Valley Paper Company (1864)
In 1864, David M. Butterfield, previously a finisher at Parsons’ Paper Mill in Holyoke, started the Valley Paper Company and built a new mill on the bend of the Second Level Canal, near the South Hadley Bridge (4 North Bridge Street). A wing extending toward the Connecticut River was built in 1877. The tower once had a Mansard roof.
My grandfather, Russell S. Madden, was the President of Valley Paper Company in the mid 1950’s. As a little girl I often visited him in his large office. He would give me a tour of the mill. I particularly remember one tragic day when a worker fell into one of the large vats filled with hot rags and was killed. My grandparents lived on Wellesley Road in Holyoke in a wonderful old house. Of course, Holyoke was the paper capital of the world at that time. I had access to all kinds of wonderful paper which fostered a lifelong love of drawing and a career in art. My father, an only child, followed in his father’s footsteps in the paper business and I grew up in Darien, CT. The Valley bond paper had the most beautiful watermark, but I can’t remember what it said. I have fond memories of the mill.