As you drive down town you will no doubt notice the demolishing going on, the major job is the domo of Sorg Paper.

One of Paul J. Sorg's diverse enterprises in Middletown was paper manufacturing. One of the assets of the Sorg Paper Co. at 901 Manchester Avenue traced its founding to the Erwin brothers paper mill, which opened in 1852. "In 1852, John Erwin and brothers built the Middletown Paper Mill, which fronted 160 feet on the hydraulic race [and] extended back 70 feet," wrote George Crout in a paper entitled Middletown: The Paper City.

Based on that origin, the mill was regarded as Middletown's oldest industry until it closed in May 15, 2000. The Sorg mill was described as a "specialty paper maker" -- paper for use as tissue or decorative purposes -- when it was closed by its parent company, Wausau-Mosinee Paper Co., based in Mosinee, Wis. Wausau-Mosinee had purchased the Sorg plant in 1983.

Paul John Sorg died in Middletown, Ohio, where he was interred in Woodside Cemetery

Photo By; Randy Lewis

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Sorg Demo 3