As we have already seen, the early paper-mills were greatly hampered by the scarcity of rags, and matters grew worse instead of better during the last fifteen years of the century. But the year 1800 brought some relief. Matthew Kooper, of France, who in the following year succeeded in making paper from straw and wood, invented a process by which 700 reams of clean, white paper were turned out weekly from such old written, printed, and waste paper as had previously been thrown away. In the face of a rag famine, such a process was a great boon to the paper manufacturer. The following appeal, issued by Zenas Crane and his associates to the people of Worcester in 1801, shows how great was the scarcity of rags at that time, and helps to complete the history leading up to the erection of the new mill at Dalton: ♦A rag famine♦ AMERICANS! ENCOURAGE YOUR OWN MANUFACTORIES, AND THEY WILL IMPROVE. LADIES, SAVE YOUR RAGS. As the subscribers have it in contemplation to erect a paper-mill in Dalton the ensuing spring; and the business being very beneficial to the community at large, they flatter themselves that they shall meet with due encouragement. And that every woman who has the good of her country and the interest of her own family at heart, will patronize them by saving their rags and sending them to their Manufactory, or to the nearest Storekeeper--for which the Subscribers will give a generous price. HENRY WISWALL, ZENAS CRANE, JOHN WILLARD. Worcester, Feb. 8, 1801. ♦The Butler mills of early days♦ A few years later, but yet early in the life of the nineteenth century, Zebediah Butler, Sr., and his son, Zebediah Butler, Jr., were interested in a paper-mill at Hubbell’s Falls, Vt., and it was here that Oliver Morris Butler, elder brother of J. W. Butler, learned his trade--here, too, J. W. Butler was born. The paper made was of the kind now known as Straw Wrapping. Later this mill became the property of James I. Cutler, and Oliver Morris Butler went south to Lee, Massachusetts, to perfect his knowledge of the paper industry, there having been erected at Lee a large and modern plant representative of the latest and best ideas then known to the art of paper-making. In 1840 Oliver Morris Butler returned to Hubbell’s Falls, and, being unable to collect certain obligations due him, took paper in part payment--this particular invoice of finished paper he brought west to Chicago. The venture, while not profitable, is yet of much interest, as it practically marks the beginning of the present J. W. Butler Paper Company. ♦The Butler mills the first in the West♦