April i, 1901.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



197 



THE OBITUARY RECORD. 



COMMODORE ALEXANDER HENDERSON. 



THE late Commodore Alexander Henderson, whose death 

 was reported recently in The India Rubber World, 

 and of whom a portrait is presented herewith, was born 

 in Washington city, July 22, 1832. He was the son of 

 Colonel Thomas Henderson, U. S. A., and the grandson of 

 Commodore Truxton, u. s. N. One of his brothers was an 

 army officer, and one was a naval officer; one of his sisters 

 married General Eastman, u. s. a., and another was the wife 

 of the late Rear Admiral Thomas T. Craven, U. S. N. Rear 

 Admiral Henry L. Howison, now living in Yonkers, New York, 



and Colonel J. V. D. 

 Middleton, U. S. A., 

 are also his brothers- 

 in-law. 



Alexander Hender- 

 son entered the navy 

 as a third assistant 

 engineer in February, 

 185 1, and completed 

 nearly half a cen- 

 tury of service as a 

 commissioned 

 officer of the navy. 

 He was in Commo- 

 dore Perry's fleet 

 that visited the Ori- 

 ent in 1853 55 and 

 opened Japan to in- 

 tercourse with west- 

 ern civilization. He 

 served in the Mediterranean in 1856 57 and took part in the 

 Paraguay expedition in 185S. Though a Virginian, of one of 

 the old Southern families, with many of his relatives in the 

 Confederate service, Mr. Henderson served the United States 

 throughout the civil war. He was in most of the bombard- 

 ments undertaken by the Atlantic blockading squadron, and, 

 while serving on the James river, took part in the siege of 

 Petersburg, Virginia, and the capture of Richmond. 



In 1882 Mr. Henderson was made the engineering head of 

 the naval advisory board, and the engines of the first vessels of 

 the new navy were designed by him and built under his super- 

 vision. When the work of the advisory board was finished, in 

 1889, he became chief engineer at the Boston Navy Yard, and 

 filled that office until shortly before his retirement with the 

 rank of commodore, in July, 1894. The day after his retire- 

 ment from active service he went into business as treasurer of 

 the Manhattan Rubber Manufacturing Co. (New York), which 

 company had been incorporated, under the laws of New Jersey, 

 in the October preceding. Mr. Henderson continued to fill 

 this position until a few months ago, when he was succeeded 

 in it by his son, Eliot M. Henderson. While interested in this 

 company he organized and conducted a steamship company, 

 running a line of vessels along the coast of Maine. 



When the Spanish war broke out Commodore Henderson 

 volunteered his services, and again returned to active duty, 

 serving until the close of the war as fleet engineer of the aux- 

 iliary navy. His three sons, and his son-in-law, William H. 

 Stayton, also served in the navy during the same war. 



Commodore Henderson was twice shipwrecked and had yel- 



low fever in foreign ports three times, yet he was until last year 

 rugged and active. He lived in New York from 1894 to 1897, 

 when he removed to Yonkers, New York, where he died January 

 12. The funeral was held in St. Paul's church, Yonkers, on 

 January 15, and the interment was private. He leaves a widow 

 and five children, all of whom live in this part of the country. 

 The children are Eliot M. Henderson, Alexander Henderson, 

 Henry H. Henderson, Annie H. Stayton, and Elizabeth H. 

 Henderson. 



SKETCH OF JAMES P. LANGDON. 

 The late James Pierpont Langdon, president of the New 

 Brunswick Tire Co., whose death was reported in the last In- 

 dia Rubber World, was born in 1823 at Bethlehem, in the 

 Naugatuck valley, Connecticut. He was the son of the Rev. 

 John Langdon. His early life was spent on the farm of his 

 grandfather, James Pierpont, at Litchfield, Connecticut, and at 

 the age of 18 he became employed in the drug store of a brother 

 at Naugatuck. In 1847 — in his twenty-fourth year — he became 

 connected with the Goodyear's Metallic Rubber Shoe Co., at 



Naugatuck, then 

 lately licensed to 

 make shoes under 

 Charles Good- 

 year's vulcaniza- 

 tion patents. He 

 there became well 

 acquainted with 

 Mr. Goodyear, 

 whom he assisted 

 frequently in ex- 

 periments with 

 rubber. Mr. Lang- 

 don thus obtained 

 a thorough knowl- 

 edge of the manu- 

 facture of rubber 

 goods, and in 1854 

 he was tendered, 

 and accepted, the 

 position of super- 

 intendent of the New Brunswick Rubber Co., at New Bruns- 

 wick, New Jersey. In 1840 Peter C. Onderdonk and Johnson 

 Letson had become partners in the rubber business at the latter 

 place; in 1846 they were licensed to make rubber shoes ; and 

 in 1850 the New Brunswick Rubber Co. was organized with 

 Mr. Letson as president — a position which he filled until his 

 death, in 1885. Martin A. Howell was then elected president 

 of the company, and Mr. Langdon vice president and manager. 

 Upon the death of Mr. Howell, in 1889. Mr. Langdon became 

 president, still retaining the position of manager, which offices 

 he held up to his death, on February 28 last. In 1892 

 the New Brunswick Rubber Co. became a part of the United 

 States Rubber Co., Mr. Langdon serving for several years 

 as a director of the latter company. Early in 1896 the New 

 Brunswick factory took up the manufacture of tires instead 

 of shoes, and is now operated under the style of the New 

 Brunswick Tire Co. 



Mr. Langdon's long residence in New Brunswick made him 

 one of the best known citizens of the place, and his active in- 

 terest in the welfare of the community caused him to be held in 



