236 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April 



1903. 



THE OBITUARY RECORD. 



JOHN WOOD KNOTT, who for several years had been in 

 charge of the European depot of the United States Rub- 

 ber Co., died on March 14 in London, in which city he was born 

 about forty years ago, and where he was educated and spent 

 his business life. After having been engaged for some time in 



connection with 

 the European 

 agency of the 

 American Tobac- 

 co Co., he was 

 placed in charge 

 of the London 

 branch of the Bos- 

 ton Rubber Shoe 

 Co., conducting its 

 affairs so satisfac- 

 torily that after 

 the merger with 

 the United States 

 Rubber Co. he was 

 made their agent 

 for Europe, with 

 offices at 47. Farr- 

 ingdon stieet, E. 

 C. Mr. Knott 

 john w. knott. proved to be a 



man of capacity and his energy in seeking to build up the busi- 

 ness in his care was rewarded with marked success, as shown 

 by the increased sale of American rubber footwear in Europe. 

 He had enjoyed the best of health until within two or three 

 weeks of his death, when he was found to be suffering from 

 blood poisoning, after which he was attacked by pneumonia. 

 The United States company's office, which he leaves well or- 

 ganized, will continue for the present without change. Mr. 

 Knott held the office of major in the City of London Artillery. 

 He is survived by a widow and several children. He made two 

 visits to the United States, in connection with the rubber foot- 

 wear business, as a result of which he gained many friends here. 



* * * 



Frederick L. Holmes, assistant superintendent at the fac- 

 tory in Passaic, N. J , of The Okonite C >., Limited (New York), 

 died on February 26. The members of the veteran association 

 of the Twenty-third regiment. New York State Guard, and of 

 Company I, which he commanded for nine years, attended the 

 funeral, on March 1, at St. John's Episcopal Church, in Passaic. 

 In the riots of the trolley road employes in Brooklyn, several 

 years ago. Major Holmes saw much active service. 



= VVarren Scott Sillcocks, who died in Brooklyn, New York, 

 on February 9, was a native of New Brunswick, N. J. In 1874 

 he retired from the jewelry trade and organized the Cellu- 

 loid Novelty Co., which afterward was merged into The Cel- 

 luloid Co. (Newark, N. J.) He was a director in the latter 

 company at the time of his death. 



= Vernon Bickford, who had been for thirty-six years a fore- 

 man for the Boston Rubber Shoe Co., died on February 28. 

 He was a brother of Erskine F. Bickford, managing director 

 of the Boston company. 



=Joseph W. Smith, who died at Newton, Massachusetts, ou 

 March 21, in his sixty second year, was president and treasurer 

 of the Smithmade Suspender Co., a business which he had con- 

 ducted with success for more than thirty years. 



= Henry C. Dimond, of the firm of H. C. Dimond & Co., Bos- 

 ton, rubber stamp manufacturers, died on March 1, in his six- 



tieth year. He had been in the stamp trade about twenty-five 

 years. He made many inventions connected with rubber hand 

 stamps, and invented the life line pistol, for the throwing of 

 the line from a lite boat to the vessel needing its assistance. 



THE LATE CHARLES EAI.ES PARKER. 



AS mentioned in the brief notice of the death of Charles F. 

 Parker, in the last India Rubber World, he was well 

 known to the rubber shoe interests through his connection 

 with aluminum lasts and trees, which he invented, and which 

 were very favorably received, although not as yet widely adopt- 

 ed. He was also 

 proprietor of the 

 Metal Last and 

 Tree Co. (Boston). 

 He died at his 

 home in Somer- 

 ville at the age of 

 76 years and 6 

 months, and, de- 

 spite his age, was 

 vigorous and ac- 

 tive to the end. 

 He knew the shoe 

 business from the 

 bench up. Born at 

 Holliston, Massa- 

 chusetts, in 1826, 

 he was the son of 

 John Parker and 

 Mary Ann (Fales) 

 Parker, both 

 charles f. Parker. members of fami- 



lies well known in the early shoe trade. Charles Parker's 

 first employment was that of a cutter in the factory of Kimball 

 & Robinson, at Brookfield. About 1850 he went to Boston as 

 a salesman for the same firm, and later became a partner. When 

 the civil war began he was representing his firm in the West, 

 and was at Toledo, Ohio, when the first call for volunteers was 

 made. He realized at once that shoes would be needed by the 

 quartermaster's department, and within forty-eight hours had 

 a contract for 5000 pairs of army shoes — probably the first con- 

 tract of the kind made on account of the war. During the 

 whole period of the war Mr. Parker was never without a big 

 order from the government, and he took the last order as well 

 as the first. In 1S64 he established the firm of Charles F. Par- 

 ker & Co., with factories at Marlboro and Brookfield, and stoie 

 at No. 106 Pearl street, Boston. Later thefirm became Parker 

 Brothers & Cassel, and for nearly twenty years he manufactui- 

 ed the well known " Solidity Shoe repairing outfits." Mr. 

 Parker married Miss Julia A. Bingham, of Milwaukee, Wis- 

 consin, and his family consisted of three daughters, two of 

 whom, with the widow, survive. For years he was a leadirg 

 member of the Shawmut Avenue Baptist Church, of Boston, 

 which afterwards merged with the First Baptist Church, the 

 pioneer society of the denomination in that city. For years he 

 was also a prominent worker at the Harvard Street Baptist 

 Church where he I°d a large class of young men, many of whom 

 became successful in life, and all retaining a warm spot in their 

 hearts for their teacher. Mr. Parker had hosts of friends in 

 the trade with which he had been connected so long, and he 

 commanded the respect of all who knew him. Mr. John H. 

 Parker, a well known Boston manufacturer of specialities in 

 rubber and other footwear, is a brother of the deceased. 



