336 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1907. 



An Early Leader of the Rubber Trade. 



CHRISTOPHER MEYER, "RUBBER KING." 



IN the clays when tlie late Christopher Meyer was one of the 

 most conspicuous figures in the rubber industry, being spoken 

 of often as the "rubber king," and the possessor of the 

 largest individual fortune that had ever been made out of rubber, 

 portraits of private citizens were pul)lished less frequently than 

 now. It is probable that his likeness was never seen in any 

 other form than in a photograph, such as has been used as the 

 basis of the portrait of Mr. Meyer given on this page — the first 

 ever published. 



Christopher Meyer was born at Hanover, Germany, on Octo- 

 ber IS, 1818, and died in New York on July ,31, 1888. Deciding 

 to seek his fortune in America, he found employment at the 

 age of eighteen in a machine shop at Newark, New Jersey. His 

 employer having contracted to install some machinery in the 

 rubber factory of Horace H. Day, at New Brunswick, New 

 Jersey, young Meyer was employed upon this, with the result 

 that he attracted the attention of Mr. Day and passed into his 

 employment. The machine shop referred to grew later to con- 

 siderable proportions under the ownership 

 of the late William E. Kelly, who at one 

 time or another probably supplied ma- 

 chinery to every rubber factory in the 

 country. 



Speedily mastering the details of rubber 

 working, Mr. Meyer became superintendent 

 of the Day factory, but he was not long 

 content to remain in a subordinate posi- 

 tion. With the help of $300 borrowed 

 from James Bishop, a shipping merchant 

 in the Brazil trade and at different times 

 a stockholder in several rubber factories, 

 Meyer in 1844 started a small rubber fac- 

 tory for himself, which burned a year later, 

 leaving him without capital. In tliat year 

 Mr. Bishop and his brother-in-law, John 

 R. E'ord, then a dry goods merchant, en- 

 gaged in manufacturing rubber shoes un- 

 der the name Ford & Co., and the services 

 of Meyer were secured as superintendent. 

 He also became a partner in the firm. 

 Later Mr. Meyer established a factory at 

 Milltown, New Jersey, which became the plant of the Meyer 

 Rubber Co., incorporated in 1858. In 1861 the business of Ford 

 & Co. was merged with it, and the company became one of the 

 leading rubber footwear concerns, being to-day a constituent part 

 of the United States Rubber Co. 



In those days the eight factories licensed under the Goodyear 

 patents to make footwear (and nothing else of rubber) covered 

 the field very fully, and had little room for expansion at home. 

 Having met with encouraging success in creating a demand for 

 their products abroad, some of the American manufacturers 

 decided to establish a rubber shoe factory in Scotland. The 

 business there was founded in 1855 as Norris & Co., with 

 eight "founders" — all Americans — including Messrs. Meyer, 

 Ford and Bishop. Two years later the company became regis- 

 tered as the North British Rubber Co., Limited, at Edinburgh. 

 Mr. Meyer was largely interested, and it is understood that 

 some of his descendants still hold shares in the company. 



Connected with Ford & Co. at an early date was Lewis L. 

 Hyatt, who went to Edinburgh as superintendent of the factory 

 there. Returning to America he established in 1870 the Hyatt 

 Rubber Co., for making rubber shoes at New Brunswick, with 

 himself and Messrs. Meyer and Ford equal partners. This be- 



Chrlstopher Meyer. 



[An American rubber manufacturer who was 

 in his day the most conspicuous figure in 

 the rubber industry.] 



came later the New Jersey Rubber Shoe Co., and in 1892 was 

 acquired by the United States Rubber Co. The factory occu- 

 pied was that in which Mr. Meyer had taken his first lessons in 

 rubber working, in making "shirred goods," under Day. The 

 view of the building herewith shows its appearance in 1876, by 

 which time it had become somewhat enlarged. 



Mr. Meyer was also interested in the Novelty Rubber Co., 

 incorporated in 1855, at New Brunswick, to make hard rubber 

 goods (other than combs) under license from Goodyear. It 

 had a marvelously profitable career for about ten years, paying 

 dividends as high as lOO per cent., it is reported, but the business 

 declined with the expiration of the hard rubber patents. 



The large income derived by Mr. Meyer from rubber found 

 investment in many quarters. He was at one time president 

 of the Nashavvanniick Rubber Manufacturing Co., and the Glen- 

 dale Elastic Fabric Co., a director in the State Bank of New 

 Brunswick, a director in the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton 

 and two otlur railroad companies, a fire insurance company, the 

 American Bank Note Co., and a gas light- 

 ing company. He was interested also in 

 the Norfolk and New Brunswick Hosiery 

 Co. Not all his investments were success- 

 ful, however, and particularly in railway 

 shares. The personal property inventoried 

 ill connection with the probating of his 

 will amounted to $3,500,000, but it is be- 

 lieved that his fortune at one time amount- 

 ed to a great deal more. 



Mr. Meyer had a thorough knowledge 

 of the rubber industry, combined with great 

 executive ability, and a genius for in- 

 vention, which enabled him to obtain a 

 number of patents which proved of value 

 to the trade and of profit to himself. He 

 married Miss Margaret Evans, at Mill- 

 town, New Jersey, in 1840. He was sur- 

 vived by a son, John Christopher Meyer, 

 who would have succeeded to his property, 

 but who died within a few months. Sev- 

 eral married daughters still survive. Mr. 

 Meyer's residence during the latter part of 

 his life was in New York city. 



It is understood that Mr. Meyer consistently declined all over- 

 tures made to him to join any combination in the trade, and he 

 was credited with having more than once prevented, by his 

 influence, the formation of a "rubber trust." The old factory of 

 the Meyer Rubber Co., at Milltown. mentioned in the preceding 

 column, has lately passed into the possession of the Michelin Tire 

 Co. [See The 

 Indi.v Rubber 

 World, July i, 

 1907— page 32 1.] 

 This factory is 

 not only one of 

 the oldest rub- 

 ber plants ill 

 the United 

 States, but one 

 of the most in- 

 teresting in the 

 way of very Day's New Brunswick F.\ctory. 



many historic (Where Christopher Meyer started in the rubber 

 . .. trade. The factory was used later by the Hyatt 



associations. Rubber Co. and the New Jersey Rubber Co.] 



