USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume III > Part 64
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By the earnest advice of his physician Mr. McLauthlin spent the year of 1870 in Europe.
In 1878 he bought a considerable portion of the J. C. Hoadley Co. 's stock of portable engines, which were far-famed as superior in economy and durability to any other make. He then secured the assistance of Mr. Hoadley as consulting engineer and became successor to the J. C. Hoadley Co. 's portable engine business.
He retained Mr. Hoadley's co-operation as consulting engineer until the death of that gentleman in 1886.
Mr. McLauthlin found in his intercourse with Mr. Hoadley ample proof of his high character, his great talent, and his scrupulous integ- rity. He esteemed him as a man having the highest sense of honor and a keen appreciation of right: a man who could sit in equitable judgment in cases of difference between himself and others as disinter- estedly as any referee.
Mr. McLauthlin has always been engaged in inventions, experiments and tests, the most extensive of which was the series of comparative model tests on water-wheels, which undoubtedly excelled anything of that kind which has ever been attempted. From the time he began the water-wheel business he had experimented and tested both on models and on wheels in practical operation. This extensive series of comparative tests began in 1860 and was finished in 1868. For absolute accuracy and reliability of results, and withal the best economy of the
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work, a testing apparatus was required. With much study and experi- ment he perfected an ingenious automatic apparatus which maintained the head of the water at one exact level, recorded the time of the test more accurately than it could be taken by any known method, recorded the pounds of water used for each test to a fraction, and the exact dis- tance the weight was raised, and all these during the time only that the wheel was in regular working operation. The operator had only to prepare the wheel, set the apparatus for the test, hoist the gate and, after the test was finished, to close it. He then could take off the automatically noted records, and with a largely reduced amount of mathematical calculations, from that which had formerly been neces- sary, determine the result of the test to within one-twentieth of one per cent. of absolute accuracy. Mr. McLauthlin is now engaged on a line of inventions of very remarkable merit. Though with impaired health since 1858, Mr. McLauthlin has from boyhood devoted long days to study and the varied requirements of his business. He has main- tained a sound unbroken business record for more than forty-six years, and that he has retained the esteem and confidence of his patrons is proved by his reputation for frank and upright dealing and fidelity to their interests. He has been a director in nearly all of the companies in which he has held interest.
Mr. McLauthlin married Clara M. Holden in 1854, daughter of the late Freeman Holden, of Boston. She died in 1882.
GEORGE H. HOOD.
GEORGE HENRY HOOD, son of Jacob and Sophia (Needham) Hood, was born in Salem, Mass., May 30, 1835. On his father's side he is a descendant of Richard Hood, the first of the family in America, who settled in Nahant in the year 1628.
Jacob Hood began his life work as an instructor in Bradford Acad- emy, and later was a teacher in the public schools of Salem, where most of his early life was spent. For many years he was the principal of the East School.
In 1865 he moved to Lynnfield, Mass., where he became the pastor of the Congregationalist Church. He was active in this work until about 1880, and died in Lynnfield five years later at the advanced age
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of ninety-four years. Sophia Needham, his wife, was the daughter of Daniel Needham, an officer in the Revolution, and later in life the Squire of Lynn and one of the best known and most prominent citizens of Essex county. She outlived Jacob Hood but one year, dying in 1886, at the age of ninety years, after a married life of sixty-eight years.
The early life of the youngest boy of a family of six, George Henry Hood, was passed in Salem, where he was educated in the public schools, graduating from the High School in 1851. For three years after leaving school he was in a general store at Beverly, Mass.
· In 1854 he came to Boston and for five years was a salesman for the clothing house of Whiting, Kehew & Galloupe.
In 1859 he first entered the rubber business as salesman for the Rub- ber Clothing Company, with a factory at Beverly. Toward the close of the war he engaged in the rubber business for himself until 1873, when, with R. D. Evans as an associate, he became the general man- ager of the Eagle Rubber Company, with a factory at Jamaica Plain.
Soon outgrowing their little factory, under Mr. Hood's supervision was built for this company, in 1877, a factory in Cambridge. Three years later a part of this was burned, and on its site has since been erected the present factory of the American Rubber Company.
In 1878 Mr. Hood severed his connection with the Eagle Rubber Company and started the present Boston Rubber Company, associating with him Eustace C. Fitz and Charles S. Dana.
The new company bought an old mill in Chelsea, near the Ferry, and a very few years saw it thoroughly rebuilt and running full.
In 1883 Mr. Hood bought out the interest held by Mr. Fitz and Mr. Dana, afterward selling a portion of it to E. S. Converse and George A. Alden.
About this time he assumed charge as general manager of the Re- vere Rubber Company, retaining as well the principal ownership of the Boston Rubber Company, of which he has since been president and treasurer.
In the summer of this year Mr. Hood's plans were rudely broken up one unlucky night by the factory of the Revere Rubber Company burning to the ground.
In September it was decided to rebuild, and in December of the same year, only three months later, goods were being delivered, a practically
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entirely new factory having been built under Mr. Hood's active super- vision.
He remained as general manager of the Revere Rubber Company until 1884, when, at the death of his eldest son, George Henry, jr .. who had been associated with him in the management of the Boston Rubber Company, he resigned his position as general manager of the Revere Rubber Company, which had become well organized and prosperous, and devoted his entire time and attention to the development of the business of the Boston Rubber Company.
In 1888 the Boston Rubber Company purchased a rubber boot and shoe factory in Franklin, Mass., and began the manufacture of rubber boots and shoes in addition to the business of rubber clothing, rubber carriage cloth, and a large variety of mechanical rubber goods to which the Chelsea factory has always been devoted.
Under his able management the business of the Boston Rubber Com- pany has steadily increased from year to year; in fact, all the additions to the plant since the start, in 1878, have been paid for out of the earn- ings.
Since the acquisition of the Franklin property, the yearly production of the factories amounts to about one million and a half dollars annually. Their products are sold in every part of the United States, and are well known as thoroughly reliable and of the highest class.
The establishment of these two industries, their development and their present prosperity are results attained almost solely through the intelligent and well directed efforts of Mr. Hood. His energies have been unreservedly devoted to the task, and to him credit for the high degree of success achieved is freely given.
Mr. Hood was married in 1859 to Miss Frances Henrietta Janvrin. Their six children have reached maturity, and all but one, George Henry, jr., are living. Two of his sons are associated with him in business: Frederic C. is the secretary and assistant treasurer of the Boston Rubber Company; Arthur N. is general superintendent of their two factories. Richard P. is a student at Harvard College. Miss Helen is well known by her musicianly works, some of which she has published. One of her latest productions appears in the Columbian Woman. Miss Florence has a decided talent for the violin; in fact, all of the children inherit musical ability.
The demand upon Mr. Hood's time and energies in connection with his manufacturing interests have been so great as to allow him to take
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no active part in other enterprises. He was, however, one of the or- ganizers of the Rubber Mutual Insurance Company and is still one of its directors. He is also a director of the Winnisimmett National Bank of Chelsea, and other similar enterprises.
He is a Republican in political faith, but with the exception of hav- ing been a member of the Common Council in Chelsea in 1857, has never held publie office.
He was one of the constituent members at the organization of the Cary Avenue Baptist Church in Chelsea, in 1860, and has ever since retained his membership.
WILLIAM H. MOODY.
WILLIAM H. MOODY was born in Claremont, N. H., May 10, 1842. He is a son of Jonathan and Mary C. Moody, both of whose ancestry can be traced back to the colonial days of New England through sturdy Saxon blood. The country schools furnished the training ground of young Moody until his sixteenth year, when he entered the employ of George N. Farwell & Co., of Claremont, who were among the earlier firms to employ those simpler machines which were first used to sup- plement hand work in the manufacture of footwear. In their employ he became thorough master of his trade, and at the age of nineteen came to Boston and for a short time was employed as salesman in the Washington street store of John Wallace. He then entered the em- ploy of Tenny, Ballerston & Co., where he remained for two years, and for three years thereafter held the position of buyer for Sewall Raddin & Son. The last named firm was succeeded by Sewall Raddin & Co., and soon after reorganized as McGibbon, Moody & Raddin. When this partnership expired, the firm of Crane & Leland became Crane, Leland & Moody, and afterwards Crane, Moody & Rising. At this time Mr. Moody's health became impaired, through the unremitting labor he had bestowed upon his business, and for a time he retired from active work. When thoroughly restored he organized the firm of Moody, Esterbrook & Anderson, calling into the new concern former tried and experienced men. He has built in Nashua, N. H., the largest shoe industry under one roof in the world. Mr. Moody is a director in the Shoe and Leather Bank, and a Republican in politics. He makes
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Boston his winter home, and Claremont his summer residence. His estate there, which is well named "Highland View," is one of the finest in New Hampshire. A beautiful house, six hundred acres of broken upland, a private track, more than a hundred horses, and splen- didly appointed barns are its features. To the American trotter he gives special attention. In Claremont he has perpetuated the memory of his mother by means of the Mary Moody parsonage, given to the Baptist Church, of which she was for more than sixty years an honored member. Mr. Moody was married twenty-five years ago to Miss Mary A. Maynard.
ROBERT D. EVANS.
ROBERT D. EVANS, the founder of the American Rubber Company and one of the best known rubber manufacturers in the United States, was born in Boston, September 30, 1845. After his graduation from the Boston High School he entered the employment of H. A. Hall, who later established the Hall Rubber Company. He subsequently accepted a position with C. M. Clapp, with whom he was engaged until April, 1861, when he enlisted in the Thirteenth Massachusetts Volun- teer Infantry and for two years served with this regiment in the army of the Potomac, passing through some of the severest engagements of the war and twice being wounded.
After the elose of his term of service Mr. Evans returned to Boston and formed a partnership with his former employer, Mr. Clapp, in the rubber business, under the firm name of Clapp, Evans & Co. The new firm had a mill at Jamaica Plain, where they made clothing, carriage eloths and wringer rolls. Mr. Evans owned a part of the Moulton roll, with exclusive right to manufacture it. Suits for infringement were brought against the concern by large New York and Boston manufac- turers, and as Mr. Clapp thought the other side had a very strong case, and that there was an infringmement, he wished to discontinue the manufacture, and the firm was dissolved.
Mr. Evans then started a small plant in Jamaica Plain, ealled the Eagle Rubber Company, and kept on making the Moulton rolls, at the same time defending his title. The best legal talent attainable was retained and the suit resulted in favor of the Eagle Company.
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In 1843 the American Rubber Company was started by Mr. Evans strict- ly as a jobbing concern. In addition to this the agency of the Myer Ritb- ber Company was taken by the new concern. A large business was done, the wringer-roll portion being especially profitable. In 1812 the large works at Cambridge were started, the Eagle Rubber Company and the American Rubber Company being consolidated, and the erce- tion of a plant at once begun. At this plant were manufactured cloth- ing, carriage cloth, boots and shoes, and wringer-rolls. The business was continued very successfully until December, 1881, when the works were completely destroyed by fire. In the following spring new fac- tories were built on the same site and the plant then erected, together with numerous buildings added from time to time as the growth of the business required, constitute the present large manufacturing proper- ties of the American Rubber Company.
The destruction of the plant by fire was a severe blow. It occurred in December, and was followed by a severe winter, when but little out- side work could be done. In addition to this, all of the larger rubber shoe concerns at that time had greatly increased their plants and were looking for additional markets for their goods. The new mills of the old companies served for several years to overstock the market with goods, a state of things the American Company felt seriously. To make the complications even worse the Pará Rubber Shoe Company had come into existence and had their mill in operation three months before it was possible for Mr. Evans's new factory to begin work. The superin- tendent of the American Rubber Company and the foremen of all the departments, although they had been carried for months on the pay- roll while the plant was in ashes, deserted to the Pará Company, and took with them nearly all of the skilled help. Left in a position where it was necessary to rely entirely on new and comparatively inexperi- enced help, the energetic founder and his lieutenants were confronted with many difficulties. For a time the goods turned out were rather " poor," as the president now confesses, but speedily this condition of affairs was corrected, and in a short time the concern was on a paying basis and declaring dividends. To-day the works have an annual pro- ductive capacity of $3,500,000 worth of rubber goods. For the last ten years the American Rubber Company has been among the most successful rubber concerns in its line in the United States. At the start the capital was $200,000, later it was increased to $500,000, and
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again increased to $1,000,000. To-day the capital and surplus are $2,500,000.
The phenomenal success of this concern is due to the energy and business ability of Mr. Evans. He has in a rare degree the faculty for securing the best assistance and of surrounding himself with bright and successful young men. He has always been a hard worker. It was his custom for years to spend his forenoons at the factories with his superintendent, and his afternoons at the city offices looking after finances, sales and all the details. There was no part of the business -whether buying supplies, marketing or manufacturing the goods- with which he was not as familiar as his most skilled lieutenant. His devotion to the success of the American Rubber Company has been so absorbing that outside of having served for several years as a director in the Massachusetts National Bank he has declined frequent offers of position in banks or other corporations.
Mr. Evans was one of the leading spirits in the consolidation of the leading rubber companies in this country in the corporation known as the United States Rubber Company. This was perfected in April, 1892, and upon election of officers in October following the presidency of this immense company was conferred upon Mr. Evans, an honor en- tirely unsought and only assumed upon the urgent solicitation of his associates, who recognized his eminent qualifications for the trust. A remarkable thing about his election to this office was the unanimous expression of the whole rubber trade as to the fitness of the choice. He discharged the duties of the position to the entire satisfaction of his associates until May, 1893, when the state of his health, as well as other business engagements, compelled him to resign, but he is still officially connected with the company, and is a valued factor in the management of its affairs.
Mr. Evans is a member of the leading clubs of Boston, although far from being a club man. He is fond of yachting and relies upon that and horseback riding for recreation. He was married in 1868 to a daughter of David Hunt, and resides in Boston.
JOHN P. SQUIRE.
JOHN P. SQUIRE, who died January 7, 1893, was a son of Peter and Esther Squire, and was born in the town of Weathersfield, Windsor
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county, Vt., on the 8th day of May, 1819. His father was a farmer. The years of his boyhood were spent at his home, attending the public schools and working on the farm.
On the 1st day of May, 1835, he entered the employment of a Mr. Orvis, the village storekeeper, at West Windsor, Vt., and remained with him until the winter of 1837, when he attended the academy at Unity, N. H., of which the Rev. A. A. Miner was then principal. He taught school at Cavendish during a part of the winter of 1837-38. On the 19th of March, 1838, he came to Boston; entered the employ of Nathan Robbins, in Faneuil Hall Market, and continued with him until April 30, 1842, when he formed a co-partnership with Francis Russell, and carried on the provision business at No. 25 Faneuil Hall Market, under the style of Russell & Squire, until the year 1847, when the co- partnership was dissolved.
Mr. Squire continued the business alone at the same place until the year 1855, when he formed a new co-partnership with Hiland Lock- wood and Edward Kimball, under the name of John P. Squire & Co. The firm name and business continued until April 30, 1892, when the firm was incorporated under the name of John P. Squire & Company Corporation. The changes in the partners have been as follows: the retirement of Edward D. Kimball in the years 1866; the admission of W. W. Kimball in the same year, and his retirement in 1873; the ad- mission of Mr. Squire's sons, George W. and Frank O. Squire, in the year 1873; the death of Hiland Lockwood in the year 1874; the retire- ment of George W. Squire in the year 1876; the admission of Fred. F. Squire, Mr. Squire's youngest son, January 1, 1884; and the death of the founder of the house, leaving the corporation to-day composed of Frank O. and Fred. F. Squire. In 1855 Mr. Squire bought a small tract of land in East Cambridge and built a slaughter house. Since that time the business has grown to such an extent that the corporation of John P. Squire & Co. has to-day one of the largest and best equipped packing houses in the country, and stands third in the list of hog pack- ers in the United States.
On October 5, 1891, a fire partially destroyed the large refrigerator of this corporation. This necessitated rebuilding. A system of arti- ficial refrigeration has been adopted in place of the old method of re- frigerating with ice, whereby the capacity of their packing house has been increased about double its capacity before the fire. The melting capacity of the ice machines used is one hundred and fifty tons of ice
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each per day. A new chimney two hundred and twenty-five feet high, with a flue nine feet across at the base, and with walls four feet thick, has been built to run the refrigerating machines. With these altera- tions and improvements their plant, as far as equipments and conven- iences are concerned, is second to none in the country.
In the year 1843 Mr. Squire married Kate Green Orvis, daughter of his old employer. Eleven children were born of the marriage, nine of whom are now living, as follows: George W., Jennie C., Minnie E., John A., Kate I., Nannie K., Fred. F., and Bessie E. Squire. One son, Charles, died in infancy, and a daughter, Nellie G., died October 13, 1890.
In 1848 he moved to West Cambridge, now called Arlington, where he lived up to the time of his death.
Mr. Squire joined the Mercantile Library Association when he first came to Boston, and spent a great deal of his leisure time in reading, of which he was very fond. The high position which he held in com- mercial circles was due to his untiring industry, undaunted courage and marked ability.
ORLANDO E. LEWIS.
ORLANDO ETHELBERT LEWIS was born in Hardin county, O., July 19, 1846. His parents, Richard Kennedy and Elizabeth (Jackson) Lewis, were natives of Ohio. His father, who died in 1848, was a farmer, and the usual experience of the average farmer's son in Western Ohio fell to the lot of our subject during his youth, his education until his four- teenth year being confined to the ordinary country school. The war of the Rebellion changed the tenor of his life, although he was but a youth of fourteen when it began. Being large for his age, robust and strong, he enlisted in Company D, Fourth Regiment of Ohio Volun- teer Infantry, on June 4, 1861, more than a month before he had at- tained his fifteenth birthday, being the youngest member of the regiment. Few, if any, during the war entered the service on the Union side so young in years. He participated with his regiment in all of its engagements from the battle of Rich Mountain-the most im- portant contest of the war prior to Bull's Run-until, disabled for service, he was discharged from Harewood Hospital on March 9, 1863.
O.G. Louis
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During nearly three years he was in active service, his regiment during this period forming a part of the Army of the Potomac, and being alnost constantly engaged in the vigorous campaign in Western Vir- ginia and later in Mcclellan's Peninsular campaign. At Rich Mountain, Petersburg, Mechanicsburg Gap, Romney, Winchester, Cedar Creek, Harrison's Landing and Fredericksburg our youthful soldier faced the stern realities of war, performing his part in this memorable period of the nation's life with fidelity and courage equal to that displayed by his older comrades.
After his discharge from the service Mr. Lewis resumed his educa- tion, which had been interrupted at the time he entered military life. For a time he attended school at Canton, O., later at Alleghany College at Meadville, Penn., and finally completed a course of three months at a commercial school in Cleveland, O. At the age of twenty he began his business career as a commercial traveler for the boot and shoe house of King, Crawford & Co., of Cleveland, O., continuing as such for about a year, when he accepted a similar position with the shoe house of Mead & Townsend, of Broadway, New York. After a successful experience of two years with this firm, he bought out a retail boot and shoe store in Urbana, O., and for several years did a successful retail business, in the mean time, however, also embarking in the manufac- ture of boots and shoes for the wholesale trade. Mr. Lewis was mar- ried in 1869 to Miss Eliza M. Seymour, of Hardin county, O. They have one child, a daughter, named Millie. In 1882 he sold out his business in Urbana and located in Columbus, O., where he engaged exclusively in the manufacture of shoes. A year or two later, in con- nection with Prof. S. W. Robinson of the Ohio State University, he developed the wire grip fastening machine. In 1885 a company was organized, under the laws of Illinois, at Chicago, for the manufacture of these machines, with C. M. Henderson as president, and Mr. Lewis as general manager. At this time Mr. Lewis gave up shoe manufacturing and moved to Boston, where he has since remained, devoting his time and energies to the sale and development of shoe machinery. Through the modifications and improvements of their original patent it has de- veloped into what is known as the " wire grip slugger," of which there are now over one thousand in use in the United States and Europe. It is considered one of the most practical and valuable inventions which has been brought forth in the wonderful results attained in shoe ma- chinery during recent years, and is practically without a rival. In the
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