, OH
The Champion Coated Paper Company began production April 15, 1894, with less than a dozen employees under the direction of Peter Gibson Thomson (December 16, 1851-July 10, 1931). A Cincinnati businessman, bookseller, and publisher, Thomson recognized that recent changes in half-tone printing would increase the demand for coated paper. In 1893, he acquired the patent rights to a card coating machine, incorporated his new company, and set-aside 45 acres along Seven Mile Pike (now North B Street) to build a plant that would coat paper produced by other mills in the Great Miami Valley. The Champion Hamilton Mill shipped its first coated paper order on May 4, 1894. Within a few years, Thomson had dramatically increased plant capacity and, by 1900, Champion was regarded as the largest coated paper mill in the country.