It used to be that boxes were made locally. Every city of any size had a few box makers. The paper and linerboard and corrugated cardboard that made up boxes were all made at paper mills, either local or distant, but the work that it took to make them into boxes was done right in every town. In 1869, George N. Cozine was a manufacturer and dealer in paper boxes, “and paper box makers materials of every description.” His manufactory was located at 22 Beaver Street, right down in the old part of the city where the printers and publishers were, and convenient to the public market.
Boxmaking wasn’t George’s only calling. In 1860, he’d been a young grocer living in Albany. In 1870, he was making boxes in Albany. In 1880, he was listed as a “tea agent,” and had moved across the river to North Greenbush, and later to Bath on Hudson (now the north end of Rensselaer). The boxmaking business seems to have continued, as he listed it as his profession in 1900. When we last see George in the census, in 1910, he’s 70 years old and working as a janitor at the YMCA.