C.H. Dexter Company Records

The collection contains materials relevant to the production and sale of paper products, including administrative, property, financial, and legal records, in addition to product samples, advertising, publications, reports and photographs. This collection also includes a small number of administrative and financial documents from water and electric companies in the Windsor Locks, Connecticut, area in which Dexter had interests.

The administrative files (1871-1999) contain documents from the company when it was a family business (prior to 1967), and from the Dexter Corporation, including documents concerning the name changes of the company. Those earlier documents include correspondence with other Connecticut paper businesses, a small number of employee records and information on the personal affairs of H. R. Dexter. The documents from Dexter Corporation are primarily annual reports. One item of interest is the "War Bonds Drive Manual" (c.1952), a complete guide (including instructions, sample letters and fliers, posters and incentives) to encourage employees to sign up for a payroll deduction for bonds to support the Korean War.

The Land Records (c.1829-1988) include property deeds and records of sales and purchases, as well as records of land transactions with the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company. There are also records from several Connecticut River improvement projects in which Dexter had clear interests, as the company depended on the river for production.

While containing some documents from anti-trust court cases from the first half of the twentieth century, the Legal Documents (1862-1997) has a full record of the company's trademarks and patents, both foreign and domestic. The company's original organization of these files has been preserved, with the initial trademark registrations being arranged by date, and the subsequent registration renewals for foreign trademarks being arranged by country.

The company's financial records (1854-1981) include sales and inventory records, receipts, and cash ledgers, as well as a complete record of audits from 1925 to 1976. Stock ledgers, tax documents and records of the company's interactions with its financial institution, the Phoenix State Bank & Trust, are included as well.

The company produced handbooks and manuals, employee newsletters, company histories and later, various brochures and pamphlets for the divisions of the corporation which are organized in Publications (1914-1993). These publications are divided into those commissioned by the company and those written about the company.

There are early twentieth-century advertisements from the company's original paper products as well as print ads from the latter part of the century in the Advertising and Product Samples Series (1956-1988). Samples of their products include manifold tissues, toilet tissues, Sta-brite silverware tissue, paper covers, and tea bags. There are many volumes of the company's periodically published "house organ," the XTRA, a literary advertising booklet. Several binders, containing samples of tissue colors and qualities, show the range of products the company made available at the turn of the twentieth century.

Memorabilia (1950-1998) include photographs, portrait sketches, framed photographs, photographs of corporate headquarters, Dexter physical plants, long-range planning meetings, and the visit to Chirnside, Scotland, by Princess Anne in 1972. There are also three films documenting Dexter's opening of a plant in Scotland and the visit of the princess to Chirnside, along with some company longevity tokens.

C.H. Dexter Company collected some of the records of several affiliated businesses in the Windsor Locks from 1848-1936. The following companies with whom C.H. Dexter & Sons had administrative connections and stock holdings are represented in the collection: Connecticut River Company, Northern Connecticut Securities Company, Northern Connecticut Power Company, Northern Connecticut Light and Power Company, Stafford Springs Aqueduct Company, Coffin Realty Company, and the Grove Cemetery. Dexter held stock in some of the companies, and in others it was directly involved in administrative capacities (see the Coffin Realty Company and the Connecticut River Company records). One of the affiliated businesses, the Grove Cemetery, was established by the grandson of Seth Dexter [the founder of C. H. Dexter] as the family burial grounds in Windsor Locks.

Some of the companies whose records are located here merged in 1926 to form the Northern Connecticut Power Company: The Northern Connecticut Power Co., Connecticut River Co., Northern Connecticut Light and Power Co., Thompsonville Water Co., Somers Electric Co., and Stafford Springs Aqueduct Co. were consolidated into one company. This consolidated company operated until 1936, when it again split into separate business entities. The interest of Dexter in these dynamics, in addition to its stock holdings, was especially strong, given the relationship of its production to the water and electric companies.