George C. Gill Paper Company, div of AWP Co., 1960s Brown Co. (Pt. 3- 1920-1971 )

 Financial lulls in the paper industry led to several shutdowns and restarts for the Gill Paper Division in the first quarter of the 20th century. One such slump ended in 1921, when the Gill Division won a U.S. government contract to produce 2 million pounds of postal card paper.

 In July 1921, the company sent one of its book paper machines to the Graphic Arts Exposition in Chicago. The machine the company sent was not the large 152" machine, but the smallest manufactured in the world. It measured 9' long and could be trucked in pieces and reassembled on a table. 

On March 9, 1927, the company announced a temporary shutdown. The loss of the U.S. government's postal card contract caused the shutdown. This led to the loss of 100 jobs, and some workers were reassigned to other AWP mills.  

The shutdown lasted 3 years; the plant reopened in August 1930, and production started in October that year. The company sold its 152" Fourdrinier machine, which had produced the book paper, to a company in the western U.S. AWP transferred its coarser paper production to the Gill Division from its Eagle-A plant in Windsor, Connecticut. 

In 1931, AWP's remaining divisions were all located in Holyoke. In 1933, the Gill Division produced matchbook covers, and AWP's Crocker Division added printing. That year, AWP moved machinery and equipment from the former AWP plant in Windsor, which closed in 1930, in case the Gill Division needed it for future production.

In 1936, the company produced matchboard for the Diamond Match Co. in Springfield.

During World War II, the company ran 2 shifts over 16 hours because of a labor shortage. Many employees were drafted or enlisted.

By 1962, AWP had only nine paper-making machines. Most of the work took place in the Linden, Crocker, Albion, Mt. Tom, Nonotuck, and Gill Divisions.

AWPCo had been up for sale for some time. On December 29, 1962, AWPCo sold its remaining 6 divisions to the Brown Company, netting shareholders $33 per share, more than the $28 per share offered by Writco, a newly formed corporation. By 1969, only 4 divisions remained: Gill, Crocker, Albion, and Nonotuck.

On June 4, 1971, the Gill Division closed, and some of the remaining 25 employees transferred to other Brown divisions; others accepted unemployment benefits.  The paper-making plants struggled to survive, and additional financial outlays to meet anti-pollution requirements accelerated closures. Within one year, the Valley Paper Co., Franklin Paper Co., and Gill Division had all closed.

Citations: 

Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; publication dates and pages are shown.

Ancestry.com (paid subscription): Genealogy Records and Price & Lee, Holyoke, Massachusetts, City Directories

George C. Gill Div. of AWP Co. Inc.

George C. Gill Paper Company, div. of AWP Co. (Pt. 2- 1900-1920)

A new era had begun at the turn of the 20th century. The American Writing Paper Company (AWP), a trust that controlled most of U.S. paper production, owned 16 paper mills in Holyoke. 

From the outset, several former paper company owners recognized that the company was poorly managed. George C. Gill severed his relationship with the conglomerate a year after its formation. He cited differences in managerial direction. In 1904, Leon Crafts, who succeeded George Gill as manager of the Gill division, also quit. He had been with the George C. Gill Paper Co. since its inception. The Holyoke Transcript reported, "He already accepted a position which he considers better than the one he retires from."

In 1907, the paper-making industry was hard hit by declining demand. 8 factories had shut down, including the George C. Gill division of AWP.

In 1916, AWP decided to place more emphasis on manufacturing book paper. To that end, AWP converted the George C. Gill division to produce only this paper. The factory had to be altered to accommodate new machinery. They removed and rebuilt some walls to make room for the machinery. 

At one end of the building, a 60' by 200' machine room was constructed. 3 machines were removed to other plants to make way for a 152" book paper machine with capacity to produce about 40 tons of book paper stock daily. This was the largest machine of its kind in the country and cost $150,000. Once the work was complete, the plant was expected to be one of the country's finest and best-outfitted book paper facilities. Casper Ranger was awarded the quarter-million-dollar construction contract.

In 1918, AWP surveyed and cataloged its employees by age. James Dakin, who worked at the Gill division, was the oldest employee at 81 years. The company also had 25 employees older than 70.

Also in 1918, the 152" Moore & White machine manufactured in Pennsylvania and installed during the 1916 plant expansion set a new record for paper production. The machine, capable of producing sheets up to 130 inches wide, produced 70,900 pounds of paper in a 22-and-a-half-hour period. It exceeded the previous mark of 62,900 pounds. The Superintendent and Plant Manager expected to establish another new record by year-end.

Because of another recession in the paper trade, the plant shut down from November 11, 1918, to August 25, 1919.

The final chapter will carry us through for the remaining years of the Gill Div. of AWP.

Citations: 

Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; publication dates and pages are shown.

Ancestry.com (paid subscription): Genealogy Records and Price & Lee, Holyoke, Massachusetts, City Directories

Holyoke-Chicopee: A Perspective, Ella Merkel DiCarlo, Publisher, Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript-Telegram, 1982

Holyoke, Massachusetts, A Case History of the Industrial Revolution in America, Constance McLaughlin Green, Yale University Press, 1939

Massachusetts Cultural Research Information System, Secretary of State's Office, Boston, Massachusetts

History of Massachusetts Histories, Orra L. Stone, 1930

Richard's Atlas of the City of Holyoke, Massachusetts, Richards Map Co., Springfield, Massachusetts, 1911

The former Winona Paper Co. (1880-1891) became the 

home of Chemical Paper Mill No. 2 (1891-1892) and then

George C. Gill Paper Co. (1893-1899)

George C. Gill Paper Co., div. of American Writing Paper Co.

The plant was located between the Second Level Canal and the Connecticut River,

 in the general area of Mosher and Albion Streets.