The mill at Milton, Massachusetts, established in 1730, and discontinued for lack of workman, was put into operation again by a citizen of Boston. Finding among the British troops stationed in the city a soldier who was also a paper-maker, he obtained for him a furlough of sufficient duration to enable him to get the mill into running order once more. The state of Connecticut showed its appreciation of the important industry by issuing a special charter to the mill at Norwich, already mentioned as having been built in 1768, and by the payment of a bounty to the manufacturer, Christopher Leffingwell.
♦Scarcity of rags♦
There were constant appeals for rags in this early stage of the industry. The Boston News Letter in 1769 published an article stating that “the bell cart will go through Boston before the end of next month to collect rags for the paper-mills at Milton, when all the people that will encourage the paper manufactory may dispose of them,” and followed with an appeal in “rime.” Apparently the people of New England did not “encourage the paper manufactory” to any great extent, for at the outbreak of the Revolution there were only three paper-mills in that section of the country, and as a consequence, paper became exceedingly scarce during the war.
Connecticut gave state aid to the mill at Norwich for two years, but withdrew its special encouragement in 1770, having paid Leffingwell a bounty of 2d. per quire on 4,020 quires of writing-paper, and 1d. a quire on 10,600 quires of printing-paper.
♦Mills in the South♦
In the South, the industry was not established as early as in New England and the Middle States, and the first mills were encouraged by loans and rewards. The Maryland convention in 1775 resolved that £400 granted and advanced to James Dorsey for starting a paper-mill, he to repay the same within two years, without interest, either in cash or in writing or cartridge paper. In the same year, South Carolina offered £500 currency to the first one who should erect and establish a paper-mill in the colony, the money to be paid upon the production of three reams of good writing-paper made at the mill.
In the year 1776, a paper-mill at East Hartford, Connecticut, supplied the press at Hartford, which issued about 8,000 papers a week, and manufactured also the writing paper used in the state, together with much of that used by the Continental Congress.
♦Paper-makers exempt from military service♦
With the outbreak of hostilities came a keener realization of the importance of the paper interest, and the greatest care was exercised in providing for all details of the manufacture. In 1776 Massachusetts provided by law for the appointment of a suitable person in each town to receive rags for the paper-mills; and the inhabitants were admonished to be careful to save even the smallest quantity of rags. In anticipation of the coming conflict, New York, in the same year, by special enactment, exempted from military service the master workman and two attendants at each paper-mill. The Council of Public Safety of Pennsylvania went a step further. The Continental Congress having resolved on the retention of paper-makers, the Council took measures to prevent them from joining the volunteers who were about to march to New Jersey.
♦A sermon effectively delivered♦