Hugh Chisholm.
The individual who begins life as a poor newsboy, and in the full flush of his manhood is found to be the head of an industry created by himself in which untold millions are invested, and which is of supreme importance to the community, serves his generation in more ways than one. If he has done nothing else he has acted as an exemplar for the faint-hearted, as a beacon for the persevering, and as a type of American manhood, and all that lies before it. Such an individual is Hugh Chisholm, who has brought into existence a corporation which is making paper for nearly all the newspapers of the United States. When it is said that one New York newspaper buys six thousand dollars worth of paper every day, some idea may be gained of the vast proportions of the industry. Mr. Chisholm was born at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada, May 2, 1847, and began life as a train newsboy on the Grand Trunk railroad, studying meanwhile in evening classes of business colleges in Toronto. When the Civil war broke out, the lad, who is of Scotch descent, with the shrewdness of his race, realized the possibilities of the situation and pushed his wares to the utmost, sometimes holding them at a premium. He at length was able to hire some other boys to sell newspapers for him. He next obtained from the railroad company the exclusive right to sell newspapers on the division east of Toronto. He extended his “combinations,” and when he was twenty-five years of age had the exclusive news routes over four thousand miles of railroad, and had two hundred and fifty men on his payroll. Selling out his interests to his brothers, who had similar interests in New England, he purchased the latter and located in Portland, Maine, where he added publishing to his business. Foreseeing a growth of the newspaper trade, and realizing that there would be a huge consequent demand for white paper, he organized the Somerset Fiber Company, the manufacturing of wood pulp at Fairfield. Later he established a number of pulp mills in Maine. Next he devised a plan of business consolidations and a few years ago the Chisholm properties and a score of other mills in New England, New York and Canada were merged into one company. The output of the mills is more than 1,500 tons per day and is increasing rapidly. In 1872 he married Henrietta Mason, of Portland.