From The Connecticut River Valley in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire: Historical Sketches by Lyman S. Hayes, Tuttle Co., Marble City Press, Rutland, VT., 1929, page 302:
WILLIAM A. RUSSELL WAS AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN THE BUSINESS OF BELLOWS FALLS
Few of the present generation know the conditions surrounding the establishment here of the pulp and paper business, which in three decades grew from pracctically nothing to a property valued at $4,500,000 when it was merged into the International Paper Company in 1898. This phenomenal success was due largely to the wisdom, sagacity, foresight and energy of Hon. William A. Russell of Lawrence, Mass., at one time Congresssman from his district, and later the first president of the International Paper Company.
Following the building of the railroads into Bellows Falls in 1849-1851, the canal, which had been built in 1792-1802 for navigation purposes, was discontinued for the passing of boats in 1857. It had been used for manufacturing purposes but little. Until 1869-1870 paper had never been successfully made from wood pulp. Mr. Russell was one of the pioneers in making extensive experiments which resulted in making it a success, and revolutionizing the. paper industry .
In 1868 Mr. Russell had secured some comparatively small water powers in Lawrence and in.Franklin, N. H., and had built small mills in both places. Paper had not then successfully been made from wood, but his faith in the possibilities was so great that he continued branching out. His first visit to Bellows Falls was April 15, 1869, and on that date he closed a conntract, the results of which were the great prosperity and growth of the village during the succeeding half [303] century. He often told in after years of this first visit, and the peculiar action of the most eccentric character Bellows Falls had ever known, Jabez Hills, who made his coming here to locate his industries possible. Mr. Russell had never been away from the railroad station here, but in passing through the village he had seen the unused and dilapidated condition of the canal. Mr. Hills had been extremely miserly and had accumulated much real estate in different parts of the village. Part of this was the millsite and rights of power of an old paper mill which had been burned in 1846 and had stood vacant and unproductive ever since. It was a tract of land between the present stone grist-mill and the river.
On the April day mentioned above Mr. Hills signed the only contract he ever made which went upon the town record. Although he died owning many pieces of real estate, all of which were accumulated by foreclosure instead of purchase, there is no record of his ever selling a piece of property in the forty years that he was a large factor in the business of the place. On that day he leased the land and power rights he owned under the hill to Mr. Russell, and that was the beginning of the interest of Mr. Russell in Bellows Falls.
Mr. Russell alighted from the noon train that April day and walked down around the canal and old foundaation of the mill. He knew no person in Bellows Falls, and after a careful survey inquired who owned the property. He was informed it was Jabez Hills and that he would find him down at the eddy catching flood wood. He went there and found him and proposed a lease of the mill privilege. After Mr. Hills had asked [304] him a few questions and looked him over carefully he replied that he would lease, and would meet him in an hour at the office of a lawyer, J. D. Bridgman, up town. When Mr. Russell told the lawyer what Mr. Hills had promised, the lawyer laughed very heartily, telling him of the peculiarities of Mr. Hills and that he never had been known to make a contract, and he never sold property, relating many idiosyncrasies of the man. But he kept his promise and the lease was made and delivered within a few minutes. The town clerk's records show that it was filed at 2 P. M. and Mr. Russell went north the same afternoon, indicating the quick decision of Mr. Russell, as well as the unheard of action of Mr. Hills.
The result was the building up of the business of the Fall Mountain Paper Company, and subsidiary corrporations, to the extent that for a half century thereafter Bellows Falls ranked as one of the larger paper producing villages in the country. The terms of the contract were very liberal to Mr. Russell, and upon the death of Jabez Hills in 1871 he purchased the property, together with its rights. He later secured control of the Bellows Falls Canal Co., which was materially immproved during his ownership by enlarging and deepening it. It has recently been still further improved by the expenditure of about $4,000,000 upon it, and the power house for electrically developing and transmittting the entire power of the river.
Within a week from the signing of the Jabez Hills contract Mr. Russell had the foundations for his first pulp grinding mill started, the actual production of pulp being in October of the same year. This first pulp [305] mill was built under the name of the "New England Pulp Co.," and located just east of the present grist mill. His experiments resulted in the successful making of paper from wood and a number of pulp and paper mills were erected here. For many years news print paper was the principal production, and contracts were made to furnish many of the leading newspapers of this country, and some abroad, with their paper. The production reached in 1907 one hundred tons daily, sent to such papers as the New York Times, San Franncisco Chronicle, Pittsburgh Gazette, New Orleans Picayune, Boston Herald, Baltimore American and many others, a number of them contracting locally for their entire stock used. Mr. Russell's accidental coming to Bellows Falls in 1869, and Jabez Hills taking a different action from any ever taken by him in a long life, made results of great importance to Bellows Falls.