurer; and William E. Syms, Mill Superintendent.
The owners of the company and their respective shares were William E. Syms (25%), George E. Dudley (25%), George R. Dickinson (25%), William Whiting (12.5%), and L. L. Brown (12.5).
It was an energetic time for the formation of paper companies. Nonotuck, Winona, and Chemical Paper Companies also organized in 1880. Other companies organizing around this time included George Dickinson Paper Co., American Pad & Paper, Holyoke Envelope Co., Hampden Glaze, Albion Paper Co, and Whitmore Paper Company.
Groundbreaking for the Syms & Dudley paper mill occurred on September 11, 1880. The plant was built on the Second Level Canal on a 500-by-410-foot lot. The plant location was described as being the 6th mill east of the Connecticut River Bridge. From one to six, the papermakers were the Valley Paper Company, Crocker Mfg. Co., Dickinson & Clark Paper Co., Albion Paper Co., Nonotuck Paper Co., and Syms & Dudley Paper Co.
On March 11, 1881, two lots of land and 6 mill powers for the new factory were purchased by the Syms & Dudley Paper Co. from L. L. Brown and William Whiting for $33,000. The sellers had purchased the land and mill powers one year earlier from the Holyoke Water Power Company.
Messrs. Syms and Dudley anticipated needing a workforce of about 100 employees. The company produced book-papers, engine-sized flats, and ruled papers.
In 1883, Syms & Dudley rented the upper two floors of their mill to the White & Adams Company, producers of paper bags. Two carloads of straw, used in the manufacture of paper bags for merchants throughout the Connecticut River valley, were delivered monthly.
The Casper Ranger Construction Co. built a new 20-foot by 70-foot sizing room for the plant in 1884. A 302-foot by 60-foot stockhouse was also constructed in that year. E. A. Ellsworth drafted the plans. The excavation work was performed by Daniel O'Connell; the foundation was installed by G. L. Bosworth & Co.; Lynch Brothers did the brickwork; Casper Ranger performed the woodwork; John Marra completed the stonework; and Munn & Bausch erected the ironwork. It was the largest stockhouse in Holyoke at the time.
Shortly after, William E. Syms received a patent for a papermaking process he invented. The process involved creating a wavy pattern of colors on paper for ornamental purposes.
In May 1885, a collaborative effort by the Syms & Dudley Paper Co. and Nonotuck Paper Companies resulted in the construction of a new 302-foot-by-60-foot mill to manufacture glazed paper. On July 13, 1885, this new glazed paper plant started production. The two companies had approximately 1,000 tons of rags on hand for use in papermaking.
The glazed paper product was used by "all the magazines that print fine engravings, for the pages that take their impressions, and by lithographers." Some of the magazines that used the paper included Harper's Magazine, The Century, Puck, and Judge.
Other uses of the glazed paper include multi-color fruit can labels and inner box coverings, where a smooth surface is needed. About 25 tons of this paper were produced daily nationwide, and the two principal manufacturers were S. D. Warren Co. in Boston and the partnership of Nonotuck and Syms & Dudley Paper Companies.
More will follow in the concluding chapter of the Syms & Dudley Paper Company.
Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican; publication dates and pages are shown.
Ancestry.com (paid subscription): Genealogy Records and Price & Lee, Holyoke, Massachusetts, City Directories
The Story of Holyoke, Wyatt Harper, 1973
Registry of Deeds, Hampden County, Springfield, Massachusetts
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