In 1893, F.C. Whitehouse of Topsham, who owned paper mills in Topsham and Lisbon Falls, began construction of a third mill on the eastern banks of the Androscoggin River five miles north of Topsham.  But first Whitehouse had to dam Simpson's Rips in the area know as Pejepscot.  The mill was completed in 1896, when Whitehouse gave the new mill, along with existing ones in Lisbon and farther south on the Androscoggin in Topsham, the name Pejepscot Paper Co.  The new mill at Pejepscot employed some 180 men in 1898.  It was powered by the 8,500 horsepower hydro dam and a 700-horsepower steam engine.