The history of the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company begins in Scotland in the town of Bridge of Allan where John Luke was born in 1797. He would have started his apprenticeship at Airthrey in 1809. In 1823, he married Isabella Guthrie in Dunblane, Perth on the 13th of December. Their first child, Jean a girl, was born nine months later on October 14, 1824. He bought his card of freedom from the Original Society of Papermakers in 1826, after he had been thrown out of work. On December 10, 1826, their first son, John was born. In 1827 he took over the tenancy of the lint mill at Crook of Devon and installed a papermaking vat. He was joined in this venture by his father, another John Luke, who was papermaker at Waukmill of Tulliebole in 1829, a year before his father's death. On May 29, 1829, a second son William was born and his birth was registered in the town of Fossoway and Tulliebole, Kinross. John and Isabella had a third son, James who was born on October 20, 1831. In 1832 the Crock of Devon mill is described as having one vat and making ‘tea' and ‘grey' both wrapping papers. Other children of John and Isabella were Christian, a girl, born April 3, 1831; George a boy, born June 30, 1839; and Isabella Guthrie a girl, born July 5, 1848. John Luke died in 1881. His third son James took over the Crook of Devon Mill until it was taken over by Robert Livingston in 1904. The mill was closed about 1911.
John Luke, eldest son of the above John, was manager to Robert Weir at Carrongrove Paper Mill from 1858. He leased the old bleach mill at Headswood near Denny in 1869 and converted it into a papermill, Denny Paper Works. His sons founded Anchor Paper Works and Vale Paper Works, all in Denny. The three mills eventually coming together to make the Vale Paper.
As can be seen, the Luke family had a long and successful history in papermaking in Scotland.
The second son of John Luke, William, was to find his success and future in the United States. He started his apprenticeship in 1841 working for his father and by the time of his 21st birthday was an experienced papermaker. In 1852 at the age of 23, he emigrated to the United States. William worked as a special consultant for many small paper companies for the first ten years. He was living in Massachusetts in 1857 and Connecticut in 1859. In 1862, William Luke took a long lived position with the Jessup and Moore Company of Wilmington, Delaware as manager of their Rockland mill. A record of William Luke's tenure at the Rockland mill is documented in the following excerpt from a history of the Pusey and Jones Company.
While working at the Rockland Paper Mill, there was a fire in 1867 and some of the machinery was destroyed. According to The Pusey & Jones Company booklet, the manager at Rockland Paper Mills, Mr. William Luke, approached The Pusey & Jones Company in the spring of 1867, stating - "I am William Luke of the Rockland Paper Mills. As you may have heard, my mill burned to the ground. I need your help." The Rockland mill was to purchase two Pusey and Jones paper machines, their first two. This was the start of a long relationship between Pusey and Jones and the Luke family.
William Luke held the position of manager at Rockland until he retired in 1895 at the age of sixty six. He continued to reside in Wilmington and the future West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company was later to be incorporated in the state of Delaware. William Luke was one of the most successful of America's early papermakers. In addition to his regular employment and involvement with the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, he also helped organize two other companies at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia - Shenandoah Pulp Company and the Harpers Ferry Pulp Company.
From a personal standpoint, the following are highlights of his life. William Luke married Rosalind Lindsay on August 21, 1856 in Westville, CT. Their first child was a girl, Jean, born in 1856 in Connecticut. A second child, a boy, John Guthrie, was born on April 29, 1857 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Their third child was William A. Luke born in 1859 back in Connecticut. After moving to Wilmington, Delaware the following children were born: Isabel 1864, David Lindsay 1865, James Lindsay 1867, Adam K. 1869 and Thomas 1870.
Their eldest son, John Guthrie Luke, started to work for his father in 1872, at the age of fifteen at Jessup and Moore's Rockland mill in Wilmington. After seven years of experience, he became associated with the Morrison, Bare, and Cass Company paper mill at Tyrone, Pennsylvania. He worked at this mill from 1875 to 1883. Even though the mill was destroyed by fire in 1882, John G. Luke's work helped put the company on a paying basis and he left the business on good terms. Subsequently John G. was superintendent of the Richmond Paper Company in Providence, Rhode Island from 1883 until 1889.
William Luke's second son, William A, also started work with his father at Jessup and Moore in Wilmington. By 1888, he was superintendent of the Jessup and Moore pulp mill in Manayunk, Pennsylvania.
Because of the family's faith in the new chemical "suphite" pulping process, John G. Luke convinced his father to invest in the technical education of the third son, David L. Luke. Subsequently, David Luke was sent to college. Five years later, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering. After graduation, he joined the Jessup and Moore Company at their Rockland mill in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1888, he took a short lived position with his brother John G. at the Richmond mill in Providence to gain experience with the difficult but highly promising sulphite pulping process being attempted there.
Tne of the real trouble spots of the sulphite pulping process was learning to successfully use the lead lined digesters which were being used to cook the wood. A lead lining was needed because of the acidic nature of the pulping chemicals. The Providence mill was in bad financial trouble and later was closed because of their lack of success with the sulphite process but the experience John and David Luke gained working there convinced them that their ideas were sound and with a new mill of their own and with themselves doing the designing and making management decisions, they could make the process work. With their father's advice and financial help, they met at Harpers Ferry early in 1886 and began plans for the new company that would build a mill in the mountains between West Virginia and Maryland along the main rail line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad where there were adequate supplies of water, wood and coal, as well as labor. This company would be primarily owned and managed by the Luke family.
A site was selected in Alleghany County, Maryland, just across the river from Piedmont, West Virginia. The area was known then as West Piedmont and was owned by the Davis brothers. Since David L. and John G. Luke were to manage the mill, they picked the final site and negotiated with the Davis brothers for its purchase. After securing an option, the name Piedmont Pulp and Paper Company was decided upon. A charter and certificate of incorporation was granted on October 18, 1888, in the name of the Piedmont Pulp and Paper Company of Allegheny County, Maryland. The capital stock of the company was authorized at $100,000. The bulk of the stock was subscribed for by William Luke and John F. Quigley. Other stock holders were David L. Luke, John G. Luke, James W. Patten, Daniel W. Strippey, and G. T. Reynolds.
The first stockholders meeting of the Piedmont Pulp and Paper Company was held at Harpers Ferry on October 27, 1888. A board of five directors was elected consisting of William Luke and John F. Quigley, the principal stockholders and James W. Patten, G. T. Reynolds, and Daniel W. Strippey. William Luke was elected President and David L. Luke, secretary. These two men were the original officers of the company that was to become Westvaco. At this first meeting, the purchase of the mill site from the Davis' was authorized and David L. Luke was given authority to plan the layout for the building of the mill. (The site was on Davis Island in the middle of the Potomac River at West Piedmont).
David and John Luke put all of their abilities into planning the mill that was to be the fulfillment of their dreams. A manufacturing operation that could profitably convert wood to pulp by the sulfite method. They had the papermaking background of their father and grandfather, the knowledge of the science of chemistry acquired by David plus the working experience they had gained in the industry. Needing as much capital as they could obtain, they continued to work at the Richmond Paper mill in Providence and to spend nights and extra time that they had off for the planning of their new mill.
John G. and David L. completed their plans for the new mill and in January 1889, David L. Luke left the employment of the Richmond Paper Company to go to Piedmont for the purpose of laying out the new mill. His layout team consisted of himself and four other men, Thomas and Frank Gallagher, John Herbert Heltzen and Gus Stewart. John G. Luke remained at Providence until the mill was well under construction. He resigned his position in May of 1889 and joined his brother at Piedmont to help finish the construction and get the mill into operation. The size of the new mill was very small but the thorough planning was shown by the fact they were able to construct and get a pulp mill in operation in less than seven months from the time they "broke ground".
The first pulp, unbleached "Manila" stock, made from spruce by the sulphite process was produced in July of 1889. Machines were needed to convert the pulp into a form that could be shipped. The first paper machine was ordered from Pusey and Jones in September of 1886 and was ready for the startup of the pulp mill in 1889. The original intent was to produce pulp for use at other locations. The Luke brothers had a hard time and many problems were experienced during the months of late summer and fall of 1889. They hired the lead burner from the Richmond mill at Providence to help them keep the bulky lead digesters running.