The individual who begins life as a poor newsboy, and in the full
flush of his manhood is found to be the head of an industry created
by himself in which untold millions are invested, and which is of
supreme importance to the community, serves his generation in more ways
than one. If he has done nothing else he has acted as an exemplar for
the faint-hearted, as a beacon for the persevering, and as a type of
American manhood, and all that lies before it. Such an individual is
Hugh Chisholm, who has brought into existence a corporation which is
making paper for nearly all the newspapers of the United States. When
it is said that one New York newspaper buys six thousand dollars worth
of paper every day, some idea may be gained of the vast proportions of
the industry. Mr. Chisholm was born at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada,
May 2, 1847, and began life as a train newsboy on the Grand Trunk
railroad, studying meanwhile in evening classes of business colleges
in Toronto. When the Civil war broke out, the lad, who is of Scotch
descent, with the shrewdness of his race, realized the possibilities
of the situation and pushed his wares to the utmost, sometimes holding
them at a premium. He at length was able to hire some other boys to
sell newspapers for him. He next obtained from the railroad company the
exclusive right to sell newspapers on the division east of Toronto. He
extended his “combinations,” and when he was twenty-five years of age
had the exclusive news routes over four thousand miles of railroad, and
had two hundred and fifty men on his payroll. Selling out his interests
to his brothers, who had similar interests in New England, he purchased
the latter and located in Portland, Maine, where he added publishing to
his business. Foreseeing a growth of the newspaper trade, and realizing
that there would be a huge consequent demand for white paper, he
organized the Somerset Fiber Company, the manufacturing of wood pulp
at Fairfield. Later he established a number of pulp mills in Maine.
Next he devised a plan of business consolidations and a few years ago
the Chisholm properties and a score of other mills in New England, New
York and Canada were merged into one company. The output of the mills
is more than 1,500 tons per day and is increasing rapidly. In 1872 he
married Henrietta Mason, of Portland.