July i, 1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



333 



CAREER OF THE LATE ELISHA S. CONVERSE. 



Died, at his residence in Maiden, on Sunday, June 5, 1904, 

 at 5.15 p. m , Elisha S. Converse, in his eighty fourth year. 



ELISHA SLADE CONVERSE was born July 28, 1820, 

 in Needham, Massachusetts, in the seventh generation 

 descended from Deacon Edward Convers (an earlier 

 spelling of the name), who settled at Charlestown, 

 Mass., in 1630, and who " was a man of some wealth and con- 

 siderable influence, of great strength and energy, as well as a 

 rigid Puritan", as "is evidenced on nearly every page of 

 colonial and town history, and continued to be so for 33 years 

 after his arrival in this countty " * from England. The same 

 characteristics were perpetuated in the succeeding generations. 

 The subject of this sketch was the son of Elisha Converse— for 

 a time landlord over the taverns 

 in Thompson, Connecticut, and 

 keeper of the turnpike gates — 

 who married Betsey VVheaton, of 

 Thompson. The family lived for 

 a few years at Needham, Mass., 

 and later returned to Connecti- 

 cut. 



During his twelfth and thir- 

 teenth years Elisha Slade Con- 

 verse worked for nine months in 

 a cotton mill in the town of 

 Thompson, and attended school 

 three months. In April, 1833, he 

 removed to Boston, and lived 

 for a short time with his elder 

 brother, James Wheaton Con- 

 verse; he next lived with his 

 sister, Mrs. Aaron Butler, in 

 South Boston, assisting her hus- 

 band in a general store ; then 

 returned to his parents and 

 worked on a farm until he was 

 17. During all this time he at- 

 tended school part of each year. 

 At this age he was engaged for 

 two years with Albert G. Whip- 

 ple, at Thompson, Connecticut, 

 to learn the clothier's trade, but 

 before serving his full time he 

 became a partner with Mr. Whip- 

 ple ; at the age of 22 he bought 

 out the business and continued 

 it on his own account. In 1843 

 he married Mary Diana Edwards,! the daughter of a leading 

 citizen of the community. 



In 1844 Mr. Converse removed with his wife to Boston and 

 engaged in the wholesale shoe and leather business as a partner 

 in Poland & Converse, later removing his residence to Stone- 

 ham, Mass., where the firm had a branch business — the " Red 

 Mills " — in preparing dye stuffs, etc. The firm dissolved in 1849, 

 and Mr. Converse formed a copartnership with John Robson to 

 continue the business at the mill. In 1850 Mr. Converse re- 

 moved to Maiden, Mass. The next year the Maiden bank was 



* Family Record of Deacons James W. Converse and Elisha S. Converse. Com- 

 piled by William G. Hill. Privately Printed. 1887. 



t For a sketch of Mrs. E. S. Converse, see The India Rubber World, January 

 1, ig04— page 127. 



THE LATE ELISHA S. CONVERSE 



organized, when he became one of the directors. In 1856 he 

 was elected president of this bank, which office he continued to 

 hold until the end of his life. During 1S53 the firm of Converse 

 & Robson was dissolved, and the senior member became inter- 

 ested in the rubber industry. 



The rubber industry in Maiden had its beginning about 1850, 

 with the Edgeworth Rubber Co. They tried to find means of 

 working rubber without su'phur, but unsuccessfully, and were 

 finally sued for infringing the Goodyear patent and became in- 

 solvent. The leading spirit in that company, Gardiner Greene 

 Hubbard, had employed Eben N. Horsford, professor of chem- 

 istry at Harvard College, to make some studies for him, and 

 through the latter learned that Dr. F. Luedersdorff had pub- 

 lished in Berlin in 1832 some- 

 thing on the use of sulphur in 

 connection with rubber. The 

 story runs that Hubbard threat- 

 ened to make use of this fact — 

 then almost unknown outside 

 of Germany— in attacking the 

 Goodyear and Hayward patents. 

 At any rate a new company was 

 formed, the Maiden Manufactur- 

 ing Co. being incorporated May 

 4, 1853, with $200,000 capital, of 

 which one half was represented 

 by a license granted by the Shoe 

 Associates. Gardiner G. Hub- 

 bard was president and James C. 

 Dunn treasurer. Leverett Can- 

 dee and Nathaniel Hayward were 

 also on the board, and William 

 Judson had an interest. The 

 name of the company was 

 changed by the Massachusetts 

 general court May 7, 1855, to the 

 Boston Rubber Shoe Co. 



Elisha S. Converse was elected 

 treasurer of the Maiden company 

 September 8, 1853. He stated to 

 The India Rubber World at 

 one time that no previous inti- 

 mation had been given to him 

 that he had been thought of for 

 treasurer or having any connec- 

 tion with the company. No other 

 Converse was connected with the 

 company until several years after, when his elder brother, 

 James W. Converse, was elected a director. Bishop's " History 

 of American Manufactures" says that the stockholders "in- 

 duced Mr. E. S. Converse to relinquish his other business and 

 devote his entire attention to the management of the affairs of 

 the company, as buying and selling agent and as treasurer. 

 Such confidence was placed in his ability that almost unlim- 

 ited power was given him, and the result vindicated the wis- 

 dom and propriety of their course. The dark days of 



1857, which involved so many business firms of repute in in- 

 solvency, obscured, for a time, the rising company; and to 

 add to their embarrassments, the price of raw material ad- 

 vanced enormously ; but the temptation to tide over, by the 



