| VICKSBURG, MI HISTORY LEE PAPER COMPANY Part of the VICKSBURG HISTORY website Property of the Vicksburg Historical Society click on image to enlarge it
Vicksburg's Lee Paper Company, 1930 This page address: this page: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~mivhs/vicksburgleepaper.htm
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| Historic Village - VICKSBURG COMMERCIAL PRINT SHOP |
| Historic Village - STRONG SCHOOL |
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LEE PAPER COMPANY |
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The historical notes in these pages were provided by Maggie Snyder |
LEE PAPER COMPANY
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Lee Paper Company, 1908
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By Maggie Snyder Vicksburg�s Lee
Paper Company, later Simpson Paper Co. and
most recently known as Fox River Paper Co., was originally built to fill
a need for a rag-content paper mill in the Kalamazoo Valley paper producing
region. Vicksburg was selected because it had a good supply of clean water, two
railroads and was centrally located to possible paper markets. Scores of workers
of Polish ancestry, some of whom had papermaking experience, were brought to the
mill from Chicago and other area (the mainly Catholic Poles were reluctant to
relocate until the new paper mill helped establish St. Edwards Church in
Vicksburg - Village Views Page 4).
When construction was completed in 1905,
production was 35,000 pounds per day. There were 205 employees whose
wages ran from 20 cents per hour to 32-1/2 cents an hour. Girls earned 10 cents
an hour sometimes working 50 to 60 hours a week. Textiles in the form of
worn-out clothing and other rags formed the raw material for rag-content paper.
Women sorted the rags, removed buttons and foreign objects in the Rag Room. The
cloth was shredded, cooked and processed into fine-quality writing papers. |
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Lee Paper Company Beater Room, 1920's
Lee Paper Company Finishing Room, 1920's
Lee Paper Company Rag Room - view 1, 1920's
Lee Paper Company Rag Room - view 2, 1920's
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Under Manager Norman Bardeen, the mill managed to operate throughout the Great Depression, though hours were cut and the available work was spread around so that as many employees as possible could take home a paycheck, however small. Eighty-percent of the mill�s production was directed at the war effort during World War II. The post-war era brought a boom in business and major plant expansions. By this time the emphasis was on producing paper from wood pulp rather than rags, and in 1959 Lee Paper Company merged with a division of Simpson Timber Co. to form Simpson-Lee Paper Company, which in later years became simply Simpson Paper Company. Lee Paper Company and its successors has had a tremendous effect on the greater Vicksburg area as its largest employer and biggest benefactor for many years. Housing construction boomed because of the mill. The Catholic Church was established here specifically to serve the mill�s Polish workers. The Vicksburg Foundation was formed with a $19,500 donation from the mill in 1943. In 1996 the mill was purchased by Fox River Paper Company, who has announced its closing by March 1 of 2001. The fate of its beautiful buildings, among the oldest manufacturing structures in the area, is unknown. |
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Lee Paper Company, 1930's
Lee Paper Company, date unknown
The 1904 Vicksburg Wolverine Crank Newspaper ( Special Historical Edition as reprinted by the Vicksburg Historical Society in 1972) carried an article about the new Lee Paper Company - see the following images: |
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Closing Lee Paper for Good
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Vicksburg's paper mill, 1905 - 2001
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The following columns by Barbara Walters appeared in the Kalamazoo Gazette on Sunday, September 2, 2001. They appear here with the permission of Barbara Walters.
Mill's closing marks
end of an era for Vicksburg
BY BARBARA WALTERS
KALAMAZOO GAZETTE VICKSBURG: Acres of tombstones frame
the sprawling brick mill. Many who rest here once made some of the
world's finest paper in the mill, which opened in 1905.Many of their children
and grandchildren worked here, too, because the money was good. As the mill
prospered, so did the village, which last year got nearly a
quarter of its tax revenue from the mill, and whose charities and
businesses had long depended on paper workers. But the mill is a ghost town now, its
parking lots empty, the complex silenced since March. Fox River Paper Co.
officials said they closed the plant
because their mills were producing more
than the market demanded. The Vicksburg mill was too old, they said, even
though it was a good moneymaker. By May, the mill's once pristine grounds
were becoming overgrown, worrying village officials about blight. Today, blight
is the least of their worries. Fox River has indicated paper is never to
be produced here again," says
Village Manager Matt Crawford.
Fox River, which bought the mill from Simpson Paper Co. in 1996 with a
pledge to remain a "good corporate
citizen," now says it will not sell the building to any paper product
firm. "Wouldn't be prudent" to sell to a competitor, Fox
President Dan King said when he announced the closing in January. That's put Vicksburg in an
"awkward" position, compared
to towns such as Parchment, which has
sold its mill, Crawford says. "The
communities that helped build the plants and
helped them grow are left with a company that
says, well, we appreciated everything, but now here's a plant that's 500,000
square feet and it can't be used again
for what it has been used for nearly 100
years," Crawford says. "The
impact on the community is going to be great." Scrambling to make up the lost revenue, the
village hiked its millage by 1.3 mills and boosted sewer and water rates. The
measures fall short of generating the $161,000 Fox River
annually contributed to village coffers, so many
street and park improvements have been put on hold, Crawford says.
The ripple effect of the mill closing reaches far
beyond the village budget. Some 214 people lost their jobs. More
than 100 others had already been laid off
in the five years since the
Wisconsin-based Fox River bought the
plant. It's in the heart of this village of 2,320
where people are feeling the loss of
Vicksburg's biggest taxpayer and
employer. "It's been a huge impact on our community and
our business," says Steve Schimp, owner of the
Vicksburg True Value Hardware store, where Fox River bought hundreds of
gallons of paint and other supplies.
"They were our No. 1 customer. They
supported us here locally." Schimp
senses a new caution about spending money when former mill workers come into his store.
Most of those laid off are now working, but
many make less in benefits and wages
."They have to watch their dollars more," he says bracing for a
different future, Schimp opened a framing shop that features
area artists next to his store. "I
guess you've just got to adjust," he says. In
the village post office, residents rarely come and
go without exchanging greetings and news of the day. But Postmaster Gerry Reeves
worries the mill's closing might lead postal officials to someday shut it down,
too. "Financially, it's impacted us a lot," Reeves
says. "We've lost one of our main revenue sources, and along with
that, a lot of people who used to come in here."
Carrier Donna Harris used to struggle with the
mail sacks she delivered to and picked up from
the mill. But as the plant moved into a In Mar Jo's Restaurant on South Main Street,
there's still the clatter of coffee cups and the hum of people chatting. But the place is
not
nearly as busy as when the mill's second an good home-cooked meal for a fair price.
Janet Reitz, who's met some friends there for lunch, had worked at the mill for 24
years when she was laid off soon after Fox River
bought the plant in 1996. Her grandfather, father and brother-in-law had worked there,
too. "When Fox River came in and bought Simpson,
we all said we had about five years left," she
says. "We were right." When she finally found another job, she went
from five weeks of vacation to two days and
took a $4 cut in hourly pay. A couple years ago,
she started her own business as a cosmetic
consultant. Now she has no regrets. "Once you
get over the initial shock, life can be good if
you don't harbor bitterness," she says. Yet the cycles of company buyouts and layoffs
has changed the outlook of many around town.
"People found out how dispensable they were,"
she says. "They found out there was no
loyalty. They found out the commitment to quality wasn't there any
more. When I was
there, we made the top grade print paper in
the world.
"Now they can make it cheaper in China."
People can find new jobs, she says. "But
working in a plastics company at $9, $10 an
hour, that's not something you can raise a
family on.
"It's not the American way."
"The mill was very good to me," she says. "And
I didn't know how good until I was asked to
leave." An era has ended as the village moves away
from a century of dependence on one business.
There's development in a new subdivision,
although Crawford estimates it would take 200
homes valued at $200,000 each to make up the
lost tax revenue. The Henry A. Leja Industrial
Park is virtually full. There's possible funding
support for street improvements from the
Vicksburg Foundation, which was started in the
1940s with paper mill money. And there's Vicksburg's spirit, which over the
last 15 years has turned around a timeworn downtown into a commercial district with
Norman Rockwell charm. Vicksburg Community Schools Superintendent
Pat Reeves is optimistic. The district covers
110 square miles, far beyond the village boundaries, and residential development will
make up for the lost tax base, she says. "Fox River's loss will bump it down, but only
temporarily," Reeves says. At South County Community Services, which runs most of the charities for the needy, program director Jo Ann Miller says she'd "expected to see worse" once the mill closed. "They're used to supporting us," she says of the Fox River workers. "They're not used to asking for help." The company was a major sponsor of the village's annual Summer in the Park concert series, so now residents will have to raise the money. "It's sad," Miller says, "to see a major pillar in the community go down." # |
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Lee Paper Company , 1910
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By Barbara Walters Old mill echoes with local history Thousands had walked through these doors before me. But on this day as I enter the Fox River Paper Co. mill in Vicksburg, I'm alone. Climbing the stairs past the brick walls, I come to the first landing. Workers posing beside roller machines stare back at me from a glass case highlighting the mill's 75th anniversary in 1980. Theirs was a proud history. Dowagiac industrialist Fred Lee put up the building, hiring Italian immigrants to build it and Polish immigrants to run it. The new Americans settled here, and their children and grandchildren's lives remained tied to the mill and the village around it. Those ties ran deep. During the darkest days of the Great Depression, Max Bardeen, who succeeded his father as mill president, personally went out on the road soliciting orders. Otherwise, old-timers say, the mill might have closed down. But times change. In 1959, Simpson Timber of Washington bought the mill and 10 years later moved its corporate headquarters out of Kalamazoo to San Francisco. That same week Max Bardeen's son, the third generation of the founding family to be an executive at the mill, left the firm. The local and family ties to the mill were disappearing. When Simpson put its Vicksburg and Plainwell mills on the block in 1996, the company acknowledged they were the "crown jewels" of its U.S. operations, good moneymakers whose loyal employees had helped establish that part of Simpson's business. "The flagship business of a long-established industry leader," a Fox River official called the Vicksburg mill when it bought it in January 1996. Five years later to the day, Fox River announced the sale of the plant. The company also announced something else. It would never sell the mill to a firm that made paper. "Wouldn't be prudent," the president said. That's why, when I come to the door that has a sign warning that "ear protection is required," I hear no hum of machines or shouts of workers. I open the door and in the vast, dimly lit emptiness, I imagine the men and women in the photos busy at work. I climb the stairs one more level, to the reception area. It's deserted, but on the counter is an open log book. Please sign in, it says. Among the entries on the open page is a moving company worker who signed in a week ago. Down a hallway, mill manager Tom Crockett is alone in his office, one of five employees left in this vast complex of nearly half a million square feet. Crockett is on the phone and his voice echoes; the words "all in the same situation" trail off. Everything is in boxes. A dusty portrait of Fred Lee, bearded and stern, sits propped against a wall. A young man, Crockett came here from Crown Vantage in Parchment a year ago, believing Fox River was a good opportunity. Now he's "looking for other opportunities," he says. He looks through some of the plant's anniversary photos. "It's always sad to lose productive people," he muses. Fox will give the photos to the Vicksburg Historical Society, he said. Two weeks after I interviewed him, Crockett left to take another job. The place is empty now. # |
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The now defunct Lee Paper Company in view behind the Vicksburg Cemetery
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New life for Fox River Plant Friday, January 4, 2002 BY TOM HAROLDSON KALAMAZOO GAZETTE
VICKSBURG: An Indiana-based pallet company has purchased the former Fox River Paper Co. and could begin some warehousing and distribution operations in the plant by this weekend. Pallet Management Corp. of Howe, Ind., formerly of Sturgis, was to sign a purchase agreement by today for the455,000-square-foot former paper plant that closed last year, putting 214 people out of work. Brian Smith, vice president of Pallet Management Corp., said the new operation will hire only about 10 to 12 employees at the 96-year-old Vicksburg building, but the village is still happy to have the firm moving in. "We're not going to be a big operation, and right now we're at 15 to 20 people where we are now (Howe, Ind.)," said Smith, who is a co-owner of the company along with majority owner and president Maria Marcinek. "But since day one (Village Manager) Matt Crawford and (former Village Manager) Don Flanders have been amazing. They said, 'Thanks for choosing Vicksburg. We appreciate you being here.' " Smith declined to identify the sale price, but he said Fox River was asking for $1.4 million. Pallet Management paid "a little bit less than that," he said. "We're not going to be a huge employment base, but at least it keeps that building from becoming a fire trap or a big piece of rubble that will fall down," Smith said. Crawford said Thursday that the village is excited about having Pallet Management come to Vicksburg, especially since it puts the building back onto the tax rolls and will be a unique incubator site for southern Kalamazoo County. "It's great to have them, especially after hearing the horror stories of other communities that lost mills," Crawford said. "We were praying it would not be 10 years down the road before we could do something with it." Vicksburg is working on how much new tax base the company will bring into the village, Crawford said, but it will likely be far less than the $120,000 in annual taxes Fox River generated. Most of those taxes, he said, were in the company's machinery, not the 96-year-old building, which had some new renovations in recent years. "We have no idea what the taxes will be at this point," he said. "But we do know it's better to have those buildings occupied." No name has been chosen, Smith said, but most likely "Fox River" will continue to be a part of it. The company expects to close on the sale March 1 or sooner. The building will be used primarily for warehouse and distribution operations, not the storage of pallets as had been rumored in late December when word first got out about the company's interest. Pallet Management has a couple of industrial customers who will be trucking their products to the site for distribution. Smith declined to identify the products but said there will be wood and paper collections at the plant. The building will also be used for some recycling operations to go along with the firm's cardboard recycling work. Recycling industrial wood waste for landscape mulch is one option. One key to the plan, he said, is Pallet Management's intention to work with the village of Vicksburg to provide about 30 percent of the building for incubator firms to locate in the village. "Maybe a small company would like to come to Vicksburg, so what we would do is donate some space with the idea that these people could get on their feet before they decide to build in Vicksburg or move into an existing building," Smith said. "The idea is we can help them if they will make a commitment to Vicksburg. We've been working with Matt and Don on the incubator concept." Crawford said the incubator concept is common for larger cities like Kalamazoo, but not for a small village such as Vicksburg. The village has experience luring business with its Henry Leja Business Park and in the past working with the CEO Council for a starter building that brought in River City Plastics years ago. "There's nothing like that (incubator sites) in this part of the county." Crawford said. "It's going to be a neat challenge." The village will work with Pallet Management to generate grants to renovate portions of the Fox River plant that will be used for the incubator firms, Crawford said. The company will not need to do much with the building for its own purposes, but areas that would house the incubator companies would need renovations. "If we don't do anything with the building now, a great majority of the building will be useless for start-up businesses," Crawford said. "If we can get some grants or work through a brownfield redevelopment authority, we could redevelop portions of the building for incubator or an industrial/ commercial operation." Smith said the company just moved out of Sturgis, where it had been operating in one of the old Kirsch plants. For three years, he said, his company has been fighting the city over a number of issues. "It's where I grew up and we wanted to stay there, but due to a lack of cooperation we said no way," Smith said. "We had hit a wall with them." As of Jan. 1, the company has been in Howe, Ind., just over the Michigan border. Smith and Marcinek are residents of Lake Templane near Centreville, and they plan to divide their time between the Indiana and Vicksburg operations. He said the company has been in touch with several former Fox River employees to see whether they will work for Pallet Management. The work will be primarily trucking and forklift operation. "We might as well go to the well (for employees)," Smith said. "They have the experience we're looking for." He said the company is excited about coming to Vicksburg, especially since the village has been so cooperative. "We really think it's a tremendous opportunity for the company," Smith said. "We're hoping to grow there." As part of the agreement, Fox River demanded that Pallet Management sign a "non-compete" clause that prohibits it from running any paper operations out of the old paper mill. "I don't really understand that, because Fox River probably could have gotten significantly more if they had sold to a paper company," Smith said. The mill closed early last year, the last of five regional paper plant closings during an eight-month span beginning in August of 2000. Fox River officials had said that one of the terms of the sale would be that no competing paper company could purchase it. This year Bridge Organics, a small chemical company, purchased a small portion of the old mill complex that it had been leasing from Fox River for several years. In addition, portions of undeveloped Fox River land was purchased by Schoolcraft Township farmer and township supervisor Robert Thompson for farming operations, and some has been purchased for potential residential development. Crawford said that as far as he knows, all of Fox River's 979 acres have been sold. All but 120 of those acres, which are in Vicksburg, are in Schoolcraft Township. #
Vicksburg plant could re-open in two weeks
$ Deal is off at Fox
River
VICKSBURG -- A proposal to purchase the
old Fox River |
Kalamazoo
County USGenWeb Site
