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The Cole Brothers Pump and Lightning Rod Company
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
Extract
A familiar figure on the roads of the Middle West during the second half of the last century was the lightning-rod salesman with his wagon. In an area frequently visited by thunder storms, there was a ready market for the latest adaptation of Franklin's protective device. Even in frontier towns, new buildings were not long unequipped with rods, their points tipped with platinum and perhaps ornamented with glass balls. The preservation of two record books, a ledger, and a few letters enables us to tell the story (or at least part of it) of the firm largely responsible for the widespread acceptance of this method of protection against lightning. Cole Brothers, of Mount Pleasant in southeastern Iowa, was a family company, but the fact that its owners were four brothers does not mean that the minutes of their meetings are any less frank or complete. One must only regret that the surviving volumes start after the business had been under way for some time and stop many years before the firm disbanded. However, the story of the intervening years in the life of the company reveals not only steady growth, despite temporary setbacks, but also the interplay of personalities. An enterprise responsible for a product in common use by our ancestors (one which shows signs of returning popularity) is for a moment illumined.
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- Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1950
References
1 These are (a) Cole Throop & Company, minutes of the corporate meetings, April 1, 1862, to November 30, 1864; (b) Cole Brothers, articles of incorporation, bylaws, and minutes of the corporate meetings, February 1, 1865, to September 19,1885.
2 For facts about the company after 1885, as well as for many colorful details, the writer is indebted to Elbert E. Smith, son-in-law of William, the next youngest of the brothers. The surviving records are now the property of Professor Dan T. Smith of the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration.
3 They are frequently referred to in the minutes by their initials: J. W. (Washington), W. R. (William), R. S. (Robert), and J. J. (John).
4 On one of his collecting trips, Throop inadvertently and despite his “Detecters,” accepted a counterfeit ten-dollar bank note. In a letter dated October 27, 1858, J. W. & R. S. Cole took the person who passed the bill to task for not admitting it as his. The letter closes, in the moral vein of the times, with, “We think that this is a poor game, for an old man liable any moment to be called to Eternity to play at … if you have any desire for a peaceful and happy old age, you will have to change your course.”
5 William, on his return from Cambridge, although he did not accept a church settlement, remained a silent partner until the needs of the business required him to take an active part. On March 10, 1875, it was agreed that he pay each of the others $562.75 for being exempt from service in the company.
6 Cole Throop & Company once voted: “We will not give employment to hands whom we have reason to believe are addicted to intoxication or drinking ardent spirits.”
7 Occasionally personal affairs crept into the minutes, as when, on January 12, 1874, “it was moved that Robert & William shall look after Mother and provide for her as they think best. They shall see that she is supplied with everything she wants and is made as comfortable as possible, and if any means are necessary in addition to the provision already made for her each member of the Company shall contribute an equal share of such additional sum. Passed by unanimous vote.”
8 Anderson, Richard, an English observer, wrote in his Lightning Conductors: Their History, Nature, and Mode of Application (London, 3d edition, 1885)Google Scholar: “The tramping ‘lightning-rod men’ of the United States have been notorious for extortion and ignorance; they use all kinds of fantastic and peculiar shaped terminal rods and conductors, the main object apparently being to make as great a show with as little metal as possible.”
9 On January 11, 1878, $7.00 was appropriated for transcribing the minutes in a proper book. There are several notes in the margin, in which Kretzer and John Cole certify that the copy is correct. Occasionally blank pages are left for meetings never recorded.
10 A resolution, drawn up by John and William on Robert's death, mentions his conciliatory spirit. This refers to his influence at the meetings of the company, but at the time of his death he had built up a considerable business of his own.
11 Washington, writing to William on April 28, 1865, says he has finally persuaded John to turn over some of the bookkeeping details to a clerk.