July 1, 1913.; 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



529 



The Hodgman Rubber Co. Seventy-five Years Old. 



IT is an entirely legitimate sentiment — the pride of priority. To 

 have been a long time on the earth proves the possession 

 of the virtues that make for stability and permanence. Sur- 

 vival is the best proof of fitness. St. Augustine boasts because 

 she is the oldest town in the United States, and Harvard plumes 

 herself upon the fact that she is the oldest college in .•\merica. 

 So why should not the Hodgman Rubber Co. take a proper pride 

 in being the oldest rubber company in the United States — for this 

 distinction undoubtedly belongs to this company. It was founded 

 in 1838 and has been continuously and actively in existence ever 

 since ; and what is even more interesting, it has remained con- 

 tinuously in the hands of the Hodgmans — three generations up 

 to the present time, with a fourth getting ready for active 

 participation. 



There were rubber companies before 1838, a number of them ; 

 but none survived those early, troublous days. One of them, 

 the Roxbury Rubber Co., famous in its day, founded in 1828, 

 may properly be called the ancestor of the Boston Belting Co., 

 for this company later acquired the old Roxlinry plant. But 



I ) \XIKI. 1 lr.i«;\iAN". 



taking into consideration only continuous and uninterrupted ex- 

 istence, there appears to be no other rubber company that can 

 compete with the Hodgman company's three-quarters of a cen- 

 tury. If there is, now is the time to speak up ; for until it does 

 and proves its case the Hodgman company must be conceded the 

 palm of priority, the record of its 75 years being unimpeachable. 

 It was founded by Daniel Hodgman. He was a typical Yankee 

 boy, born in Mason, New Hampshire, in 1808, of good old ster- 

 ling native Xew England stock — the only kind of stock there 

 was in New England in those days. A copybook, full of arith- 



George F. Hodgman. 



metical rules and problems which he composed as a part of his 

 school work is still in existence. It is a most painstaking, ac- 

 curate piece of work, with not a comma slurred or a dot slighted. 

 Anybody looking at that copybook could tell that when the boy 

 grew to be a man he would keep every engagement promptly 

 and pay every bill when it was due — or a little before. 



When he was 21 

 and had served his 

 apprenticeship to a 

 neighboring farm- 

 er, he struck out 

 for Boston, the 

 goal of all ambi- 

 tious New Eng- 

 land boys in those 

 days. After re- 

 maining there a 

 year he concluded 

 that New York 

 was even a larger 

 field, and to New 

 York he went. He 

 found a position 

 in the grinding 

 room of a factory 

 — probably the At- 

 kinson rubber fac- 

 tory — and there he 

 remained for eight 

 years. It is no 

 joke to say that 



working eight years in a grinding room is a good deal of a grind, 

 but it showed the quality of the man — he didn't object to hard 

 work — and during those eight years he learned many things and 

 saved up some money. But, what was more to the point, he 

 kept his eyes open ; and among the important things that he saw 

 was the fact that there was a great future for india rubber. 

 Those were the days of rubber's beginnings. A good many alert 

 people had conceived the notion that if rubber could only be 

 properly treated it could be made to serve a vast variety of useful 

 purposes. Goodyear was cudgeling his brain over the problem. 

 A greater vogue was given to the possibilities of this new sub- 

 stance by the spectacular ride of President Jackson through the 

 streets of Boston on a rainy day clad cap-a-pie in a rubber suit 

 which was provided him for that occasion. So, after eight years 

 in the grinding room, young Hodgman — then 30 — pulled out, and, 

 taking a partner by the name of Robinson, opened a rubber store 

 on Beaver street. New York. But Mr. Robinson does not seem 

 to have been adapted to the rubber business, for he soon dropped 

 out and Mr. Hodgman decided to go it alone and on a larger 

 scale, and accordingly took a new and bigger store a little further 

 uptown, on Maiden Lane. He made several changes of location 

 as the increase of business necessitated it, but for 41 years he 

 remained in the neighborhood of Broadway and Maiden Lane, 

 35 of these years, from 1844 to 1879, being passed in Maiden 

 Lane. 



He was not content to remain a storekeeper, however, but 

 put his Yankee wits to work and started to invent useful articles 

 of rubber His first invention seems to have been a life pre- 

 server, for which he was given a medal and diploma at the Fair 

 of the American Institute held in New York in October, 1840. 

 In the meantime he had started a rubber factory at 26th street 

 and East River, close to the factory where he had gained his 

 experience. An exceedingly interesting document hangs on the 



