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Joseph Parker, Paper Tiger
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Business New Haven
10/1/1995
By:
Priscilla Searles
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Joseph Parker gave New Haven and the country two products that benefited thousands: high quality book-paper produced from cotton waste and blotting paper.
Born in Litchfield South Farms (now Morris) on July 19, 1810, Parker was the son of a successful physician. Parker's business career began at age 14 when he left home to work in country stores in Bethlehem and Woodbury. At age 19 he moved to New Haven, remaining in the Elm City the first time for only a couple of years before moving on to seek his fortune.
It was a business failure that brought Parker back to New Haven. He had gone to New York City in 1832 were he got into the hardware business but the failure of the United State Bank and the financial crisis that followed brought his hardware career to an end. Not easily discouraged, Parker was observant and creative and it was this attributes that gave him an idea that would result in a made in the U.S.A. product that would benefit succeeding generations.
Before 1840, American cotton mills had no use for the sweepings, known as cotton waste. Parker believed that the waste would make a high quality paper. He knew that the process was already being done in England. He found himself a partner, J. K. Herrick, a wholesale stationer in New York City, and returned to New Haven to turn his idea into reality.
Parker hired a businessman from England, who claimed to understand the process, to supervise the manufacture of quality paper made from cotton waste. The Englishman failed to master the technical aspects of the production and it was Parker who figured it out, manufacturing the first sheet of fine and superfine book-paper manufactured the United States.
West Rock Paper Mill, as Parker's company was first known, was located on Whalley Avenue in New Haven. Producing a paper noted for purity and excellence, the company paid $20 per gross ton for cotton waste, transforming it into book-papers at $125 per ton that matched the quality of those produced overseas. The manufacture of a high quality, cotton-based paper was a great success, one that was soon imitated by others.
Parker's older brother Frederick joined the organization in 1841 and the company's name was subsequently changed to J. H. Herrick & Co. Four years later Herrick retired. Over the years others joined the partnership and the company underwent several name changes, incorporated in 1892 as the Joseph Parker & Son Company. But in 1845 Parker was still far from finished in developing creative products.
A trip to a New York City stationer's in 1856 gave Parker his next product. Seeing the first case of blotting-board ever imported into this country, he happen to have some sample sheets of card-board with him, made for a manufacturing company .He had a test conducted to see if this card-board could be used as blotting-board. It not only worked but was better than the product manufactured in Europe.
Parker's company became the first in the United States to produce blotting paper, soon becoming a world leader in the field. Until blotting paper was produced in the United States, most people used a container that resembled a salt shaker filled with sand to dry wet ink.
The company that Parker founded dropped the production of book-paper and concentrated on blotting paper, shipping the product all over the world. Joseph Parker & Son Company continued producing blotting paper until the closing in 1970. The company Parker had founded had survived, on paper, for 130 years.
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