Wellington Smith
He was made president of the American Paper Makers Association, leading with Senator Warner Miller, and became a millionaire within his lifetime.
He was the first to produce paper made entirely of wood pulps, which launched a new industry in the country, and lowered the cost of newspapers such as the New York Herald.
[5] His uncle was Charles Lester Yale, associate director of St. Paul Pioneer Press, founded by James M. Goodhue, and his granduncle was Rev.
[12] Smith's competitors laughed at the idea at first, and thought the company would go bankrupt producing this type of paper.
[12] The experiment proved successful, despite not being of the highest quality, which would change over the years as they improved the underlying technology.
[13][4] It would become the first wood pulp based paper in the world, which lowered the cost of manufacturing paper, and worked in synergy with the growing newspaper industry, which needed low prices and high volume to sustain their new business model based on advertising rather than subscriptions.
[15][4] In 1880, during the reunion of the American Paper Makers Association at the Grand Union Hotel, New York, Smith became its chairman, replacing Congressman William Whiting II.
[1][17][12] They began manufacturing tissue, lightweight paper, carbon, opaque Bible and cigarette paper, and would later be acquired under Smith's sons by the British American Tobacco Co. of James Buchanan Duke, benefactor and namesake of Duke University.
[15] Smith was a delegate to the Chicago Republican National Convention in 1880, when they nominated James A. Garfield for president.
In 1882, Smith became president of the Ancient and Honorable Berkshire Agricultural Society, and received Governor John Davis Long, later Secretary of the Navy, and Gov.
[21] Smith was a personal friend of the presidents of the United States William McKinley and Abraham Lincoln, whom he knew intimately and visited several times at the White House in Washington, D.C..[22][23][24][25] When a young man, he was with Lincoln at his residence, and saw the president refuse the request of a young woman asking for her brother, a Confederate, to be released from jail.
[25] In 1895, Smith was at a convention of the Republicans with Congressman Hendrick B. Wright, to nominate Charles W. Fuller as sheriff.
[8][11][3] Smith was also the leading figure, with US Senator Warner Miller, of the national paper manufacturers association.
[11] By 1943, the annual wood pulp production in North America would bring about half a billion dollars in sales for the industry, with 13 million tons of paper produced per year.
[5] He had five children with his two wives; Augustus and Mary by his first, and Wellington Jr., Etta and Elizur Yale Smith by his second wife, Anne Maria Bullard.
