Elisha S. Converse

Elisha Slade Converse (July 28, 1820 – 1904) was the first mayor of Malden, Massachusetts, a businessman, founder and president of Boston Rubber Shoe Company, a representative and senator in the state legislature and a philanthropist.

His ancestor, Deacon Edward Conyers (Edward Convers) immigrated to the New World together with future governor John Winthrop in 1630, and later became the founder of Woburn, Massachusetts. Conyers was the descendant of one of the trusted chieftains of William the Conqueror - Roger de Coignieres, from Navarre, France. De Coignieres established his family residence in England after the invasion.

Many members of the French branch of this family, including Admiral Coligny, were Huguenots (French Protestants) and were killed in 1572 in the St. Bartholomew massacre. Some of them survived and escaped to England.

Over the centuries, the family name changed: first - to Conyers, then – to Convers, and in the colonies - to Converse.

Elisha Slade Converse, the third son of Elisha and Betsey (Wheaton) Converse, was born in Needham, Massachusetts, on July 28, 1820. When he was four years old, his parents moved to , Connecticut. Spending his childhood there, he acquired professional and basic educational skills and, at thirteen years of age, began to work on a farm.

From the age of sixteen he learned the trade of a clothier. At nineteen, he began his own business in the village of Thompson and continued in it until he was 24 years old.

In 1844, he returned to Boston where he opened a wholesale shoe and leather company. The business was new to him but he soon familiarized himself with its details and during his connection with it, the reputation and success of the firm became well established.

...
Wikipedia