Bette Nesmith Graham fluid as "Mistake Out" in 1956. The name was later changed to Liquid Paper when she began her own company. Mistake Out started the 1960s operating at a small loss, with Nesmith's home doubling as company headquarters. As the product became an indispensable tool of the secretarial trade, Nesmith relocated production and shipping from her kitchen to a 10 feet-by-26 feet portable metal structure in her backyard, where packaging, shipping, and production were centered. Bette Nesmith married Robert Graham in 1962; he joined her in running the company. They divorced in 1975. She sold Liquid Paper to the Gillette Corporation
James Nesmith the militia forces during the Rogue River War in 1853 and the Yakima Indian War in 1855. Between the two wars he was the United States Marshal for the Oregon Territory, replacing Joseph Meek. From 1857 to 1859 he was the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon and Washington Territories. As Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Nesmith was aggressive against American Indians on Oregon's south coast, and once stated to Commissioner of Indian Affairs George Manypenny that the extermination of the Chetco people "would occasion no regrets at this office." On February 14, 1859, Oregon entered the Union as the 33rd