Peter G. Thomson Bio. James Gamble Rogers, Architect Construction Process Champion Paper Company North College Hill

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Peter G. Thomson—Obituary

Cincinnati Enquirer—July 11, 1931

Peter G. Thomson. President of the Champion Coated Paper Company, Hamilton, Ohio, and widely known Ohio Industrialist, died unexpectedly of a heart attack at Christ Hospital last night.

Mr. Thomson, though confined at the hospital for the last seven weeks was thought to have recovered from his illness and was to have returned to his home next Wednesday.

Funeral services are to take place at this home, Laurel Court, Oakwood and Belmont Avenue, College Hill, Monday afternoon at 3 o’clock. Rev. R. Dale LeCount, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, College Hill, will officiate.

Mr. Thomson’s life offered one of the great illustrations of the opportunities America gives to those who have the ability and the will to grasp them. It is the story of a poor boy rising by his own efforts to wealth and distinction. In Mr. Thomson’s career there was no element of lucky chance; he did not unwittingly stumble on a gold mine. Instead, he labored unceasingly.

No man of his employ ever worked as hard or as long as he worked. Behind his capacity for work was a business intelligence of high degree. He planned the work of today for 10 years in the future. When he built it was not only for the immediate present, but for years ahead. As on of his friends put it, “He mowed a wide swatch.”
Peter Gibson Thomson was born in Cincinnati December 16, 1851. His father and mother, Alexander and Mary Ann (Edwards) Thomson, then lived on East Third Street. His father was born in Palsley, Scotland, and his mother in Abergavenny, Wales. Both came to Cincinnati as children. Mrs. Thomson lived to a great age, retaining her full faculties to the last, and is still remembered by the older residents of College Hill, where she lived, as a sprightly member of any company.

Thus it was that Peter G. Thomson came half of Scotch and half of Welsh stock, inheriting the best of both, but by birth and environment he was wholly American. His only schooling was in the Cincinnati public schools--and, although he left school at the age of 14, few men had a better education, for all his life he was an omnivorous reader and a student of literature. His natural tastes in this direction were stimulated by his early employment, for his first position was in the bookstore of Robert Clark Co., which then was on the block where the Sinton Hotel now stands.

In Book Trade.
His first independent venture was in the book trade, as he opened a bookstore of his own at the southeast entrance tot he Arcade on Vine Street. While actively engages in the selling of books he made a private collection of books relating to the history of the Northwest Territory. These books he bound magnificently, sending many of them to London and Paris to celebrated book binders so that they should be bound in the highest style of book binders’ art. This collection was and is the greatest of its kind in America. Fortunately it is available for students, as it is in the permanent keeping of the Historical and Philosophical Society, whose great and interesting collection is now house under the roof of the Van Wormer Library at the University of Cincinnati.
But not only did Mr. Thomson collect rare books-he himself is the author of the most complete book of tits kind yet produced in the United States. In 1880 he published “A Bibliography of the State of Ohio.” This is a quarto of 426 pages, sumptuously printed. It contains a list of all books printed in Ohio, or that relate to Ohio, up to the year 1880, and this work is enriched by critical notes of the highest value uniting sound scholarship with exact bibliographical knowledge. The edition was limited and is now one of the rare and costly items of the book trade. American libraries and book dealers who specialize in Americana find it invaluable. The copy in the Cincinnati Library is consulted constantly as a reference book, and it is regarded as one of the chief treasures of the Cincinnati collection. This bibliography is a monument to studious and intellectual effort – and scholars wonder that a business man could have been such a scholar as to produce it.

At His Expense.
Mr. Thomson never lost his keen interest in the history of early Ohio and recently “The Letters of John Cleves Symmes,” edited by Professor Beverly Bond, were printed at his expense. For years Mr. Thomson had been collecting these letters and others of the period, and his collection of autographic material is extensive. These things were the recreations of a busy life. And not only was Mr. Thomson a student of history and of literature, but he was devoted to art and music. Some years ago he built a noble mansion on College Hill and on his walls hung many pictures of great artistic merit, while within and without the house are a score of bronze and marble statues that are veritable museum pieces. The Italian garden adjoining the house is ornamented with marble statues that would do credit to a European palace. None of these things was merely for display, they were an outward expression of the inner man—a man who loved art for art’s sake and who found in beautiful and artistic things a spiritual satisfaction. Proud as Mr. Thomson was of a magnificent and successful business career, he was much more proud of his “Bibliography” and of his collection of books published in the days when Ohio was in the making.

On Race Street.
The bookstore at the entrance to the Arcade flourished for six years. Then it was sold out and Mr. Thomson took the building on Race Street now occupied by the Robert Mitchell Furniture Company and which had just been vacated by the Russell & Morgan Printing Company and started there color printing, the main output being children’s books and comic valentines. This enterprise was so successful that it threatened the supremacy of McLaughlin Brothers, who were engaged in the same kind of business in Brooklyn, and to end a competitor who was rapidly expanding they bought out Mr. Thomson. This sale gave him the first real capital he had been able to acquire. For a year or two he was engaged in one or two minor things, but was in reality looking for a business opportunity that would, in his opinion, be worth while. That came in the shape of a new process for making coated paper. As a practical printer and book man Mr. Thomson realized that a method of coating paper which was at once effective and cheap would be successful. The market for such paper was almost unlimited. That was in 1892, and that was the beginning of the Champion Coated Paper Company, whose immense plant stretches for half a mile along the banks of the Big Miami in Hamilton. From the beginning the business prospered. IT grew by leaps and bounds—and from a few thousands of dollars of capital it expanded into millions and it is today one of the great industries of Ohio, with the largest plant of its kind in the United States.

In his first year in business his corporation made a small profit, not enough to justify a dividend, and the head of the engine concern was unable to persuade his partners to accept a part of the Champion stock as a portion of their profits. The farsighted manufacturer therefore accepted all of it at face value, $7,500, and in time received over $80,000 in cash and stock dividends.

Organized Fibre Company.
In 1908, Mr. Thomson realized that a source of raw material was necessary and he organized the Champion Fibre Company at Canton, N. C. To furnish this plant with an adequate supply of wood for the manufacturing of pulp, more than 150,000 acres of woodland were acquired, most of this virgin timber, and on this property the pulpwood is being so carefully conserved by scientific methods that when it is cut over and the far end is reached, the part where the first cutting was made will be ready with the second growth with as large a crop as at the beginning. In other words, it is a pulp reserve large enough continually to renew itself. Canton, when the fiber company was started was a little mountain town of 400 people—now it has a population of 6,000 with a Y.M.C.A., churches, schools, a good hotel and an admirable country club. It is an industrial town in which North Carolina takes great pride, but as a matter of fact, it stands a monument to the enterprise and foresight of Peter G. Thomson. But for him Canton would still be a mere hamlet instead of a flourishing little city.

One reason for Mr. Thomson’s success is that he was never satisfied with things as they were, he was never content to accept any part of his great works as having achieved final form—when a thing was done well he immediately set about trying to do it better. The result was that time and time again great and radical changes were made at both the Champion and Canton plants—but these changes had been studied with such care that invariably they meant increased production at a lower cost. It takes courage to scrap a perfectly good department which apparently is doing good work, but Mr. Thomson did this again and again and each time he succeeded literally in making two blades of grass grow where one grew before. He was a great manufacturer. He ranked among the captains of industry who had led this machine age forward and forward to new triumphs. As an employer he was both just and generous. He established a wage scale that gave automatic increases after each five years of service—long before the practice was general he inaugurated a free medical clinic for his men. Free life insurance is given, and a few years ago when the cost of living became a serious item he established extensive commissaries where food and various household supplies were sold at cost. His plants are visited frequently by the representatives of other large industries who come to see how these humanitarian features work out.

Mr. Thomson’s career, however, was not without its serious reverses. In 1913 his Hamilton plant not only was ruinously damaged by the Miami River flood, but also was visited by a fire which wrecked the coating plant. From the double blow, however, he quickly recovered.

In 1884 Mr. Thomson moved from the city to College Hill which since that time has been his place of residence. He was a member and officer of the College Hill Presbyterian Church and was distinguished by his regular attendance and devotion to it—to the church he was a most liberal giver—but he was generous to a fault—no worthy cause knocked at his door in vain—his charities were manifold—and he was not a believer in the doctrine of letting his children wait until his death to share his estate. Years ago he gave to each of them substantial portions.

For many years he went daily to the Cincinnati Gymnasium to take exercise. At the time of his death he was the oldest member of the Gym. He attributed his vigor and the unabated energy of his long life to the Gym. It was his pride to tell that at the age of 23 he lifted a dead weight of 1,260 pounds. Even in his seventies Mr. Thomson could perform athletic feats that many a younger man might envy—his biceps were as hard as iron and he could outwalk most men at half his age. All his life he was a teetotaller and did not smoke—he had no narrow prejudices—he did not object to his friends doing as they pleased, but his good mother had brought him up to neither smoke nor drink and he continued in the way in which he had been taught. He loved his home and he kept open house—he was never so happy as when his friends gathered about him. Of late years, his business organized so that it was not a daily burden, he took many trips to Europe.

Was Bank Director.
He was a Director of the First National Bank of Cincinnati, Vice President of the Cincinnati Gym, and member of the Queen City Club and of the Commercial Club—four years ago he served this latter club as President, on the occasion when it went to Washington and was received by President Coolidge. He was also connected with various business organizations in which he was interested.
Mr. Thomson was a many-sided man, a student of history, a lover of the arts and a great and highly successful manufacturer—yet prosperity in no way changed his kindly, simple nature. As President of the Commercial Club, he insisted that he should be called “Peter” by his fellow members and that all of them should address each other by their first names.

Mr. Thomson lived to see not only his grandchildren, but his great grandchildren. He had three sons and two daughters, Peter G. Jr., Alexander, Logan, Mrs. Mary Bell Thomson Randall, wife of Walter D. Randall, and Mrs. Hope Thomson Robertson, wife of Reuben B. Robertson. Alexander Thomson and Mr. Randall are Vice Presidents of the Champion Coated Paper Company; Logan Thomson is Secretary and Treasurer, and Mr. Robertson is President of the Champion Fibre Company. Herbert Thomson Randall, a grandson, is also with the Champion Coated Paper Company. All of this large family, with the exception of Mr. And Mrs. Robertson, live on College Hill. Mr. Thomson was twice married. His first wife was Laura Gamble, daughter of Mr. James McFarland Gamble, of Louisville. She came of a family noted in Kentucky for distinguished public service in pioneer days, her grandfather being General Benjamin Logan, who was a companion of Daniel Boone in the earliest exploration and settlement of Kentucky. Mrs. Thomson died January 30, 1912. In 1920 Mr. Thomson married Mrs. Kate Prather Wooley, the widow of Mr. Edgar Wooley. She is the mother of Daniel P. Wooley, Vice President of the Fleischmann Company. Mrs. Thomson survives her husband. She is a woman of rare social charm and as mistress of the stately mansion on College Hill she presided with grace and dignity.