356 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July 1, 1911. 



mother being born in Vermont, and while his father was born 

 in Canada, his grandfather was a Connecticut Yankee and a 

 graduate of Dartmouth College. 



Personally Mr. Miner was of medium height, ven,' compactly 

 and strongly built, an exceedingly powerful man physically, 

 athletic, vigorous, tireless. His mental grasp was astonishing, 

 and while to the day of his death he had all of the energy and 

 optimism of a man of twenty, he possessed a judgment sound 

 and calm, and a courage that no event could shake. Of most 

 abstemious and simple habit was he, and absolutely free from 

 ostentation. He loved simplicity, truth, and fair dealing, and 

 hated shams from the bottom of his manly heart. He was 

 deeply religious, a Christian — a forceful, militant one. Just as 

 he fought his way through a mob of drunken river-men in his 

 youth and thrashed them all, so in his riper years he fought 

 failure and turned it into success. He scourged tricksters out 

 of his presence, and turned the weapon of the law upon the 

 heads of those who invoked it. His thrift was pronounced, 

 and he had no patience with waste of any kind; at the same 

 time his benevolences amounted to many thousands of dollars 

 a year. 



The burial services were held in Granby at noon on Monday, 

 June 12. to allow friends from a distance to attend, .^t that 

 hour the streets of the little city were crowded with people from 

 far and near, business associates, friends, employees and ac- 

 quaintances who had come to pay their last tribute of respect 

 and affection. The body lay in state in the house which was 

 his home for so many years. From there it was borne to the 

 Congregational Church, followed on foot by a great body of 

 men who filled and overflowed the church, and who, after the 

 church service, accompanied the sad procession to the cemetery. 



The services at the church and at the grave, which were ex- 

 ceedingly simple and impressive, were conducted by his pastor. 

 Rev. J. Lambert Alexander, assisted by Dr. Warriner, principal 

 of the Congregational College, and the Rev. R. K. Black, a 

 former pastor. 



The pallbearers, who were his closest business associates, 

 were R. R. Macaulay, A, Kent, A. C. Flumerfelt, G. Stevens, 

 J. Mackinnon and Geo. Foster. 



Mr. Miner is survived by a wife and two daughters, Mrs. 

 E. M. Hill, of Montreal, and Mrs. James Black, of Vancouver; 

 two brothers, W. W. Miner, of Granby, and George Miner, of 

 Boston; also two nephews, W. H. and George Miner, of Granby, 

 and one niece, Mary Miner, wife of Edwin Jackson, Montreal. 



THE OBITUARY RECORD. 



SAMUEL N. WILLIAMS. 



CAMUEL X. WILLIAMS, for many years president of the 

 Lycoming Rubber Co., who died at Williamsport, Pennsyl- 

 vania, June 6, in his seventieth year, was an unusual man. 



In personal appearance he bore a strong resemblance to the 

 typical Uncle Sam, at least during all tho.se years when his 

 barber fashioned his beard after the accepted Uncle-Sam cut. 

 In mind and character, too, he was a concrete illustration of 

 the traditional Uncle Sam — shrewd, kind of heart, not looking 

 to get the better of anybody else, but not at all likely to let 

 anybody else get the better of him ; fond of square dealing both 

 ways; not given to contention, but not in the least per- 

 turbed by opposition, even of large proportions ; undemon- 

 strative but determined ; with a Yankee knack of getting dollars 

 to come his way, but with an open-handed though discreet and 

 quiet way of passing them out where they would do the most 

 good. He was a man whom everybody who knew him well 

 spoke well of, even those who found it impossible to bend him 

 to their way of thinking. 



Up in Williamsport, where he was born and lived all his life, 

 and where he had carried every conceivable kind of civic burden, 



from presiding over the common council to the mayoralty, 

 people and press alike eulogize him without stint, and say that 

 their city has lost its first citizen. 



His entrance into the rubber field occurred in 1882, when he, 

 with a few friends, founded the Lycoming Rubber Co. He 

 managed it, very successfully, for 28 years, and was its president 

 most of that time. He merged his plant with the United States 

 Rul>lier Co. when that corporation was formed in 1892, but 

 retained the Lycoming presidency — and his personal independ- 

 ence unabated. 



His rubber interests were profitable, but lumber was really 

 his life vocation. He was cutting and selling lumber as early 

 as 1864. That was his chief interest until he took up rubber, 

 and even after that he continued his lumber associations, though 

 less actively. Incidentally he was a director in a bank and a 

 dozen other enterprises. 



His neighbors say he left a million, but it was not the result 

 of hoarding. He was a liberal giver; and he gave time and 

 energy and hard work, as well as money. He was chairman 

 of the trustees of the Presbyterian Church, president of the 

 board of managers of the Public Hospital, and so on — and he 

 worked for Williamsport all the time. The chief satisfaction 

 he derived from the Lycoming rubber mill lay in the 500 Will- 

 iamsport families that it supported. 



A year ago last March he got a bad fall. Up to that time his 

 health had been excellent and he had w-orked about as hard 

 as ever — and that is saying a great deal. But after that fall 

 he never was quite himself again. He was around town three 

 days before he died, and though his last two days were spent in 

 bed, the doctor pronounced it nothing serious, and his death, 

 caused by a slight hemorrhage of the stomach, came quite 

 unexpectedly. 



An able, honorable, useful man — and interesting. 



ALLAN MAGOWAK. 



Allan Magow.an, vi-ho died in Trenton, New Jersey, June 1, at 

 the age of 76, was born in the north of Ireland, of Scotch-English 

 stock, and came to this country when but a child. His first ex- 

 perience in rubber work dates back to 1850, when he was em- 

 ployed in the factory of the New England Car Spring Co., at 

 Thirty-third street and Third avenue, New York. He worked 

 there for four years and then took a position in Trenton in a 

 small factory which had formerly been owned by the pioneer 

 rubber manufacturer of Trenton, Jonathan H. Green. Green hav- 

 ing failed to make his rubber venture profitable, the factory was 

 purchased by Garret Schenck and Hiram P. Dunbar, who started 

 in the manufacture of mechanical rubber goods. Mr. Magowan 

 was then an active and capable young man, a great admirer 

 of Abraham Lincoln, and a prominent member of one of the 

 ante-beUuxi clubs known as the "Wideawakes." 



In 1859 Mr. Magowan went to Richmond, Virginia, to work 

 for John J. Fields, the founder of the New Jersey Car Spring 

 and Rubber Co., who had sent machinery there and set it up 

 in the old Tredegar Iron Works for the manufacture of patent 

 rubber carsprings. Mr. Magowan worked until the outbreak of 

 the Civil War put a stop to the supply of rubber and other ma- 

 terials, and Mr. Fields went north to avoid being drafted into 

 the Confederate army. Mr. Magowan, however, having an 

 invalid wife, was not able to leave and was impressed by the Con- 

 federate government to make insulated wire for torpedoes and 

 field work. The rubber covering was made largely of old car- 

 springs ground fine, and boiled in spirits of turpentine. As 

 Mr. Magowan had a couple of braiding machines he was able 

 to make several miles of insulated wire, which was used in 

 signaling during battles. Dr. Morris, who had charge of the 

 Soutliern telegraph, also induced Mr. Magowan to build a ma- 

 chine for drawing wire, by giving him a competent machinist, 

 and with a force of ten slaves he made a great deal of it, long 

 pieces being used for telegraph work and the short for rivets. 



