Charles Fenerty - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

Little attention was given and even Fenerty himself never pursued the idea and he never took out a patent on his process. But it did mark the beginning to a new industry, although today most people attribute F. G. Keller as the original inventor.

Fenerty travelled to Australia then returned again to Halifax in 1865. He held several positions: Wood Measurer, Census Taker, Health Warden, Tax Collector for his community, and Overseer of the Poor. He was also very involved with the Church. Fenerty died on June 10, 1892 in his home in Upper Sackville, Nova Scotia, from a flu.

Fenerty was also a well-known poet of his time, publishing more than 35 (known) poems. Some popular titles were: "Betula Nigra" (about a Black Birch tree), "Essay on Progress" (published in 1866), and "The Prince's Lodge" (about Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, written around 1838 and published in 1888). In October 1854, he won first prize for "Betula Nigra" at the Nova Scotia Industrial Exhibition.

Pulped wood paper slowly began to be adopted by paper mills throughout Canada, the U.S., and Europe. Then to the rest of the world. Charles would live to see the very first wood pulp paper mill erected near his home town (where some claim he worked part-time in his latter years). German newspapers were the first to adopt the process, then other newspaper made the painful switch from rags to wood pulp. By the end of the 19th-century almost all newspapers in the western world were using pulp wood newsprint.