William Augustus Russell was born in Wells River on this day in 1831. Russell was educated in Franklin, New Hampshire before going to Exeter. At Exeter, Russell got his first taste of paper manufacturing.

He moved and settled in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and was elected to the U.S. House for three terms. Russell’s legacy, however, is for paper.

His assorted paper mills, including an operation in Bellows Falls, eventually became International Paper. William A. Russell was the company’s first president. Russell died in Boston in 1899, and is buried in the Bellevue Cemetery in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Image courtesy Men of Vermont by Jacob G. Ullery.