Editing Brewer, Maine (section)

==Historic industries==

Brewer was as famous for [[brick-making]] in the 19th century as Bangor was for lumber. By the 1850s, there were 12–15 brickyards in Brewer making 12 million bricks annually. Most of these were shipped to Boston and vicinity.<ref>{{cite book|title=Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics for the State of Maine, 1897|year=1897|publisher=Kennebec Journal Print|location=Augusta, Maine|page=52}}</ref> It is said that most of the [[Back Bay]] and [[South End, Boston|South End]] neighborhoods of Boston are built of Brewer brick. Frank O. Farrington of Brewer patented a machine for edging and turning bricks in 1859.<ref>''Scientific American'', February 12, 1859, p. 182</ref>

[[Ship-building]] was also a major Brewer industry, as was [[saw mill|saw-milling]]. Brewer's sawmills tended to be [[steam-powered]], unlike those farther up the [[Penobscot River]], which were powered by [[waterfalls]]. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the city also had a significant [[ice trade|ice industry]], which survives today in the form of the [[Getchell Brothers]] company.
[[File:Recto Agricultural Bank 5 dollars 1849 urn-3 HBS.Baker.AC 1124337.jpeg|alt=5 dollar banknote inscribed "Five Dollars; Agricultural Bank; Brewer; Maine"|thumb|5 dollar banknote from Agricultural bank in Brewer]]

The [[Eastern Manufacturing]] Company opened a pulp and paper mill in South Brewer in 1889<ref>{{cite book|title=Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics for the State of Maine, 1910|year=1910|publisher=Kennebec Journal Print|location=Augusta, Maine|page=[https://archive.org/details/annualreportbur04maingoog/page/n86 37]|url=https://archive.org/details/annualreportbur04maingoog|quote=eastern manufacturing brewer 1889.}}</ref> that became the city's largest employer. The mill closed in 2004, and the site has now been re-developed by the [[Cianbro]] Corporation.<ref>{{cite news|title=A history of Eastern Fine Paper, South Brewer (timeline)|url=http://archive.bangordailynews.com/2006/10/07/a-history-of-eastern-fine-paper-south-brewer-timeline/|newspaper=Bangor Daily News|date=Oct 7, 2006}}</ref> The Eastern began as a sawmill owned by Fred W. Ayer, who in the late 1880s began experimenting with paper-making (using the newly developed [[sulfite]] process) in order to utilize his left-over slab lumber. In 1899, Ayer patented a new method of sulfite digestion which subsequently became the basis for operations at the Eastern, as well as the Great Northern mill in [[Millinocket, Maine]], thus circumventing an important patent owned by the competing [[International Paper]] Corporation. "The Eastern", as the mill was known locally, began specializing in fine grades of paper around 1905 (such as their trademark "Atlantic Bond"), and the company was eventually renamed Eastern Fine Paper, Inc..