Opinion: Closure of Canton paper mill is devastating blow for the people of Canton, WNC
I just read the terrible news in The Mountaineer about the Canton paper mill closing in June. This is a devastating blow for the people in the area, who are still recovering from yet another flood last year. This mill has been the lifeblood of Canton and the region since it began operations 115 years ago.
The Canton mill and Western North Carolina have been important parts of my family’s history and lives since before the mill opened. My great-grandfather Peter G. Thomson, for whom I am named, founded Champion Papers with the building of a paper mill in a city near Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1894. By the turn of the century, his business had become enormously successful, and he decided he needed a steady source of pulp for the Ohio mill. He began scouting Western North Carolina and decided to build a pulp mill in Canton. Peter also began buying up large tracts of timberlands in the mountains to supply the pulp mill with the necessary lumber.
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When there were problems in getting the mill finished and obtaining titles to properties, Peter asked his son-in-law Reuben B. Robertson Sr. (my grandfather), a Cincinnati lawyer practicing in his father’s law firm, to head to the region for what may grandfather used to say was for 60 days, but turned into 60 years (actually 65). He brought his wife and 1-year-old daughter and settled in what for them was a very rustic area. My grandfather never left and ended up working for his father-in-law’s company the rest of his professional life, into his 80s (he died in 1972 at age 93).
My grandfather ran the Canton mill until the 1940s when he was made a senior officer of the entire Champion enterprise. In 1946, he became president of what had become a very large Ohio-based papermaking concern, with very large plants in three states. Even with his new position, my grandfather never left WNC and became an almost revered figure among the employees. At one point, the Canton mill – which had rapidly grown from a pulp mill into a large, integrated paper making mill – was the largest of its kind in the country.
My father Reuben Robertson Jr., grew up in the area and spent his youth roaming the mountains, enjoying hiking, hunting and fishing. He started working in the mill as a teenager during school breaks and vacations. His ambition from boyhood was to work for Champion and he did that for his entire professional career, except for three years in the Army during World War II and an almost two-year stint as Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Eisenhower in the 1950s.
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Reuben Jr. began working on the ground floor right after graduating from college in 1930. Not only did he become familiar with all aspects of the business, he also got to know almost all the employees by first name. My father was promoted to Champion headquarters in Ohio in 1938 and moved up in management ranks until he succeeded his father as president in 1950.
My father loved the area and returned frequently for company meetings and events, to show senior Time magazine executives around, and for employee get-togethers at Champion’s Lake Logan retreat. He also brought our family for vacations at Lake Logan and the area became important to us all.
After my father was killed by a drunk driver in 1960, Champion passed out of control by the Thomson-Robertson family. However, my family maintained its ties, returning periodically for reunions at Lake Logan. We also supported the recovery efforts after the devastating 2021 Canton flooding.
The closure of the Canton mill will be the end of the last vestige of what once had been the large and thriving industrial enterprise that was Champion. The Canton mill is the last surviving one of the four large mills the company built and operated. It has been such a vital part of the region’s history and economy (and the state’s) that it has spawned one book (“Thomson’s Pulp Mill” by Carroll Jones), a Ph.D and a master thesis, and regular visits by North Carolina’s governors (one, Dan Moore, had been a Champion employee before his election).
Our hearts go out to the Canton mill workers, their families, and the region ― all of whom will face difficult, uncertain futures due to the mill closure. Our family is deeply saddened by this terrible event.
Peter Robertson is an attorney in Massachusetts and is part of the Canton paper mill family, beginning with his great-grandfather Peter G. Thomson who founded Champion Papers.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: Closure of Canton paper mill is devastating blow for region
