292 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June i, 1908. 



The Late Theodore E. Studley. 



IX the life of Theodore Earle Studley, who passed away on 

 April 30, was epitomized to an unusual degree the history 

 of the rubber business, and he had contributed not only to 

 its material success in many ways, but to the upbuilding and 

 maintenance of the high standards of character and integrity 

 which are admitted to characterize this branch of trade. 



Mr. Studley was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, March 20, 

 1831, and after attending the schools of his native town entered 

 the retail shoe store there of Olney Fenner Thompson. The 

 latter later became employed by the New Brunswick Rubber Co., 

 in New York, whither he was followed by Mr. Studley, who 

 entered the employment of the same company on March 10, 1S56. 

 That was already an important concern in the rubber shoe trade, 

 under its original president, Johnson Letson. At the date named 

 the New York store (No. 100 Liberty street) occupied a site 

 which is now in the middle of Church street. Their New York 

 business was not confined to foot- 

 wear but embraced a general line of 

 rubber goods, and the house was con- 

 sidered the most important one in 

 that branch. 



In 1857 the New Brunswick com- 

 pany decided to confine itself to man- 

 ufacturing, when its general business 

 was taken over by Henry G. Norton, 

 who had been in charge of the sell- 

 ing department. In 1858 Mr. Stud- 

 ley became a partner in the house, 

 under the style H. G. Norton & Co., 

 and in time they became the most 

 important distributing house in the 

 country for rubber goods. They 

 were at one time sole distributers of 

 the products of the New York Rub- 

 ber Co., and a large percentage of 

 the output of the India Rubber Comb 

 Co., the Novelty Rubber Co., the 

 Goodyear Glove company, and sev- 

 eral other factories. When the Na- 

 tional Rubber Co. (now the National 

 India Rubber Co.) was formed, Nor- 

 ton & Co. became the general selling 

 agents. At one time Augustus O. 



Bourn, now of the Bourn Rubber Co., was a partner in H. G. 

 Norton & Co. Mr. Ilenry C. Norton, now of the Pacific Rubber 

 Co. (San Francisco), was a nephew of Henry G.. and began his 

 business career in his uncle's house. But a list of the firm's 

 connections in and out of New York, and of its "graduates," 

 is too long to repeat here. 



In 1872 Mr. Norton retired, on account of declining health, 

 and the general business of the firm was sold to the Rubber 

 Clothing Co., which at the same time took on also the name 

 Goodyear Rubber Co. This change involved, for instance, the 

 introduction of the Goodyear Rubber Co. into St. Louis and else- 

 where in the West. The druggists' sundries department of the 

 house, however, was continued by Mr. Studley, with a partner, 

 until January I, 1877, when he took charge of the downtown 

 branch of the Goodyear Rubber Co., which was maintained 

 until .\ugust, i8g6. He then devoted himself to another line of 

 business until June. l8g8, when he became treasurer and secretary 

 of the Goodyear Vulcanite Co., a house long established in the 

 i.nrd rubber trade, under the presidency of Myer Dittenhoeter 

 (who had been in the business since 1857) and three years later 

 reincorporated as the Vulcanized Rubber Co. This position 



Theodore E.\rle Studlev 



Mr. Studley held until the end of his life. He was at the offices 

 of the company as usual until the Saturday afternoon preceding 

 his death. On Monday he telephoned word that he was feeling 

 indisposed, and on Thursday, at 3.30 P. M. the end came, due to 

 an attack of pneumonia, accelerated by weakness of the heart. 

 Theodore E. Studley had been a member of the New England 

 Society in New York from December, 1858 — almost 50 years. 

 He had long been a member of the Arkwright Club, of which 

 he became one of the governors in 1902, and for a number of 

 years had been in the habit of lunching on alternate days at the 

 Arkwright and Hardware clubs. He vas a member also of the 

 New York .-Athletic, Twilight, and Round Table clubs. 



Funeral services were held on the afternoon of May 2, at the 

 late residence of Mr. Studley, No. 162 West Seventy-seventh 

 street. New York, the ritual of the Episcopal church being ob- 

 served. The interment was at Greenwood cemetery. Mr. Stud- 

 ley, who had been a widower since 

 December last, is survived by a 

 daughter. Mrs. Robert A. Fielding, 

 of New York. 



A very charming personality had 

 Mr. Studley. Keen, alert, intel- 

 lectually vigorous up to the day 

 of his death, possessed of a fund of 

 humor and of anecdote that was 

 always fresh and kindly, he num- 

 bered his friends by the hundreds. 

 No one ever saw him depressed or 

 pessimistic. His work was always 

 done, and he accomplished much, 

 and he always had abundant time 

 for social converse, and on the 

 street, in his office, at his home, 

 was ever the same quiet, courteous, 

 hospitable gentleman. 



Mr. Studley had two brothers 

 who were engaged in the rub- 

 ber trade — Colonel John M. and 

 Thomas Earle — both of whom he 

 survived. In 1865 they bought an 

 interest in a firm in Providence, 

 an outgrowth of the earliest Bourn 

 firm, and pioneers in an important 

 v.-j.y in the druggists' sundries manufacture, which from the 

 date mentioned became A. C. Eddy & Studleys. After 1883 

 until 1894 the firm was Studley Brothers, and then the busi- 

 ness passed into other hands. 



NOT SUCCESSFUL IN THE ACRE 



A PETITION for the winding up of the De Mcllo Brazilian 

 ■•^ Rubber Co.. Limited, presented by S. Lehmann. of Paris, 

 a judgment creditor, was to be heard before Mr. Justice Neville, 

 in London, on April 14. The company was formed in July, 



1906, to acquire the going rubber estate of S. F. De Mello, in the 

 Acre district. Share capital to the amount of £465.300 was is- 

 sued. Large operations were reported for the first year, and 

 sales of rubber reported amounting to £251,560. The reports 

 submitted at the annual meeting, in London, on December 13, 



1907, were unsatisfactory, however. On the same date it was 

 voted to provide more working capital by the issue of deben- 

 tures to the extent of £150.000. to secure which a deed of trust 

 covering all the company's property and contracts was executed 

 March 4, 1908. 



