Thilmany Pulp and Paper Company: Surviving History’s Economic Hardships

Abstract

This paper examines the major economic hardships faced by Thilmany Pulp and Paper Company, of Wisconsin’s oldest remaining and substantially successful paper mills. During the early decades of the twentieth century, the Thilmany faced a number of challenges, such as the labor disputes and industrial strikes of the early 1910s and the 1920s, the Great Depression of the 1930s and the second Great War of the 1940s. This paper traces some of these challenges through the history of Thilmany Pulp and Paper Company located in the town of Kaukauna. It also explores the multiple casual factors that contributed to the mills survival.