THE e he changed into an a: Garret. And a c came before the k, but his ancestors had already done that. They came from Amersfoort to America.
Gerrit wanted to build the world’s largest paper mill. He did so in Maine because by far the most trees grow there. He picked the right moment, late 19th century, when the US population doubled, everybody started reading newspapers, and American butts were no longer wiped with moss, grass or corn cobs, but with newsprint.
Gerrit Schenck built the Great Northern Paper Company, near a river. And around it he built two towns, for his workers. With stores, a theater and schools.
Millinocket and East Millinocket still exist. The factory, for many years indeed the world’s largest, sits idle, “rusting in peace,” says the neighborhood. In that neighborhood: a proud Schenck high school. Has been there since 1927, since a few months before Gerrit died.
His death was front-page news in the New York Times, printed on paper made by the Great Northern Paper Company.
