Bradner Smith & Company

Last updated October 16, 2019

Bradner Smith & Company was a US paper manufacturer and dealer. It was established in Chicago, Illinois in 1853. In 2013, it was announced that Central National-Gottesman had acquired the assets and business of Bradner Central Company which operated Brander Smith.^[1]

Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,705,994 (2018), it is also the most populous city in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the US, with portions of the northwest city limits extending into DuPage County near O'Hare Airport. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland. At nearly 10 million people, the metropolitan area is the third most populous in the nation.

Illinois is a state in the Midwestern and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It has the fifth largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth largest population, and the 25th largest land area of all U.S. states. Illinois has been noted as a microcosm of the entire United States. With Chicago in northeastern Illinois, small industrial cities and immense agricultural productivity in the north and center of the state, and natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base, and is a major transportation hub. Chicagoland, Chicago's metropolitan area, encompasses over 65% of the state's population. The Port of Chicago connects the state to international ports via two main routes: from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois Waterway to the Illinois River. The Mississippi River, the Ohio River, and the Wabash River form parts of the boundaries of Illinois. For decades, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has been ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and, through the 1980s, in politics.

Central National-Gottesman Inc. (CNG) is one of the world's largest distributors of pulp, paper, packaging, tissue, newsprint and plywood. The company employs over 3.000 in more than 150 locations in 48 cities across North America and in 26 countries around the world, including 43 warehouses and 53 retail stores. CNG has been family owned since it was founded in 1886, spanning 5 generations of family leadership and ownership.

History

The firm of Bradner Smith & Co., manufacturers and dealers in paper, was established in 1853 at No. 12 LaSalle Street in a 20 by 60 feet (6.1 m × 18.3 m) store. It became one of the largest paper firms in the world, doing a business of US$2,000,000 a year. The firm had three establishments in the city of Chicago, branch houses at Kansas City, Missouri, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Saint Paul, Minnesota. It operated six paper mills, manufacturing and selling every sort and size of news, book, wrapping, writing, blotting, and other papers, card board, envelopes, twines, wood pulp, and paper manufacturers' supplies.^[2]

LaSalle Street is a major north-south street in Chicago named for Robert de La Salle, an early explorer of Illinois. The portion that runs through the Chicago Loop is considered to be Chicago's financial district.

Kansas City abbreviated as “KCMO”, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri bordering Johnson County and KCK in Kansas. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city had an estimated population of 491,918 in 2018, making it the 38th most-populous city in the United States. It is the most populated municipality of the Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the Kansas–Missouri state line. Kansas City was founded in the 1830s as a Missouri River port at its confluence with the Kansas River coming in from the west. On June 1, 1850, the town of Kansas was incorporated; shortly after came the establishment of the Kansas Territory. Confusion between the two ensued and the name Kansas City was assigned to distinguish them soon after.

Minneapolis is the county seat of Hennepin County and the larger of the Twin Cities, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States. As of 2018, Minneapolis is the largest city in the state of Minnesota and 46th-largest in the United States, with an estimated population of 425,403. The Twin Cities metropolitan area consists of Minneapolis, its neighbor Saint Paul, and suburbs which altogether contain about 3.63 million people, and is the third-largest economic center in the Midwest.

There was very little paper manufactured in the West when Bradner Smith & Co. commenced business, and most of their stock was brought from East Coast mills. The company was able to make their own stock, and to supply hundreds of other houses with their manufactures, shipping paper by the trainload from their several mills. Bradner Smith & Co. commenced manufacturing in 1854 at Rockton, Illinois. Its purchased a Winnebago mill, which manufactured ten tons per day of express, manilla, rag, and straw wrapping paper. Their other manufactories were the Ledyard Pulp Mill, at Ledyard, Wisconsin, which made four tons of dry pulp per day; the Rozet Mill, at Three Rivers, which produced four tons per day of print and book paper; the Tippecanoe Paper Mill, at Monticello, Indiana. which made two tons of print paper daily, the Marinette Mill, at the place of the same name in Wisconsin, manufactured five tons of print paper, and the mill at Menominee, Michigan, which produced four tons of manilla paper and six tons of wood pulp daily.^[2]

Rockton is a village in Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. It is located in the Rock River Valley and is part of the Rockford, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,685 at the 2010 census, up from 5,296 at the 2000 census.

Winnebago County, Illinois U.S. county in Illinois

Winnebago County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 295,266, making it the seventh most populous county in Illinois behind Cook County and its five surrounding collar counties. Its county seat is Rockford.

Monticello is a city in Union Township, White County, Indiana, United States. The population was 5,378 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of White County.

Products

Besides their own manufactories, Bradner Smith & Co. carried wedding and other stationery, imported and domestic, the Hurlbut plate paper, Crane's pure linen flats, the Germanic flat and ledger papers, and all other classes of goods used by stationers, printers, book-binders, and publication houses. Regular sizes and standard weights were stocked, but special sizes and weights could be made to order and furnished at mill prices. A stock of colored papers was on hand, and specialized papers for special purposes would be made to order in quantities to suit. They were also manufacturers of map paper, and furnished any weight or size requested. In cover papers, Bradner Smith & Co. had the largest and best-assorteded stock in the US.^[2]

The firm was the sole agent for the sale of Weston's pure linen ledger and record papers, which were awarded the gold medal at the Paris Exposition and the highest award at the Centennial Exposition for a combination of all the desirable qualities. They were also sole agents for the celebrated "commercial safety paper," for checks, notes, bills of exchange, bonds, letters of credit, and so on, which had been officially endorsed and recommended by the clearing-house authorities of the principal cities in the US.^[2]

The Exposition Universelle of 1889 was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 6 May to 31 October 1889.

The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. Officially named the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine, it was held in Fairmount Park along the Schuylkill River on fairgrounds designed by Herman J. Schwarzmann. Nearly 10 million visitors attended the exhibition and thirty-seven countries participated in it.

Bradner Smith & Co. used the finest inks, which were known for their brilliancy of color and durability. They also carried a full line of all colors, sizes, and styles of envelopes, and made odd sizes to order. All kinds of fancy stationery and stationers' sundries were kept in stock, and also a full line of illustrated advertising cards, manufactured by Marques, Gair & Bailey, of Paris, London, and New York City.^[2]

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts. The City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an estimated official 2019 population of 12,213,364, or about 18 percent of the population of France. The Paris Region had a GDP of €709 billion in 2017. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore, and ahead of Zürich, Hong Kong, Oslo and Geneva. Another source ranked Paris as most expensive, on a par with Singapore and Hong Kong, in 2018.

London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile (80 km) estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans. The City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles (2.9 km²) and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow closely its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.

The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2018 population of 8,398,748 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km²), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 19,979,477 people in its 2018 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 22,679,948 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

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References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Inter Ocean Publishing Company's Chicago's First Half Century, 1833-1883: The City as it was Fifty Years Ago, and as it is Today : the Trade, Commerce, Manufactories, Railroads, Banks, Wholesale and Retail Houses, Theaters, Hotels, Churches, and School (1883)

↑ "Central National-Gottesman To Acquire Bradner Central's U.S. Distribution Business". PR Newswire. 4 November 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
1 2 3 4 5 Inter Ocean Publishing Company 1883, p. 43.

Bibliography

Inter Ocean Publishing Company (1883). Chicago's First Half Century, 1833-1883: The City as it was Fifty Years Ago, and as it is Today : the Trade, Commerce, Manufactories, Railroads, Banks, Wholesale and Retail Houses, Theaters, Hotels, Churches, and School (Public domain ed.). Chicago: Inter Ocean Publishing Company.

External links

Official website

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[prnewswire.com2013-1] "Central National-Gottesman To Acquire Bradner Central's U.S. Distribution Business". PR Newswire. 4 November 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2016.

[FOOTNOTEInter_Ocean_Publishing_Company188343-2] 1 2 3 4 5 Inter Ocean Publishing Company 1883, p. 43.