600 Thilmany Road

Summary

Eagle Paper and Flouring Mill
600 Thilmany Road, Kaukauna, Outagamie County
Date of construction: 1872 (with additions between 1882-1920)

In 1872, brothers Col. Henry August Frambach and John Stoveken constructed a stone mill on an island between the Fox River and the federal canal in which to operate a flour and paper mill. Known as the Eagle Paper and Flouring Mill, it was the first paper mill in the City of Kaukauna, occupying a prominent location within the Fox River Valley which became the center of paper milling in the Midwest. Frambach and Stoveken initially used straw, cloth rags, and waste paper to manufacture paper, the common methods of the day. They soon began experimenting and became the first mill in Wisconsin to manufacture paper from ground wood pulp, a new technology that radically changed the industry and fueled the economy of the Fox River Valley with the expansion of the paper making and wood pulp industries.

Frambach eventually developed at least 10 patents associated with milling paper and wood pulp. During the early 1880s, the Eagle Paper and Flouring Mill was the largest paper manufacturer in the state. As the company prospered, numerous additions were constructed onto the building through the turn of the century. Eventually, the brothers sold the mill to other paper manufacturers. After housing the Kaukauna Paper Company and Union Bag & Paper Company, the Eagle Paper and Flouring Mill became a part of the neighboring Thilmany Paper complex.

The mill has remained in use by the paper industry almost continuously since the 1870s, thereby escaping deterioration and neglect. It remains the only historic paper mill in Kaukauna today, is one of the Fox Valley’s most impressive historic industrial buildings, and is one of the most architecturally intact historic paper mills in the State of Wisconsin.

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