Jn.v 1, 1911. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



355 



The Late S. H. C. Miner 



AT THE age of seventy-six, full of years and of honors. 

 after a career so picturesque and successful that its 

 recital would read like a romance, S. H. C. Miner, 

 Canada's "Grand Old Man," died of pneumonia, June 9, at 

 8:30 o'clock in the morning. 



His life story has already been told in these pages (see "A 

 Canadian Industrial Leader," The India Rubber World, July 1, 

 1907), but not completely, for his activities were so varied, his 

 interests so large, his operations so extensive, that their mere 

 listing would fill a volume. So, too, his benevolences, his help- 

 fulness to educational and religious organizations, his kindnesses 

 great and small were numberless. 



His business interests 

 touched almost every in- 

 dustry. He was, for ex- 

 ample, the pioneer sole- 

 leather tanner in Canada, 

 and when the bark on his 

 limits was exhausted, car- 

 ried on extensive lumber- 

 ing operations over the 

 vast forest regions that he 

 controlled. Since that 

 time his experience and 

 judgment, and above all 

 his exceptional powers to 

 direct and inspire those 

 upon whom the active 

 management of enterprises 

 is laid, caused him to be 

 sought after as a director 

 by many Canadian com- 

 panies. Among other di- 

 rectorates of which he 

 was a member may be 

 mentioned the L. H. Pack- 

 ard Co., Limited ; the 

 Standard Explosives Co., 

 the Foster Rubber Co., the 

 Walpole Rubber Co., the 

 Rorton Tool and Mill Co. 



He controlled the Hast- 

 ings Shingle Manufactur- 

 ing Co., of \'ancouver, 

 B. C, with a mill that 

 turns out 600,000 shingles 

 a day, besides which the 

 company operate a very 

 large lumber mill and 

 own and control some of 

 the largest timber proper- 

 ties in British Columbia. 



Mr. Miner was instrumental in the formation of the Interna- 

 tional Coal and Coke Co., owning one of the best equipped coal 

 mines in the Northwest. The capital of this company is 

 $3,000,000. and Mr. Miner was its largest stockholder. He was 

 also one of the largest stockholders in the Alberta Coal and 

 Coke Co., which owns some 5,000 acres of hard coal land in 

 Alberta. This company is capitalized at $2,500,000. Perhaps his 

 most important creation, however, was the Granby-Consolidated 

 Mining, Smelting and Power Co., a $15,000,000 corporation 

 operating copper mines in southern British Columbia. 



His connection with the Granby Rubber Co. is well known. 

 The concern was started in 1882 to manufacture rubber cloth- 



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ing. In 1887 Mr. Miner built new mills and appeared in the 

 market with the well-known Granby rubber footwear. His 

 factory made from 5.000 to 6,000 pairs of shoes a day, and the 

 company, it is said, made more money in proportion to its output 

 than any of the other Canadian factories. When the Canadian 

 Consolidated Rubber Co. was formed Mr. Miner entered the 

 combination and was president for a year. He, however, dis- 

 agreed with the policy pursued and resigned, selling all of his 

 stock holdings. 



In 1909 he built in Granby two great rubber factories, one 

 for the Miner Rubber Co., and the other for the Walpole Rub- 

 ber Co. The former was for the manufacture of footwear and 



was in every way an up- 

 to-date modern factory, 

 designed, as Mr. Miner 

 expressed it, "to be a 

 monument to his mem- 

 ory." The other unit, the 

 Walpole, was equipped to 

 produce the successful 

 specialties of the Massa- 

 chusetts company of the 

 same name and also to 

 make a general line of 

 mechanical rubber goods. 

 The rubber shoe factory 

 is operated by a nephew 

 of the deceased, Mr. Wil-, 

 liam H. Miner, who has 

 for years been in training 

 for the position and who 

 possesses many of the 

 characteristics that made 

 his uncle so sound a man 

 of business. 



It was natural, with all 

 of his commercial inter- 

 ests, that he should be- 

 come more or less inter- 

 ested in banking, and he 

 long ago became connected 

 with the Eastern Town- 

 ships Bank, with head 

 office at Sherbrooke, Que- 

 bec, and with branches in 

 57 cities and towns 

 throughout Canada. Of 

 this bank, which has a 

 cap\tal of $4,000,000, Mr. 

 Miner was vice-president 

 One of the most influ- 

 ential men in Canada, Mr. 

 Miner always resolutely refrained from accepting political office 

 — the single exception being the mayoralty of the town of 

 Granby, which he held for 23 years, the place being his summer 

 home, and in fact, his own town financially and sentimentally. 

 Mr. Miner was president of the advisory board of the Congre- 

 gational College of Montreal, in which he took great interest, 

 and which, with many other good works and charities, he and 

 Mrs. Miner supported with unstinted and unostentatious gen- 

 erosity. He had large business interests in the United States 

 and was often in Boston and New York, and kept in touch with 

 the rubber business as well as anybody in the Americas. Al- 

 though born in Granby he was from New England stock, his 



