EDITOR’S NOTE: Looking Back features past articles from The Tidewater News with commentary by local history buff Clyde Parker. The series commemorates the 50th anniversary of Franklin becoming an independent city.

by Clyde Parker

March 9, 1962

BANK MERGER SET FOR TODAY

Effective Friday, March 9, Vaughan and Company Bankers of Franklin, the Bank of Capron and the Meherrin Valley Bank of Boykins will merge under a new name, Tidewater Bank and Trust Company.

Combined assets total about $17.5 million. The merger was approved recently by stockholders of the three banks.

C.A. Cutchins III of Vaughan will serve as president and cashier. Vice presidents will be H.T. Smith of Meherrin and V.S. Pittman Jr. of Capron. V.K. Daughtrey Jr. of Vaughan will serve as vice president and secretary. Assistant cashiers will be J.C. Bunn Jr. of Meherrin, Bernice S. Gillette of Capron and James E. Barnes of Vaughan.

The following are board members: H.L. Bain, V.S. Pittman Jr. and W.V. Rawlings of Capron; H. G. Barnes and R.P. Watson of Severn, N.C.; H.T. Smith and J. M Britt of Boykins; and C.A. Cutchins III, R.H. Powell Jr., J.M. Camp Jr., Dr. Kurt Hirsch, D.K. Peak, J.E. Ray III, Eldridge Smith and W.M. Camp of Franklin.

 

UB–CAMP PRESIDENT SPEAKS

Last Friday, Alexander Calder Jr. of New York, president of Union Bag-Camp Paper Corp., speaking before the New York Society of Security Analysts, stated that the future for the company is very bright.

He made reference to Union Bag Camp’s paper mill in Savannah, Ga., calling it the company’s major mill operation.

“It is the biggest of its kind in the world,” he said. “Its seven paper machines turn out 2,400 tons of unbleached craft paper a day, ranging from light weight paper grades to heavy duty paper boards.”

End uses are, primarily, brown grocery bags and corrugated box stock.

Calder stated that the company’s second major mill operation is centered in Franklin.

“With four paper machines, it produces 600 tons of white paper and paperboard a day. This production goes toward end uses that include pharmaceutical cartons and food containers from coated and uncoated paperboard stock as well as paper that is converted into various kinds of office papers, stationery and envelopes.”

He added, “The Franklin Mill houses one of the most modern bleach plants in our industry. This enables us to produce paper that up to seven years ago could only be made in northern mills. No one thought, then, that these grades could ever be made in the South.”

Within 100 miles of the Franklin mill are some 300,000 acres of company-owned woodlands. Hundreds of thousand of additional acres are in other parts of Virginia/North Carolina and in other areas of the Southeast. With an eye toward the future, starting in the 1880s, the Camp family, led mostly by Paul D. Camp, began purchasing huge quantities of timberland.

Hugh Camp of Franklin and New York, chairman of the Board of Directors for Union Bag Camp, noted that the company is looking for ways to expand its manufacturing capacity to meet market demand for other paper-based products. In this connection, Dr. William Aiken, who heads research for the company, spoke about Union Bag Camp’s plans to build a 50,000-square-foot research center in Princeton, N. J.

 

DR. RAY RESIGNS

Dr. Burton J. Ray, a member of the Franklin Town/City Council for the past 12 years, has resigned because of illness.

“I feel that many important decisions must be made during the next few months,” he wrote in a letter to the Council. “I resign now so that my replacement can share in these decisions.”

In response, Council wrote “It is with a feeling of sincere regret that the Council of the City of Franklin has received your letter of resignation. You have been a faithful and conscientious public servant. You have given our town, now our city, the benefit of your excellent business judgment and experience. You have also shown a human and sympathetic understanding of the needs of the individual citizens of our community.”

Ray, a chemist, is retired from Union Bag-Camp Paper Corp. He headed the company’s Franklin laboratory facilities and its environmental department. He is married to the former Sally Camp. They have two sons, John E. Ray III and Robert C. Ray.

CLYDE PARKER is a retired human resources manager for the former Franklin Equipment Co. and a member of Southampton Historical Society. He can be reached at 757-647-8212 or ParkerC@seva-redcross.org.