Trenton Porcelain Co. [book]

PAUL MELLMANN — An official of several industrial companies in Trenton, Paul Mellmann is one of the city's highly rated business men. He is one of those citizens of foreign birth who brought to the New World the ambition, enterprise and courage that carried him through extraordinary experiences in Europe, to find opportunity for the use of his abilities in the United States.

Mr. Mellmann was born at Dortmund, Westphalia, Germany. June 18, 1881, son of August Henry and Caro¬lina Mellmann both natives of Westphalia, where the father was a manufacturer and engaged in other lines of business. The older man died at the age of seventy-six years, and his wife when seventy-one years old. They were the parents of five children, of which the son of this record was the fourth born.

Paul Mellmann was educated in the schools of Dort¬mund, and after completing his studies entered the export trade in Brussels, Belgium. Then for two years he was associated with his father in one of his plants before going to Paris, France, to join an international forward¬ing firm. With the approach of World War I in Europe, Paul Mellmann landed in London, England, just three days before war was declared abroad. He was interned by the British, but escaped, and in December, 1914, man-aged to obtain passage on a ship to America. Arriving in New York City with little funds and the necessity of making a living, he taught French for a time, but eventually found employment with Peter J. Schweitzer, an importer of French-made cigarette paper. In 1922 Mr. Mellmann acquired a controlling interest in the firm of Van Oppen & Company, Inc., custom brokers and specialists in the forwarding of foreign freight, of which he has since been president.

A ti ear later, 1923, Paul Mellmann was made vice-president and a director of the Schweitzer corporation, and likewise a director of the Papeteries de Malauccue, of Lyons, France, importers of French cigarette paper. Later he was to the fore in encouraging the manu¬facture of cigarette paper in the United States, which has become quite an industry. The story of his identification with industrial production in Trenton dates from 1936, when Mr. Mellmann retired from Peter J. Schweitzer, Inc., and joined Herman R. Ring in the operation of the Circle F Mfg. Company, makers of electric wiring devices. In true modern fashion, this company expanded its business from the start, in part by the acquiring of other concerns and the development of new plants. In 1940, the Trenton Porcelain Company, manufacturers of electrical porcelain, was absorbed. In 1941, the Tren¬ton Plastic & Metals Company was organized for the production of plastic parts and material. Mr. Mellmann is secretary, treasurer and a director of each of these three associated companies. To his business connections Mr. MeIlmann gives his first and continuous affiliations which he might well enjoy but for the duties of his posi¬tions. However, he is a member of the Trenton Chamber of Commerce, and of the executive committee of the Industrial Salvage Commission in which he is keenly interested.

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