March I, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



191 



The Late Amedee Spadone. 



THE passing away of Amedee Spadone removes from the 

 rubber trade one of its most prominent members and one 

 who had been a leader in it for an unusual length of time. 

 Although in his eighty-first year, Mr. Spadone was still in regular 

 attendance at the office of his company until well along in the 

 past month, when he was attacked by pneumonia, to which he 

 succumbed on February 22, at his residence, No. 270 West End 

 avenue, New York. 



The subject of this sketch was born August 29, 1827, in the 

 north of France, in a village near Arras, in the province of 

 Pas-de-Calais, though of Italian parentage, and came with his 

 family to America in early boyhood. His father purchased a 

 home in Camden, New Jersey, in which he spent his remaining 

 years. 



Amedee Spadone began business for himself in 1854 in New 

 York as an importer of watches, with a store at No. 177 Broad- 

 way, removing successively to No. 4 

 Maiden lane and No. 658 Broadway. 

 His name remained on the list of New 

 York jewelers, either alone or with a 

 partner, until about 1879, although he 

 had, before that date, become identi- 

 fied with the manufacture of rubber 

 goods. 



Having already laid the beginnings 

 of a successful business career, Mr. 

 Spadone, in 1862, joined in applying 

 for a charter, under the laws of New 

 York state, for a new company, the 

 Gutta Percha and Rubber Manufac- 

 turing Co. There had been organized, 

 in 1855, the North American Gutta 

 Percha Co., based upon the patents of 

 William Rider and John Murphy for 

 the manufacture of gutta-percha 

 goods, which did not prove wholly 

 successful, and the works were pur- 

 chased by the interests which later 

 organized the present Gutta Percha 

 and Rubber Manufacturing Co., but 

 this is the only sense in which Mr. 

 Spadone"s company succeeded the first 

 named concern. 



Mr. Spadone was elected to a seat 

 in the original board of the new company, organized in 1863, and 

 remained a director until his death. In 1872 he was elected 

 president of the board, with a salary, on the stipulation that he 

 should devote two hours daily to the afifairs of the company. In 

 1878 he decided to devote his whole time to the company, from 

 which date he was the active, forceful and successful head of its 

 management. The company under his leadership had a record of 

 continuous and substantial grow^th. The original capital of 

 $200,000 was increased, by successive steps, to the present figure 

 of $1,000,000, which was reached in 1898. The operations of the 

 company increased on a commensurate scale, particularly in the 

 mechanical goods line, besides which it has enjoyed a most desir- 

 able reputation in the trade. 



Another original director was H. D. Warren, who long re- 

 mained connected with the company, and it was during this joint 

 interest that, in 1887, the organization of the Gutta Percha and 

 Rubber Manufacturing Co. of Toronto, Limited, occurred. This 

 has become a most important and successful business, but in time 

 the connection between the two companies narrowed, and Mr. 

 Spadone became the principal owner of the New York company. 



The L.\te Amedee Spadone. 



I President of the Gutta Percha and Rubber 

 Manufacturing Co.] 



The original factory of Mr. Spadone's company, in West 

 Twenty-fifth street. New York, was burned on October 8, 1874, 

 and a new factory was built and in operation by the following 

 .April at Franklin and Skillman streets, Brooklyn, the present 

 manufacturing location of the company. The Mr. Murphy who 

 has been alluded to joined the staff of the Gutta Percha and 

 Rubber Manufacturing Co. at an early period of its history as 

 factory superintendent, retaining the position until within a few 

 years. He is still living, in his eighty-fourth year. Long terms 

 of employment by the company, by the way, have by no means 

 been rare. 



Amedee Spadone and Elizabeth Ann Angel were married in 

 the Baptist Church at Camden December 3, 1850. Mr. Angel, 

 the bride's father, had built a row of houses, in one of which he 

 lived himself, and the second house from this had been sold to 

 Mr. Spadone's father, upon the arrival of the latter from 

 Europe. It was under such conditions 

 of neighborliness that an opportunity 

 existed for a beginning of the attach- 

 ment between the two young people 

 which resulted so fortunately and so 

 happily. Mr. and Mrs. Spadone cele- 

 brated their golden wedding in 1900, 

 and the latter survives her husband, 

 with two sons — Henry and Alfred — 

 and a daughter. 



Funeral services were hold on Mon- 

 daj'. February 24, at 1 1 o'clock, at 

 Christ Church (Episcopal), in West 

 Seventy-first street. New York. The 

 interment' was private. 



No man in the rubber trade took a 

 more enthusiastic interest in the trend 

 of the business than did Mr. Spadone. 

 His memory was remarkable, and 

 keeping in close touch as he did with 

 every important movement, and, bring- 

 ing to bear upon it the analysis of an 

 unusually keen and well balanced 

 mind, his opinion and his advice were 

 always sought by the leaders and 

 were uniformly sound. \ typical New 

 York business man, always alert, with 

 no time for nonsense, he was wonder- 

 fully kind hearted, and possessed of the rare virtue of frankly- 

 admitting an error in judgment and of giving others credit for 

 like honesty of purpose. He was conspicuously of the "old 

 school," suave, courteous, and absolutely free from obstination or 

 vanity. He never sought prominence, in fact he avoided it; yet 

 on the many occasions on which he presided at public functions 

 he was ever at his ease, speaking forcibly and often wittily, and 

 holding the attention of his listeners as few business men are able 

 to do. As illustrating the position he held in the trade, it may 

 be mentioned that he was chosen to head the associations organ- 

 ized from time to time for mutual benefit in the branch of the 

 trade to which he belonged. With his passing a most interesting, 

 helpful member of the trade becomes an honored memory. 



Judge L.\ughlin, of the appellate division of the supreme 

 court of New York, rendered an important decision the other day 

 when he decided that a merchant need not return or pay for 

 goods bought by one of his employes, the employe, who was a 

 purchasing agent, having received a S per cent, commission for 

 placing the order. The case came under the anti tipping law. 



