The Neenah Paper Co. purchased the Krueger & Lachmann Milling Co. facility in July of 1918. However, according to Paper on 31 July 1918, “The flour milling machinery was not included in the transaction, and delivery of the property will not be completed until the milling concern has worked up its stock on hand, which may take a few months to come.”
A pair of fine books, A History of Neenah, 1958, and Images of America – Neenah, 2014, both claim that the facility suffered a fire in 1911 and never resumed operations. As can be read above and below, those claims are false.
After exhausting their stock and fulfilling the last of their orders, the last flour mill in Neenah (once known as ‘the Flour City’) shut down for good on 1 January 1919. The entire existence of the company was summarized, all too briefly, in American Miller on 1 February 1919: “The Krueger & Lachmann Milling Company of Neenah, Wis., retired from business on January 1. The company was one of the best known flour and feed manufacturers in the Northwest. It was established in 1868 by A. F. H. Krueger and Carl Stridde. In 1878 John R. Davis became a partner in the concern; shortly afterwards Krueger’s son, Fred, and E. J. Lachmann acquired controlling interest in the firm and became active managers of the company. The business was incorporated in 1894 as Krueger & Lachmann Milling Company with E. J. Lachmann in charge. The mill site and other property was purchased by the Neenah Paper Company. Owners expect to build an office building upon the site.”
In late 1925 or early 1926, the Krueger & Lachmann Milling Co. facility (as well as a circa 1887 Kimberly-Clark warehouse) were demolished to make room for an addition to the Neenah Paper Co. mill and their new office building.
A paragraph in The Paper Industry, May 1926, stated: “Construction has started on the new office building of the Neenah Paper Co., of Neenah. It will be a beautiful two-story fireproof building erected on the site of an historic stone flour mill which has been dismantled…”
The December 1926 issue of The Paper Industry continued: “The new office building of the Neenah Paper Company, of Neenah, has been completed, as far as the exterior work is concerned, and work is now being done on the interior. The building is of Stevens Point stone and Colonial in design. The landscape work will be done in the spring. The first floor will be used for main offices and the second floor for additional offices and mill laboratory.”
In January 1927, The Paper Industry announced: “The new office building of the Neenah Paper Co., Neenah, was formally opened on Dec. 1, with a large number of out-of-town guests, prominent in the paper industry, present. A banquet was served in the Valley Inn, a Neenah hotel.”n