Father had an older brother, John, and two sisters. I do not recall hearing much about his sisters. Understand John lived most of his life in Belgium, where he was station-master for the Belgian Government Railway System. He had five sons, all of whom were civil engineers, and one daughter, who became a nun. To my knowledge, Father had no relatives in this country.

In his early life Father was trained and worked at the trade of shoemaker. However, he worked at it very little in this country. He followed various lines, including gas manufacturing, from coke; paper industry; saw mill industry, etc.

My Mother was one of seven children, four of whom came to this country. Mother and her brother, Peter, settled in Wisconsin; Nicholas in Alaska, and Frank in the Dakotas. [Note - Anamoose, North Dakota]. John and two sisters remained in Europe. John died very young. Do not recall about the oldest of her two sisters, but the youngest became Mrs. Reisdorff and had two daughters, Mrs. Anna Herber and Mrs. Gretel Fetzer, who settled in Germany, and from whom we heard after the second world war. She also had a son, John, who came to this country, spending some time in Alaska, as well as other places. Nicholas and his wife, Wanda, operated a general store in Ketchican, Alaska, where I worked for a while, as mentioned later. Peter settled in Menomonie, Wisconsin. He had a large family, among them Sister Mary Johnella, O.S.F., La Crosse; Albert, who had two sons priests; and Mrs. Gladys Maxwell, of Indianapolis, Indiana, who raised a large family, also, having been widowed when her children were young. She is a school-teacher. Frank had at least one son and two daughters. The daughters married and finally came to California - Mrs. Emma Hengel, San Lorenzo, and Mrs. Kate Metzger, Hayward.

I attended Sacred Heart School through the sixth grade. Later schooling was home study.

During my early years I herded cows during the summer vacation, and did various odd jobs on Saturdays around the business district of Eau Claire.

I started to work in a furniture factory at the age of twelve, where I remained for about six months, at a wage of $2.50 for a sixty hour week. My earnings were brought home to my Mother to help with the general family needs.

I was thirteen when I started to work in the pulp mill - eleven hours when on day shift; thirteen hours when on night shift. As I recall, I received 75¢ per day. [1895-6]

In about one year I was able to get a transfer from the pulp mill to the paper machine. This work was more to my liking, and I received $1.00 per day for the same number of hours. [1896-7]

Gradually, through close attention to my own job and observation of the requirements of higher jobs, I was able to obtain promotions - first, fourth hand; then third hand, and, finally, back-tender.

After leaving home, the first place I worked was the Brokaw Paper Mills, Brokaw, Wisconsin, in the capacity of back-tender. I lived in the Company's boarding house. The rooms were small with one window, bare wooden floors (no carpet or rug), and were furnished with a single bed, chair and small table. For the use of one of these rooms and our board we paid $5.00 per week. My wages, as back-tender, were $1.75 per day - eleven hours day shift; thirteen night shift.

I left Brokaw to go to Nekoosa, about sixty miles south, on the Wisconsin River, in the autumn of 1900, and went to work for the Nekoosa Paper Company. There, at the age of eighteen, I received a promotion to the important job of paper machine tender.

In the spring of 1901 I left Nekoosa and "beat" my way on freight trains to Erie, Pennsylvania, where I secured work with the Hamilton Paper Company. This mill manufactured only the highest quality bond paper.

Late that year I left for Niagara Falls, N. Y., where I stayed a few months, working in a very old mill - Pettingill Paper Company. [20-22 years old]

My next stop was the Deferiets Mill, in Northern New York, near Watertown and Carthage. This was the most modern mill I had seen or worked in, up to that time, and manufactured Newsprint only. I stayed there for two years, leaving to go to Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, where I remained a little less than one year. [23 years old]

Returned to Eau Claire for a short visit, after which I took a job with the Northwest Paper Company, Cloquet, Minnesota.

Left this company in a few months to go to Malone, New York, where I remained about one year. [24 years old]

Then went to Raymondville, New York, where I remained until the fall of 1908. [26 years old]

Once again, I returned to Eau Claire for a short visit - then on to Ketchican, Alaska. When this move was made, I thought I might be leaving the pulp and paper business forever.

For about six months I worked for my uncle, Nick, in his general store and taking care of his books. I did not like this work.

For another six months I worked in the Sulzer Copper and Gold Mine, in the mountains near Ketchican, about 2500 feet above sea level.

Leaving Ketchican, I went to Vancouver, B.C., where I secured a job as a machine tender in a little, badly managed mill, where I remained only through the winter. [27 years old]

Once again, I returned to Eau Claire for a short visit, after which I went to work for the Minnesota and Ontario Paper Company, a large, modern newsprint manufacturing mill, at International Falls, Minn. [1910]

Early in 1913 I left there to take a position at Pusey & Jones, Wilmington, Delaware. At that time they were the oldest and largest builders of pulp and paper machinery in the world. [30 years old]

Shortly after going with them they sent me to Russia, to a small town located on the Neva River, near what was then known as St. Petersburg. The name of the town was Dubrovka. I supervised the installation of all of the equipment and, for the first six months, was in charge of the operations.

I left to go to Lialia, a small town in the Ural Mountains, where Pusey & Jones were equipping another mill. This town was about one hundred miles north of Ekaterinburg, where Czar Nicholas II, the Czarina and other members of the Royal Family were assassinated.

At both places the work was hard, the hours long, but the experience very valuable.

The First World War broke out while I was in Lialia.

I left there late in 1914 to return to the United States of America by way of St. Petersburg. It was at this time Russia declared war on Turkey. I travelled from Russia through Finland; across the Gulf of Bothnia to Stockholm, Sweden; from Stockholm, by rail, to Christiana, Norway, now known as Oslo; from Christiana over the mountains, through many snow-covered sheds, to Bergen, where I embarked on the SS Bergensfjord for New York. (SS Bergensfjord departed Bergen on Nov. 7, 1914 and arrived in New York on Dec. 14, 1914) [32 years old]

While travelling through the Scandinavian countries I visited several very fine pulp and paper mills.

I arrived in New York just before Christmas in the year 1914, and immediately went to Wilmington, Delaware. [32 years old]

I remained with Pucey & Jones until the Fall of 1917 as Assistant Field Engineer in charge of all of the machinery erection in various new and old mills throughout Canada and the United States. [35 years old]

In November, 1917, I resigned to take a position as Assistant to the President of Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Company. They were building a new paper mill. It was my job to take over and complete the installation and building and place the mill in operation.

I remained with this company until the spring of 1919, when I took a position with the Sutherland Paper Company (also of Kalamazoo, MI). While with this company I organized their parchment paper department and carton department, and designed and built a boxboard manufacturing mill. [36 years old]

On July 1st, 1924, I left Sutherland Paper Company to take over the resident managership of the National Paper Products Company, at Stockton, California. [41 years old] [ed. note. - Nella Marchand died 1924]

Another interesting voyage involving a Puseyjones machine was one made to Russia. In 1913, the Nicolo-Pavda Mining District Company ordered a 134-inch high-speed newsprint machine. Its final location was to be at Lialia, east of the huge Ural mountains.

The distance from Wilmington, Delaware to Lialia, Russia was more than 8,500 miles across the North Atlantic, the North Sea and then into the sprawling country of Russia. Little was known of the transportation facilities except that a single stretch of track had been built from St. Petersburg to the southern tip of Siberia.

Carefully crated, the 134-inch machine made the arduous journey safely. N. M. Brisbois, an erecting engineer, supervised the installation of the 134-inch machine housed in the newly-constructed Lialia plant which had been literally hacked out of a dense forest. When the machine was started, its rate of production for twenty-four hours reached 29 tons, an outstanding record then. A second machine was later ordered by Russia and shipped by Puseyjones.

Eau Claire, WI - cow herding, furniture factory, pulp mill
Brokaw, WI - Brokaw Paper Mill
Nekoosa, WI - Nekoosa Paper Co. - autumn of 1900
Erie, PA - paper mill - spring of 1901
Niagara Falls, NY - paper mill
Watertown / Carthage, NY - Deferiets Mill
Sturgeon Falls, Ontario - paper mill
visit to Eau Claire, WI
Cloquet, MN - Northwest Paper Co.
Malone, NY - paper mill
Raymondville, NY - paper mill
visit to Eau Claire, WI - fall of 1908
Ketchikan, AK - bookkeeper in uncle Nick's store, then to the Sulzer Copper and Gold Mine
Vancouver, British Columbia - paper mill, winter 1909-10
visit to Eau Claire, WI
International Falls, MN - Minnesota and Ontario Paper Co.
Wilmington, Delaware - Pusey & Jones Co. - early in 1913
Dubrovka, Russia (on the Neva River, near St Petersburg) - Pusey & Jones Co.
Lialia, Russia (Ural Mountains, about 100 mi north of Ekaterinburg) - Pusey & Jones Co.
Returned to the US from Lialia via St Petersburg then Stockholm, Sweden to Oslo, Norway on to Bergen, Norway to NY City and finally Wilmington, Delaware.
Kalamazoo, MI - Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Company
Kalamazoo, MI - Sutherland Paper Company
Stockton, California - National Paper Products Company - 1924
San Mateo, CA

For your information:
The Dubrowka paper mill in Russia where N. M. Brisbois supervised the erection of a Pusey & Jones paper machine in 1913, was in fact Norwegian-owned - as was The Pusey & Jones Co. during the years 1916 - 1921.

Sincerely,
Øyvind Haugen,
Sysleveien,
N-3370 Vikersund,
Norway.
[Dec 24, 1998]

Reading the autoboigraphy of your grand-father, I noticed that he - when travelling through Scandinavia on his return from Russia - visited a number of paper- mills. I find it very likely that he visited a mill in Sweden which is today known as Stora Kvarnsveden where six p and j-machines were in operation at that time. I also find it likely that Mr. Brisbois visited the mill where I work - Drammenselvens Papirfabrikker - today known as Union Geithus where one p and j- machine was - and still is - in operation.

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I also happen to know the grand-son of a man who no doubt worked together with your grand-father at the Dubrowka mill in Russia. His name is Kristoffer A. Morch and he lives only a short distance from where I live.

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The owners of the Dubrowka mill has engaged a historian to write the history of the mill. I have given them a lot of information on the matter, and they have promised me a copy of whatever will come out of it. If I find any information on Mr. N. M. Brisbois, I will let you know. Might take som time though.

Best regards,

Øyvind Haugen.
[March 14, 1999]