Hollis C. Dunton Personal and Business Papers

Hollis Cass Dunton was born in Etna, Maine in 1855 and died in North Anson, Maine in 1928. He was the son of Calvin Dunton and Sarah Tribou Dunton. In 1881 he married Annette "Nettie" Kimball, and they had three children: Charles, Ezra, and Mary and lived in Rumford's "Virginia" neighborhood. Hollis was a lumberman and helped form the Dunton Lumber Company. When the building boom started at Rumford Falls the need for sawed lumber became great. Blanchard and Twitchell organized a company that flourished for a few years, while Albert Turgeon organized the Rumford Falls Lumber Company in the "Virginia" section above the Falls. In October 1898 the Dunton Lumber Company purchased the Turgeon Holdings and built an entirely new mill on the bank of the Androscoggin River. The corporation was organized with Waldo Pettingill as president, Hollis C. Dunton as Treasurer and general Manager, George Bisbee as Clerk and Pettingill, Dunton and Edwin Riley as Directors. Dunton was also a partner with Clarence Leslie Potter (1870-1906), a gemstone cutter, in the mica mining business.

The Oxford Mica Mining Company was located in South Waterford, Maine and was possibly organized around 1902. The letterhead of company correspondence lists G.M. Hamlin as President and C.L. Potter as Treasurer. Hollis C. Dunton owned 300 shares of the company in 1902 and was probably the major shareholder.

The Dunton Lumber Company purchased the Rumford Falls Lumber Company in 1898 and built an entirely new mill on the bank of the Androscoggin River. By 1916 the mill was flourishing and productivity greatly increased. After the death of G.M. Hamlin, the President of the Company in 1926, the corporation was liquidated.