Henry Rogers and the Van Nortwicks were a major factor in the development of the Fox Valley as the center of papermaking in the upper midwest. The Van Nortwick family had an established role in papermaking. John M. Van Nortwick (father of William M. and John S. Van Nortwick) had founded the Batavia Paper Company in Illinois. For a time it was the largest producer of paper in the west. The newsprint it produced supplied the Chicago Tribune.

Sons William and John, along with Henry Rogers, recognized the potential of the vast forests of Wisconsin coupled with the power potential of the Fox Valley to found the Ames Wood Pulp Mill (later renamed the Appleton Paper and Pulp Company). Following the initial success of this venture, the partners began an expansion that ultimately provided a papermaking operation in the Fox Valley, second only to Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Early on they recognized the value of the Fox River for providing power to the industry and brought up controlling rights to much of the river. Initially, power to the mills was provided by water wheels directly driving mill equipment, but it because apparent that the rive could not power all the paper operations on the river. The partners then invested in electrifying their operations, which ultimately led to other mills electrifying their operations.

From 1870-1890, a time when the paper industry along the Fox River was founded and flourished, men like the Van Nortwicks and Henry Rogers helped chart the course of the industry. By the end of the period, the combined pulp and paper concerns owned and operated by the Van Nortwicks and Rogers were surpassed only by the holdings of Kimberly-Clark in terms of the number of plants. The Van Nortwicks and Rogers were surpassed by on one in terms of their contributions to the paper industry based upon their ownership of leading paper companies of their day, control of the water power of the Fox, the founding of the village of Combined Locks, Wisconsin and their vision for the future in terms of the use electricity.