July i, 1901.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



303 



DEATHS m THE RUBBER TRADE. 



LEWIS ELLIOTT is dead. The name will be recalled by 

 some rubber men who have spent well nigh a lifetime 

 in the trade, as that of a successful factory superintend- 

 ent as far back as they can remember. Not only did 

 Lewis Elliott make a high record for efficiency in the Candee 

 rubber factory, which was in his charge for more than forty 

 years, but in every capacity in fife he was known to his fellow 

 citizens in New Haven for his steadfast integrity, and he was 

 distinguished for 

 his intelligent in- 

 terest in the wel- 

 fare of the city. 



Mr. Elliott was 

 born se ven t y- 

 seven years ago in 

 the city of Man- 

 chester, New ^- 

 Hampshire. His 

 first effort at self 

 support was at 

 Hartford, Connec- 

 ticut, where he ^ 

 worked at shoe — « 

 cutting for H. H. 

 Freeman. Like 

 the normal vent- 

 uresome N ew 

 England boy, he 



had a taste for the lewis elliott. 



sea, and more than once sailed on coasting vessels along the 

 Atlantic, working his way. Once he crossed the ocean, and on 

 his return was offered a position as second mate of the ship, 

 but by this time he had seen enough of the sailor's life to prefer 

 some business ashore. He learned to make leather shoes by 

 hand — then an important industry. 



In 1850 young Elliott became connected with the factory o( 

 The L. Candee & Co., who, since 1842. had been making rubber 

 shoes, in a small way, at Hampden, Connecticut. The pro- 

 cesses were very crude, as the business was in every way a new 

 one. Mr. Elliott used to cite an instance of this crudeness. 

 The Para rubber, softened by camphene, was ground in a sort 

 of pug mill before it was possible to apply it to the cloth. At 

 the time the young man came to the company they had just 

 bought the land upon which their present plant stands, in New 

 Haven. Their first move was to erect a factory building, in 

 which rubber shoes were made. " VVe were not as well equipped 

 in the way of machinery as we are to-day," remarked Mr. 

 Elliott forty years later. " Our plan for frictioning was to 

 friction one side with rolls, and then coat the other by means 

 of a huge knife spreader. When that side got dry, however, 

 it did the work and the shoes sold very well." 



In 1856 the Hampden plant was abandoned and the whole 

 business of the Candee company concentrated at New Haven. 

 From that time on, for twenty-one years, was one steady record 

 of progress. Mr. Elliott, who had already become superintend- 

 ent, had complete control in the mill, and kept adding build- 

 ings, machinery, and operatives, and was constantly on the alert 

 for new and more economical processes. November, 1877, 

 brought an interruption in the shape of a fire that reduced the 

 whole plant to ashes. In a short time, however, it was rebuilt 



and arranged better than before. A matter of deep regret to 

 Mr. Elliott in connection with this fire was the loss of his col- 

 lection of curiosities in the way of early and forgotten shapes, 

 lasts, etc. Mr. Elliott was an indefatigable worker. For many 

 years it was his rule to go to the factory at 5 a. M.,and often he 

 did not leave it until after midnight. What he was to the Can- 

 dee company, its splendid plant and its well made goods testify. 

 On January i, 1894. Mr. Elliott resigned from the more active 

 and responsible duties of his position, and gradually ceased to 

 maintain a connection with the factory. 



Mr. Elliott served the city of New Haven efficiently for sev- 

 eral years as a fire commissioner, the board of which he was a 

 member having been an exceptionally good one, and in other 

 ways he manifested an interest in the general good. His latter 

 years were spent quietly, and the end came on June 12, as he 

 lay at his home, in the afternoon. He is survived by a son and 

 two daughters, all now residents of New Haven — Lewis A. 

 Elliott, formerly a druggist in that city ; Mrs. James J. John- 

 ston, whose husband is in the employ of the Candee com- 

 pany; and Mrs. George T. Fifield. 



lOHN C. HARDMAN. 

 John C. Hardman. treasurer of the Hardman Rubber Co., 

 of Belleville, New Jersey, died on June 6, at St. Barnabas's 

 hospital, in that town, as the result of complications follow- 

 ing an operation to which he had submitted a few days before. 

 Mr. Hardman, who had been in failing health for the past 

 year, left Belleville on a business trip through the South and 

 West in the latter pait of April and had gone as far as San An- 

 tonio, Texas, when his condition grew worse. He went to St. 



Louis, and, when 

 he did not im- 

 prove, decided to 

 return immed- 

 iately to his home 

 in Belleville. By 

 the advice of his 

 physician he was 

 taken to the hos- 

 pital, where, after 

 a few days, his life 

 came to an end. 



Mr. Hardman 

 was born, 45 years 

 ago. at Taunton, 

 Massachu setts, 

 where he became 

 interested in me- 

 chanical employ- 

 ments. In time he 

 became manager 

 of a l.irge watch case manufactory in Philadelphia. Later he 

 ioined the Riverside Rubber Co., at Belleville, established by 

 ills brother, James Hardman, Jr.. in 1878, where, for ten years, 

 and until his death, he was manager of the sales department. 

 Recently the company adopted the name Hardman Rubber Co. 

 He was one of the most popular men in the rubber trade, and 

 had many friends in business circles, wherever he was known. 

 Funeral services were conducted at the late residence of Mr. 

 Hardman on Saturday afternoon, June 8, by the Rev. Cornelius 

 S. Abbou, rector of Christ Episcopal church, at Belleville, and 



JOHN C. HARDMAN. 



