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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