The Gilman Paper Company was an American paper producer founded by Isaac Gilman in the 1880s in the village of Fitzdale, Vermont, which would later be renamed Gilman, Vermont.
History
Gilman Paper Company's founder, Isaac Gilman, emigrated from Ukraine and began working in the paper manufacturing business in 1881. In 1921, Gilman Paper Company purchased the Fitzdale Paper Company. From 1921 to 1924, a period of major renovations and construction occurred. The steam plant, built in 1901, was demolished and replaced with four Stirling boilers and a 225-foot-high chimney. Two buildings were erected to house the paper machines and the grocery bag department. During this period, most of the employee residences in the nearby village were built and provided with fire, sewer, and water systems. Over the next decade, Gilman Paper Company expanded manufacturing in the paper converting field, opening a Kraft bag department, a gummed tape department, and a department that produced twisted yarn made from paper.
In the 1940s, Isaac Gilman's son Charles Gilman built an additional mill in St. Mary's, Georgia. The company was capable of producing 2.6 million pounds of paper per day, employed 1,100 workers and 1,500 independent contractors, with headquarters at 111 West 50th Street, New York. Gilman Paper Company grew to become the largest privately held paper company in the United States. In addition to the pulp mill in St. Marys, Georgia, Gilman Paper Company acquired extensive timberland in Florida and Georgia, including 7,400 acres in Nassau County, Florida that would become White Oak Conservation. A short-line railroad was built to haul trees, pulp, and paper. In 1969, Gilman Paper Company's Vermont mill was sold to Georgia-Pacific Corporation.
At the death of Charles Gilman in 1967, the company was run by his two sons, Charles (Chris) Gilman, Jr. and Howard Gilman. The article, The Fall of The House of Gilman, published in Forbes Magazine in 2003, described Gilman Paper Company's management under Charles and Howard Gilman:Their relationship became strained, riven by jealousy and bitterness over control of the company, according to friends and family. In 1979 their mother, Sylvia, sided with Chris, disinheriting Howard and leaving Chris with control of the business.With the assistance of attorney Bernard D. Bergreen, Howard Gilman was able to reinstate his stake in Gilman Paper Company. At the death of Charles Gilman, Jr., in January 1982, Howard Gilman bought the balance of the company from Charles's estate. Howard Gilman later died of a heart attack at his White Oak Conservation in Yulee, Florida, in 1998. At the time of his death, the Gilman family fortune was estimated to be $1.1 billion in assets, with $550 million in debts.
The paper mill was subsequently sold to Durango Products of Mexico. In 2002, Durango entered into bankruptcy, and the paper mill was shut down in September, 2002.
Environmental and legal record
St. Marys, Georgia
Gilman Paper Company began operation of a mill in St. Marys, Georgia, in 1941. By the 1970s, the location produced 900 tons of paper a day. Of the 4,000 residents of St. Marys, Gilman Paper Company employed between 1,500 and 2,000 individuals. At its peak, the mill's manager, George W. Brumley, reported:Gilman Paper Company is the only major Georgia industry south of Brunswick and east of Waycross. It can safely be stated that not less than 75 percent of the economy of Camden County is directly dependent on Gilman Paper Company.Of those employed by Gilman Paper Company was Georgia State Representative Robert W. Harrison, who served as the attorney for the St. Marys mill; the attorney for the surrounding cities of St. Marys, Kingsland, and Folkston; the attorney for the local school board and the hospital authority; and the attorney for Camden and Charlton Counties. Disputes that arose over Gilman Paper Company's obligation to pay city and county taxes were resolved by Robert Harrison, who spoke on behalf of Gilman Paper Company, the city, and the county.
Gilman Paper Company's 1958 tax arrangement with the city of St. Marys guaranteed that the valuation placed on its assets for property tax purposes remained frozen at its 1958 level. The agreement also exempted Gilman Paper Company from paying city tax on any new land purchases. The mill's value was listed on the St. Marys 1970 tax digest as $3 million, in contrast to the Camden County digest, which required approval by the state of Georgia, and placed the value at $15.4 million.