chesapeake: pioneer papermaker: a history of the company and its communityby alonzo thomas dill
TRANSCRIPT
North Carolina Office of Archives and History
Chesapeake: Pioneer Papermaker: A History of the Company and Its Community by AlonzoThomas DillReview by: James F. DosterThe North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 46, No. 2 (April, 1969), pp. 195-196Published by: North Carolina Office of Archives and HistoryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23518127 .
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Book Reviews 195
seem to understand that if the Court had not taken note of the con
gressional attitude, it might have been subordinated, and that then a
permanent alteration in the American system might have occurred.
T. Harry Williams
Louisiana State University
Chesapeake: Pioneer Papermaker: A History of the Company and Its Community. By Alonzo Thomas Dill. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1968. Illustrations, notes, appendixes, bibliography, index. Pp. xx, 356. $8.50.)
The Chesapeake Corporation is a major producer of kraft pulp,
paper, and paperboard, and its operations have throughout its history been centered in West Point, Virginia, on the York Estuary. There in
1914 the Fox Paper Company of Lockland, Ohio, through an affiliate established a pioneer kraft mill. Through shifting patterns of tech
nology, war, and ownership the mill emerged in 1918 as a going thing,
modestly successful but available for sale to new owners.
Elis Olsson, a Norwegian immigrant with a papermaking background, then entered the picture. Olsson had worked for several paper manu
facturers in the United States and knew paper technology quite
thoroughly. He and an associate persuaded Christoffer Hannevig, a
young Norwegian financial adventurer in New York, to provide most
of the money to buy the West Point mill, which they then operated under the corporate name of Chesapeake Corporation, beginning November 15, 1918. In 1921 Virginia interests came into control of the
company. Olsson gradually advanced into the principal position of
leadership, and apparently ownership, and for many years he dominated
the company. In 1958 the leadership passed to his son, Sture Gordon
Olsson.
The company and the little town of West Point grew and prospered
together during the decade of the 1920's. Technical problems were
mastered, and markets were rapidly expanded. In the 1930's, the
depression decade, the company had its troubles but continued its
expansion program. It was by then well established and financially
strong, and it displayed every evidence of good management and
intelligent foresight. In the years since 1940 there has been continued
expansion, as the company has shared in the rapid growth of the
kraft paper industry. The company's book value grew from $541,000
in 1918 to $44,808,400 in 1966, while in the same period the production of the pulp mill expanded from 17.5 tons to 1,065 tons per day.
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196 The North Carolina Historical Review
The author chronicles every change in top management personnel and loads his narrative with names and trivialities which for most
readers have no significance. He seeks to chronicle all important events
in the company's history and to give an evolving picture of the town
of West Point and of its people and transportation facilities. An appen dix provides numerous tabulations which measure the company's
growth and to some extent reflect its problems. The author, however,
gives an inadequate picture of the dynamic growth of the southern
pulp and paper industry and of the Chesapeake Corporation's position in it.
James F. Doster
University of Alabama
OTHER RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Collectors of North Caroliniana will want to acquire a copy of A
Sketch of the Ufe of Queen Charlotte, 1744-1818, by Mary Myers Dwelle, "A Bicentennial Tribute from Her Namesake," published by the Charlotte Bicentennial Commission. In a very brief text Charlotte
Sophia, youngest daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who
became the wife of George III of England, has been portrayed interest
ingly and sympathetically by Mrs. Dwelle through the use of one of
the young girl's letters, by glimpses at the Queen's family life, and by a description of the age of Queen Charlotte in eighteenth-century
England. A remarkable and popular woman, Queen Charlotte's likeness will be found today in hundreds of portraits and miniatures which
were produced by such famous artists as Gainsborough, Hogarth, Allan Ramsay, Joshua Reynolds, and Josiah Wedgwood. A list of some
of the portraits of Queen Charlotte and the names of their owners is
provided by the author. The book has been produced in a most
attractive format by Heritage Printers, Inc. On the cover of the hard
board binding of simulated leather is a color reproduction of Ramsay's oil painting of the Queen which hangs in the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, as a gift of Mrs. Westray Battle. The wide margins of the
30-page work and the endpapers are decorated with artistic symbols of the period. The price is $2.50, and copies can be obtained from the
publisher at 510 West Fourth Street, Charlotte, N. C., 28202.
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