December 1, 1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



137 



The Obituary Record. 



AUGUSTE D. SCHLESINGER, who died at his home at 

 College Point, New York, Tuesday evening, October 31, 

 1911, was born at Lausanne, Switzerland, December 25, 

 1828. When seven years of age, his father's family moved to 

 Hamburg, Germany, where he attended school for six years, and 

 then learned cabinet making. In 1846 he came to America, 

 settling in Naugatuck, Connecticut, in 1847, where he was con- 

 nected with the Goodyear's Metallic Rubber Shoe Company. 



In 1856 he was offered a position with the Beacon Dam Com- 

 pany at Beacon Falls, Conn., where the manufacture of hard 

 rubber was being developed ; his knowledge of the German and 

 French languages was of great value to him here, since many 

 of the employes spoke no English. In 1858 Conrad Poppen- 

 husen, owner of the Enterprise Works at College Point, bought 

 out the Beacon Dam Company. Mr. 

 Schlesinger retained his connection 

 with the firm, being made its super- 

 intendent in 1859, when the name was 

 changed to the American Hard Rub- 

 ber Company. In 1860 all machinery 

 was moved from Beacon Falls to Col- 

 lege Point under Mr. Schlesinger's 

 direction, many of the employes mov- 

 ing with the plant, and the concern 

 was known as Poppenhusen & Koenig 

 until 1867, when the name The India 

 Rubber Comb Company was adopted, 

 with Mr. Schlesinger as superintendent. 

 When this company was joined by the 

 Butler Hard Rubber Company and the 

 Goodrich Hard Rubber Company in 

 1898, under the name of The American 

 Hard Rubber Company, he was ap- 

 pointed general superintendent, serving 

 until January, 1905, when he retired be- 

 cause of failing health. 



Mr. Schlesinger was active in public 

 matters concerning the former village 

 of College Point, being one of the in- 

 corporators of the village, serving as 

 a trustee for eighteen years, and as vil- 

 lage treasurer for twelve years. 



When the Poppenhusen Institute was founded m 1868, he 

 was a corporate member of the Board of Control, remaining a 

 member until 1906, when his health compelled him to decline 

 re-appointment. He also was treasurer of the board from 1878 

 to 1904. 



He was an incorporator of the College Point Savings Bank in 

 1873, and a trustee up to the time of his death ; also a trustee 

 of the Flushing Cemetery .Association from 1883 to 1905, and 

 its president from 1896 to 1905. 



In 1853 Mr. Schlesinger married Miss Jerusha Clark Pitkin 

 of East Hartford, Conn. ; Mrs. Schlesinger died in 1906. A 

 son, Alfred H., and four daughters survive him. The funeral 

 services were held in his home on the morning of November 3, 

 the Rev. Mr. Dangremond officiating. The interment took place 

 in Flushing, L. I. 



The factory of the American Hard Rubber Company, in Col- 

 lege Point, was closed during the funeral services of Mr. 

 Schlesinger and many of the older employes were among those 

 who gathered in his honor. 



Mr. Schlesinger was in every way an exceedingly strong man. 

 physically and mentally. Years ago, when College Point was 

 but a village and the rubber works the only industry, the men 



AuGusTE D. Schlesinger. 



gloried in the fact that at their outings "the boss," when he 

 could be induced to compete, outclassed them all in feats of 

 strength and endurance. He was a strict but kindly disci- 

 plinarian, and the old employes, who still hold his memory in 

 loving reverence, are wont to say, "He was a just man." A 

 linguist, a scholar, and a practical man of affairs, he was for 

 many years not only the head of the great factory at College 

 Point, but one of the fathers of the town, the counselor of 

 its dwellers, the helper of the poor. Always possessed of a 

 manly dignity, he leaned toward the stateliness of the "old 

 school" rather than the informality of the present. For nearly 

 ten years unable to walk alone, a prisoner in his spacious home, 

 he was indomitably cheerful, mentally alert and undaunted. 



As showing the thoroughness with which Mr. Schlesinger did 

 everything, an experience when he was 

 in Naugatuck is most illuminating. He 

 had hired a traveling steeplejack to re- 

 attach the lightning rod at the top of 

 the great chimney of the old red mill, 

 which had been torn away by the wind. 

 His orders were that holes should be 

 bored into the iron chimney-top, and 

 that they should be counter-sunk and 

 threaded, that the bolts might hold. 

 The man put up his ladders, found 

 them too short, and lashed a light lad- 

 der to the top. He then went up and 

 in a short time returned, saying that 

 the work was done. It did not seem 

 that it was possible to have it well 

 done in so short a time; so Mr. 

 Schlesinger started up the ladder him- 

 self to examine the work. Just as he 

 got to the light ladder, which clung so 

 closely to the wall that there was barely 

 room for his toes to hold on the 

 rounds, the steeplejack came running 

 behind up the ladder, climbed past him, 

 and sitting astride the top of the chim- 

 ney, proved that every part of the work 

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ was done according to orders. Then 

 Mr. Schlesinger climbed down, and 

 added — in telling the tale — "I never was so glad of anything in 

 my life as when I again felt the solid ground beneath my feet." 



TRIBUTE OF THE RUBBER CLUB OF AMERICA. 



It is with deep sorrow that we learn of the death of our 

 Honorary Member, Auguste D. Schlesinger. A contemporary of 

 Goodyear, a pioneer in rubber manufacture, and one whose 

 knowledge was exact and comprehensive, the industrial world 

 suffers a great loss in his passing. Sturdy, upright, wise, genuine, 

 a rare counsellor, a loyal friend, full of pride in the great in 

 dustry of which he was one of the founders, his loss is deeply 

 felt. It is, therefore, 



RESOLVED That in his death the Rubber Club of America 

 and the rubber business at large have suffered an irreparable 

 loss. 



RESOLVED That we extend to his family our appreciation 

 of his noble character, and our sympathy for them in their 

 great bereavement. 



Henry C. Pearson, 

 Elston E. Wadbrook, 

 Geo. P. Whitmore. 

 Cnmmitiee on Resolutions. 



