Temple, Inc. history

The Temple family was still in control of the company, although it had been expanded, diversified, and modernized since Thomas Temple began operations in 1894.

The company got its start in 1918 when Herman C. Krannert started Anderson Box Company in Anderson, Indiana, to make ventilated corrugated boxes for the shipment of chickens.

By 1925 he moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, and opened the first Inland Box Company plant the following year.

In 1934 Thomas Temple died, leaving his son Arthur with 200,000 acres of land and a company that was $2 billion dollars in debt.

In 1963 gypsum wallboard production began with the purchase of Texas Gypsum, of Dallas, that also became a wholly owned subsidiary of the company.

Two new wholly owned subsidiaries joined Temple Industries in 1969.

The decade, however, was defined by the events of 1973: Time Inc. acquired Temple Industries and merged it with its Eastex Pulp and Paper Company subsidiary to form Temple-Eastex Incorporated.

In 1974 Temple-Eastex opened a new particle board plant in Thomson, Georgia, and a new plywood plant in Pineland, Texas.

A wood molasses plant was built in Diboll in 1977 to use the wood sugars found in the waste water from fiber products.

In 1978 Time paid $272 million to buy Inland Container.

A new chip mill and log processing operation was constructed in 1982 in Pineland to supply chips to Evadale, plywood and stud logs to Pineland, and fuel for all other operations.

In 1983, ten years after acquiring Temple Industries, Time decided to spin off the company's forest products operations into a separate company, again as an antitakeover measure.

1988: Temple-Eastex changes its name to Temple-Inland Forest Products Corporation.

In 1989 Temple-Inland was deemed 'the most undervalued paper stock on the Big Board' by Business Week, May 22, 1989.

Temple-Inland's initial outlay was $75 million, and the company committed to contribute another $50 million by January 1991.

Temple-Inland sought to expand its paper operations, and the company acquired Rand-Whitney Packaging in 1994.

In 1996, as part of a joint venture with Caraustar, Temple-Inland purchased a wallboard facility and a gypsum quarry in Texas.

In 1997 Temple-Inland bought California Financial Holding Company, the parent company of Stockton Savings Bank F.S.B. of Stockton, California.