Leatheroid

Leatheroid is cellulose material very similar to vulcanized fibre in physical properties and uses. It is prepared using unsized cotton rag paper (as is vulcanized fibre) and mineral acid.

Leatheroid was made Leatheroid Manufacturing Company and its successors the Mousam Manufacturing Company, the National Fibreboard Company and the Rogers Fibre Company. For nearly 50 years from 1881 to 1930 Leatheroid was made in Kennebunk, Maine.

The Leatheroid Manufacturing Company's first existence can be traced to Wheeling, West Virginia. The 1879 Session Laws of West Virginia showed the following individuals to hold shares:

The West Virginia law incorporated the company with $20,200 in initial capitalization, each share having a $100 value. The company was authorized to increase its capitalization to $100,000 through the sale of additional shares with the value of $100 each. Leatheroid operated in Wheeling for a year and then moved on to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for a year and next to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Finally Leatheroid was purchased by the Mousam Manufacturing Company and its equipment and manufacturing operations removed to Kennebunk, Maine.

The Mousam Manufacturing Company was organized in 1875 to manufacture leatherboard at Kennebunk, Maine. Among those organizing Mousam Manufacturing Company were Emery Andrews, S. B. Rogers, Stephen Moore, and Homer Rogers. The company's name was the same as a cotton mill that had operated in Kennebunk from 1838 to 1850 and ceased operations after being destroyed in a fire. Mousam Manufacturing Company used most of its leatherboard in the production of shoe counters, which are used to stiffen the heel area of boots and shoes.

In 1881 when Mousam Manufacturing Company purchased Leatheroid and moved its manufacturing equipment into nearby mill buildings adjacent to its own leatherboard mill in Kennebunk, Maine, it organized it as a separate company, the Leatheroid Manufacturing Company. Emery Andrews, S.B. Rogers, Stephen Moore, and Homer Rogers were board members and controlling stock holders in the Leatheroid Manufacturing Company as they were in Mousam Manufacturing Company. In 1891 the Mousam Manufacturing Company and the Leatheroid Manufacturing Company along with Harwood Manufacturing Company of Leominster, Massachusetts, the Towne Manufacturing Company of Boston, Massachusetts, and the Clegg and Fisher Mill at Lawrence, Massachusetts, were merged into a new company known as the Consolidated Fibre Board and Leatheroid Company. This consolidation was known as the National Fibre Board Company with Emery Andrews as president and the board of directors consisting of Charles H. Allen, Homer Rogers, J. A. Harwood, Stephen Moore, and W.C. Gogswell. In 1918 the National Fibre Board Company changed its name to Rogers Fibre Company. The officers of Rogers Fibre Company in 1920 were Elliott Rogers, Pres., Kennebunk, Me.; Louis Rogers, V-P; E. W. Freeman, Clerk, Portland, Me.; L. B.Rogers, Treas. & Gen. Mgr.; E. O. Hallberg, Asst. Treas. Boston, Mass. In 1930 the Leatheroid business of Rogers Fibre Company and its equipment were sold to the Delaware Hard Fibre Company. All usable equipment was removed from the Leatheroid operations in the Island and Dirigo buildings at Kennebunk, thus bringing an end to Leatheroid production in Kennebunk, Maine.

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