318 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1901. 



were burned in 1882, after which the company moved to Nos. 

 13-15 Park row, and thence, in recent years, to the present 

 location in Park place. 



The business of the new company was successful from the 

 beginning. Its output was only a few thousand dollars worth 

 of goods per month at first, but that was not a day of large 

 businesses. But in 1892, when testifying in a patent lawsuit, Mr. 

 Cheever stated that the annual turnover had attained to $2,- 

 300,000. In 1863 an additional factory at Sandy Hook was 

 purchased from Conrad ^Poppenhusen, who had made hard 

 rubber there before going to College Point. The two factories 

 were known thereafter as " No. i " and " No. 2." In 1887 fac- 

 tory No. 2 was burned down, and replaced by a larger building. 

 As early as 1869 larger facilities became necessary, and factory 

 " No. 3 " was erected at Passaic, New Jersey, it being desirable 

 to have a locition nearer New York, and here the business be- 

 gan in time to be concentrated, until, a few months ago, *he 

 Sandy Hook works were closed. The company was reorga- 

 nized in 1891 as the New York Belting and Packing Co., Lim- 

 ited, with ^426,000 capital ; it was included in the Mechanical 

 Rubber Co., incorporated in 1892, and in the amalgamation of 

 the latter with the Rubber Goods Manufacturing Co., in 1899. 

 The New York Belting and PackingCo. started, of course, with 

 the advantage of a license under the Goodyear patents. They 

 were foitunate thereafter, for a number of years, in controlling 

 various important patents,|on both processes and appliances for 

 manufacture, particularly in respect to rubber belting and hose, 

 which assisted them in commanding a very important position 

 in the mechanical rubber industry. Mr. Cheever made himself 

 master of his business, besides which he drew to his aid a high 

 order of talent in all the various departments of the business. 

 In 1858 Mr. Cheever acquired an interest also in the Beverly 

 Rubber Co., established two years earlier at Beverly, Massa- 

 chusetts, and which became an important factor in the rub- 

 ber clothing trade. In 1862, when the Beverly factory was 

 burned, a certain part of its business was transferred to the 

 New York Belting and Packing Co. The Beverly factory, by 

 arrangement with the Union India Rubber Co., had a share in 

 the profitable contracts for army blankets, and here was first 

 developed, in a practical way, the devulcanization of rubber. 

 Upon the death of Mr. Durant, in 1881, his widow filled the 

 office of president for several years, and upon the reorganiza- 

 tion, as a limited company, it was taken by Mr. Cheever, who 

 had continued to act as treasurer and the business head of the 

 company from the beginning. 



Owing to the joint interest of the two concerns in important 

 patents, Messrs. Cheever and Durant, in the early days of the 

 New York Belting and Packing Co.. became stockholders in 

 the Boston Belting Co., of which Mr. Durant was elected presi- 

 dent, and their holdings increased until, in 1878, each held 800 

 shares in the Boston company. The largest stockholder in that 

 company was John G. Tappan, who was its treasurer and 

 trusted business head, and was left to control its management en- 

 tirely. In 1878 hisoutside business affairscrashed, involving the 

 Boston Belting Co. for more than the amount of its capital and 

 surplus. The shares had been quoted, however, at largely 

 above par, and the company was at once soundly reorganized, 

 but Messrs. Cheever and Durant surrendered whatever equity 

 they may have had in the business. 



Mr. Cheever was descended from Ezekiel Cheever, who 

 helped found the town of New Haven, and who for thirty 

 years was master of the Boston Latin School, publishing mean- 

 while many books. He had studied at Cambridge University, 

 in England. About the same time (1637) some of his relatives 

 by the name of Cheever settled in or near Boston, generally 



succeeding in business, so that the family became not only large 

 but influential. Mr. Cheever's descent is shown in the follow- 

 ing table : 

 I. Ezekiel Cheever. Born, London, England, Jan 25, 1614 ; settled 



New Haven, 1637; lived later at Ipswich and Charleston, Mass. ; 



settled Boston, 1670 ; second marriage, to Elizabeth Lathrop ; died, 



Boston, Aug. 21, 1708. 

 2 Rev Thomas Cheever, a. m. Born, Ipswich, Aug 23, 1658 ; 



graduated at Harvard, 1677; preached at Maiden and later at Rum- 



ney Marsh (now Chelsea) ; married Sarah Bill ; died Chelsea, Nov. 



27, 1749. 



3. Thomas Cheever. Born, Rumney Marsh, about 1685 ; manufac- 



turer ; married Mary Baker ; died, Lynn, Nov. 8, 1753. 



4. Abnek Cheever. Born, Lynn, Jan. 24, 1725 [or '26] ; married 



Elizabeth Newhall ; died, Lynn, April 22, I7g6. 



5. Abijah Cheever, a.m., m.d. Born, Lynn, May 23, 1760 ; grad- 



uated at Harvard, 1779 ; surgeon in the army and navy ; married 

 Elizabeth Scott ; died, Saugus, Apiil 21, 1843. 



6. Charles Augustus Cheever, a m., m.d. Born, Boston, Dec. 



'i 1793 I graduated at Harvard 1813 ; medical degree, 1816 ; lived 

 more than 30 years at Portsmouth, N. H., where he married Ann 

 Mary Haven ; died, Saugus, Sept. 22, 1852. 



7. John Haven Cheever. 



It may be noted that the average age attained by the seven 

 persons named was 80 years and 6 months. Mr. Cheever is 

 survived by a half-brother, David Williams Cheever, M.D., 

 LL.D., a graduate of Harvard, and since 1861 a member of its 

 medical faculty, being now professor emeritus of surgery. Dr. 

 Cheever at one time was also at the head of the Boston Hos- 

 pital and has been president of the American Society of Sur- 

 geons. 



For twenty years Mr. Cheever lived at No. 80 Fifth avenue' 

 New York city. He then removed to Far Rockaway. being one 

 of the pioneers in making that a country home place for well to 

 do New York business men, and he lived there for nearly forty 

 years. He was very much devoted to his home. For the last 

 six years, Mr. Cheever was very much of an invalid, suffering 

 from a sort of gout, which practically crippled him, keeping 

 him for the most of the time confined to the house. He was 

 very patient through all of this suffering, however, and kept 

 up an active interest in outside affairs to the last. Indeed, at 

 the time of his death, he was silting up in a chair and Mrs. 

 Cheever was reading to him from a newspaper. They were to 

 celebrate their golden wedding this year. His wife was Ann 

 Elizabeth, daughter of John and Mary (Plumer) Dow, of Ep- 

 ping. New Hampshire. Four children survive : John Dow 

 Cheever, with the banking house of H. W. Poor & Co. (New 

 York); Henry Durant Cheever, one of the managers of the 

 OkoniteCo. ; Mrs. John E. Cowdin, and Miss Elizabeth S. 

 Cheever. Mr. Cheever was a member of the Union Club, the 

 Century Association, the National Academy 3f Design, the 

 Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the New England Society of 

 New York. The interment occurred June 12, at Hewlett's, 

 near Far Rockaway. 



Mr. Cheever's personality was a most interesting one. Phy- 

 sically he was a powerful man, short, rather thick set, looking 

 not unlike an Englishman. While in the full possession of 

 health he was an enthusiastic sportsman, spending many weeks 

 each year in the wilds of Maine, fishing and shooting. He was 

 also very fond of horses and horseback riding. In his business 

 relations Mr. Cheever impressed people as being a man of force 

 and energy and exceedingly progressive. With it all he was of 

 a marvelously kindly disposition, and being absolutely honest 

 himself, he believed that the whole world was equally honest. 

 Out of his rubber business he made a large fortune, but when 



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