Crane & Co. — literally making money for a very long time
The Old Stone Mill Rag Room, built in 1844, and part of Crane & Co.'s museum, in Dalton, Mass. It was where rags were used in making high-quality paper.
Text excerpted and edited from a New England Historical Society article, “Seven Fun Facts About Crane Paper”
Crane & Co. for many years has made money making money in western Massachusetts. U.S. currency is made with Crane paper. So was fine stationery used by U.S. presidents and the crowned heads of Europe.
The enterprise started when Zenas Crane headed west from Boston looking for water in 1801. He found it along the Housatonic River in Berkshire County, and began making paper. He and his partners were the first to make paper west of the Connecticut River.
Zenas started making notes for local, then regional banks, and finally for the U.S. government. By 1842 he had full control of a paper mill in Dalton, Mass. …
Crane & Co. thrived into the early 1900s, then joined the decline of western Massachusetts’s papermaking industry. The company did prosper during the last recession because the Federal Reserve issued a lot of currency. People also used a lot more cash. But people also spent less on luxury items like fine engraved letterpress cotton stationery. Email, too, was taking the place of written correspondence.