- PETER R. THOM is general superintendent of the Kimberly- Clark Company, with headquarters at Neenah, Wisconsin. This important organization of combined capital and business talent controls the output of eight mills, owns and leases valuable water power and gives lucrative employment to 1,500 people. The officers and directors of this vast combination of interests are as follows: J. A. Kimberly, president; F. J. Sensenbrenner, first vice-president; J. C. Kimberly, second vice-president; S. F. Shattuck, treasurer; C. B. Clark, secretary, and Peter R. Thom, general superintendent. Of the original board of directors, C. B. Clark died in September, 1891; F. C. Shaddock died in 1900, and Alvina Babcock died in 1902. The Kimberly-Clark Company was established in 1872 by J. A. Kimberly, C. B. Clark, F. C. Shaddock and Alvina Babcock, at Neenah, Wisconsin, under the style of the Globe Mills, the business being the manufacture of paper and the output of their plant being three tons per day. In 1875 they expanded to a small degree, purchasing the Smith & Van Alsten Mill at Neenah and thereby increasing their production of paper to five and one-half tons per day, this plant now being known as the Neenah Paper Mill. The business prospered, and in 1877 the company purchased from Wharton Brothers, Appleton, their sawmill and on this site they erected the Atlas Paper Mill, which then had a capacity of ten tons of paper a day, and at the present writing its output is thirty tons a day. In 1881 they still further increased their interests, building the Vulcan Mills at Appleton, which were subsequently dismantled. In 1880 the company also bought the Conkey Flouring Mills and continued to operate them as such for two years, when they made additions and changes which made them suitable as paper mills and began paper manufacturing in the remodeled structures in 1883. In 1885 they dismantled the flouring mill at Neenah, owned by J. A. Kimberly, and at first its capacity was five tons of paper a day, which has been increased to eleven tons. In 1886-87 the company tore down the Neenah Mill and on the site erected new buildings and put in equipments for two paper machines with capacity of ten tons a day. The master business men at the head of this great enterprise saw opportunity for still further enlargement in 1887, when they bought not only the iron works of Edward West, at Appleton, but all the interests of his, with the water power, in the West Canal. On July 5, 1887, they started to build the Telulah Mills, which were completed and occupied by March 19, 1888, the capacity of these mills being fourteen tons per day. With remarkable sagacity, all of these purchases had been made, and in 1888 the company purchased the Kimberly water power, all the water power of the Fox River at this point. They built ground wood, sulphide and wrapping mills. In 1890 they built the two-machine mill at Kimberly, and in 1891 added one more machine, making the output capacity forty tons per day. In 1900 the paper mill was burned, but was rebuilt and business was resumed in July, 1905. Prior to this other purchases had been consummated by the company, all showing the foresight and good judgment of alert and astute men of business. In 1889 they purchased the water power at De Pere, Wisconsin, and organized the Shaddock & Babcock Paper Company, built mills and put them into operation in April, 1891, the output being fifteen tons of writing paper per day. This plant was operated by that company until 189-9, when it was sold to the American Writing Paper Company. In 1897-8 the company bought the mills of the Badger Paper Company at Quinnessec Falls, Wisconsin, and rebuilt the mills, taking out one machine and adding two more improved ones, also building sulphide mills, and the capacity of this plant is eighty tons of ground wood, sixty tons of sulphide and seventy-five tons of news print. They are also building a ground wood mill. The combined output of the mills of this company aggregates 450 tons of writing paper per day, together with wrapping, book and news paper. The Neenah Paper Company also manufactures writing paper, but does not belong to the Kimberly-Clark system, although all the members of the latter are interested in the former.
For twenty-eight years, Peter R. Thom has been with the Kimberly- Clark Company and is now general superintendent of their mills. He has had a large amount of experience in Massachusetts, Indiana, Connecticut and New York, in 1883 coming to Appleton and soon after identifying himself with the present company. He was married in 1882 to Miss Christina Watt, at Norwich, Connecticut, and they have five children. In politics he is a Republican, and he has been an active and useful citizen of Appleton, which city he served as mayor in 1895, 1896 and 1897. He is president and on the directing board of the Appleton Chair Company, the vice-president of the Riverside Fibre Paper Company, the Kimberly-Clark Company and the First National Bank. Fraternally, he is an Odd Fellow, a Pythian, a thirty-second degree Mason and a Shriner. He belongs to the Congregational.Church Society.
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1849 - 1920 (70 years)
Immigration
