Ohio History Journal


NOTES

NOTES

Contributors to this Issue

RICHARD G. MORGAN is curator of archaeology; H. HOLMES ELLIS,

assistant curator of archaeology, is now in war production work; ROBERT

GOSLIN was formerly a museum assistant in archaeology.

MRS. HOWARD JONES (MARY MCMULLIN JONES) is president of the

Ohio History Day Association.

ELMER E. NOYES is studying for his doctorate in history at the

Graduate School of Ohio State University.

 

A  Communication

November 13, 1942.

Mr. Charles M. Thomas,

Department of History,

Ohio State University,

Columbus, Ohio.

Dear Mr. Thomas:

The Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Quarterly for July,

1942, at page 185, states that the first paper mill in Ohio was built on the

Little Miami River in 1810. I believe this honor belongs to East Liverpool,

formerly Fawcettstown. Browne's Western Calendar for 1807, published at

Cincinnati in 1806, contains a letter from a gentleman to the Editor dated

Fawcettstown, Columbiana County, July 21, 1806:

The road from Fawcettstown, up the bank of the river, is open, and leads to

Little Beaver Creek; six miles on which is a grist and saw-mill. A tollbridge is

erecting, which is, by act of Legislature, to stand good for a term of fifty years. The

creek is full of large rocks, and affords a romantic scene.

About two miles up from the mouth is a paper mill, built of stone, and admirably

calculated to perform a great deal of business. The paper made at this mill is equal,

if not superior, to any made this side of the mountains; and there is every reason to

suppose, from the attention paid to the manufacturing, that a large stroke of business

will be successfully carried on. How strange to say that, though there are not less

than ten or twelve printing presses in the State of Ohio, yet the only paper mill in

the State is situated within one mile of its eastern boundary. There does not appear

to be a better, or more sure and lucrative speculation.

The earliest history of Columbiana County, published in 1879, at page

175, contains the following:

In 1805 or 1806, John Bever and John Coulter built a paper-mill, for making

writing paper, on Little Beaver Creek, near its mouth, and called it the Ohio Paper

Mill. It was the first industry of its kind in Ohio, and the second west of the Alle-

ghenies. The mill-dam was carried away some years after the enterprise was started,

and the paper-mill became a thing of the past.

John Bever, in his will dated January 26, 1832, devised to his daughter

his 3/4 interest in the Ohio Paper Mill in St. Clair Township, Columbiana

County, Ohio. He stated that the other 1/4 part belonged to Jacob Bowman

of Brownsville (Pa.). Bever estimated his 3/4 interest at $9,000.

Yours very truly,

(Signed)   WILLIAM H. VODREY.

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