Watermark Proves Existence Of Early Ohio Paper Mill

Did the Good Hope Paper Mill of Hocking County ever actually exist? If it did, it would have been one of the first paper mills in Ohio. The late Dard Hunter, of Chillicothe, a world authority on paper and paper‑making, had maintained that the only known proof that. the mill ever did business was a small advertisement in an 1810 issue of a Chillicothe newspaper. The advertisement proclaimed that Rudolph and Abraham Pitcher of Lancaster "will soon have completed" a paper mill and "will give the highest price for clean linen and cotton rags" necessary in manufacturing paper.

Apart from that advertisement, no historic proof of the mill's operation could be found until recently when the Ohio Historical Society's Archives Manuscripts Division found the first known examples of Good Hope paper among the records of the Lancaster Lateral Canal Company. It is now apparent that the Pitcher brothers' mill was built and run successfully for almost 40 years. And, though there is still some question regarding whether the Good Hope was the third, fourth or fifth paper mill in the state, there is no longer a question about its existence.

When the Archives-Manuscripts Division first noticed that the Lancaster Lateral Canal Company's pay vouchers were printed on paper bearing the watermark "Greene," a connection was immediately made with Jacob Greene, one of the canal company's major stockholders. Further examination of the canal papers produced an 1827 receipt, for the paper purchased from Greene. Greene is the historic link needed to establish a relatively complete history of the manufacturing enterprise.

Rudolph Pitcher, builder of the original mill, died in 1817, and the notice of the sale of his paper-, grist-, and sawmills provides the first substantial evidence that the mil; had actually been put into operation. The Lancaster Eagle of April 16, 1818, carries an advertisement for two apprentices, boys 12 - 15 years old, of sober and industrious habits, to work at the Good Hope Paper Mills, but ownership of the mills is not stated.

It appears, however, that the mill was purchased by Joseph A. Greene & Co., a partnership which included Joseph A., Jacob A., and possibly William A. Greene. In 1825, this company was advertising that its Lancaster store carried "a large supply of writing, printing and wrapping paper," and two years later it was advertised that Joseph A. Greene & Co. "will give the highest price for clean linen and cotton rags, in goods, at their store, in Lancaster; where they will constantly keep on hand a large supply of paper." A similar ad in an 1830 Lancaster paper refers to the establishment as the Pine Grove Paper Mill on Clear Creek.

The Lancaster Eagle reported on FebÂruary 1, 1830, that the Pine Grove Paper Mill had been consumed by fire. The article explained, "It was supposed that the fire was communicated to the upper part of the building through the stove pipe. It was discovered about 8 o'clock in the morning, but unfortunately too late to arrest the progress of the flames. A large quantity of rags was destroyed with the mill. The tools, machinery, and about 300 reams of paper were preserved. The whole loss is estimated, by the proprietors, at $1500. The next day, with characteristic activity, they began their preparation for a new building, which, it is said, will be finished and in full operation in the course of three or four months."

Apparently the paper molds were among the equipment saved, for the watermarked examples of "Greene' paper preserved among the Lancaster Canal manuscripts date both before and after the 1830 conflagration, and no distinction can be made between watermarks from before and after the fire.

The Greene partnership was dissolved in November 1830, and Jacob Greene continued operating the new mill. Greene watermarks appear on documents dating from 1827 through 1835. Hocking County tax duplicates record Jacob Greene as the owner of a paper mill and a sawmill in Good Hope Township from 1832 to 1846. After 1846, the paper mill is not listed, though Greene may have operated it until his death in November 1850. Jacob's widow, Sarah, still owned the land when she remarried ten years later, though by 1876 the land at the mouth of Clear Creek had, passed into the hands of John Arney, who continued the sawmill and grist operation.

Today, no trace remains of any of these milling industries. Passing motorists on busy U.S. 33 scarcely cast a glance at the site of Pine Grove. Buildings and foundation stones have all disappeared, and the only remaining evidence of this pioneer Ohio industrial center is a few scraps of paper.

Continued from 1^st page . . . Column 1

locate a surveyor's point at the Fairfield‑Hocking line when Samuel Carpenter, on Dec. 8, 1831 continued his survey of a road between Lancaster. . and Logan and to the west of the Hocking River.

This is now where U.S. 33 enters Hocking County en. route south. It is probably the north slope of this highway that was the original road. FromÂ this point it isn't far south to where Clear Creek empties into the Hocking River. At this stream junction was once a small community called Pine Grove; and probably where a cracker barrel post office was located in one of the mills that once stood there. On this early survey, the. Jacob Green paper mill is located. This was where Green made his paper, which he sold in his stationary store on the square in the original town of Lancaster.

At the Green mill the original Logan Road went up Clear Creek Valley for a short distance before crossing Clear creek, probably by a ford, when this road was laid out.Â Some time later, a covered bridge carried this road across Clear Creek. This coveredbridge may have been built shortly after 1831, and about the time the grist and, saw mill a Arney foundry (or blacksmith shop) and a pottery were established here, all of which were at Pine Grove.

This route of the early road is indicated on the Goodhope Township map in the Titus, Simmons & Titus 1876 "Atlas of Hocking County Ohio." We do not know just when this covered bridge was abandoned. We do know the coveredÂ bridge was still standing 1907, but abandoned several years prior to that date.

Across this bridge, the road returned to the west bank of the Hocking River, went south to beyond Possum Hollow (to the right) for about a mile to what is now the road into Rockbridge. At the entrance to Possum Hollow, according to the 1831 survey, there stood' a Lynn (basswood) tree with five large branches.

When the road was changed to go over the hill to bypass the center of, Rockbridge, Logan Road circled to the left around the hill to enter Rockbridge, once called Millville. For a time this part of Logan Road was Ohio 798. Within this village there is a right angle turn before meeting the present U.S. 33. According to the original road survey, there was only one house between Possum Hollow Road and Buck Run, which indicated there was no settlement at Rockbridge, as we know it today.

There was another house between Buck Run and the place we remember as the Midway, the junction of Ohio 180 and U.S. 33. This was a filling station and a cemetery.

Continue 2^nd Column of Page 2 . . .

In 1831 this was where the Samuel Carpenter survey crossed Zanesville & Chillicothe Road. Now Ohio 180, it is often called Logan & Laurelville Road.

According to the survey records the early road to Logan did not cross the Hocking River until it crossed at the Lower Falls of the Hocking. We remember when Logan Road descended the hill into Enterprise, once called Stiversonville and crossed the Hacking River before continuing to Logan.

It would be difficult to follow this survey route to Logan without mileage and the presence of the trees that were selected to mark the survey points. However, the names of the houses standing in 1831 was of some help.

The owners of the homes along this early road going southeast of the state road to Chillicothe gave some clue as to this road survey. Names mentioned were the houses of Green, Wartman and Wohlenhaners. On the summit of Funk's Hill, he spent the night of Dec. 10, 1831. With these names, we believe, he followed what is now the bank of Clear Fork to about the road known Ohio 664. If so, then this, first road between Lancaster and Logan is in the bottom of Lake Logan.

The 1876 "Atlas of Hocking County Ohio" gave us some clue as to the route of the first road to Logan. According to this survey dated 1831, there was already a road at the Lower Falls crossing of the hocking River. This, he called the state road from the falls to Adelphia. This could have been in part, what, is now known as the Star Route west from Logan.

At the northeast end of the bridge over the Hocking River Carpenter set a post where there was a millrace and a drainage ditch, with this being the 18th mile station from Lancaster. He mentions that here is where he joined his survey made during November, 1831.

During Nov. 12 and 14 of November, 1831, Samuel Carpenter had completed his survey passing a meeting house and the courthouse on the left. He then mentions the town of Logan, then crosses an old road and a small run. At a hickory tree before Old Town Creek was the home of Widow Westenhaver, a sugar tree (maple locates the Line of the Ohio Company Purchase) which was the east boundary of Fairfield County when it was laid out in December 1800.

Photos
Did the Good Hope Paper Mill of Hocking County ever actually exist? If it did, it would have been one of the first paper mills in Ohio. The late Dard Hunter, of Chillicothe, a world authority on paper and paper‑making, had maintained that the only known proof that. the mill ever did business was a small advertisement in an 1810 issue of a Chillicothe newspaper. The advertisement proclaimed that Rudolph and Abraham Pitcher of Lancaster "will soon have completed" a paper mill and "will give the highest price for clean linen and cotton rags" necessary in manufacturing paper. Apart from that advertisement, no historic proof of the mill's operation could be found until recently when the Ohio Historical Society's Archives Manuscripts Division found the first known examples of Good Hope paper among the records of the Lancaster Lateral Canal Company. It is now apparent that the Pitcher brothers' mill was built and run successfully for almost 40 years. And, though there is still some question regarding whether the Good Hope was the third, fourth or fifth paper mill in the state, there is no longer a question about its existence. When the Archives-Manuscripts Division first noticed that the Lancaster Lateral Canal Company's pay vouchers were printed on paper bearing the watermark "Greene," a connection was immediately made with Jacob Greene, one of the canal company's major stockholders. Further examination of the canal papers produced an 1827 receipt, for the paper purchased from Greene. Greene is the historic link needed to establish a relatively complete history of the manufacturing enterprise. Rudolph Pitcher, builder of the original mill, died in 1817, and the notice of the sale of his paper-, grist-, and sawmills provides the first substantial evidence that the mil; had actually been put into operation. The Lancaster Eagle of April 16, 1818, carries an advertisement for two apprentices, boys 12 - 15 years old, of sober and industrious habits, to work at the Good Hope Paper Mills, but ownership of the mills is not stated. It appears, however, that the mill was purchased by Joseph A. Greene & Co., a partnership which included Joseph A., Jacob A., and possibly William A. Greene. In 1825, this company was advertising that its Lancaster store carried "a large supply of writing, printing and wrapping paper," and two years later it was advertised that Joseph A. Greene & Co. "will give the highest price for clean linen and cotton rags, in goods, at their store, in Lancaster; where they will constantly keep on hand a large supply of paper." A similar ad in an 1830 Lancaster paper refers to the establishment as the Pine Grove Paper Mill on Clear Creek. The Lancaster Eagle reported on FebÂruary 1, 1830, that the Pine Grove Paper Mill had been consumed by fire. The article explained, "It was supposed that the fire was communicated to the upper part of the building through the stove pipe. It was discovered about 8 o'clock in the morning, but unfortunately too late to arrest the progress of the flames. A large quantity of rags was destroyed with the mill. The tools, machinery, and about 300 reams of paper were preserved. The whole loss is estimated, by the proprietors, at $1500. The next day, with characteristic activity, they began their preparation for a new building, which, it is said, will be finished and in full operation in the course of three or four months." Apparently the paper molds were among the equipment saved, for the watermarked examples of "Greene' paper preserved among the Lancaster Canal manuscripts date both before and after the 1830 conflagration, and no distinction can be made between watermarks from before and after the fire. The Greene partnership was dissolved in November 1830, and Jacob Greene continued operating the new mill. Greene watermarks appear on documents dating from 1827 through 1835. Hocking County tax duplicates record Jacob Greene as the owner of a paper mill and a sawmill in Good Hope Township from 1832 to 1846. After 1846, the paper mill is not listed, though Greene may have operated it until his death in November 1850. Jacob's widow, Sarah, still owned the land when she remarried ten years later, though by 1876 the land at the mouth of Clear Creek had, passed into the hands of John Arney, who continued the sawmill and grist operation. Today, no trace remains of any of these milling industries. Passing motorists on busy U.S. 33 scarcely cast a glance at the site of Pine Grove. Buildings and foundation stones have all disappeared, and the only remaining evidence of this pioneer Ohio industrial center is a few scraps of paper. Continued from 1^st page . . . Column 1 locate a surveyor's point at the Fairfield‑Hocking line when Samuel Carpenter, on Dec. 8, 1831 continued his survey of a road between Lancaster. . and Logan and to the west of the Hocking River. This is now where U.S. 33 enters Hocking County en. route south. It is probably the north slope of this highway that was the original road. FromÂ this point it isn't far south to where Clear Creek empties into the Hocking River. At this stream junction was once a small community called Pine Grove; and probably where a cracker barrel post office was located in one of the mills that once stood there. On this early survey, the. Jacob Green paper mill is located. This was where Green made his paper, which he sold in his stationary store on the square in the original town of Lancaster. At the Green mill the original Logan Road went up Clear Creek Valley for a short distance before crossing Clear creek, probably by a ford, when this road was laid out.Â Some time later, a covered bridge carried this road across Clear Creek. This coveredbridge may have been built shortly after 1831, and about the time the grist and, saw mill a Arney foundry (or blacksmith shop) and a pottery were established here, all of which were at Pine Grove. This route of the early road is indicated on the Goodhope Township map in the Titus, Simmons & Titus 1876 "Atlas of Hocking County Ohio." We do not know just when this covered bridge was abandoned. We do know the coveredÂ bridge was still standing 1907, but abandoned several years prior to that date. Across this bridge, the road returned to the west bank of the Hocking River, went south to beyond Possum Hollow (to the right) for about a mile to what is now the road into Rockbridge. At the entrance to Possum Hollow, according to the 1831 survey, there stood' a Lynn (basswood) tree with five large branches. When the road was changed to go over the hill to bypass the center of, Rockbridge, Logan Road circled to the left around the hill to enter Rockbridge, once called Millville. For a time this part of Logan Road was Ohio 798. Within this village there is a right angle turn before meeting the present U.S. 33. According to the original road survey, there was only one house between Possum Hollow Road and Buck Run, which indicated there was no settlement at Rockbridge, as we know it today. There was another house between Buck Run and the place we remember as the Midway, the junction of Ohio 180 and U.S. 33. This was a filling station and a cemetery. Continue 2^nd Column of Page 2 . . . In 1831 this was where the Samuel Carpenter survey crossed Zanesville & Chillicothe Road. Now Ohio 180, it is often called Logan & Laurelville Road. According to the survey records the early road to Logan did not cross the Hocking River until it crossed at the Lower Falls of the Hocking. We remember when Logan Road descended the hill into Enterprise, once called Stiversonville and crossed the Hacking River before continuing to Logan. It would be difficult to follow this survey route to Logan without mileage and the presence of the trees that were selected to mark the survey points. However, the names of the houses standing in 1831 was of some help. The owners of the homes along this early road going southeast of the state road to Chillicothe gave some clue as to this road survey. Names mentioned were the houses of Green, Wartman and Wohlenhaners. On the summit of Funk's Hill, he spent the night of Dec. 10, 1831. With these names, we believe, he followed what is now the bank of Clear Fork to about the road known Ohio 664. If so, then this, first road between Lancaster and Logan is in the bottom of Lake Logan. The 1876 "Atlas of Hocking County Ohio" gave us some clue as to the route of the first road to Logan. According to this survey dated 1831, there was already a road at the Lower Falls crossing of the hocking River. This, he called the state road from the falls to Adelphia. This could have been in part, what, is now known as the Star Route west from Logan. At the northeast end of the bridge over the Hocking River Carpenter set a post where there was a millrace and a drainage ditch, with this being the 18th mile station from Lancaster. He mentions that here is where he joined his survey made during November, 1831. During Nov. 12 and 14 of November, 1831, Samuel Carpenter had completed his survey passing a meeting house and the courthouse on the left. He then mentions the town of Logan, then crosses an old road and a small run. At a hickory tree before Old Town Creek was the home of Widow Westenhaver, a sugar tree (maple locates the Line of the Ohio Company Purchase) which was the east boundary of Fairfield County when it was laid out in December 1800.

Watermark Proves Existence Of Early Ohio Paper Mill

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